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— Specialty · Data Centers & AI Infrastructure

Hyperscale, edge, and power-secured sites for the compute build-out.

A data center mandate is a power mandate first, a real estate mandate second. We underwrite the utility interconnect, the water rights, and the long-term grid load profile before we price the land.

— Practice Thesis

How we work in data centers & ai infrastructure.

The AI infrastructure build-out has reset what scarce means in commercial real estate. Land is not scarce. Power is. A 100-acre site in southwestern Ontario that two years ago priced as agricultural now prices on its proximity to a transmission node and its eligibility for a 100MW interconnect. The brokerage that does not understand this is selling agricultural land at agricultural prices.

We work power-secured and power-eligible sites across Ontario and Alberta. Alberta in particular has become a serious data center destination because of wholesale power pricing, natural gas optionality for behind-the-meter generation, and a regulatory environment friendlier to large industrial loads than Ontario's. Our practice spans both provinces and the strategic differences between them.

Our clients are hyperscale operators, sovereign compute infrastructure funds, and the small number of Canadian institutional sponsors developing data center campuses on long-term ground leases. We do not work small colocation deals — those go to colocation operator development teams directly.

— Market Intelligence

The numbers that actually matter.

Active Data Center Inventory (Canada)
~700MW
IT load, operational, 2026
Announced Pipeline
4.2GW
IT load, 2026-2030
Avg. Site Size (Hyperscale)
80+ acres
Greenfield campuses
Typical Interconnect Lead Time
5-7 yr
Ontario IESO process
— Currently Marketing

Active mandates in this practice.

No active mandates in this practice at the moment. Discreet inquiries always welcome.
— Common Questions

What clients ask us.

What does "power-secured" mean for a data center site?
A power-secured site has an executed interconnection agreement with the utility, typically for 25MW or more, with a defined energization timeline. Without that, the site is power-eligible at best — meaning the application is in queue but not approved. The difference materially changes valuation.
Do you work edge data center sites?
Selectively. Edge sites in major metros (downtown Toronto, downtown Calgary) are typically retrofit projects in existing carrier hotels — those go through carrier-specific channels. We work suburban edge sites where the use case is content delivery or financial services low-latency rather than hyperscale compute.
How long does a typical mandate take?
Twelve to thirty months from engagement to closing for a power-secured site. For power-eligible sites, the timeline depends on the utility interconnect process, which can extend to four or five years in Ontario.
Do you work Quebec hydro-served sites?
Not currently. Quebec data center brokerage is dominated by Montreal-based shops with deeper Hydro-Québec relationships. We refer Quebec mandates to trusted partners and remain available for Ontario or Alberta extensions of cross-province campaigns.
What about water rights and cooling?
For sites larger than 50MW, cooling water becomes a real underwriting variable. We assess municipal water capacity, river or lake intake options, and the increasingly relevant question of air-cooled vs. liquid-cooled facility design assumptions. This is part of our standard site assessment, not a separate engagement.
Discreet by default

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