Hey, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ed Sonshine. As chairman, I would like to welcome you to the 2022 annual meeting of unitholders of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. This meeting is being held entirely by virtual means through a live webcast. We welcome everyone in attendance today. A 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 CEO of RioCan. We are also pleased to have each of our trustees in attendance on our webcast today. I would like to acknowledge the remarkable efforts of the entire team at RioCan over the course of the last year as we continued to navigate through the pandemic.
I would also like to thank those unitholders who have chosen to attend this webcast today, and to all of those who submitted their proxies in advance on a timely basis. It is now shortly after 10 A.M., 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 Suess, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, to act as secretary of the meeting, and TSX Trust Company, by its representatives, to act as scrutineer. Today, we intend to first proceed with the formal items on the agenda, following which Jonathan Gitlin will be making the presentation. Following Mr. Gitlin's presentation, we'll answer any questions from unitholders. The minutes of the last annual meeting of unitholders, held on May 26th, 2021, are available upon request.
Before we begin, we have a few administrative matters to note in light of today's virtual meeting format. Much like last year, to submit a question, click on the Q&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 till after the formal business has been completed. Questions with common themes 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 Suess, 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'll make every effort to answer all your questions during today's Q&A period. However, in the interest of time, we will limit the Q&A period to 20 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 were required to attend the 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 business 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, then you do not need to do anything. During the meeting, we may also pause from time to time to review messages from the corporate secretary. Thank you for your patience as we do so. I will now ask Ms. Jennifer Suess 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 the use of non-GAAP measures and 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 facts, is qualified by the cautionary statement that is posted on the screen, and additional information can also be found in the Trust's most recent Management's Discussion and Analysis for the period ended March 31, 2022, 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 unitholders. Mr. Sonshine, I believe you're on mute.
You are correct, and I'm gonna go back and start over, and I apologize for that. 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 not intended to limit in any way 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 the motion has been seconded, in the manner previously noted. Also, 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 to furnish proxy materials over the Internet to unitholders instead of mailing paper copies.
Copies of the proxy materials are also available on the trust's 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 holders of approximately 54.83% 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. Before we begin with the formal part of the meeting, I'd like to make some remarks. While the pandemic continues to affect daily life throughout the country and well beyond this meeting, of course, the results achieved by Jonathan Gitlin and his remarkable team have shown that RioCan has been able to navigate the ebbs and flows of all the various effects of COVID.
This was highlighted by the announcement earlier this year of an increase in RioCan's distribution. I will leave it for Mr. Gitlin's presentation for the painting of a picture of the bright future, which RioCan expects for its remarkable portfolio, which I believe is second to none in this country. I will simply state that in addition to a portfolio of properties which overflow with opportunities, RioCan has an executive team that is supremely capable of turning these opportunities into cash flow and value. In business, I've always felt that you bet on the jockey rather than the horse, as very little matters more than the quality and skills of management. In RioCan, as investors, we are fortunate to have a great jockey on top of the best horse in the country. I'd like to applaud also the efforts of our People, Culture, and Compensation Committee over the last year.
At the 2021 annual meeting, our unitholders delivered a strong message that changes were needed to our executive compensation program. As a result, the PCCC engaged in an extensive unitholder outreach initiative, garnering feedback from our unitholders, which culminated in substantial changes to our executive compensation program for 2022, that were announced in 2021. In October 2021, and more particularly disclosed in our Management Information Circular. We are confident that these changes clearly and effectively address unitholder concerns and support the continued, excuse me, continued successful execution of our business strategy. On behalf of the Board, we thank our unitholders for their feedback. Before I finish, I want to thank Paul Godfrey, who retired from the Board last December, for his many years of service to RioCan.
I also want to take this opportunity to welcome Marie-Josée Lamothe, who does not seem to mind being called MJ by us Anglophones, and who brings to the Board a wealth of digital and retail experience. Her knowledge and insights of the manner in which the retail world is evolving as digital and physical retailing coalesce, will be invaluable to RioCan. With the addition of MJ, RioCan will have refreshed its board by adding five new members over the last five years. We will continue this dedication to governance and renewal by rotating all the chairs of the various committees of the Board in the upcoming year. In closing, I would like to thank you all for your continued confidence in RioCan during these last two difficult years. Now, let's move forward with the business of the meeting, after which Jonathan Gitlin will address you on RioCan's present and future.
Excuse me, I'm just going to have a drink. After that, we'll be happy to address the various questions that have been or will be submitted. Back to the business of the meeting. We'll now proceed with the first item of business, to present the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021. Copy of the 2021 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. Unitholders do not have to take any action regarding the financial statements. Ms. Suess, 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 or comments to this item of business.
... Second item of business 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 May 6, 2022. 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 instructions to the contrary, Ms. Jennifer Suess will now read their names. 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: Edward Sonshine, Jonathan Gitlin, Bonnie Brooks, Richard Dansereau, Janice Fukakusa, Marie-Josée Lamothe, Dale H. Lastman, Jane Marshall, Siim A. Vanaselja, and Charles M. Winograd.
Thank you. 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 Ms. Kimberly Valliere, Vice President, Development Construction, for purposes of a motion for the nomination of the ten nominees named in the Management Information Circular.
I nominate the ten persons whose names have been read to this meeting for election as trustees of the Trust to serve until the next annual meeting of unitholders, or until his or her successor is duly elected or appointed, or he or she otherwise ceases to hold office.
Thank you.
My name is Pradeepa Nadarajah, Vice President, Property Accounting, and I hereby second the nominations.
Ms. Suess, 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 related to this item.
Thank you. 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 policies, details of which are provided in the Management Information Circular for this 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 received 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's majority voting policy for the election of trustees.
Thank you. I will now ask Ms. Kimberly Valliere to move, and Ms. Pradeepa Nadarajah, 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 unitholders or until they resign or their successors are elected or appointed.
Mr. Chairman, I so move.
Mr. Chairman, I hereby second the motion.
Thank you both. 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. Third item of business for which this meeting has been called is to consider, and if thought appropriate, to approve the reappointment of Ernst & 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?
Chairman, I hereby move that Ernst & 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.
Thank you. Ms. Suess, were there any questions or comments submitted in connection with the reappointment of those auditors?
No, Mr. Chairman, we have not received any questions related to this item.
Accordingly, 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 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 and unitholder engagement 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 unitholders 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, excuse me, and in determining whether there is a need to increase engagement with unitholders. Also, the People, Culture, and Compensation Committee will take the results into account when considering future executive compensation arrangements. In the event the say-on-pay vote, excuse me, does not receive the support of at least 70% of the votes cast, the Board has indicated it will disclose to unitholders as soon as practical, and no later than six months following the meeting, a summary of the comments received and the changes to the executive compensation plans that are 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?
Chairman, I hereby move that the Board's approach to executive compensation, as set out in the trust's Management Information Circular, dated April 22, 2022, be approved on a non-binding advisory basis.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Ms. Suess, were there any questions or comments submitted in connection with this item?
No, Mr. Chairman, we have not received any questions related to this item.
Thank you. 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. Ms. Suess, is there any other business to come before the meeting?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Well, that's good, because my voice is almost gone. So 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, but 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 in 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 unitholders, 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 cast were in favor of the reappointment of Ernst & Young LLP Chartered Professional Accountants as auditors of the trust. I therefore declare that Ernst & 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 say-on-pay vote, the preliminary voting results show that the requisite majority of the votes cast were voted in favor, so I declare this motion to be passed. The final voting results will be available after the meeting and posted to the trust's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. If there is no further business, I will now ask Ms. Kimberly Valliere to move and Ms. Pradeepa Nadarajah to second a formal motion to terminate the meeting.
Mr. Chairman, I so move.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you both. I hereby declare the motion carried and the meeting terminated. I would like to ask Jonathan Gitlin, the Trust President and CEO, to make a presentation and thereafter answer any questions you might have. Jonathan, over to you.
Oh, thanks so much, Ed. Thanks to everyone for joining us here today. It's been almost three months since we had our Investor Day, when I stood in front of you all, our stakeholders, and conveyed RioCan's five-year plan. And let me just say that so much has happened in that short period, but we haven't wavered from our strategy. My objective today is to reflect on that strategy and to provide you with an update on our progress towards our business goals. Before I get to the more formal update, I'm going to take a moment to recognize the RioCan team. And there's no question that these volatile and uncertain times tested RioCan. However, we responded with resilience and agility. We've emerged stronger with a clear strategy to accelerate growth and deliver long-term value to all of our stakeholders.
RioCan's people and culture are as foundational to our growth strategy as our remarkable portfolio and our development pipeline. In fact, without one, you can't have the others. This leads me to our theme for today: quality and growth. Now, this theme is likely familiar to you. Quality represents the strong fundamentals of our business, upon which we'll continue to build. Growth is defined by our ability to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us. Quality and growth are mutually reinforcing. The quality of our portfolio provides a foundation for further expansion. Our growth initiatives will increase the quality of our assets, our financial results, and ultimately, the value that we deliver to you, our Unitholders. Now, as I shared a few months ago in our Investor Day presentation, there is a clear ambition at the heart of RioCan's strategy.
That ambition is to capitalize on our properties, our embedded development pipeline, and our compelling growth prospects to deliver solid performance and maximize unitholder returns. Through the successful execution of our strategy, we fully expect to deliver annualized total unitholder returns of 10%-12% over the next five years. The pandemic reinforced our confidence in our competitive advantages. The quality and position of our portfolio, the strength of our balance sheet, the agility of our team, this team is set up to thrive in any context, from bringing an income-producing property to its highest and best use, to efficiently operating our retail portfolio. Those attributes that have always driven our success will continue to provide stability, but we have all the tools to deliver more than stability alone. Our defensive stance served us well, but we're ready to move forward and assume a posture of offense.
We have everything required to provide long-term value. Our commitment to you is that we will deliver. Let's refocus for a moment on the four levers that define our course for growth and value creation. For anyone who tuned in to our Investor Day, these are going to be familiar to you. Our first pillar, reimagining retail, is about committing to and continuing to reimagine our retail core. Our track record and retail properties in Canada, well, they're second to none, particularly since we shifted our focus to Canada's top six markets. But we didn't reach our leadership position by simply standing still, and the retail environment in which we operate is fast changing. We've proven our ability to adapt to trends. Look at our portfolio as it was five years ago and compare it to where we are now. It's entirely different.
This is because we respond to market demands and continue to evolve our property and tenant mix to make them more essential, resilient, and synergistic. What the market is telling us now is that RioCan's retail, which is necessity-based and well-located with a very strong demographic profile, is specifically what's in demand. And COVID allowed for that reconciliation that consumers want to take back control of how they get their goods and services. Retailers are very quickly concluding that well-positioned physical space is an imperative in the successful and efficient distribution of goods and services. These conditions augur well for RioCan and reinforce our belief in the absolute relevance and strength of our retail portfolio. Intelligent diversification is our second pillar, and it refers to multiple types of diversification, including our asset base, income streams, and overall tenant mix.
Diversification offers a range of benefits, including additional revenue, reduced risk, greater stability, and higher portfolio quality. We'll also enhance customer centrism, which is our third pillar. In short, customer centrism means better understanding and meeting the needs of our tenants, our joint venture partners, and our limited partner investors. Bottom line is this: we succeed when they succeed, so it's critical for us to proactively seek our customer views, manage our relationships with them, and invest in enhancing our value proposition. Our fourth pillar is responsible growth. Now, to us, this means fostering a culture of excellence. It means continuing to play an ESG leadership role and, of course, maintaining a balanced and intentional approach to capital management. We place the highest priority on each of these areas and carefully consider them in all of our decision making.
I'm confident that we'll continue to build on our strengths, accelerate our trajectory, and capitalize on growth opportunities to drive total unitholder return. I'll provide you with some context now. It's essential context because it's what drives my confidence. As you know, RioCan is one of Canada's largest REITs, with more than 200 properties representing 36 million sq ft of retail, office, and residential space. We have 16.8 million sq ft in our development pipeline that is fully entitled. Those portfolio metrics reflect the success of the major market strategy we've been executing for several years now. Today, our properties are concentrated in prime, high-density, transit-oriented areas. The markets where we now generate over 91% of our revenue are Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, and Edmonton. These are all high-growth markets with attractive demographics.
We have an average of 206,000 people living within 5 km of our properties, and the families in that same radius earn an average of CAD 129 ,000 per year. These statistics will continue to improve as we deliver more mixed-use urban developments and sell off some of the lower growth assets, which is great news for our commercial tenants who covet this demographic profile. One advantage of being in desirable locations is their potential for mixed-use development, which enables us to bring our properties to their highest and best use. In doing so, we also play an important role in addressing the residential supply gap found in major markets. Now, I can't speak to our performance without acknowledging the unprecedented backdrop in which we're operating. Canadians are just now recovering from the restrictions we faced during COVID.
Now, this wrap-up has coincided with rising interest rates and a global economic uncertainty, which is based on more tensions, trade disruptions, and unprecedented inflation. Very uplifting. And yet, our operational metrics, well, they still trend higher. We truly are operating on all cylinders. So how does this happen in this ever-changing environment? Well, look, we can't control macro-level economic conditions. Instead, RioCan's management team ensures that we mitigate against the impacts of the volatility that accompanies these macroeconomic shifts. Our portfolio is built to perform in any economic backdrop. Our balance sheet is structured to absorb rising interest rates. Our culture is curated to retain and attract the best and the brightest. Our development sites are on income-producing lands, and as such, if development conditions are less than ideal, we can simply retain the highly productive properties in their current state.
The strength and stability of our foundation allow us to look beyond short-term turbulence and put sustainable outcomes and long-term unitholder returns at the center of everything that we do. I'm going to shift now to our operational performance. It's with a great deal of pride that I say that despite the ongoing volatility out there, RioCan's operating metrics are back at pre-pandemic levels. In addition, although bankruptcies are typically expected in the year's first quarter, RioCan experienced minimal fallout at the beginning of 2022. These results are a testament to the quality of our tenant base and the successful execution of our strategic objectives. While we rightfully focused on managing our business and tapping into opportunities through the pandemic, we didn't waver from our commitment to diversification and sustainable growth.
We've communicated our ambition to deliver CAD 55 million-CAD 60 million in NOI from residential rental by 2026. Since we met for our last AGM in May of last year, we've made significant progress. Last year, RioCan's in-house development team delivered approximately 250,000 sq ft of dynamic, mixed-use, and purpose-built residential rental completions. We anticipate we will complete over 700,000 sq ft in 2022. Demand for RioCan Living's professionally managed, thoughtfully designed towers has been outstanding. By year-end, we expect to have more than 2,200 units across 10 buildings in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Montreal. This momentum will continue. The start of construction is imminent at Next, which is a new purpose-built rental project located in Surrey, British Columbia.
Lands at Queen and Ashbridge in Toronto were acquired this year, expediting the development of this mixed-use project, which is scheduled for a 2025 completion. To summarize, the continuous improvement of our portfolio is happening concurrently with development deliveries. At the same time, we make opportunistic acquisitions, we enhance our value through zoning, and we form strategic partnerships. These partnerships mitigate risk and generate a sustainable pipeline of fees. This trend and trajectory will continue to gain momentum in each subsequent year. I'm confident our unitholders will reap the benefits of the resulting NAV and FFO increases long into the future. We do this while maintaining an unwavering commitment to responsible growth. You've heard me say it before, that our commitment to ESG is organic, it's not manufactured. It makes good business sense, supports long-term value creation, and will accelerate the positive momentum we saw this year.
We continue to lead the way in ESG, and for a second year in a row, we were awarded a five-star rating in the GRESB Real Estate Assessment, and we were recognized as one of Canada's greenest employers. Our growth trajectory is also tied to our culture, which I would like to say differentiates RioCan. It also drives results and retains, develops, and attracts top talent. Our investment in our people continues to accelerate, and we've introduced numerous initiatives to retain and further develop our talent. We advanced our cultural roadmap, and our employees responded with the highest engagement scores in RioCan's history. Our 2021 employee engagement results placed RioCan in the top decile of similar-sized companies. So as we look into the future, we do so from a position of strength.
As our results demonstrate, we have the right mix of properties and tenants, a robust development pipeline, ample liquidity, and of course, what I view to be the best team in the business. Our distinct characteristics ensure stability. This stability is complemented by countless opportunities to drive long-term value. We'll continue to capitalize on the strength of our portfolio, our embedded development pipeline, and our compelling growth prospects to deliver solid performance and maximize unitholder return. Our core strategies are purposefully designed to safeguard against crisis. With a clear strategy, entrepreneurial spirit, and an unparalleled track record, we continue to harness Canada's most adaptable property portfolio and development pipeline to create vibrant community spaces where people want to shop, live, and work. Now, our flagship mixed-use development, The Well, perfectly illustrates all of these factors at work. The project is a 50/50 partnership with Allied Properties REIT.
Construction of the commercial component, which includes office and retail, is now approximately 88% complete. 90% of the office space is leased, and the retail leasing has gained significant momentum, with 79% of the retail space leased or in late-stage negotiations. We've been very thoughtful in selecting tenants for The Well. We intended to ensure that the tenant mix is curated to enhance this extension of the King West community. At the same time, we're creating a destination designed and tenanted to draw traffic from far beyond that immediate radius. The Well will be completed over the next 12-18 months, and the retail component is expected to open in the spring of 2023, which I am oh so excited for. I'll pause now to share a video that we aired at our February 2022 Investor Day.
The intention is simply to give you an idea of the sophistication, vision, and expertise required to deliver a project of the scale of The Well.
... Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Well. I'm here at the corner of Front and Spadina, where the main entrance to our office tower is located. This is one of the many entrances to the project that is designed to integrate seamlessly into the King West neighborhood. This particular entrance is designed to provide a prominent entrance to the office tower and act also as a gateway to the three levels of retail in the project. We have paid careful attention and leveraged our retail experience to ensure footfalls are balanced between those three levels of retail as people enter the project. Let me start with a brief overview of RioCan's marquee mixed-use project, The Well. It is one of the largest construction sites in the country, and an ambitious project that required complex coordination to build three oddly different asset classes, involving various partnerships and multiple construction contracts.
The Well will offer more than 3 million sq ft of space, combining an elevated retail experience, distinctive office space, and modern residential in an amenity-rich urban neighborhood. Let's head inside. We'll start upstairs in the office tower. The Well features 1.1 million sq ft of LEED Platinum office space. I want to highlight a couple things about our incredible office design. First is the unique side core design. This provides more flexibility for our future tenants to lay out their space and unobstructed views of the entire floor plate. Second is the variety of size of floor plates the building offers. This allows us to offer space to a variety of tenants with different space requirements. Third is our raised access floor system that distributes heating and cooling and power throughout the floor plate.
Up here on the 32nd floor of their office tower, you can get a really good view of the residential buildings as they are nearing completion. In total, The Well comprises 6 residential towers, with housing options for young professionals, growing families, and the empty nester. You can see here, FourFifty The Well, the 46-story, 600-unit residential rental tower, which we retain the 50% interest in, in partnership with Woodbourne. From here, you can also see the canopy over the retail spine of The Well. In keeping with creating an authentic, urban, and pedestrian-focused design, the canopy has been constructed to protect visitors from the elements. Now we're here at the loading levels for The Well.
As a true mixed-use development located in an extremely dense urban environment, we've designed traffic flow and loading to mitigate the challenges of delivery in the heart of the city. This loading floor has more than 20 loading docks, allowing us to accommodate the tractor-trailer that our tenants need and the small moving van that our residents will use to move in. All this can happen below grade on this level without interrupting the shopping, working, and living environment above. Now, let me tell you about our state-of-the-art Enwave thermal battery. This battery is a 7.6 million liter water storage tank we constructed beneath The Well. This thermal battery will provide The Well and the surrounding communities with access to low carbon heating and cooling. It is designed to store energy at night during off-peak times, easing strain on the electricity grid and reducing cost.
Thank you for taking a virtual tour of The Well with us. So now when you hear me say that if we can build The Well, we can build anything, you'll certainly know why. So you can count on our stability, and you can rely on our ability to drive value. You've always trusted RioCan to anticipate patterns before they become trends, to identify significant shifts as they develop, and to adapt our strategy accordingly. Our success and execution in navigating the pandemic proved our strength in delivering exactly that. The operating environment is stabilized, and our carefully curated portfolio will demonstrate its potential. The combination of our strategy, strong fundamentals, self-funded growth plans, dynamic leadership team, and entrepreneurial spirit gives me the confidence that we will deliver on our clear ambition and ultimately achieve our total unitholder return targets.
I want to thank the whole RioCan team for their never-ending commitments and contributions this past year, and you, our unitholders, for their continued dedication and confidence in RioCan. Thank you very much.
And now back to you, Ed.
Jonathan, thank you very much. That was an excellent presentation, and, I'm sure all the, people tuning in enjoyed, particularly the virtual tour of The Well as much as I did. So, with your presentation completed, we're now pleased to answer any questions that anyone may have with respect to the trust, its financial statements, or its operations during the year.
Mr. Chairman, there have been no questions submitted.
In that case, I'd like to thank everybody for tuning in. Considering there are no questions, I'd like to thank all of you for attending and wish everyone safety and good health, and talk to you next year. Thank you and goodbye.