The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that National Bank's Matt Kornack argues that public markets are losing a top-tier pure play with the sale of First Capital REIT to Choice Properties REIT and KingSett Capital, a private real estate firm, for $5.2-billion. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Kornack downgraded First Capital to "sector perform" from "outperform." He boosted his unit target to $24.40 from $23.50 to reflect the deal. Analysts on average target First Capital units at $23.47. Mr. Kornack boosted his unit target for Choice Properties REIT to $16.50 from $16 with a "sector perform" rating. Analysts on average target Choice units at $16.78. Mr. Kornack says in a note: "Are we surprised that FCR is being taken out, the answer here is clearly no -- although we have been subject to three years of on and off again speculation with different horses in the proverbial race. While we are sad to lose a large, liquid well capitalized pure-play urban grocery-anchored portfolio -- the silver lining is that over half of it will remain in public shareholders' hands through CHP's $5-billion purchase. We do think this transaction should serve as a bit of a wakeup call to public investors in real estate."