'Very bullish': Downtown Edmonton office building on Jasper Avenue sold for $24M

Josan Properties Ltd. will enter the New Year with a fresh addition to its Downtown Edmonton assets after purchasing the Intact Building on Jasper Avenue in a real estate deal that closed last week.

Raka “Rocky” Josan, president and CEO of Josan Properties, said the acquisition of the 10830 Jasper Avenue building was too good to pass on in a market that he says is heating back up.

“We’re still very bullish on office (buildings),” Josan said. “Obviously, it’s a depressed market, but that’s a perfect opportunity for companies like ours to get in.”

Josan worked with Avison Young Edmonton president and managing director Cory Wosnack, who was the real estate advisor for the transaction. Like Josan, Wosnack’s assessment is that after a downtrodden period for Edmonton’s office market, largely fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the action is starting to come back to offices, spurred by back-to-office requirements hitting businesses throughout the region.

“We’re definitely through the bottom of the trough of the market,” Wosnack said.

With public employees headed back to the office in February, Josan estimates that a chunk of the private sector is already back inside brick and mortar for most of the week, leaving just federal and city workers left to return to formal office space. He said he’s heard rumblings that the latter two are considering the possibility of heading back too, which could bolster Edmonton’s activity Downtown once more.

Though the downturn in office vacancy could come to a close, in the time that it’s been in effect, Wosnack said local investors like Josan have managed to capitalize in a space where they’re often not as competitive.

In the past two years, he said, Edmonton has had 20 large, as in 30,000 square feet or bigger, office buildings sell. Of those sales, Wosnack said 15 were sold by institutional investors and of those deals, the majority were picked up by regional and private investors. This meant that the lion’s share of those acquisitions were done with local money and are now in the hands of people from the region.

Josan’s purchase and subsequent renovation of Connect Tower, 10020 101A Ave., formerly the Phipps McKinnon building, in April 2024 was one of those 18 regional investors, and now with a second purchase in Downtown Edmonton, he adds another to the list.

The opportunity here for Josan and others in the sector is the chance to invest in spaces where they were previously priced out of competition.

“Private investors like (Josan Properties) can’t compete with the institutions when they’re hot and heavy on an asset class, ” Josan said.

For larger institutions, accessing bigger sums of money is easier, giving them more spending power and ultimately driving up the price of assets across the market. In that scenario, Josan said, “it’s best for us not to compete with them.”

But when the institutional money fled as office vacancy soared in the city, those institutional investors were the first to go, which Wosnack said opened up a lane for local and regional investors to step in. What’s more, with less competition in the office market, prices have fallen to the lowest seen in 20 years, Wosnack said.

“So right now, we’re not competing with (institutional investors). We’re buying from them,” Josan said.

In the office retail space, Josan said property purchases come with two options: buy the finished product, or buy a depleted space and invest in upgrading it.

For Connect Tower, Josan opted for the former, and invested in redevelopment for the offices, adding an amenity space and converting several floors to residential units set to open in 2026. Conversely, he said the Intact Building doesn’t require renovations to that degree because it was completely redeveloped in 2009. Still, he said the group is exploring the possibility of adding more amenities to the space, and will be adding 24/7 security.

Unlike the Connect Tower, Intact has two tenants filling most of the office space in the building already, those being Intact Insurance and NorQuest College. In all, Josan said there are roughly three floors of office space that they will be looking to fill. Wosnack said Connect Tower’s vacancy has gone from 65 per cent when Josan bought it, down to 15 per cent now.

The latest deal was inked just last week, so Josan said his focus is there at the moment. But the company remains open to picking up other new assets if the fit is right.

“We’ve just purchased a large asset, so our attention is focused on righting that ship and bringing those service levels back to where they should be. But yes, we are still interested and actively looking for other office assets. I don’t think this window is going to be open forever,” Josan said.

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