Atlantic Place in downtown St. John’s has new owners. Halifax-based Southwest Properties bought the office building from CIBC in a deal that closed Sept. 1.

The privately owned Southwest paid $9.9 million for Atlantic Place, The Telegram has learned. “We’ll I’m not going to comment on the price,” said Donald Clow, president and chief operating officer of Southwest. “You have lots of good information.”

The nine-storey, brick building is the company’s first property in St. John’s and the company is looking for other investments in the city. “We’re very excited about St. John’s,” said Clow. “We think it’s a fabulous city and presents some great opportunity for our company.” He says Southwest will try to improve on Atlantic Place’s “personality.”

“We have a terrific record of turning projects around and we think Atlantic Place is a diamond in the rough. We think we can do some exciting things to the property and make it a bigger part of the St. John’s downtown community than it already is.”

Clow declined to elaborate on those plans, saying they’re a work in progress. “The way we like to characterize it is, we probably would like to move it to Class-B plus,” he said. “There’s some very nice buildings in St. John’s that are considered Class A in that market and so hopefully we can improve the property.”

With about 300,000 square feet of Class B space, Atlantic Building is the largest office building in St. John’s. Often criticized for its bland architecture, appearance and size, Atlantic Place was built in the early 1970s amid protests by community, heritage and arts groups. CIBC took over Atlantic Place in December 1998 from Sonco Property Development and Services Co. Inc. of Halifax. At the time, the bank held the mortgage on property.

Clow says St. John’s- based Martek Morgan Finch Inc. will continue to manage the building. On its website, Martek says 20,000 square feet is available in Atlantic Place along with office spaces starting at 2,000 square feet on several floors.

Southwest is owned by the Spatz family and bill s itself as the largest owner-operator of residential apartments in Halifax. It has 1,200 apartments in that city and also owns a number of commercial and industrial buildings. The company recently completed the 206-unit Bishop’s Landing project, a residential-retail complex on the Halifax waterfront.

Moria Baird. The Telegram, Saturday, September 4, 2004