Brookfield Office Properties

Brookfield Office Properties
Subsidiary company
Traded as TSX: BPO
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.

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]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Company Profile for Brookfield Properties Corp (BPO)". Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Contact". Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Plumb, Tierney (October 8, 2009). "1225 Connecticut Avenue Gets LEED Platinum". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Brookfield: History". Brookfield Properties.
  5. ↑ Foran, Max (1982). Calgary, Canada's frontier metropolis : an illustrated history. Windsor Publications. p. 356. ISBN 0-89781-055-4.
  6. ↑ "Brookfield Office Proporties - History". Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  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
  10. ↑ Brookfield Properties (October 13, 2011). "Zucotti Park Owner's Letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Occupy Wall Street". Public Intelligence. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
  11. ↑ Moynihan, Colin and Buckley, Cara (October 14, 2011). "Cleanup of Zuccotti Park Is Postponed". New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  12. ↑ http://www.rebny.com/content/rebny/en/directory/member-firms.html
  13. ↑ "Group Companies". Brookfield Office Properties. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  14. ↑ "Brookfield Residential and Brookfield Homes Report Completion of Merger and Contribution". Retrieved March 29, 2012.

External links

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