MEDIA RELEASE
May 22, 2008
FARHI HOLDINGS CORPORATION RINGS THE BELL AT 100 DUNDAS STREET
Farhi Holdings president Shmuel Farhi announced today that his company was the successful bidder for the purchase of the Bell Canada building. The price was not released but Farhi noted "the cost of constructing this building now would exceed $90 million, and we are very pleased with our acquisition".
Mr. Farhi went on to say he continues to have great confidence in the future of London.
"The Bell Building is part of our ongoing strategy to do as much as we can to help bring our downtown back to life. Adding it to our portfolio means we can now meet the needs of virtually any tenant, from the smallest to the largest. We are also excited about being able to offer office space in the same block as the provincial courthouse and a federal office building. Businesses desiring premises in close proximity to these government operations will find the Bell building to be a perfect location.”
Bell Canada currently occupies 5 floors, but more than 70,000 square feet of office space is still available.
"This building has unrealized rental potential and we plan to be energetic in attracting new businesses to fill it up, as we have been with our other downtown properties", said Farhi.
“Because we own and operate so many buildings in the central part of the city, economies of scale mean we can provide Class A office space in the Bell building at a price no other landlord can match. We also have 324 underground parking spaces and we own a surface parking lot just a half-block to the north, so tenant parking will not be a problem.
"We are now the only landlord in the city able to offer a tenant more than 37,000 square feet on one floor in downtown London. We hope to work with city economic development staff to help attract the kind of new business to our downtown core that is so important to its continuing rebirth. Building the John Labatt Centre was the first step toward this revitalization and filling the Bell building will be the next."
The city of London had previously expressed some potential interest in acquiring office space in the building and Farhi says he would be happy to provide it.
"If the city is still interested in helping downtown rejuvenation by locating more departments along the Dundas Street corridor, we will be happy to accommodate them and will work to ensure their every need is met.
"Satisfying our tenants has been the key to our success as a company and will continue to drive everything we do."
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