Campeau Corporation was a Canadian real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 development and investment company founded by entrepreneur Robert Campeau

Robert Campeau

Robert Campeau is a Canadian financier and real estate developer.-Early years:His formal education ended in grade eight, at the age of 14. He talked himself into jobs at Inco as a general labourer, carpenter and machinist. In 1949 he entered the residential end of the construction business...

. It was infamous from its ultimately unsuccessful acquisitions of American department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 holding companies Allied Stores

Allied Stores

Allied Stores was a department store chain in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn's Department Stores, a holding company founded in 1928...

 in 1986 and Federated Department Stores in 1988. The whole organization soon was mired in bankruptcy and spurred the decline of the regional department store.

Real estate development

Synonymous with its founder, Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

-based Campeau was able to construct both office complexes and residential subdivisions to accommodate Canada's rapidly expanding civil service

Civil service

The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....

. Campeau Corporation had two main rivals in the residential housing market: Assaly Construction Limited and Minto Developments Inc., the latter owned by the family of future Ottawa mayor Lorry Greenberg

Lorry Greenberg

Lawrence "Lorry" Greenberg was Mayor of Ottawa, Ontario from 1975 to 1978.He graduated from Lisgar Collegiate in 1952.jl He was one of the founding members of Minto Developments Inc., but left the company in 1960...

.

For many years it was city policy in Ottawa that buildings in the downtown core not be taller than the Peace Tower

Peace Tower

The Peace Tower is a focal bell and clock tower, sitting on the central axis of the Centre Block of the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. The present incarnation replaced the Victoria Tower after the latter burned down in 1916, along with most of the Centre Block...

of the parliament buildings

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...

. Campeau found this rule to be unnecessary and was drawn into conflict with city council over large high-rise developments such as Place de Ville

Place de Ville

Place de Ville is a complex of office towers in downtown Ottawa. It currently consists of four buildings, Place de Ville A, B, and C, and the 'Podium' building, two large hotels, and the city's largest underground parking garage. The buildings are linked by an underground shopping complex...

.

Campeau's real estate development success soon spread outside Ottawa. In Toronto its notable developments included Scotia Tower (the city's second tallest skyscraper) and the Harbour Castle Hotel

Westin Harbour Castle Hotel

The Westin Harbour Castle Hotel is a large, modern hotel located on 1 Harbour Square, next to the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Westin Hotels chain....

 (now part of the Westin Hotels

Westin Hotels

Westin Hotels & Resorts are an upscale hotel chain owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. As of 2011, Westin operated over 160 hotels in 37 countries.-History:...

 chain) - which helped revitalize the city's waterfront area.

Corporate take-overs

In the 1980s Campeau embarked on a series of leveraged buyout

Leveraged buyout

A leveraged buyout occurs when an investor, typically financial sponsor, acquires a controlling interest in a company's equity and where a significant percentage of the purchase price is financed through leverage...

s, first bidding unsuccessfully on the Royal Trust company (now part of the Royal Bank

Royal Bank of Canada

The Royal Bank of Canada or RBC Financial Group is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The company corporate headquarters are located in Toronto,...

). Its founder's brash, confrontational manner made him an outsider to much of the conservative Canadian business establishment.

As his empire expanded, Campeau ventured into the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, looking for acquisitions that would add shopping mall real estate to his portfolio of assets.

Through massive junk bond LBOs which were at their most popular in the mid 1980s, Campeau gained control of Allied Stores

Allied Stores

Allied Stores was a department store chain in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn's Department Stores, a holding company founded in 1928...

 and Federated Department Stores

Federated Department Stores

Macy's, Inc. is a department store holding company and owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. Macy's Inc.'s stores specialize mostly in retail clothing, jewelery, watches, dinnerware, and furniture....

, owner of Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's is an American department store owned by Macy's, Inc. .Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side...

. Campeau retained famous banker Bruce Wasserstein

Bruce Wasserstein

Bruce Jay Wasserstein was an American investment banker and businessman. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spent a year at Cambridge University...

to assist with the transactions. However, in the overenthusiasm and high leverage that defined banking in the late 1980s, the debt obligations that needed to be covered following the merger were too large and exacerbated by a market downturn that hurt retail sales. Campeau Corporation was unable to meet its debt obligations. Federated and Allied eventually filed for bankruptcy reorganization. The company was eventually acquired by the Reichman brothers who went bankrupt themselves and Campeau Corporation ceased to exist.