As Chairman, I would like to welcome you to the twenty twenty one Annual Meeting of Unitholders of Briaquan Real Estate Investment Trust. This meeting is being held entirely by virtual means through a live webcast. We welcome everyone in attendance today. Our decision to hold a meeting by virtual means only for the second consecutive year was made in light of the current COVID-nineteen pandemic and the corresponding public health concerns government recommended and required limits on public gatherings and to assist in the protection of the health and safety of our unitholders, employees and other stakeholders. Recording of this webcast will be posted to our website for a period of time after the meeting.
I would first like to begin by introducing Jonathan Gitlin, the President and Chief Executive Officer of RioCan. We're also pleased to add each of our current trustees in attendance on our webcast today. I would like to acknowledge the remarkable efforts of the team at ReCan over the course of the last year as we continue to navigate through the coming pandemic. I would also like to thank those unitholders who have chosen to attend this webcast today and to all those who submitted their proxies in advance on a timely basis. It is now ten a.
M, actually 10:01, and I would ask that the annual meeting of the unitholders come to order. I will act as Chairman of the meeting. I will ask Ms. Jennifer Seuss, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, to act as Secretary of the meeting and AST Trust Company Canada by its representatives to act as to adhere today. We intend to first proceed with the formal items on the agenda, following which Jonathan Gitlin will be making a presentation.
Following Mr. Gitlin's presentation, we will answer any questions from unitholders. The minutes of the last Annual Meeting of Unitholders held on 06/02/2020, are available upon request. Before we begin, we do have a few administrative matters to note in light of today's virtual meeting format. The manner in which questions are to be submitted will be different than in previous years.
Much like last year, to submit a question, click on the Q and A messaging icon at the top of your computer screen. When submitting a question, please identify whether it relates to a motion being considered as part of the formal business of the meeting or whether it is general in nature. We will address questions directly related to a particular motion at the appropriate time of the meeting and save general questions until after the formal business has been completed. Questions will come, things may be grouped together for efficiency. If you have a question, please feel free to submit it at any point during the meeting and we will address it at the appropriate time.
Ms. Jennifer Seuss, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary will read the questions aloud when requested, and either Mr. Gitlin or I will respond. We will make every effort to answer all your questions during today's question and answer period. However, in the interest of time, we will limit that period to twenty minutes and we'll address any unanswered questions in a timely manner afterwards.
If your question is not answered during the webcast, a representative will follow-up with you with a response. Another manner in which this virtual meeting will be different is with respect to proxy voting. Typically, unitholders and appointed proxy holders who wish to vote would be required to attend this meeting in person. Instead, voting during today's meeting will be conducted through this online platform. When we are ready to table an item of equipment for a vote, you will see voting options appear on your screen.
If you have voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxies, you do not need to do anything at all. During the meeting, we may also pause from time to time to review messages from the corporate secretary. Thank you for your patience if we do so. I will now ask Ms. Jennifer Seuss to provide an advisory regarding forward looking information that may be discussed in today's meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Please note that I would like to draw your attention to the advisory posted on the slide in the online portal regarding forward looking information that may be discussed at today's meeting. Certain information to be discussed during the meeting or in the management presentation which will follow the formal portion of the meeting contains forward looking information and forward looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All of the forward looking information and statements that we may provide at this meeting, which includes all information other than statements of current and historical fact is qualified by the cautionary statement that is posted on the screen and additional information can also be found in the trust most recent management's discussion and analysis for the period ended 03/31/2021 and annual information form, copies of which are available on our website and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Forward looking statements are not assurances of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. The actual results, performance or achievements of RioCan and its business may be materially different from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on RioCan's officers and trustees beliefs and opinions and undue reliance should not be placed on any forward looking statements. I will now give the floor back to the Chairman to proceed with the annual meeting of the unitholders.
Thank you, Ms. Seuss. In view of the need to attend to a number of formal matters, certain unitholders have volunteered to move and second resolutions where required. While this procedure will facilitate the efficiency for handling of the formal matters, this is certainly not intended to limit your right to participate in the meeting. Unitholders who wish to make comments relating to these motions may do so through the online platform, after which the motion has seconded in the manner previously noted.
As noted earlier, there will be an opportunity to ask general questions following the management presentation. As with prior years, the trust used the notice and access mechanism furnished proxy materials over the Internet to unitholders instead of mailing paper copies. Copies of the proxy materials are also available on the trust public profile at www.sedar.com and on its website. I've been advised by the scrutineer that prior to the meeting, proxies were received from the unitholders of approximately 46.66% of all units entitled to be voted. As a result, we have a quorum for this meeting and the meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business.
So just a few remarks before we actually get started. Today's meeting marks many milestones. It is my first time speaking to you as Chairman of RioCan's Board, Jonathan Gitland's first time addressing you as CEO and the fact that this is our second and hopefully last virtual AGM. It also marks the retirement of Paul Godfrey as Chair, a job he has performed with distinction for RioCan's entire history. Happily, he will continue to serve as RioCan's lead director for a year and be there to guide and advise me in my new role.
In addition, today marks the retirement of Sharon Salos as a trustee after over twenty years of service, helping RioCan become the best in so many of the areas that it strives to stand out amongst its peers. And finally, I would like to welcome Janice Fukakusa as our newest trustee. A fast look at her accomplishments to date in her biography will tell you how pleased we are to have her join us. Last fourteen months, actually going on fifteen now, have been the most unusual and unforgettable that RioCan and, of course, the entire world have experienced in RioCan's twenty seven year history. Notwithstanding that RioCan has come through the pandemic remarkably well, it did cause us to reduce our distribution by one third at the end of the previous calendar year, the first such reduction in our history.
It was not done lightly, but only after many months consideration and only after it became clear to us that the pandemic and its negative impact on our revenue and on our tenants will continue well into 2021. And even after it's finally over and Canada returns to normalcy, a long term impact on many of our retail debits remains unclear. Accordingly, the reduction, which will allow $150,000,000 of retained cash flow to remain with RECAD in 2021 simply was a prudent and necessary step to take. I will take I will leave it to our new CEO to plot the course to when we can start increasing it again. But in the meantime, it has left RioCan in a solid a financial position as can be considered as can be considering the events of the last fifteen months.
There are many achievements of which I am proud to have been a part of at RioCan during my twenty seven years as CEO. But at this moment, I think I am proudest of the executive team we have assembled over these many years. They are all experts in their fields. I believe in our sector the absolute best in the country. And I have complete confidence in their ability and enthusiasm to take RioCan to new and higher levels on any metric that one chooses to apply.
But every great team needs a leader. And at Jonathan Gitlin, I believe we have chosen extremely well. I actually first met Jonathan while he was in high school as part of my daughter's circle of friends, so it's a true generational shift. Then again, after many years as a young lawyer of McCarthy's, when he expressed the desire to be the law and start on a real estate career. So just over fifteen years ago, John joined RioCan and his portfolio of accomplishments during that time has grown exponentially.
From being in charge of our entry into The U. S. Just over ten years ago and our exit five years later, bringing home almost $1,000,000,000 in profits in the process to creating from scratch our residential program, which is now known as ReCan Living. Over the past five years, his performance has been nothing but extempily, and those are only the most high profile matters he has undertaken. Under the hood, so to speak, he has rewired RECAN's engine to not only take it through difficult times, but prepare it for growth and success in the future.
In short, a word that's actually almost never used in connection with John Flynn, I don't think the Board could have chosen a better leader. Now that I've probably thoroughly embarrassed Mr. Gitlin, let's get through the business of the meeting, after which John will address you on REIT again's present and great future. After that, we will be happy to address the various questions that have been or will be submitted. We will now proceed with the formal part of our agenda.
The first item of business for the meeting is to present the financial statements for the year ended 12/31/2020. Copy of the 2020 audited consolidated financial statements are available on the Trust's website and at www.sedar.com and were previously made available to unitholders in addition to the proxy materials. The unitholders do not have to take any action regarding the financial statements. Ms. Seuss, are there any questions or comments submitted with respect to the presentation of the financial statements that ought to be addressed at this time?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are no questions received relating to this item of business.
In that case, we'll move to the second item of business, which is the election of trustees. The trust has advanced notice provisions in its declaration of trust, which allow nominations to be made by unitholders up to a certain date prior to the unitholders meeting, which this year was 04/26/2021. No nominations have been received by the unitholders and consequently, there will be 10 nominees presented to the unitholders for election to the Board of Trustees at this meeting. The management information circular provides detailed biographies setting out the valuable qualifications and diverse backgrounds of the 10 nominees proposed by management for whom proxies will be voted for their election in the absence of introductions to the contrary. Ms.
Jennifer Seuss will now read their names and to facilitate the introduction of the nominees, we refer you to the slide on the webcast. I declare the polls open on all resolutions.
The names of the nominees are as follows Bonnie Brooks, Richard Dancerow, Janice Fukakusa, Jonathan Gitlin, Paul Godfrey, Dale H. Lastman, Jane Marshall, Edward Sunshine, Seem A. Venasalia and Charles M. Winograd.
Thank you, Jennifer. If elected, these nominees will hold office until the next annual meeting of unitholders or until their successors are elected or appointed. I now recognize Mr. John Valentine, Senior Vice President Asset Management, for purposes of a motion for the nomination of the 10 nominees named in the management information, sir.
Thank you, Mr Chairman. I nominate the 10 persons whose names have been read to this meeting for election as trustees of the trust to serve until the next annual meeting of unit holders or until his or her successor is duly elected or appointed or he or she otherwise ceases to hold office. My name is Jeff Ross senior vice president leasing tenant construction of the trust and I hereby second the nominations.
Miss Seuss were there any other were there any questions or comments submitted in connection with the nomination and election of trustees?
No, Mr. Chairman. We have not received any questions relating to this item.
Thank you very much. 10 persons have been nominated for election as trustees and there are 10 trustees to be elected. Unitholders have been provided with the opportunity to vote for each trustee or withhold their vote on an individual basis in accordance with the rules of the TSX and RioCan's majority voting policy, details of which are provided in the management information circular for this meeting. For the information of the meeting, will the secretary please confirm whether the number of units represented by proxies received that were in favor of each of the 10 nominees has reached a majority of those voted.
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that prior to the meeting, proxies were received in favor of the election of each of the 10 nominees as trustees from the holders of units representing more than the majority of all votes cast by proxy in accordance with the trust majority voting policy for election of trustees.
Thank you. I will now ask Mr. John Valentine to move and Mr. Jeff Ross to second a formal motion for the election of each of the 10 persons nominated as trustees of the trust to hold office until the next annual meeting of unit holders, or until they resign or the successors are elected or appointed.
Mister chairman, I so move. Mister chairman, I hereby second the motion.
I will now ask unitholders or their proxy appointees to cast their votes through the online portal. As a reminder, if you have already voted or sent in your proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you wish to change your vote. Thank you for casting your votes. The scrutineers will tabulate the votes cast and we will report on the results towards the end of the meeting. The third item of business for which this meeting has been called is to consider and if thought appropriate to approve the reappointment of Ernst and Young LLP as auditors of the trust and authorizing the trustees to fix the remuneration of the auditors.
May I have a motion for the approval of this resolution?
Mr. Chairman, I hereby move that Ernst and Young LLP be reappointed auditors of the trust, and that the board of trustees be authorized to fix their remuneration. Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Okay. Thank you. I I gotta get used to being called Mr. Chairman. I keep looking around.
Suits, were there any questions or comments submitted in connection with the reappointment of the auditors?
No, Mr. Chairman. We have not received any questions relating to this item.
The meeting will now vote on the motion. If you have not already done so, I will ask unitholders or their appointees to cast their votes through the online portal. Thank you for casting your votes. The scrutineers will tabulate the votes cast and we will report on the results towards the end of the meeting. Fourth item of business is the approval of a non binding say on pay advisory vote on executive compensation.
This non binding advisory vote forms an important part of the ongoing process of the engagement between unitholders and the board on executive compensation. Full particulars of the Trust's approach to compensation and details of the say on pay vote are set out in the management information circular for this meeting. The say on pay advisory vote requires the approval of a majority of the votes cast by unit holders entitled to vote, who are present or represented by proxy at this meeting. Although the results will not be binding, the Board will take the results into account when considering its policies, procedures and decisions and in determining whether there is a need to increase engagement with unitholders. Also, the Human Resources and Compensation Committee will take the results into account when considering future executive compensation arrangements.
In the event the se on pay does not receive the support of at least 70% of the votes cast, the Board has indicated they will disclose to unitholders as soon as is practicable and no later than six months following this meeting in any event, a summary of the comments received and the changes to the executive compensation plans made. May I have a motion to approve on a non binding basis, the board's approach to executive compensation by way of a say on pay vote?
Mr. Chairman, I hereby move that the board's approach to executive compensation, as set out in the trust management information circular dated 04/09/2021, be approved on a non binding advisory basis. Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Miss Seuss, were there any questions or comments submitted in connection with this item?
No, Mr. Chairman. We have not received any questions relating to this item.
Thank you. The meeting will now vote on a motion. If you have not already done so, I would ask unitholders or their appointees to cast their votes through the online portal and I thank you in advance for casting your votes. Those who have already voted, I thank you for those. The scrutineers will tabulate the votes cast and we will report on the results towards the end of the meeting.
Ms. Seuss, is there any other business to come before the meeting?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of voting on the items of business before this meeting. And I therefore declare the polls closed. Thank you for casting your votes. The scrutineers are in the process of completing their final tabulation of the votes cast. However, based on the preliminary voting results received, including proxies received prior to the meeting, we can confirm the results of each matter.
I'm pleased to report that on the election of trustees, the preliminary voting results show that each trustee nominee received votes by more than the requisite majority required. Accordingly, I declare that the proposed trustee nominees have been duly elected as trustees of the trust to hold office until the next annual meeting of unit holders or until they resign or their successors are duly elected or appointed. On the appointment of auditors, the preliminary voting results show that the requisite majority amount of votes were cast were in favor that were cast were in favor of the reappointment of Ernst and Young LLP chartered professional accountants as auditors of the trust. Therefore, I declare that Ernst and Young LLP chartered professional accountants are reappointed auditors of the trust and that the trustees are authorized to fix the auditors remuneration. On the non binding advisory say on pay on vote, the preliminary voting results show that the resolution has not received as requisite majority in favor.
And accordingly, I declare that the say on pay vote has not been approved in accordance with the motion. As the vote has been approved by less than 70% of those that voted in accordance with the Trust policy, the board will therefore engage further with unitholders to understand any further insights and suggestions as we continue to evolve our compensation practices. Further disclosure on this matter will be made to unitholders as soon as is practicable, but not later in six months following this meeting. The final voting results will be available after the meeting and posted to the Trust SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. If there is no further business, I will now ask Mr.
John Ballantine to move and mister Jeff Ross to second a formal motion to terminate the meeting.
Mister Chairman, I so move. Mister Chairman, I second the motion.
I thank you. And I hereby declare the motion carried and the meeting terminated. Now I would like to ask Jonathan Gitlin, my successor as president and CEO, to make a presentation and answer your questions after the presentation.
Thanks, Ed. Thanks so much for your remarks, not only about me personally, but of course the rest of the management team here at RioCan and great job in your inaugural position as chair of the board. So this time last year we were referencing the, put it in air quotes, the unusual circumstances that led to our first ever virtual AGM. And here we are meeting remotely yet again. Regardless of the venue, I'm delighted to be here for my first AGM as your president and CEO of this great company RioCan.
Thank you all so much for connecting with us today. So before I proceed with a more formal update, I wanna take a moment to recognize the extraordinary efforts of the RioCan team since we last met. From the outset of this pandemic RioCan mobilized quickly and responsibly to protect our tenants, our employees, our customers and our business. RioCan's response inspired me, but it didn't surprise me that's just who we are. This team is strong.
Every day and with each subsequent wave, their accomplishments, commitment, resilience, and adaptability has motivated me and made me very proud. Without a doubt, COVID nineteen has changed, among other things, the Canadian real estate landscape. Now for some these seismic shifts could seem daunting. But I'm an optimist, I approach things practically, and I'm grounded, but I can always find a silver lining and seek opportunities in the face of challenges. What we've seen recently in commercial real estate is well, it's short term and simply doesn't alter our long term growth potential.
The solid foundation that has delivered value for twenty seven years is seeing us through these unprecedented times. In fact, the pandemic has reinforced our confidence in our competitive advantages. The quality and positioning of our portfolio, the strength of our balance sheet, the agility of our team. Those attributes that have always driven our success will continue to provide stability. I'm gonna share with you today some operating results that demonstrate that we could likely just stay the course and comfortably continue to deliver modest growth.
But we wouldn't be satisfied with simply delivering modest growth and stability. We're not going to underplay the many opportunities we have with our value rich portfolio. The reality is we have all of the tools to deliver more than stability alone. We have everything required to deliver long term value. Our commitment to you is that we will deliver.
Our future course is defined by the many levers we have for growth and value creation. Our levers are intelligent diversification, the ability to drive demand and a culture of excellence. I'm more confident than ever that we will continue to build on our strengths, accelerate our trajectory and capitalize on growth opportunities to drive total unit holder return. And I'll take a moment to reflect on the year that was 2020. We're all too familiar with the devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the Canadian real estate industry.
But I'm gonna speak for a few minutes on that impact in the context of RioCan alone. 2020 saw two waves of the pandemic, each of which resulted in mandated lockdowns for many discretionary businesses. These restrictive measures have obviously taken a toll on the retail landscape, but it's important to understand that confirmed closures continue to represent less than 1% of our total portfolio's annualized revenue. This is a clear testament to the quality and resiliency of our tenant base. Where vacancy does occur, we view it as an opportunity to lease the space to new uses that are better suited to the evolving economy and consumer trends.
Now I'm not going to downplay the volatility that we've seen in, but I do want to be clear. The relative impact on RioCan's revenue has been manageable. We're positioned to see improvement as the impacts of COVID dissipate and they will dissipate soon. My confidence comes from a healthy balance of instinct and data. Now I'm going to elaborate a little by sharing some of the facts that support my optimism.
At certain times throughout 2020, up to 20% of our tenants were under shutdown order. Most of those that remained open were required to operate with capacity restrictions. And in spite of the temporary closures RioCan collected approximately 95% of our rent. The resiliency of our portfolio was supported by the positioning of our major market assets, the effort of our team and the strength of our retail core. Our leasing team executed 4,900,000 square feet of leasing with a blended spread of 5%.
The majority of these new leases were completed with strong covenant tenants, primarily value furniture or home and essential retailers. While we rightfully focused on managing our business and tapping into opportunities, we didn't waver from our commitment to sustainable growth. We further advanced our major market makes use portfolio and strategy. We progressed our development initiatives and delivered more than half a million square feet of new space, including two new residential rental buildings. Evidence of the strength and growth potential embedded in our portfolio was seen in the first quarter of twenty twenty one.
In a quarter that was bookended by the end of the second wave and the start of the third wave of the pandemic, our rent collection has reached 94.2%. Our leasing team actually outperformed our pre pandemic first quarter twenty twenty results and executed leases for 1,100,000 square feet while expanding our blended leasing spread to over 8%. Now there is of course uncertainty and volatility and as a result our FFO in 2020 was certainly lower than we wanted. We took a $42,000,000 provision to account for pandemic related items such as bad debts and abatements. While these provisions continue to shrink, they did impact our financial results.
We're not satisfied with these results. But based on the strength of our recent leasing efforts, we're quite confident that these are short term conditions which don't alter our long term growth potential. Now as Ed had previously noted, we made the difficult but responsible decision to reduce our distributions towards the end of twenty twenty. We did it and we freed up cash, we enhanced our financial flexibility and established a point that positions us well for sustained long term growth. And in keeping with our long term ambitions to create total unitholder returns, our board will definitely be looking for opportunities to increase our distribution going forward.
You can count on our stability. You've always trusted RioCan to anticipate patterns before they become trends, to identify influential shifts as they develop and to adapt our strategy accordingly. Our early and ongoing response to COVID-nineteen demonstrated our strength in delivering exactly that. Now as we look to the future, we're already in a position of strength with an exceptional portfolio. We've got the right mix of properties and tenants, a robust development pipeline, ample liquidity, and in my opinion, the best team in the business.
Over twenty seven years, we've created value through shaping our building blocks. We have successfully concentrated our portfolio to focus on the most attractive and fastest growing markets in Canada. We've attracted strong and stable tenants to serve changing consumer trends. We were industry leaders and early movers in our ability to get zoning entitlements. This head start laid the groundwork to transform our existing income producing properties to higher and better uses.
We've built amenity rich and transit oriented mixed use communities where people want to live, work and shop. Simply stated, properties are more valuable when they're in our hands. Our distinct characteristics ensure stability. We've got so many opportunities to drive long term value. And that is where I'll turn our attention to now, to the future.
And how we're gonna capitalize on our solid foundation. We'll do this using levers unique to RioCan. These will accelerate growth, drive the value of our portfolio and most critically, increase total unit holder return. Our first lever for growth is intelligent diversification. So what do I mean by this mouthful?
Well, it's really the diversification of our income streams, our tenant mix, our physical assets, and our sources of capital. I'll start with revenue. Our development program is the most obvious source of sustainable revenue diversification. We have one of the largest development pipelines in the country with nearly 42,000,000 square feet of mixed use development opportunity in Canada's fastest growing markets. With more than half of our pipeline already zoned or with applications submitted, we have a significant head start in the very complex and lengthy entitlement process.
We now have a pipeline that provides almost endless opportunities to increasingly weight our income towards mixed use revenue. In 2021 alone, we'll complete three mixed use residential rental projects. Together with the completion of townhouse units at our Windfields Farm development, we'll have delivered more than 550 residential units. In addition, we'll launch The Well, our flagship mixed use asset. The Well really demonstrates our ability to create value on a number of different levels.
It's a mixed use community that's perfectly positioned as the gateway to Toronto's Downtown West. It combines an elevated retail experience with distinctive office and modern residential space. Leasing activity at The Well is definitely gaining momentum. 85% of the 1,200,000 square feet of office space has been pre leased to relevant and growing tenants such as Shopify. As the retail component forms, prospective tenants have been touring the development in person.
And as a result, we've leased more than a third of the retail space to a variety of forward thinking tenants. The Well community will ultimately be home to 1,700 condo and purpose built rental units. Construction for the residential component is progressing and in fact, we're at Level 11 For 450 The Well, which is the five ninety two unit residential rental building that Rio Campbell owned a 50% interest in. In addition to revenue diversification, another important way in which we are purposely diversifying is through our tenant mix. We have got a solid base of healthy necessity based and value oriented tenants such as grocery, pharmacy and specialty retailers.
In fact, approximately 80% of our retail base is comprised of strong and stable tenants. These businesses have solid fundamentals covenants and they really do demonstrate resilience during volatility. Just as an example, we collected over 90% of their rent in the first quarter of this year. We're strategically managing our leasing process on an asset by asset basis. We're taking advantage of this disruption to certain historically weak tenants and using the opportunity to attract strong and stable tenants.
To further complement and build on the resilience of our retail core, we continue to tap into emerging trends and integrate new and alternative uses. Now diversification doesn't simply stop with our properties. We also diversify through generating consistent and sustainable fee income from our partners. As our platform continues to strengthen, capital partners are paying for our expertise to manage complex development and sales processes. As we progress into the future, our unit holders will certainly benefit from additional transactions where we hold minority controlling development interests.
Last, we're diversifying our sources of capital. Given the depth of that development pipeline, we have a number of options to recycle capital including air rights sales and capital partnerships with recognized investors. The Well and Fifth and Third Out in Calgary are just two examples of our air rights sales that we successfully completed. There are multiple benefits to our capital partners strategy. It diversifies risk, it provides efficient capital to fuel our development program, and it crystallizes the value of our zone excess density.
Finally and critically, we're recognized and paid for our established development expertise. One such example of very many is our mixed use project at Dufferin Center. It demonstrates how prominent high growth locations with attractive demographics and superior transit access draw interest and commitment from reputable partners. In this case, we developed two partnerships. One with an international Dubai based real estate company for condo development and the other with our existing partner Woodbourne for multi residential rental.
We also drive a significant amount of value for our unit holders through condo and townhouse sales. Profits of approximately $111,000,000 are anticipated from the sales of units at Winfield's Farm and 11 YV alone. These are merely two of many excellent examples of our ability to diversify our income via sales. Our second lever for growth is customer centrism. To us, what this means is being the landlord of choice and consistently providing the best offering for our tenants, our partners and customers, whether retail, residential or office.
Our focus is on working with our tenants to understand their needs so we can anticipate and deliver against their current and future requirements. That's how we attract new tenants and it's also how we retain the most compelling and dynamic ones. We believe our tenants should look at RioCan as their best option at all stages of their growth and evolution. To put it simply, we create value through high quality property management. We provide our tenants with great service and increasing cost efficiencies.
We also strategically invest CapEx to create better environments and evolve our physical spaces to reflect changing consumer trends and to enhance our tenants experience. We're also placing a more intense focus on technology and connectivity, such as our tenant portal RioCan Connect and our RioCan Curbside Collect initiative. Understanding that online shopping is now a foundational element in the path to purchase, we're helping to transform physical stores into omni channel hubs. We're doing this by providing better drive aisles, improved signage and loading facilities. Now these types of changes, while they require city approvals and our entitlement expertise gives us, and more importantly our tenants, a head start.
We work with cities on our tenants behalf through the approval processes to permit change uses. And we're proud of our strong foothold in retail. Our core is stable and we have all the tools required to attract and retain tenants that will meaningfully contribute to RioCan's growth going forward. We've got a portfolio of buildings that are exceptionally well managed and designed with forward thinking amenities such as modern technology, state of the art security and access to necessity based retail and services. We design these buildings with the end users in mind.
We develop and manage spaces where people want to live. When properties as well positioned as ours are in the hands of a team as diverse and skilled as ours, we can do more than anyone else. From income producing property optimization to transformational developments, we are tooled to succeed. Our last and very important lever is our cultural excellence. Now a strong corporate culture is the foundation of a united productive workforce, there's no doubt about it.
We know the key to unlocking the value embedded in our portfolio lies in our talent. We entered into the pandemic with a proven track record and solid foundation of passionate, knowledgeable leaders. Through the crisis, we further invested in a culture that drives results and engagement, as well as retains and attracts top talent. This past year, we were recognized as one of the Greater Toronto's top employers. We executed an employee engagement survey.
And in spite of the pandemic related stress and disruption that we saw, our results markedly improved in every metric of employee engagement when compared to our already strong results from 2018, the last time we conducted such survey. We emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion across the organization and as such, we are proud to have established a diversity, equity and inclusion council and appointed DEI officers to promote a diverse and very inclusive workplace. We'll continue to invest in our talent and to promote a culture of results and responsibility. Now these efforts expand into all aspects of ESG. Security of income was obviously a top priority through this pandemic.
However, our commitment to ESG and sustainable growth have never wavered. In 2020, we achieved high ESG accolades on several fronts. We earned recognition as one of Canada's greenest employers. We improved our Gresby real estate assessment score by 97% since our first submission back in 2017 and we achieved a score of 85 and a five star rating. We ranked first among our Canadian retail peers with an A rating.
The highest GRESB score for public disclosure. We were the first Canadian REIT to launch a green bond framework and in 2020 alone we issued two green bonds that raised $850,000,000 in capital to build our future in an environmentally sustainable way. Our collaboration with Mwave to create an innovative thermal storage system at the well in Downtown Toronto is another example of how innovation and commitment to sustainable communities works. We are actively focused on housing and economic development through our partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Evergreen, and United Way. We launched RioCan Cares in 2020, which is a coordinated, galvanizing effort across the country to work with our communities, local charities and hospitals to provide assistance where needed.
And more recently, as part of our Mixed Use Master Plan project at Queen and Coxwell here in Toronto, along with our partner, Context, we are proud to be contributing more than $850,000 in support of City of Toronto's Community and Economic Development Initiative. We're also providing affordable housing units at this development and will do so certainly at many others as well. So in closing, RioCan's history, well, it's a story of success and this will not stop as we seek to drive sustainable, profitable growth in 2021 and beyond. I've got total confidence that RioCan's team is well positioned to continue to create opportunities and unlock the value embedded in our incredible portfolio. RioCan's future course is defined by the many levers we have for growth and value creation.
We'll continue to execute on our strategies of intelligent diversification, customer centrism and cultural excellence to create even more value for all of our stakeholders including well actually, especially our unit holders. I'm optimistic the ongoing rollout of the vaccine in Canada will be accompanied by a significant resurgence of consumer activity that will really define the latter part of 2021 and the foreseeable future. As an eternal yet practical optimist, I look ahead confidently. When well located, inherently value rich assets and a compelling growth strategy are in the hands of responsible innovative and entrepreneurial teams such as RioCan. They will not only survive, but they will thrive.
To wrap up, I'm gonna leave you with a video before we get a question period. It's a virtual tour which showcases our stability, how we've built on our foundation, and how we will continue to do so long into the future to deliver sustainable growth and long term value. Thank you all so much.
Okay. With that little introduction, we are now pleased to answer any questions that you may have with respect to the trust, its financial statements, and its operations during the year. And are there questions
There have been no questions submitted during the meeting.
Really. I feel bad for Mr. Gifflin who was going to answer them. But that being the case, in that case, it is now my duty to thank you. Thank you for attending.
And since there are no questions, I wish everyone safety, good health, and I wish that and hope that next year we could do this all in person. Thank you very much for attending RECAN's annual and general meeting. And I won't have to tell you to go home safely because most of you are probably at home. Goodbye.