The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan’s real estate team has won four Investment & Pensions (I&P) Real Estate awards, including Best Real Estate Investor.
HOOPP, with a real estate portfolio valued at $6 billion, was also honored as Best Large Real Estate Investor, Best Innovation, and Best Institutional Investor (Other) in the London, England-based awards competition. This was the first year that the I&P Real Estate awards were open to real estate investors from outside Europe.
HOOPP’s innovative approach to real estate investing, including its focus on developing environmentally-friendly office and commercial properties, caught the attention of the European judges.
“Real estate is an important part of how HOOPP delivers on the pension promise for its members,” says Michael Catford, HOOPP’s Vice-President, Real Estate. “Real estate delivers steady, inflation-sensitive income, with the potential for long-term capital appreciation, which makes it an ideal match for our stakeholders. Our real estate portfolio is diversifying to reflect the opportunity HOOPP sees in real estate for long-term income,” he says.
HOOPP has recently expanded into the European market with a development at St. James’ Gateway in London, and with a partner, the recently opened Nova Karolina mall in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In Canada, HOOPP’s Telus Tower and AeroCentre V developments have received LEED Gold designations.
HOOPP’s properties portfolio makes up 11.5 per cent of HOOPP’s $40.3 billion in assets. Other highlights for HOOPP’s real estate effort in 2011 include:
- Investments in two European funds – one focused on the Nordic region and the other a French development fund
- A 33-acre site in Airport Corporate Centre in Toronto for a mixed office and retail development.
- A site in downtown Toronto for future office development (co-venture with Menkes)
- Large sites in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta and Cambridge, Ontario for future industrial development.
- Development of a new regional shopping centre in Abbotsford, B.C. in conjunction with a local partner.