CALGARY - The high-profile and successful Southcentre is in the process of changing ownership hands, the Herald has learned.

The nearly one-million-square-foot mall in southeast Calgary is being sold by Ivanhoe Cambridge to Oxford Properties Group Inc.

“We have not completed the sale transaction so I would call us the pending owner,” said Michael Kitt, executive vice-president Canada for Oxford. “But by the end of June we will be the owner of Southcentre mall provided that everything moves along as we anticipate.

“We’re buying 100 per cent of the property.”

No details of the deal are being revealed, but Kitt said this transaction is part of a larger transaction with Ivanhoe Cambridge that involves four other properties.

Officials from Ivanhoe Cambridge could not be reached for comment.

Michael Kehoe, an Alberta-based retail specialist with Fairfield Commercial Real Estate Inc., said the sale of the property is a significant transaction on the Calgary retail real estate scene.

“Oxford Properties is assuming command of one of the premier retail properties in Western Canada,” he said. “Southcentre mall is a leader in retail sales performance, consistently ranking in the top three malls every year in the city of Calgary. The recent expansion/renovation and re-merchandising has been a runaway success attracting some of North America’s premier retail brands.”

The mall had undertaken a $102-million overall redevelopment which included an expansion, a new food court, and the addition of new stores such as Coach, Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel. Southcentre has more than 180 shops, services and restaurants.

“Shoppers in south Calgary can rest assured that the mall will be in good hands as Oxford Properties is a leader in retail management and leasing,” said Kehoe.

Oxford invests in and manages real estate assets on behalf of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension plans.

Kitt said Oxford is one of the country’s largest institutional real estate companies with a strong retail presence in the Greater Toronto Area with the Square One Mall, the Yorkdale Mall and Scarborough Town Centre. It also has the recently renovated Kingsway Garden Mall in Edmonton. “We believe in Calgary and we’ve been a long-term investor in Calgary, but principally downtown Calgary offices. Adding a major mall such as Southcentre in a city we believe in fits our portfolio very well.”

Kitt said Oxford believes in the super regional shopping centre category of the industry and will treat Southcentre as a “core holding.”

In December it was announced that Sunridge Mall in northeast Calgary had been bought by