Cushman & Wakefield "Best of the Year Teams" Capture Top Industry Awards

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 11, 2014) - The spotlight was on Cushman & Wakefield professionals at the commercial real estate industry's premier annual event in the Greater Toronto Area last evening when two of the firm's teams walked away with two of the most coveted honours - Office Lease and Industrial Lease of the Year awards.

The EY Tower team won Office Lease of the Year and the Unilever Distribution Centre team captured Industrial Lease of the Year. NAIOP Greater Toronto Chapter's annual Real Estate Excellence Award gala recognizes the "Best of the Year Teams" behind the GTA's most complex transactions. The winners are recognized by their industry peers for their "leadership and innovation".

The EY Tower consolidation transaction saw the accounting firm lease 255,000 sq. ft., enabling Oxford Properties to develop the EY-branded tower at the Richmond Adelaide Centre. The enormous challenge of coordinating the consolidation timing with the project completion, along with designing a workplace that met EY requirements, required an intensely collaborative effort among team members Cushman & Wakefield, EY Canada, Oxford Properties, and Miller Thompson LLP.

"Our Toronto central office leasing professionals, along with our Strategic Occupancy Planning and Transaction Management teams under our CIS (Corporate Occupier & Investor Services) group, went to extraordinary lengths to assist our client EY in consolidating their operations and creating a workplace of the future that aligns their real estate with their business objectives," said Michael Caplice, Senior Managing Director, Office Leasing, Cushman & Wakefield Canada.

"We're very proud to have played a front-and-centre role in helping a global leader such as EY transform their workplace, which triggered the development of Oxford's beautifully designed 900,000-sq.-ft. LEED-Platinum office tower in the financial core. It was a game-changing transaction for everyone involved and will add immensely to the quality of life in our city," added Caplice.

The award-winning industrial lease for Unilever Canada at 7900 Airport Road, Brampton, became the largest GTA design-build lease project since 2007. Thanks to the collaborative team effort, innovative deal structure and leading edge design this 744,922-sq.-ft. long-term lease on 34.62 acres set a new level of excellence for development.

"Blockbuster transactions such as this design-build lease are rare," said Mark Stainer, Senior Managing Director, National Practice Leader, Industrial, Cushman & Wakefield Canada. "Unilever Canada is noteworthy for its sheer size, but what really set it apart were three key factors: the collaborative effort involving five different parties, its sophisticated and innovative deal structure, and the leading-edge design that made it a world-class distribution centre."

Team members were Unilever, H&R REIT, Canadian Commercial Capital, Giffels WestPro, and Cushman & Wakefield cross services including Toronto brokerage, the CIS group and Project Management Services.

Added Stainer: "The collaboration among the team members paved the way for a faster project, cost savings and implementation of design criteria. It's such a successful project it may well set a new standard for large-scale industrial lease construction projects."

Cushman & Wakefield is the world's largest privately‐held commercial real estate services firm. The company advises and represents clients on all aspects of property occupancy and investment, and has established a preeminent position in the world's major markets, as evidenced by its frequent involvement in many of the most significant property leases, sales and management assignments. Founded in 1917, it has approximately 250 offices in 60 countries, employing more than 16,000 professionals. It offers a complete range of services for all property types, including leasing, sales and acquisitions, equity, debt and structured finance, corporate finance and investment banking, corporate services, property management, facilities management, project management, consulting and appraisal. The firm has nearly $4 billion in assets under management globally. A recognized leader in local and global real estate research, the firm publishes its market information and studies online at www.cushmanwakefield.com/knowledge.

About the NAIOP REX Awards

The NAIOP Greater Toronto Chapter's REX Awards 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).