(Re)Build-to-Suit

When considering real estate, location is a very important factor. Some companies want to be located in a specific neighbourhood, on a specific piece of land, or close to amenities, such as rail. In these cases, older buildings are the only answer.

Telus required a centrally located distribution facility with 35,000 SF of office space in the Calgary market. There were no existing facilities that met their specifications. York was able to purchase and completely retrofit a 50-year old warehouse in central Calgary and successfully consolidate TELUS into the 125,000 SF facility. The project has become a benchmark of teamwork for York, Eagle and TELUS.

National Tire Distributors was active in the market purchasing and consolidating smaller tire warehousing operations across Canada. NTD’s difficulty, in a low margin business, was achieving the scale and efficiency of warehousing needed without incurring costs to build-new. York was able to find and secure a 320,000 SF warehouse facility (built in 1964) and completely renovate the building to meet current code with a state-of-the-art distribution facility. York and NTD have completed approximately 500,000 SF of leasing transactions across Canada.

Enmax had very specific needs for their building; it needed to include office space, a large warehouse for truck storage and be very close to the LRT line. York created a modern space for Enmax by retrofitting a 50-year-old, 86,000 SF building located in central Calgary, right next to the LRT line. York renovated the cross-dock component into 25,000 SF of office space and used the existing bay doors as large windows to allow for natural light and the possibility to easily expand out when required. The existing warehouse portion was turned into truck storage for Enmax.