Nortel Sells Real Estate in Ottawa

By Mark Evans | Published: November 24, 2009

Nortel has sold 173 acres of real estate in suburban Ottawa for $8.85-million to an undisclosed purchase (aka 561121 ONTARO INC.) – land purchased during the telecom boom but never developed.

In the most recent Monitor’s Report, Nortel and its real estate adviser, DTZ, said the purchase price is “reasonable given current market conditions and the time and expense required to service the Lands for development. Furthermore, [Nortel] and DTZ are of the view that the market for this type of property in Ottawa wil not materially improve in the next two years.”

The real estate, located in Nepean, Ont., was purchased in 2000 to provide Nortel with room for a planned expansion of the company’s existing campus in Ottawa on Carling Ave.

To sell the land, Nortel and DTZ put together a list of 160 potential buyers. After three bids were received, Nortel rejected the highest offer because there was more due diligence and a longer closing date.

Update: According to the Ottawa Citizen, the purchaser is Regional Group of Companies.

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  • Yes

    this is good to hear that Nortel Sells Real Estate in Ottawa at $8.85-million
  • less
    I'm certain the highest bid was rejected because the bidder wanted to build something on the land. Nortel has been working hard for a decade, now, to bring every square foot of its real estate to zero-emissions, cost be damned, and its not about to cave in to profit and expansion now.
  • Teleguy
    Land for sale is aplenty in Ottawa. Not anything unusual in the sale. Unloading the land ASAP seems the right thing to do given that Nortel is expiring quickly.
  • whopperscan
    Unbelievable they sat on this land for so long... all over the world, they had empty offices and cut so many vital costs. If they couldn't make a no-brain decision like this to sell 7 years ago... or worse, say 2 years ago at the height of the boom! - it's no wonder it went under. The book keeping must have been very poor indeed, that this could hide for so long.
    Was probably on the books as the backup airstrip for the VIP jet fleet :-)
  • less
    Buy high, sell low. Use whats left to retain the talent that applied this, the Nortel Way.

    "With the money you could buy this property or operate a Cisco router for a month. its your choice. Its our ozone."

    - Nortel
  • zeroman
    what a bunch of dodos. by the time everything is wound down it will be another year. could have contracted out building premium housing in a red hot real estate market. with almost 1000 premium lots / housing would have netted 100 million easy.

    something smells here if it not stinks.
  • Teleguy
    Umm, I don't think so. LOL. I think your fantasy life is interesting though!
  • exnt2
    Nortel web.alive ;-)
  • wasthere
    Well, GSM/GSM-R sold for peanuts : 103 millions.
  • felixmk
    thats all that a sub-micron market share of obsolete gsm business is worth today. all that spin about gsmr market share was just shitspin, as usual.
  • horace_grimswold
    When I saw that news I almost GSM'ed in my pants.
  • bankrupt_bob
    post of the day!
  • nomorent
    Let me guess - Nortel spent $88.5 milion to purchase the real estate in 2000?
  • scalppeeler
    You have to wonder who is making the final decisions for Nortel when it comes to selling assets. NSN were left dumbfounded wondering how the courts, presumably with the interests of the creditors foremost in mind took Ciena who offered about 500 million in cash with the rest in convertible notes payable in eight years while NSN offered over 700 million in Cash. Then you have this note about a rejection of the highest real estate build. Strange Group. All those creditors out there must be ready to jump. Not only will they end up with a penny on the dollar they won't see that penny until the mayan calendar runs out.
  • zeroman
    until ciena everything was cash deal only. NSN could have been a bit creative instead of being a bunch of stiffs.
  • random123
    The creditors can sell the Ciena securities immediately to realise a cash sum higher in total than the NSN bid. That's the theory.


    Edit: Eriksson GSM win press release: http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/press/releases...
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