JLL acquires Canada’s Northwest Atlantic

Bloomberg

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. acquired Northwest Atlantic Inc., a Canadian retail-tenant representation and advisory firm, to feed the growing demand from retailers around the world looking to expand in Canada.
Northwest Atlantic, a closely held company based in Toronto, represents more than 65 retailers including fashion retailer Nordstrom Inc., discount-apparel company Winners and movie-theater operator Cineplex Inc., and has helped leased more than 75 million square feet of retail real estate across Canada.
The purchase price wasn’t disclosed. A total of 45 employees across cities including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver will join JLL Canada’s team, and the acquisition will result in no job cuts, JLL said. It’s the brokerage’s first acquisition of a retail-services company in Canada and the largest one of its kind in the Americas, Naveen Jaggi, president of retail advisory services for JLL Americas, said.
“By joining forces with the Northwest Atlantic team, we’ve now created an opportunity for our clients worldwide to tap into a unified business across the US and Canada,” Jaggi said.
JLL, based in Chicago, is the largest third-party retail-property manager in the US by total square feet of assets under management.
It has been expanding its retail-advisory services since 2015 and is looking to increase its presence north of the border because of the stability of Canada’s retail market, Jaggi said.
“Canada’s economy was only slightly impacted by the US recession, and it’s much less volatile,” he said. “It experienced less than a year of declining fundamentals post-recession.”