GE Real Estate may build Epcor tower in heart of the city
Ron Chalmers, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 3:21 am
EDMONTON - Dundee Real Estate Investment Trust, which was competing to build a new Epcor office tower, has sold its downtown property to GE Real Estate -- which now might build that tower.
Dundee was one of four finalists among 10 developers that answered Epcor's request for proposals, May 14, to provide 260,000 square feet of downtown office space.
Dundee owned the former Bank of Montreal building on the southeast corner of Jasper Avenue and 101st Street. Two doors east, it also owned EPCOR Square, where the city-owned utility now is headquartered. And it owned a 10-per-cent interest in the former Odeon Theatre, between those two buildings. Dundee had produced an architect's rendering of a 23-storey tower, apparently clad largely in solar panels, on the Bank of Montreal building site.
But Dundee recently sold its interest in the three properties to GE Real Estate as part of a $2.3-billion deal that included Dundee's entire eastern Canadian real estate portfolio.
Dundee also has ceased management of the properties and will not provide space for Epcor, said Carol Webb, a Dundee spokeswoman in Toronto. "We do not have any ownership in the bidding."
GE Real Estate now is pushing its own proposal.
"We are in discussions with Epcor to develop/expand them into a new office building adjacent to their current space," Katherine Lee, managing director of GE Real Estate, has told The Journal.
"We believe we can provide Epcor the best economic and space solution for their future needs."
Other developers that are shortlisted to build a new Epcor tower are rumoured to be Melcor Developments, with land on the southeast corner of Jasper Avenue and 102nd Street, Oxford Properties, with the Staples site at 104th Avenue and 101st Street, and Qualico, with the Station Lands site north of the CN Tower.
Epcor spokesman Tim le Riche noted Wednesday that the company retains the option of remaining at Capital Square rather than leasing a new building.
A decision is expected by year-end.
Regardless of Epcor's decision, GE Real Estate will hold, improve, modernize and lease its Jasper Avenue property, Lee said.
rchalmers@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007