Photo: Google

Think detached homes in Toronto are expensive? A Chinese state-owned developer just spent about $166 million on a large waterfront property in the city.

The Canadian arm of Greenland Group, a global Fortune 500 conglomerate that’s listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, has purchased 215 Lakeshore Boulevard East for $166,050,000, according to Greybrook Realty Partners, the asset management division of private-equity firm Greybrook Capital.

Dollar for dollar, it is “one of the largest sales” of a condo development site in Toronto’s history, Greybrook says.

According to a source with knowledge of the deal, Greenland Group’s Canadian arm acquired the site for roughly $115 per buildable square foot, a value lower than the majority of recent large-scale downtown land transactions. The development site is, in fact, the third largest in the city’s waterfront area.

Greybrook Waterfront Limited Partnership bought the approximately four-acre Lake Shore Boulevard East site in mid-2014 for $60 million with builders Castlepoint Development Group and Cityzen Development Group, the release states.

“This is an attractive property for a major global developer like Greenland Group who was seeking a development opportunity of a specific size and scale to build a landmark project in Toronto,” said Peter Politis, Greybrook Realty Partners’ CEO.

Greybrook, Castlepoint and Cityzen had initially planned to develop the property — currently home to a FedEx shipping centre — themselves, he noted.

“The original development plan for the site called for the construction of a one-of-a-kind iconic structure that would have brought to market over 2,000 residential units,” Politis detailed in the release.

The landmark deal closed on October 13th.

“Our focus for this project will be on the people and families who will become active residents of the burgeoning mixed-use and culturally vibrant waterfront neighbourhood,” said Henry Cao, President of Greenland Group (Canada).

This is not the company’s first foray into Canadian real estate — that would be King Blue Condos.

The builder bought that Toronto development (at the time just planned) from The Remington Group and Easton’s Group of Hotels in mid-2014 for a minimum of $100 million, the Financial Post reported at the time.

This story has been updated with a quote from Greenland Group (Canada) President Henry Cao along with additional information gained through a BuzzBuzzNews source on the price the developer paid for the site.