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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The TSX Venture Exchange lost 1.96 points to close at 693.80 Wednesday. William Martens Jr. and Armin Martens Jr. have filed a preliminary prospectus to list their first capital pool shell, Marwest Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust. The shell plans to sell a $500,000 initial public offering at 50 cents through Canaccord Genuity Corp. The shell is structured as a trust, rather than the more usual corporation, because it plans to seek a real estate investment deal for its qualifying transaction.

William Martens Jr., 44, lives in Winnipeg. He is the chief executive officer and a trustee of the shell. From 1999 to 2003, he was an analyst and a mortgage broker at a commercial mortgage lender called Montrose Winnipeg Inc. Then from 2003 to about 2013, he owned and operated at least two Tim Hortons stores in Winnipeg. In 2015, he joined his family's business, the Marwest Group of Companies, of which he is now a principal. The Marwest Group, which was founded in the 1960s, includes a construction firm called Marwest Construction Ltd. and a property management firm called Marwest Management (Canada) Ltd. Most of the group's projects are in Manitoba, but its portfolio also includes properties in Alberta, Minnesota and Arizona. The group manages apartments, retirement residences, retail centres and office buildings. William has not yet been a public company director. At Marwest Apartment REIT, he holds 180,000 escrow units out of 800,000. The shell sold its escrow units at 25 cents earlier this month.

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