For Brasswater founder and president Ian Quint, the acquisition of the 135,557-square-foot retail village at Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec is personal.

Quint has a residence at Mont Tremblant where he spends most weekends, so the transaction wasn't a typical real estate deal. And this also wasn't the first time his firm had tried to acquire the property.

“I’m intimately connected with the village and a frequent user of the village,” Quint told RENX. “I ski there every weekend in the winter and I do the Mont Tremblant triathlon and I train for the Iron Man in the off-season there.

“It’s very close to my heart and I think that we're the right people that can bring it to the next level and bring in more retailers that we think will upgrade the area.”

Montreal-based Brasswater leads the investor group which now owns the retail area at the four-season resort destination, located 130 kilometres northwest of Montreal. It acquired the site from LaSalle Investment Management for $90.5 million.

Brasswater is the active manager of the property while Montreal-based real estate owner and manager Olymbec and Fayer Family Office (FFO) are financial partners.

The Mont Tremblant retail village

Chicago-headquartered LaSalle had acquired Mont Tremblant’s retail village for a reported $68.1 million in 2018. CBRE was enlisted by LaSalle to attract a buyer for the asset in February 2023 and it was expected to sell for between $90 million and $100 million, but was then taken off the market.

“We were not able to structure a deal three years ago and then they took it off the market completely even though we still wanted to buy it,” said Quint. “We were able to make a deal this time.”

The Mont Tremblant Resort offers a variety of indoor and outdoor activities at its facilities, including ski trails, golf courses, a casino, a water park, a laser tag facility, escape rooms and more. It also has lodging options and residences in addition to the retail village.

The resort, which is owned and operated by Denver, Colo.-headquartered Alterra Mountain Company, attracts more than 2.5 million visitors annually. 

The European-style, pedestrian retail village at the base of the mountain is integrated into the resort and is comprised of a mix of national brands, destination restaurants and essential resort services. 

Mont Tremblant’s retail village has about 60 shops and restaurants. Retailers include Columbia, SAQ, Helly Hansen, Rudsak and Roots. Among the more prominent restaurants are Lucille’s, Le Shack and the newly renovated La Forge.

CBRE brokered the deal and Scott Speirs, vice-chairman and practice lead for its Montreal national investment team, posted on LinkedIn during the marketing process that the retail village had a rolling 12-month sales performance of $848 per square foot. It was 97 per cent occupied with a 5.5-year weighted average remaining lease term.

Quint said there’s more demand from potential tenants than available space, which will allow Brasswater to pick and choose whom to lease to. Six spaces, averaging about 700 square feet each, became available as the acquisition was going through and there have been offers to lease all of them, according to Quint.

Mont Tremblant’s continuing growth

The acquisition positions Brasswater to profit from continued residential growth in the area as well as ongoing investment in resort infrastructure. 

Club Med and Montreal's Brivia Group have announced that they’ll start building a 300-room resort on the Versant Soleil side of Mont Tremblant next year that’s targeting completion in late 2028.

“There's a ton of other developments that are happening on the Soleil side of the mountain, so that's certainly going to benefit us," Quint said.

Future Brasswater acquisitions and developments

Brasswater is a privately held, vertically integrated real estate investment, development and operating platform with a portfolio encompassing industrial, retail and office assets in Canada and the United States.

The company was founded in 2014 and has more than $2.3 billion in assets under management, covering more than 12 million square feet across more than 100 properties.

“We're certainly in an acquisition period,” said Quint. “We're very active here and we’re very active in the U.S.”

Brasswater is in the due diligence stage with some potential new acquisitions, including office buildings, Quint added.

The company will begin construction of a 120,687-square-foot industrial building close to the Trans-Canada Highway in Longueuil, Que. next month. The 32-foot clear height facility will have 21 loading docks, one drive-in door and 84 parking spots.

“Originally it was going to be spec, but now it’s a build-to-suit,” Quint said. “We have a tenant that rented the whole thing.”