Article
CBRE Sells KingSett’s 70 York Office Building to Desjardins
January 12, 2026 3 Minute Read
CBRE’s National Investment Team (NIT) and TD Cornerstone Commercial Realty have sold downtown Toronto office tower 70 York Street to Desjardins Global Asset Management and Desjardins Pension Fund on behalf of KingSett Capital in an off-market transaction valued at $134.6 million.
“This is a market leading deal,” says CBRE Capital Markets President Peter Senst, who brokered the sale of 70 York – a 17-storey, 210,000 sq. ft. building – alongside colleagues Kai Tai Li and Jaysen Smalley. “It speaks to the resilience of office as an asset class.”
Leased Up First
The transaction was years in the making and began with CBRE helping to build 70 York’s roster of tenants.
A concerted leasing effort increased occupancy to 92.5% from 20% three years earlier when the building’s primary tenant, HSBC, opted not to renew its lease.
Senst notes that Desjardins had been seeking exposure to the downtown Toronto office market and was keen to acquire 70 York when the opportunity arose.
“We put the deal together before we even went out to the market with this asset. And Desjardins was an incredibly professional buyer.”
Projecting Optimism
Since KingSett took ownership of 70 York in 2024 there have been ~115,000 sq. ft. of leasing deals done there, representing 55% of the building.
“That gave us so much conviction about the existing leasing program and what has been done to generate that activity,” says Li. “We were able to provide Desjardins confidence in the building’s performance moving forward.”
Smalley notes that premium office towers in downtown Toronto witnessed strong leasing activity in 2025, largely driven by the big banks’ return to office mandates.
Class A/AA leasing volume more than doubled year over year to 5.3 million sq. ft., and there was total positive net absorption of 2.7 million sq. ft. of office space during the entire year.
“With no new office supply projected for the next five years and office rents trending near $80 per square foot net,” says Smalley, “there are expectations for tightening vacancy and strong rental growth over the coming years, which is pulling institutional capital back to the sector.”
Office Sales Surge Back
The sale of 70 York is the latest in a run of Class A office building sales for CBRE’s National Investment Team.
In November CBRE sold The Post office-retail complex in Vancouver on behalf of QuadReal Property Group to Pontegadea Inversiones SL. And in Toronto, Senst and team have sold 438 University Ave. and Yonge Corporate Centre over the past year, and have deals in place for 2 St. Clair Ave. E. and 1 Queen St. E.
“It seems like we had drips and drabs of office transactions for a while,” Senst says. “And now the smart money is recognizing that office market fundamentals are changing and they’re looking for value.
" It’s not a flood of interest, but a steady flow of capital that should sustain healthy office sales volumes going forward.”
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