The Globe And Mail Centre Reaches New Heights With “Office Development Of The Year” Award

March 22, 2018

First Gulf’s Globe and Mail Centre was awarded top honours in the category of “Office Development of the Year” at the prestigious 17th Annual NAIOP Greater Toronto Real Estate Excellence Awards on March 22, in Toronto.

Located at 351 King Street East, the Globe and Mail Centre is a 500,000-sf office landmark, targeting LEED® Gold-Certification and developed through a 50/50 limited partnership between First Gulf and OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension funds. The development is anchored by the Globe and Mail, pre-leased by Colliers International and designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects.

“A great honour for a great building. The win for 351 King Street is a victory for the entire First Gulf team and all of our partners involved”, said John MacNeil, President of First Gulf Corporation.

“At OPTrust, real estate investing plays an increasingly important role in delivering our mission; to pay pensions today and preserve pensions for tomorrow”, said Hugh O’Reilly, President and CEO of OPTrust. “I want to congratulate First Gulf and the entire team for their highly collaborative effort on making this project a reality,” O’Reilly added.

Working with Colliers International, 351 King Street East is fully leased and home to top national tenants such as The Globe and Mail, Loyalty One, Yellow Pages, Economical Inc., Weber Shandwick and Achmea.

First Gulf, and financial partner OP Trust, is proud to have also been selected as a NAIOP Greater Toronto REX Awards finalist for “Industrial Development of the Year” for BMW Group Canada’s new 285,000 SF, state-of-the-art regional Distribution Centre located in Mississauga, Ontario, which provides the ideal building and location for BMW’s inbound and outbound logistics, company growth and continued success.

For more information on The Globe and Mail Centre and BMW Distribution Centre, please visit the Success Stories page.

About The NAIOP Rex Awards

The NAIOP Greater Toronto REX Awards competition is a recognition program that celebrates the achievements of the office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate industry in the Greater Toronto Area. The awards criteria focus on results (quality and performance), skills (teamwork, collaboration, innovation and creativity) and values (community and environmental awareness).

About First Gulf

First Gulf is an award-winning leader in the development of industrial, office, mixed-use and retail properties with developed assets of over $4 billion completed since the company’s inception in 1987. First Gulf is a fully integrated development company and is involved in all aspects of real estate development, from land acquisition and planning approvals to design-build, construction, leasing, financing and property management. To date, First Gulf has developed and constructed over 30 million sf of office, retail, and industrial real estate.

About OPTrust

With net assets of over $20 billion, OPTrust invests and manages one of Canada's largest pension funds and administers the OPSEU Pension Plan, a defined benefit plan with over 92,000 members and retirees. OPTrust was established to give plan members and the Government of Ontario an equal voice in the administration of the Plan and the investment of its assets through joint trusteeship. OPTrust is governed by a 10-member Board of Trustees, five of whom are appointed by OPSEU and five by the Government of Ontario.