Oxford Properties (Oxford) was again highly active in North America in the period under review with several projects in both Canada and the US being worthy of mention.

In Canada, it reached the practical completion on the first phase of the largest speculative industrial project in the country at the James Snow Business Park. This project will add desperately needed new supply of industrial buildings to the Toronto area, where the current availability rate sits at around 1.4% - among the lowest in North America and a constraint on economic growth.

It formed a new partnership with TPG, a global alternative asset management firm, in which they acquired 75% of Oxford’s Greater Toronto Area Industrial Portfolio in one of the largest private industrial real estate transactions across Canada in recent years.

The completion and opening of the Stack in Vancouver also took place. This is the North America’s first certified zero carbon office building and the city’s tallest tower. The asset is already 92% leased, despite a severe slowdown inVacouver’s leasing market during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the US, it completed the development and sale of two-story purpose-built biomanufacturing facility with market-leading building specifications in Boston. The original asset was a 24-acre parcel of vacant land that Oxford acquired in 2021. It also broke ground in San Diego on the planned expansion of a specialist pharmaceuticals campus.

In New York, it oversaw the completion and opening of St. John’s Terminal – a transformational office development sold to Google for record US$2.1bn in the largest US single-asset office deal during the coronavirus pandemic. Oxford acquired the site in 2017 as its first project as lead developer in the US. It also completed and opened New York’s fourth-largest commercial office building with over 84% leased.