H&R REIT selling $1.5 billion in retail and office properties in U.S. and Canada

TORONTO – H&R Real Estate Investment Trust says it has signed deals with multiple buyers to sell a total of $1.5 billion in retail and office properties in Canada and the United States.

The assets being sold include H&R’s 33.1 per cent stake in Echo Realty LP’s U.S. retail portfolio, 27 Canadian retail properties, the Hess Tower office property in Houston, a downtown Toronto office property and another in the Greater Toronto Area.

H&R executive chair and chief executive Tom Hofstedter says the sales accelerate the trust’s portfolio simplification strategy.

Hofstedter says that when the strategy was announced in June 2021 the residential and industrial segments amounted to 35 per cent of the trust’s total portfolio.

After the sales announced Tuesday, he says the residential and industri