Reichmann Family Ups Stake in IPC US REIT

TORONTO-The Paul Reichmann Family has invested an additional $10 million in IPC US Real Estate Investment Trust, a locally headquartered public company focused exclusively on US real estate assets. The investment, made pursuant to the Reichmann Family’s pre-emptive rights, increase its economic interest in the company to 13%.The REIT will now beneficially own an 87% economic interest in IPC, which has ownership interests in and manages 34 buildings in the United States with 8.5 million sf of rentable space. The figure includes IPC’s pending $56.3-million acquisition of the 844,000-sf class A San Jacinto Tower in the Dallas CBD that GlobeSt.com reported early last month.IPC is the only REIT in Canada that invests exclusively in U.S. commercial real estate. The Dallas purchase is scheduled to close any day now. After closing the deal, IPC is expected to flip a 15% stake to locally based PNL Cos., which headquarters in the 33-story tower at 2121 San Jacinto St. in the Dallas CBD. The seller is Red River LP, an affiliate of the Texas Teachers Retirement System, and Farmington Casualty Co., part of the St. Paul Cos.The Reichmann Family, which owned half of the office buildings in New York and Toronto during the 1980s, lost all but a fraction of its multi-billion-dollar fortune in the early 1990s after gambling on the Canary Wharf development in London and losing when the London property market crashed and burned, leaving 30 million sf of empty office space.