H&R REIT buying property for EnCana's new Calgary HQ

Fri Feb 9, 1:15 PM

H&R Real Estate Investment Trust is buying the land for energy company EnCana Corp.'s massive future headquarters in downtown Calgary for $70 million and will develop the project.

The $1.1-billion north block of the project - dubbed The Bow, for the river that flows through Calgary - will be 59 storeys, making it the tallest Canadian office building west of Toronto. The office tower will include roughly 1.84 million square feet of office space when it is completed by fall 2011.

EnCana has already agreed to a 25-year lease for all of the office space in the north tower of the project, along with 700 underground parking spaces.

"This landmark property will also significantly increase H&R's office market presence in one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country," H&R president and CEO Tom Hostedter said Friday.

"Upon completion of The Bow, H&R will own a cluster of three [high-end] office towers - The Bow, the Telus Tower and the TransCanada Tower," he said.

H&R REIT owns 34 office properties, 115 industrial properties and 143 retail properties in North America. Units of the REIT slipped 10 cents on Friday to close at $26.03 on the TSX.