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Retail-focused REITs have grown steadily in Canada over the past two decades, and they now control nearly a third of total shopping center space, according to an ICSC Research report. The total retail square footage held by all of Canada’s REITs amounts to some 207 million square feet. Six major REITs control roughly three-quarters of REIT-owned retail space, and there are now 10 REITs with 50 percent or more of their Canadian space in retail.
Retail REITs could adopt several strategies to assure future growth, according to report authors Tony Hernandez and Maurice Yeates, both of whom are affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity, at Ryerson University, in Toronto. These strategies include their transforming themselves into development companies by merging with a large real estate company and by diversifying their portfolios to include different types of retail or nonretail uses.
Other alternatives are also discussed in the report, titled Canadian Retail REITs Come of Age.
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
