The building that houses the Flin Flon Walmart has been sold - but the store itself won’t see much change, if any.
The Walmart building, located on Highway 10A near the junction with Highway 10 as part of the Flintoba Shopping Centre complex, was purchased last month by Vaughan, Ont.-based Virtus Diversified REIT, a real estate investment trust that trades in businesses and franchises in small and medium-sized communities.
According to an announcement made by Virtus May 14, the company purchased the store below market value - a recent appraisal of the property put its value at around $5.1 million, but Virtus paid a total of $3.95 million for the store.
“This acquisition is a great example of our ‘make the money on the buy’ strategy,” said Virtus CEO Aurelio Baglieri in the company’s statement.
“We originally tied up this property for $5.25 million, we walked away from the deal because I thought we could do better. I was re-approached by the broker four months ago and was able to negotiate a purchase price of $3.95 million. I’m thrilled to announce that the purchase has closed.”
The deal itself will mean little change to the store’s operations. Walmart Canada extended its rights to the store’s lease for five years back in 2022.
The Flin Flon Walmart building was put up for sale by its previous owners last year, using a pair of commercial real estate sales companies to do it. Originally, the sales listing for the Walmart store listed a desired sale price of over $6 million.
In an investment package prepared by the companies contracted to sell the building, the sellers described the property as “a proven ‘AAA’ tenant covenant with predictable cash flow” and said the lease would continue tentatively until May 2028 at the earliest.
The Flin Flon Walmart first opened in 2002 and has been partially renovated since, including being refaced in 2013. The building also contains the Flin Flon McDonald’s restaurant, located in the building’s northwest corner.
