Joseph Grignano Partner | Toronto

Recent representative matters include advising:

• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in its Landmark office deal with Ivanhoe Cambridge/Hines to lease up to 1.75-million square feet at CIBC Square in downtown Toronto

• Royal Bank of Canada in connection with its lead tenant lease and the development of RBC WaterPark Place, a new 30-storey office tower in Toronto's financial district; RBC will occupy approximately 600,000 square feet

• Crate & Barrel in connection with its roll-out of stores across the country

• Southcore Financial Centre as landlord's counsel in connection with lead tenant leases to PricewaterhouseCoopers and Marsh/Mercer to kick off construction of two new office towers within the South-Core Financial District, Toronto.

• Public Works and Government Services Canada in the sale/leaseback of nine federal buildings across Canada in a transaction valued at over C$1.4-billion (likely the largest (by value) leaseback deal in Canadian history)

• CI Financial in its lease of the entire office component (nine floors) at Maple Leaf Square in downtown Toronto

• Public Works and Government Services Canada in connection with the redevelopment of 90 Elgin Street, Ottawa, and the long-term leases associated therewith

• True Religion Brand Jeans in connection with its expansion into Canada

• Oliver Bonacini Group in connection with its leased restaurant locations, including its newest restaurants at Bell Lightbox (the new home of the Toronto International Film Festival)

• Urbacon in connection with its lease of a build-to-suit office building to house the new Canadian headquarters of BMW Canada

• Granite Real Estate in connection with the leasing of its industrial portfolio across properties in Canada

Joseph is recognized as a leading real estate and commercial leasing lawyer in the following publications:

• Lexology Index: Real Estate 2024 (Recommended)

• Lexology Index: Canada 2024 (Recommended – Real Estate)

• Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business – 2023–2025 (Real Estate – Ontario)

• The Best Lawyers in Canada – 2023–2025 (Real Estate Law)

• The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2024 (Real Estate)

• Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers 2024 – Independently Rated Lawyers (As nominated by senior in-house counsel)

• The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada 2024 (Real Estate)

• The Legal 500 Canada – 2022–2024 (Real Estate)

• The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada 2023 (Real Estate)

• The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory – 2022–2023 (Property Leasing)

He was also the 2011 recipient of the Real Estate Excellence Award as a Developing Leader presented by NAIOP.

Joseph is a member of the board of editors for the Retail Law Strategist (an industry publication) and has authored and co-authored several articles that have appeared in other publications. He has also co-authored the commercial leasing chapter included in the Law Society's bar admission course materials. Joseph is also an active member of the Planning Committee for the law conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) and is a past member of the Planning Committee for Toronto's Next Generation (an association created by the ICSC to help nurture young real estate professionals).

Joseph lectures extensively at real estate seminars, including the law conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) and the annual RealLeasing conference (both Toronto and Montréal).

Admitted to the Ontario Bar – 2001
LLB (awarded the Jack Friedman, Q.C. Book Prize in Commercial Real Estate), Osgoode Hall Law School – 1999