For more than a year, Gascon’s team, lead by Nicolas Beaulieu and assisted by Marie-Chantale Dubé and Catherine Ramsay-Piérard, have collaborated with the Harden/RioCan team in the accomplishment of the sale of a portion of the Mega Centre Notre-Dame site, situated next to Autoroute 13 in Laval, a large shopping centre, where the principal portion of the shopping centre will continue its retail activities with a greater densification allowing to retain its principal tenants and add a few new ones. This sale transaction allowed Rosefellow to acquire a portion of the site to be developed into a modern and strategic industrial pole, in harmony with the omnipresent retail activities next to this pole.
This transaction had many substantial challenges, given the fact that the Mega Centre Notre-Dame site included a large number of servitudes and restrictions affecting or benefiting not only the shopping centre but also many neighbouring businesses, the relocation of tenants into the re-densified shopping centre and the integration of the new site to be developed by Rosefellow in this environment. All of these elements required a long process of separate negotiations with many parties involved in the process in order to conclude to the satisfaction of all parties important modifications to the existing servitudes and restrictions, the planning, negotiation and finalization of agreements for the relocation of tenants on a tight schedule and numerous agreements with Rosefellow as the purchaser to allow a harmonious integration of their development project with the neighbouring Mega Centre Notre-Dame. Each of these elements brought its share of complexities to this transaction.
Tyler Harden, co-president of Harden, was totally invested and committed to the realization of this major transaction, which did not follow a straight line with so many complexities and a need to find creative solutions to carry the project to fruition.
Gascon’s team with Isabelle Métivier, vp legal affairs at Harden, were present all through this process to support Harden/Riocan’s team and accomplish hard work in finding a way to get to a win-win transaction for the purchaser and the vendor. Nicolas Beaulieu, partner at Gascon: “There were so much head wind that was blowing against getting the parties to a successful transaction, that it required substantial determination by each party to this transaction and going step by step in order to gain momentum. The hard work of Tyler and Isabelle, an excellent collaboration between the attorneys on the transaction and an experienced and sophisticated purchaser and vendor were, in my view, the key ingredients to the success of this great transaction. I believe that when you are so closely involved in the success of such a complex transaction and that you have the full confidence of your client, you take away as much pride in the success of the transaction as your client.”
Tyler Harden, co-president of Harden, sums it up as follows: “The complexity of this file demanded an extraordinary level of diligence, strategic thinking, and attention to detail. I was very pleased with the knowledge, expertise, and dedication brought to the file by Nicolas and his team. Their commitment and professionalism throughout the process were evident every step of the way, and the successful outcome is a direct reflection of their efforts.”
By Nicolas Beaulieu, lawyer