First Capital is moving ahead with its plan to sell off $1 billion in assets, with the retail landlord announcing the sale of four properties, including the Hazelton Hotel in Toronto.

The Toronto-based real estate investment trust, which faced a backlash from activist shareholders over a plan announced last year to optimize assets by selling $1 billion in properties over two years, said the gross sales price of the deals is $184 million.

"The successful continuation of our portfolio optimization plan first outlined last September remains a top priority. Our plan remains well on track, with today's announcement bringing total dispositions to approximately 36% of the two-year target and demonstrating significant incremental value and future potential for First Capital's unitholders," said Adam Paul, chief executive of the REIT, in a statement.

First Capital reached a compromise with significant unitholders opposed to the disposition plan after the REIT named a new board chairman and added two new trustees earlier this year.

The REIT has agreements to sell Hazelton Hotel, together with its 50% interest in ONE Restaurant, located in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood, to Hennick & Co. First Capital is also selling 5051 Yonge St., a residential condominium development site located in the north end of Toronto at Hillcrest Avenue, to an undisclosed buyer. In Montreal, it will sell a residential development site of the final phase of the intensification at Wilderton Shopping Centre and 5146-5164 Queen Mary Road.

The four deals are scheduled to close during the second and third quarters, First Capital said in the statement. Once the deals close, First Capital will have monetized $360 million of the more than $1 billion of assets targeted for disposition by the end of 2024. The aggregate selling price of the assets, all of which are unencumbered, exceeds their IFRS value by approximately 18%, the REIT said.

First Capital is selling the 1.5-acre northern section of the former Wilderton Shopping Centre project that it has been developing at Van Horne and Wilderton since 2014.

The centre was built in 1960 in a densely populated section of the borough of Outremont by Sam Goldfarb's Ivanhoe, then the real estate arm of Steinberg's grocery chain. First Capital demolished the property in 2018 and obtained approval for a plan to replace the property with mixed-use retail and residential, with some senior home units included.

First Capital recently oversaw the completion of a new low-rise, primarily retail building anchored by a grocery store in the project that includes the senior housing. However, First Capital will not complete the rest of the project, as it has announced the sale of the 200,000-square-foot remaining residential section to a local developer. First Capital did not identify the new owner in its press release.

The property on Queen Mary Road is directly across from the Snowdon metro station. The three-storey residential property was built in 1980 and contained retail outlets on the ground floor and basement, including a Jean-Coutu pharmacy. The property sits four kilometres west of the Wilderton property, and First Capital said in its press release that the property is "located in a non-strategic node for the REIT."

The Hazelton Hotel is a boutique luxury destination located in the heart of Yorkville, adjacent to the REIT's Yorkville Village Shopping Centre and 138 Yorkville, a development site 33%-owned by First Capital that includes a planned residential condominium and retail podium that will be integrated with the mall.

First Capital acquired an initial 60% equity interest in the hotel in July 2018 and the remaining 40% in October 2020. It acquired its 50% interest in ONE Restaurant in January 2022.

The total selling price for its interest in those assets is $110 million. The buyer, Hennick & Co., is a private firm that invests in real estate assets that it can own for the long term that are well-managed, growth-oriented operating businesses. The buyer was one of the original owners of the property.

The property on Yonge Street in the north end of Canada's largest city has a history as a multilevel retail centre. It is classified as an income-producing property for financial reporting purposes, but the REIT saw it as an ideal candidate for intensification and conversion into a high-rise development site. First Capital had started the rezoning process on the property to remove lease encumbrances that might otherwise have prevented near-term redevelopment.