Brookfield Office Properties

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Brookfield Office Properties
Subsidiary company
Traded as TSXBPO
Industry Real estate ownership/Operations/Investments
Founded 1923
Headquarters Brookfield Place
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people
Dennis Friedrich Chief Executive Officer
Revenue Increase US$2.4 billion (2014)
Increase US$2.8 billion (2014)
Total assets Increase US$34.4 billion (2014)
Number of employees
2,264 (2008)[1]
Parent Brookfield Asset Management
Website brookfieldproperties.com

Brookfield Office Properties Inc. is a North American commercial real estate company. Brookfield Asset Management owns fifty percent of its outstanding common shares. The company has its headquarters operations in New York, Toronto and Sydney.[2]

The company owns, manages and develops office properties in the downtown core of the American cities of New York City, New York; Washington, D.C.; Boston, Massachusetts; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; and Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Canadian cities of Toronto, Calgary; Alberta; Ottawa, Ontario; and Vancouver, British Columbia as well as Australian cities Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne. Its properties include One Liberty Plaza and the World Financial Center in New York City; Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place), First Canadian Place, and Queen's Quay Terminal in Toronto; Place de Ville and the Jean Edmunds Towers in Ottawa; Suncor Energy Centre, Fifth Avenue Place, and Bankers Hall in Calgary; and Royal Centre in Vancouver. It also operates real estate service businesses and has a land-development business primarily based in Canada.

History

Brookfield's 1225 Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., is the first redeveloped office building on the East Coast to receive LEED Platinum status.[3]

The company's roots go back to the 1900s in Montreal, Quebec. It was known then as the Canadian Arena Company. It operated the Montreal Arena. In a partnership with Toronto investors, it built the Arena Gardens in Toronto. In the 1920s, it built the Montreal Forum. From 1935 to 1957, the company owned the Montreal Canadiens National Hockey League club. The company was acquired by Edper Investments in 1970. In the 1970s, when the company was known as Carena Properties, it expanded its business into commercial real estate.[4] After the Montreal Forum closed, the Forum was sold to competitor Canderel Properties.

It lost out to Silverstein Properties, Inc. on the lease of the World Trade Center in New York City, a few months before the complex was destroyed during the September 11, 2001, attacks.[citation needed]

In 2005 it acquired O&Y Properties Corporation and O&Y Real Estate Investment Trust, the revived and once power house of Olympia and York.

In 2006, the company acquired Trizec Properties, which was founded in 1960 by William Zeckendorf, builder of Place Ville Marie.[5]

In 2010, it entered into London and Australian Markets by acquiring 100 Bishopsgate development site in the City of London and 16 properties encompassing 8 Million SF in three major Australian cities.[6]

On Earth Day on April 22, 2010, the company was listed as one of Canada's "The Green 30" Organizations Based On Eco-Friendly Programs and Practices based on an employee poll.[7]

Brookfield Office Properties Inc. became the dominant office landlord in the Los Angeles's financial district after acquiring MPG Office Trust Inc. As one of the wealthiest real estate companies in the country, they began to aggressively seek tenants in the technology and entertainment fields who have not been eager to locate downtown. MPG had been one of Southern California's most prominent real estate developers and a longtime L.A. office tower owner. They were known as a builder of top-quality office space in Southern California for decades after being founded by Robert F. Maguire in the 1960s. The MPG buildings they acquired include the Gas Company Tower and the Wells Fargo Tower on Bunker Hill.[8][9]

Zuccotti Park

The company is the owner of Zucotti Park, a publicly accessible park adjacent to one of its office buildings near Wall Street in the Manhattan borough of New York City, that in September 2011 became a site of protests by Occupy Wall Street. On October 11, 2011, Richard Clark, the company's CEO, sent a letter to NYC Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly requesting to "clear the park" as its use by Occupy Wall Street "violates the law, violates the rules of the Park, deprives the community of its rights of quiet enjoyment to the Park, and creates health and public safety issues".[10] The request was later withdrawn.[11] On November 15, 2011, at around 1:00 a.m. the NYPD went in and cleared the park citing alleged health and safety hazards caused by the protestors. Later that morning, Judge Lucy Billings issued a court order for the NYPD to allow the protesters back into the park. That injunction was subsequently lifted by the NY Supreme Court and the police were allowed to keep the park cleared of tents at the request of Brookfield Properties.

Associations

It is a member of REBNY.[12]

Subsidiaries and joint ventures

It wholly or partially owns the following companies:[13]

  • Brookfield Canada Office Properties – a real estate investment trust that manages commercial office properties in Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa and Vancouver.
  • Brookfield Johnson Controls  – a commercial property and project management, joint venture established in 1992 with Johnson Controls and known as Brookfield LePage Johnson Controls or BLJC until March 2013.
  • Brookfield Residential Services Ltd. – a condominium management corporation in the greater Toronto area
  • Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. – a developer and homebuilder in North America. On March 31, 2011, Brookfield Office Properties divested their residential group consisting of Carma Developers and Brookfield Homes (Ontario) Ltd. to merge with Brookfield Homes Corporation to form Brookfield Residential Properties Inc.[14]

See also

References

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  7. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2010/22/c4751.html
  8. Vincent, Roger (13 October 2013) "Brookfield becomes dominant landlord in L.A. financial district" Los Angeles Times
  9. Vincent, Roger (November 14, 2014) "Oaktree Capital agrees to expand offices in downtown Los Angeles" Los Angeles Times
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  12. http://www.rebny.com/content/rebny/en/directory/member-firms.html
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External links