COBOURG — A national coffee chain, Booster Juice and Sunset Grill are among the new tenants moving to the Northumberland Mall property this year.

Trinity Group (Trinity) had been the manager of the mall, located at 1111 Elgin St. W. in Cobourg, since May of last year, but in December the company purchased the property.

Kevin Parsons, a senior property manager with Trinity, told Northumberland News the company is excited to be the new owner.

“We’re happy to be in Cobourg,” he said. “We started out in managing it and obviously we’ve purchased it, so we see this as an exciting opportunity for both Trinity and what we feel will be a great property for everyone in Cobourg.”

Six-unit freestanding building with drive-thru proposed at Northumberland Mall

A large public notice sign has been installed along Elgin Street West where the company is proposing to build seven commercial units.

One of those units includes a drive-thru window, he said.

“We submitted the application last year which has gone to council and received support,” Parsons said, adding their development team is now working on comments from the town, the drawings and plans. “We hope to have that approved in the next couple of months.”

Asked about the new tenants, he confirmed that Booster Juice is coming as is a sit-down family restaurant.

“We’re working with some QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) type restaurants,” he said. “For the drive-thru space, we do have interest and we’re working with a national coffee user for that space.”

Within the last week, a sign has gone up near the main entrance announcing Sunset Grill a breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant  as another new tenant.

Parsons said a complete renovation is now in full swing at the Metro grocery store which will feature their new store concept.

“They are investing into the mall and at the same time, we are revising that drive aisle where you enter and exit the mall on Rogers Road,” he said. “Doing that will give a nice parking field for Metro and people coming in that end of the mall.”

It will also be a safer layout since customers won’t have to cross over the drive lane any more, he added.

“That’s one of the pieces we’re doing at the same time as Metro’s reno to give them a nice, safe parking lot,” said Parsons.

Planning staff at the Town of Cobourg said Trinity’s plans have three components — moving the driveway from in front of Metro to behind the LCBO and shifting all the parking areas there, a new pad just east of Boston Pizza and north of Dollarama with several retail store locations and at least one restaurant, and a minor front addition where the old Zeller’s garden centre used to be, to allow for other box stores such as Dollarama, Paulmac’s Pets and Carquest Auto Part

Activity at the mall is welcome news for lifelong Cobourg resident Kim Goebel, who started a ‘Save Northumberland Mall’ petition several years ago.

“I was thinking of doing (the petition) and then they got rid of the food court,” she said. “As I was seeing the stores empty out, it brought up a big concern about what was going to happen to it.”

Goebel said she heard the previous owners were planning to get rid of some of the smaller stores and put in big box stores.

“To me, that’s not a mall,” she said. “I would like to see them put a food court back in there and start building up the business in there.”

Redeveloping the inside of the mall and adding some food options is the experience residents are looking for when they go shopping, she said.

“They want to go early in the day, be able to sit down to have a lunch and continue their shopping after it,” said Goebel. “That was always the way in the mall and it was busy all the time.”

Her petition has garnered more than 1,250 signatures of the 1,500 target, to which she said “I am excited.”

Asked about it, Parsons said he has seen the petition and Trinity understands what residents want to see at the property.

“They have a vision for the mall and we understand that. We purchased it knowing there is work to be done here and we’re hopeful we can create a property that everyone can stand by,” he said. “We’re bringing in new tenants, which will also help bring employment to the area.”

Although the company is still assessing their interior mall plan, Parsons said when the time comes and a food court makes sense, with the tenants inside accepting the concept, “then certainly we will review it.”

He said the company’s immediate vision is to build and lease the multi-unit building along Elgin Street West.

“We’re also hoping to fill in some of the larger vacancies in that old Zeller’s space,” he said. “We’re working with a number of tenants we hope we’ll be able to announce soon.”

Trinity is also assessing the interior of the mall and looking at the “future of that space,” he said.

“We always welcome feedback and discussion on what we’re doing,” Parsons said.

Source: Northumberland News; by Dominik Wisniewski March 4, 2020

Timbertrin, a partnership between Trinity Group and Timbercreek, is moving forward with development plans for two prime Toronto intersections.

The partnership has unveiled plans for two Toronto properties from the Main + Main portfolio, which they joined forces to acquire in early 2018. One is located at the southwest corner of Queen and Bathurst Streets and the other is at the northwest corner of Bloor and Dundas Streets.

The two companies bought 16 Ottawa and Toronto properties during that transaction.

“We found a capital partner with expertise that complements ours,” said Trinity president and chief executive officer Fred Waks, who joined the company in early 2015 after serving as president and chief operating officer of RioCan REIT. “This partnership makes so much sense in today’s world, and it’s why we’ve both been able to utilize our resources to get things done and move swiftly.”

Waks believes retailers want to be in Toronto neighbourhoods with population density and live, work and play opportunities.

“We realized that this is the next evolution of retail,” he told RENX. “I’m doing as many food stores right now as when I was doing neighbourhood shopping centres, because everybody recognizes that they want to be close to transportation and close to density in terms of residential.”

Trinity was launched by John Ruddy in 1992 and has created more than 25 million square feet of retail space across Canada in large-format and community shopping centres and mixed-use projects.

Timbercreek was founded in 1999 and has $10 billion in assets under management.

Bloor and Dundas

The proposal for the Bloor and Dundas site is to build a 25-storey, Core Architects-designed condo with 206 one-bedroom, 87 two-bedroom and 34 three-bedroom units and 8,000 square feet of retail where an empty, two-storey commercial building stands.

It would include a two-level underground garage with parking for 100 cars and 337 bikes.

An application from the previous owner to build a 27-storey condo on the site was turned down due to height concerns.

However, the neighbourhood is intensifying with additional public transit and Choice Properties REIT’s proposal for a large master-planned development to the southeast.

Waks expects to receive feedback from the city in March or April and a 2023 opening has been targeted.

“We looked at it as an iconic corner that probably provides the best access to transit next to Union Station,” said Waks. “We believe it will become the gateway to the Bloor-Dundas area.”

Queen and Bathurst

The Queen and Bathurst site is occupied by Hone Fitness, Tim Hortons, Loft Urban Salon, The Paddock Tavern, Pizza Pizza and A-Six Foods. Timbertrin plans to build an eight-storey, Teeple Architects-designed building with 30 studios, 13 one-bedroom, 18 two-bedroom and seven three-bedroom condominium units on top of 13,700 square feet of street-level and basement retail.

The Queen and Bathurst streetcars both stop at the corner, so the developers are proposing a building with no parking for cars, but 80 bicycle parking spaces.

Waks expects City of Toronto representatives to look at comments on the proposal in mid-February. It’s hoped the condo will open in 2024.

Future developments for Trinity

While it’s too early to reveal details, Waks said Trinity has numerous other proposed developments in the final stages of entitlement for which it hopes to begin construction during the next one to two years.

Waks said Trinity also expects to do more deals in partnership with Timbercreek and will continue to take off-market acquisition opportunities to its partner for consideration.

“We’re certainly making sure that we’re satisfying their needs and they are responding accordingly.”

Source: Renx; by Steve McLean January 28, 2020

A few blocks east of the Rideau LRT station, Ottawa’s Trinity Development Group has launched the first stage of its ambitious plan to build 2,700 new rental units near light rail stops over the next several years.

Last week, Trinity broke ground on a new 25-storey mixed-use tower at 151 Chapel St. near the corner of Rideau. The building will feature 315 rental suites ranging from studio apartments to two-bedroom units and will also have more than 9,200 square feet of ground-floor retail space, with occupancy targeted for some time in 2022.A joint venture with fellow Ottawa developer Timbercreek, it’s the first of two apartment highrises the companies plan to build at the coveted development site located just a few hundred metres from the city’s largest shopping mall and one of its busiest transit hubs.

The second phase would be a 25-storey building with 318 rental units. In total, the site would have 477 parking spaces, most of them underground.

“We believe this is going to be very successful, and our hope is that we can roll right into phase two,” says Mathew Laing, Trinity’s senior vice-president of planning and development. “We’ve always liked the property.”

The project has been years in the making. Five years ago, Trinity proposed a two-tower development at Chapel and Rideau linked by a shared podium that would have featured a supermarket as an anchor tenant.

But after Timbercreek came on board as a partner, the two firms reassessed the project and determined that “breaking this into two phases was the way to go,” Laing says. “We put a lot of work into this redesign.”

However, a phased approach meant scrapping the podium idea, and the builders were forced to rethink the retail mix at the site.

“We no longer had that large floor plate that a single large-format retailer (such as a supermarket) could use,” Laing explains.

He and his colleagues at Trinity have high hopes for the Rideau and Chapel development, but it’s far from the only transit-fuelled construction plans in the company’s project pipeline. Like other developers such as RioCan REIT and Killam Apartment REIT ​– who’ve teamed up on a plan to build a series of apartment highrises near the Blair LRT station in the east end ​– Trinity and its partners see massive potential for light rail to trigger new real estate opportunities in a city with a rental vacancy rate of under two per cent.

“The LRT is definitely a driving factor,” Laing says. “For us, our focus has been really on mixed-use buildings and creating those environments where people can have those live-work-play type opportunities. That’s what we’re really focused on.”

Next up on Trinity’s to-build list is a three-tower mixed-use development at 900 Albert St., just steps from the Bayview LRT station where the Trillium and Confederation lines meet.

Trinity is joining forces with InterReit REIT and PBC Real Estate Advisors on the massive project, which will include three highrises of 65, 56 and 27 storeys with a total of about 1,300 rental apartments. Laing said “ballpark figures” call for roughly 85,000 square feet of retail and half a million square feet of office space at the site.

The developers have yet to set a timeline for construction, but the retail and office components are “doing very well from a leasing perspective,” Laing says, adding “several large-scale tenants” are already on board.

“Really now, it’s about getting that mix in place where you have your large-scale anchor tenants … and then you complete that picture by working with some of the smaller retailers as well to create that full dynamic that we want,” he says. “That entire project will have a real interesting life cycle because of all the different people that will be coming in and out.”

A few hundred metres farther south, Trinity is partnering with CLV Group and PBC Real Estate Advisors on a 745-unit apartment complex at the corner of Gladstone and Loretta avenues, near the future Gladstone LRT station.

The proposal calls for three towers of 35, 33 and 30 storeys with a mix of residential, retail and office space.

Laing says the developers are still trying to figure out how to integrate the heritage Enriched Bread Artists building at 951 Gladstone Ave. into the proposal, but he says he expects a site plan to be filed early in the new year.

“We’re diligently working on that,” Laing says.

The executive says Trinity founder John Ruddy had company officials study all the proposed LRT lines years ago to identify possible nearby development sites. Those efforts are paying off, Laing says. “We’re really excited about what’s going on in Ottawa right now.”

If both projects come to fruition, they would add more than 2,000 new rental suites at two sites less than a kilometre apart. Laing says he understands fears that the developments will flood the market with excess units, but adds he thinks the neighbourhood can absorb the inventory.

“It’s always a concern, but we believe in the market,” he says. “The market will obviously dictate at the time when these are launched, what is ultimately feasible and what is not. That’s why we’ve phased these projects … so that we can adjust as necessary. We’re confident that we can fill these sites.”

Courtesy of: Ottawa Business Journal; David Sali, Ottawa
Published: November 27, 2019

Trinity Group has been laying the groundwork for years to develop several major residential-focused projects in Ottawa. The company and its partners hope they are now about to start reaping the rewards of a 2,700-apartment pipeline in the National Capital.

Trinity and joint venture partner Timbercreek formally broke ground this week on Rideau and Chapel, a two-tower, purpose-built rental apartment development at the eastern edge of Ottawa’s Central Business District. The first tower in the two-phase project contains 315 units and is scheduled to begin occupancy in 2022.

“This project is unique because of the process that we’ve gone through and the twists and turns it has taken,” Trinity’s senior vice-president of development and planning Mathew Laing told RENX.

“Breaking it into two phases was a really big thing for us . . . honing in on one building and getting that right. Hopefully, we do really well on it and then that carries us into Phase II.”

The two 25-storey towers will also contain about 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and commercial space, as well as 477 parking spaces, almost all underground. The second tower will contain 318 units and be built behind the first tower, which fronts onto Rideau Street, one of the city’s main downtown thoroughfares.

History of Rideau and Chapel

As Laing noted, Rideau and Chapel has an extended pre-development history. Originally conceived six years ago with a retail and commercial podium anchored by a large grocer, the project was approved by the then-Ontario Municipal Board but did not proceed due to slow market conditions. It has since gone through multiple revisions.

“With the removal of the grocer, we were able to phase the development,” Laing said. “We have a clear-cut line to build Phase I now, and build Phase II when market conditions are right.”

Situated a few hundred metres from one of Ottawa’s new downtown LRT stations, Rideau and Chapel is in an established neighbourhood with no significant rental or condo builds in recent years. Trinity and Timbercreek hope to attract residents from several demographics – students, new residents, young professionals and older couples looking to downsize, to name a few.

“This is definitely an area that is underserved by the type of product that we are bringing forward,” Laing said. “With Ottawa now being over a million people, and more people moving into the city, a) there are new people looking for places to live, but b) there is (also) a circular market where people will tend to go to the newest thing.”

The addition of Timbercreek as a partner in the project stems from the two firms’ joint venture in purchasing the Main and Main portfolio of properties and development sites early in 2018.

“That was our first deal together. We formed a really good relationship with them and it just evolved from there,” Laing said.

Both have long track records in Ottawa and know the market well. “It was just natural progression that we do this project together,” Laing added. “It’s rental, it fits within their portfolio, it’s a great kickoff project.”

Other Trinity Ottawa projects

As shovels enter the ground for Rideau and Chapel, Trinity’s founder and executive chairman John Ruddy, president/CEO Fred Waks and its Toronto-based management team are also shepherding three other projects in the city through various pre-development phases.

The largest is Trinity Centre at Bayview Station, a mixed-use, multi-tower development with partners InterRent and PBC Group.

This site effectively gives Trinity book-end developments at the west and east boundaries of the Central Business District. Trinity Centre will sit directly atop the junction of Ottawa’s two LRT lines, once the next phase of the infrastructure project is completed.

A third project, Gladstone and Loretto, is along the soon-to-be-expanded Ottawa Confederation LRT line. It’s proposed as a mixed-use tower with 745 units, plus about 190,000 square feet of office and 18,000 square feet of retail.

This is no coincidence.

“John had us do a study years ago where we really followed the LRT line and we identified all of the proposed stops. Then we were looking for land around those,” said Laing.

“So we have our 900 Albert project, we have our Gladstone and Loretto project, each at a node, a new station. That was really the intention behind that. It was just literally following the transit.

“We’ve looked at other locations as well, (but) nothing that we are bringing forward at this time.”

The other development in Trinity’s current pipeline is Richmond and Island Park, more of a boutique-style development which would feature ground-floor retail in a mid-rise building with 40 residential units.

What’s driving the urge to build

900 Albert features three towers and an expansive, multi-level podium. It will also be built in phases, and is planned to contain 1,300 housing units, about 85,000 square feet of retail and 500,000 square feet of office space.

“900 Albert is a project that’s been around for, I would say, seven years and it really picked up steam in the last year-and-a-half as well,” Laing said. “We pushed forward and got the zoning approval; now we’re just working through (the) site plan and we have a construction schedule being put together for that one as well.”

The key drivers to all the projects have been Ottawa’s population growth and growing economy. The city has just surpassed one million residents, has an apartment vacancy rate south of two per cent and its office and industrial vacancy rates have been steadily declining for several years.

“I’ve attended several forums in the past year-and-a-half and there’s been a constant discussion about how well the Ottawa market is doing,” Laing said. 

Trinity’s projects are not the only significant developments across the city. RioCan REIT and Killam Apartment REIT are developing multiple rental apartment towers just a few kilometres east of the downtown, along the LRT. The massive Zibi project is underway west of the core and other developers have major residential-based developments at various stages.

Despite its ongoing growth, though, could Ottawa suddenly face an overbuild situation?

“That’s always a concern,” Laing admitted. “The term I like to use is conservatively aggressive. You want to have the principals in place where you don’t end up in a situation where you over-assumed a market. We’re really focusing in on that and that’s why a lot of these projects have phasing.

“Even 900 Albert has a phasing plan, Gladstone has as well and Rideau obviously.

“If we were super-aggressive, it’d be ‘We’re building it all.’ That probably wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Through phasing it, (we’re) giving ourselves the opportunity to continue to test those markets and to really gather all the information and make the right decisions based on that.”

Source:  Renx; by Don Wilcox November 21, 2019

Just east of Canada Olympic Park, Trinity Hills is taking shape on the slopes of Paskapoo.

It’s a mixed-use area developers hope will become a destination in Calgary.

“You’ll hear more now because now we’re gearing up to launch,” said vice president of sales and marketing for Metropia, Lee Koutsaris.

“Now the retail is getting ready and people are going to be directing up there soon to go shop and be part of it.”

There’s the Town Centre, anchored with a Save-On-Foods, a PetSmart and attached pet hotel. Above additional retail, there are plans for more than 158 rental units — along with underground parking to serve the area. It’s planned to open in March 2020.

I would say that this is a new concept for Calgary,​​​​​​.– Mark Deon, Trinity Development Group

A second retail area, called the Gateway District, with active lifestyle businesses — like Mountain Equipment Coop and Good Life Fitness — is planned to open in November 2020.

The residential component townhomes will be advertised for sale soon, and Koutsaris said occupancy may happen by summer 2020.

Initially, some of the retail in the Town Centre was supposed to open by spring 2019. But that anticipated timeline has come and gone. And that’s because it has taken time to work with the city on traffic concerns and other details.

“I would say that this is a new concept for Calgary,” said Mark Deon, senior vice president of leasing for the Trinity Development Group. “We’re bringing urban out of downtown and into the suburbs, and we’ve been sort of focused on getting it right. And it takes time to do that.”

There are two access points to the area. With an interchange the developers paid for and designed, two traffic circles, Deon says it will be capable of handling high volumes of traffic.

“Big volume is our expectation,” Dion said. “There has been a lot of growth and there will be a lot of growth in the west part of Calgary and this site really will serve those new residents.”

And the development is piggybacking off recreational facilities nearby like WinSport and everything on offer at Canada Olympic Park.

When the development was first proposed there was a lot of opposition from some Calgarians because of the loss of wild lands on the slopes.

In total, developers purchased 260 acres of land from WinSport. Koutsaris says they are dedicating 160 acres of the remaining land to become park land.

And that park will connect the trails that already exist on Paskapoo Slopes to trailheads in Trinity Hills.

The development was approved in 2015.

Courtesy of: CBC News; Helen Pike, Calgary 
Published: July 16, 2019; Updated July 17, 2019

An Ottawa developer has revived a plan to build two mixed-use highrises at the former site of a Jewish community centre in Lowertown.

In planning documents filed with the city, Trinity Development Group says it is proposing to construct a pair of 25-storey condo towers with retail space on the ground floor at 151 and 153 Chapel St., near the corner of Rideau Street.

The developer pitched two highrises of 27 and 32 storeys in its original proposal back in 2014 but scaled back the plan after complaints about the buildings’ height. In early 2016, the city’s planning committee approved the revised proposal for two 25-storey highrises with a total of 586 residential units and nearly 75,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, but Trinity did not go through with the plan.

Now, the developer has submitted another revised site plan calling for a slightly new design that includes much less retail space and more residential suites.

Trinity’s latest proposal includes a total of 633 apartments and 9,200 square feet of retail space. The builder says the project would be completed in two phases, with the construction of a mixed-use highrise with 315 residential units followed by an all-residential building with 318 apartments. The development would include 477 parking spaces, all but 23 of them underground.

Trinity has also abandoned a controversial request to open up a cul-de-sac on Chapel Street to connect it with Beausoleil Drive. Local community groups said they feared the plan would cause a spike in traffic on nearby residential streets.

Courtesy of: Ottawa Business Journal; OBJ Staff, Ottawa
Published: May 2, 2019