Artis Real Estate Investment Trust has sold its Quarry Park Portfolio, consisting of three office properties located in Calgary, Alberta, and entered into an unconditional agreement to sell Millennium Centre, an office property located in Red Deer, Alberta.

The Quarry Park Portfolio comprises three office properties located in the Quarry Park commercial/residential area of Calgary, totaling 282,327 square feet of gross leasable area. The portfolio was sold for $98.0 million ($347 per square foot).

Millennium Centre is a 148,871 square foot office property located in Red Deer. The sale price for this property is $33.0 million ($222 per square foot). This transaction is expected to close on December 1, 2017.

“The sale of these assets further reduces our exposure to the Alberta office market, which became a strategic initiative for Artis since the downturn in oil prices,” said Armin Martens, president and Chief Executive Officer of Artis.

“These sales are at prices that compare well to our internal fair value of approximately $15 per unit, and will provide us with capital to recycle into newer generation real estate in our other target markets, further improving the diversity and resiliency of our overall portfolio.”

Including all dispositions completed and announced year to date, Artis has sold 15 properties totaling over 1.4 million square feet of leasable area for an aggregate sale price of $350.0 million. With these transactions, Artis has completed its strategic plan of reducing its Alberta office weighting to under 10 per cent.

Artis is a diversified Canadian real estate investment trust investing in office, retail and industrial properties. Since 2004, Artis has executed an aggressive but disciplined growth strategy, building a portfolio of commercial properties in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and select markets in the United States.