Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust announced that it will acquire the Dominion Building in Vancouver from Army & Navy Properties. The Dominion Building is designated as a Class A heritage structure, as is Allied’s Sun Tower just to the southeast. Completed in 1910 and known as the Dominion Trust Building, it was the tallest commercial building in the British Empire for a brief time, rising 53 meters over 13 storeys. On completion in 1912, Sun Tower (known initially as the World Building after The Vancouver World newspaper) superseded the Dominion Trust Building, rising 82 meters over 17 storeys. The Dominion Trust, which later became The Dominion Bank, completed the building in the midst of a remarkable economic boom. It was part of a larger effort to make Vancouver the financial hub of Western Canada. Like many bank buildings that followed, it had a grand banking hall at the base extending over the entire lot and somewhat smaller floors above for front- and back-office use. Because the lot was trapezoidal, the architect designed the building with “flat-iron” proportions. The “flat” portion faces southeast (toward Sun Tower) at the intersection of West Hastings and Cambie Streets. Samuel Cohen, Founder of Army & Navy Department Stores, acquired the Dominion Building in 1943, and the Cohen family has operated it ever since with sensitivity and commitment to the needs and evolution of the surrounding Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Over that time, the Dominion Building has remained a visual, economic and social landmark in Downtown Vancouver. Tech, advertising, media and information (TAMI) users are propelling the Vancouver office market to new heights. They are also exhibiting a decided preference for the area of Downtown Vancouver east of Granville Street, which includes Allied’s entire Vancouver portfolio. As in other major Canadian cities, TAMI users in Vancouver prefer to be in mixed-use, amenity-rich urban neighbourhoods. The Dominion Building is located at the eastern edge of Gastown and is equidistant from Allied’s The Landing (375 Water Street at the other end of Gastown) and Allied’s Sun Tower (128 West Pender Street in Crosstown). It includes approximately 80,000 square feet of leasable area. Allied is first, foremost and above all a commercial-real-estate operating platform. Its mission is to provide distinctive urban workspace and network-dense urban-data-centre (UDC) space to the broadest possible spectrum of knowledge-based organizations in Canada’s major cities. More than anything else, Allied is defined by the organizations it serves and by the humanistic values it has adopted. Its investment and operating focus evolved in response to the express needs of knowledge-based organizations over the past few decades and will continue to evolve in that manner going forward. Allied expects the acquisition of the Dominion Building to close in mid-November of 2021, subject to customary conditions. Allied expects to fund the acquisition with its operating line of credit in the near term. On that basis, Allied expects the acquisition to be accretive to annual FFO and AFFO per unit from the outset.