TORONTO, July 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (“SmartCentres”) (TSX:SRU.UN), one of Canada’s largest real estate investment trusts, today announced a step forward in its joint venture arrangement with SmartStop Asset Management, LLC (“SmartStop”).  The transfer of the first property into the joint venture has been completed.  

Under the terms of the joint venture arrangement, several sites currently owned by SmartCentres have initially been selected for potential development, along with additional future sites to be identified. SmartCentres will develop and construct the joint venture sites, and SmartStop will operate the SmartStop branded self storage business.  The sites will be co-owned 50/50 by each partner.

The first location will be built on 2.23 acres of land located near Eglinton Avenue East and Laird Drive, in the Leaside area of Toronto, Ontario.  This land will be used to develop approximately 100,000 rentable square feet of storage space with nearly 1,000 self storage units in varying sizes.  The project is expected to break ground later this year and construction is slated for completion in late 2019.

“Self storage is one of the strategic initiatives we have initiated to intensify our properties, and unlock value of the land within our portfolio. SmartCentres’ well-located real estate and development expertise effectively complement SmartStop’s strength in self storage management and revenue generation,” said Peter Forde, President & CEO of SmartCentres. “This multi-storey self storage facility will generate additional funds from operations, while requiring minimal land and parking.”

“This location is adjacent to a high traffic, regional SmartCentres shopping centre, creating an excellent setting for a new self storage facility,” said H. Michael Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer of SmartStop. “We are pleased to announce this project with SmartCentres, as we actively work on several other sites for the joint venture, including multiple sites in Brampton, Markham, Oshawa, Richmond Hill and Toronto in Ontario.”

“While our shopping centres have never been busier, especially with Walmart as our main anchor tenant, our strategy is now expanding to focus our development horsepower on residential, seniors, office and storage initiatives, to extract the deeply embedded value from our existing properties across Canada.  This strategy, including this joint venture relationship with SmartStop, will lead to continuous growth of non-retail income,” said Mitchell Goldhar, Executive Chairman of the Board of SmartCentres.

About SmartCentres

SmartCentres is one of Canada’s largest real estate investment trusts with total assets of approximately $9.4 billion. It owns and manages 34 million square feet of retail space in value-oriented, principally Walmart-anchored retail centres, having the strongest national and regional retailers as well as strong neighbourhood merchants. The retail centres continue to experience industry leading occupancy levels of 98%.  In addition, SmartCentres is a joint-venture partner in the Premium Outlets locations in Toronto and Montreal with Simon Property Group.

SmartCentres is now expanding the breadth of its portfolio to include residential (single-family, condominium and rental), retirement homes, office, and self storage, either on its large urban properties such as the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre or as an adjunct to its well-located existing shopping centres. For more information on SmartCentres, visit www.smartcentres.com.

About SmartStop

SmartStop is a diversified real estate company focused on self storage, student housing and senior housing assets. The company has approximately $1.5 billion of real estate assets under management, including 116 self storage facilities located throughout the United States and Toronto, Canada, comprised of approximately 73,560 units and 8.5 million rentable square feet. SmartStop’s real estate portfolio also includes five student housing communities with approximately 2,800 beds and 1.1 million square feet of space, as well as three senior housing communities with approximately 350 beds and 250,000 rentable square feet of space. SmartStop is the sponsor of four public non-traded REITs: Strategic Storage Trust IV, Inc., Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc., and Strategic Storage Growth Trust, Inc., all focused on self storage assets, and Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, Inc., focused on student and senior housing assets. SmartStop is also a national sponsor of Section 1031 exchange offerings using the Delaware statutory trust structure. Additional information regarding SmartStop is available at www.SAM.com and more information regarding SmartStop® Self Storage in the United States and Canada is available at www.smartstopselfstorage.com.

Certain statements in this Press Release are "forward-looking statements" that reflect SmartCentres’ expectations regarding future growth and business prospects. More specifically, certain statements that contain words such as "expect", "will", and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts and constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements reflect SmartCentres’ current beliefs and are based on information currently available to SmartCentres. However, such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this Press Release are based on what SmartCentres believes to be reasonable assumptions, SmartCentres cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this Press Release and SmartCentres assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances unless otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

For more information, please contact:

Peter Forde
President & CEO
SmartCentres
(905) 326-6400 ext. 7615
[email protected]

Peter Sweeney
Chief Financial Officer
SmartCentres
(905) 326-6400 ext. 7865
[email protected]