CPP, Oxford team up on new Toronto bank tower

Two of Canada's largest pension plans are teaming up to build a new office tower in downtown Toronto that's slated to be the headquarters for Canada's largest bank.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of OMERS will build RBC WaterPark Place, a 30-storey office tower on Queens Quay between Bay and York Streets in Toronto's financial district.

Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year and be completed by the third quarter of 2014.

Financial terms for the deal were not released.

The building will have 930,000 square foot and the Royal Bank of Canada has signed on to be the anchor tenant, headquartering its domestic banking business in the LEED-certified building.

RBC will occupy 550,000 or 60 per cent of the 930,000 square feet. Theirspace alonewill house some 4,000 employees.

The venture will be split evenly between the two parties. The two companies already co-own a portfolio of office properties across Canada valued at approximately $3 billion.

OMERS is the pension plan for municipal workers in Ontario. The fund currently has $53 billion worth of assets under management. The CPPIB manages the assets of the Canada Pension Plan not currently required to pay benefits for 17 million Canadian contributors and beneficiaries. At the end of June, the CPPIB had $153.2 billion in assets under management.