Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (Choice Properties) has acquired five retail properties from Loblaw’s for about $45.6 million.

The portfolio includes assets in Ottawa, Toronto and Aurora, Ontario, and one in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Overall, the acquisition consists of 161,000 square feet of gross leasable area (GLA), with an occupancy rate of about 99 per cent.

Some highlights of the announcement include approximately 30,000 square feet of development potential at the River Road site in Ottawa, Ontario, of which 15,000 square feet will be developed as a Shoppers Drug Mart store. Upon completion, the implied capitalization rate of the acquired portfolio is expected to be 5.85 per cent.

In addition, a gas bar property in Yarmouth was combined with adjacent sites owned by Choice Properties, and the property in Aurora is 100 per cent leased to ancillary tenants and is shadow anchored by an adjacent Choice Properties’ stand-alone Loblaw bannered food store.

Choice Properties’ portfolio consists of 519 properties comprising 501 retail properties, 11 warehouse properties, one office complex, one industrial property and five parcels of land, totaling approximately 41.6 million sq. ft. of GLA across Canada.