Morguard\u2019s pending sale of a 14-storey tower at 131 Queen St. to the federal government breaks a bit of a dry spell for Ottawa\u2019s office investment market.<\/p>\n
The $148.2-million transaction<\/a>, which is expected to close by the end of August, is the biggest office sale in the Ottawa region since March 2024, when Public Services and Procurement Canada bought the CBC headquarters building at nearby 181 Queen St. for $125.3 million from Morguard.\u00a0<\/p>\n If that\u2019s any indication, it\u2019s been a while since a private investor bought into Ottawa\u2019s office market in a big way.<\/p>\n With occupancy rates remaining stagnant amid a tepid return to the office in downtown Ottawa, institutional investors have been content to stay on the sidelines for the past few years.<\/p>\n In fact, the last eye-popping office transaction involving a private-sector buyer occurred in the spring of 2023, when Montreal-based Groupe Mach acquired the 27-storey highrise at 160 Elgin St. from H&R REIT for $277 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n But now, with the federal government poised to send employees back to the office four days a week and many private-sector employers ramping up return-to-office mandates, could the National Capital Region become a haven for private capital once again?<\/p>\n Scott Brooker, a vice-president at Cushman & Wakefield Ottawa who specializes in brokering investment transactions, says he thinks an uptick in investment activity in larger centres such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver could be a harbinger of things to come for the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n \u201cThere certainly seems to be more interest in Ottawa, more activity overall just generally for investment properties,\u201d Brooker said in a recent interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think as the macroeconomic conditions around office and return-to-office strengthen, not just in Ottawa but across the board, we\u2019re starting to see investment come back to office. If you look at Toronto and Vancouver, you\u2019re starting to see large office transactions starting to happen again, where they really weren’t happening over the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n Shawn Hamilton, a principal at Proveras Commercial Realty, said he thinks it might still be a while before private capital starts to flow into the local office market in a major way.<\/p>\n \u201cI think institutional investors are waiting to see what the future of the government footprint is in downtown Ottawa,\u201d Hamilton told OBJ on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, there are so many different conflicting stories of (the federal government\u2019s office needs). I think now that there\u2019s been the (four-day-a-week) return-to-office mandate, I think it will take a few months to sort of see how things play out.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, several large privately owned office properties that have been shopped around over the past few years remain unsold. Here\u2019s the latest on three of the biggest Ottawa office complexes that were on the market in recent months: While brokerage firm Avison Young told OBJ in March 2025 that the complex had been \u201cconditionally sold\u201d to a local investor group, the Carling Executive Centre remains the property of Crown Realty. According to that company\u2019s website, the 291,000-square-foot complex has a vacancy rate of about 15 per cent.<\/p>\n Asked last week whether the buildings were still for sale, Crown Realty managing partner Emily Hanna said the Carling Executive Centre \u201cis fully stabilized and outperforming the underwriting assumptions we set when we first evaluated bringing it to market.\u201d<\/p>\n The property\u2019s \u201cperformance since we initially began marketing it underscores our conviction that well-located, thoughtfully repositioned, and professionally managed assets can deliver durable cash flow and create optionality in any market environment,\u201d Hanna said in an email to OBJ on Monday, adding she had \u201cnothing more to report on that front.\u201d EDC, which occupies 98 per cent of the building, has a long-term lease that expires in 2031. The remainder of the tower is leased to ground-floor retailers.<\/p>\n
\nCARLING EXECUTIVE CENTRE
\nThis three-building office complex at 1525, 1545 and 1565 Carling Ave. was originally put up for sale by owner Crown Realty Partners in late 2023<\/a> after the Toronto firm, which bought the building in 2019 for $56.5 million, overhauled the property management team and poured more than $2 million into upgrades such as a fitness facility and a restaurant.<\/p>\n
\n150 SLATER ST.
\nThis 477,448-square-foot, class-A property owned by Manulife Investment Management has been the headquarters of Export Development Canada, a federal Crown corporation, since it opened 15 years ago.<\/p>\n![\"EDC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/EDC-headquarters-300x169.jpeg\")
Manulife Investment Management, which has owned Export Development Canada’s head office at 150 Slater St. since 2011, put the 18-storey, class-A highrise on the market in 2024.<\/p>\n
![\"275](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/275-Slater-206x300.jpg\")
Built in 1968, 275 Slater St. is home to several foreign embassies.<\/p>\n