Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers' new Burnaby headquarters wins prestigious real
estate award

New 15,000+-square-metre global head office wins award at the 2009 NAIOP Real Estate Excellence Awards

BURNABY, BC, Nov. 20 /CNW/ - Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE andTSX: RBA), the world's largest industrial auctioneer, received an award for its new global headquarters at last night's 2009 NAIOP ( Vancouver Chapter) Real Estate Excellence Awards, which recognized excellence in commercial real estate in Greater Vancouver . The Company's new head office, located in Burnaby, B.C., won the award for the best Office Development.

"We are very proud to receive the 2009 NAIOP award for Office Development," said Jeremy Black , Vice President of Business Development, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. "We love our new building - it's not only a work of art, it's our home. We would like to thank GWL Realty Advisors, Bunting Coady Architects, Ventana Construction and MHPM Project Managers for their involvement in the design and construction of an office that takes care of both our employees and the environment in which they live."

Mr. Black accepted the award along with Don Harrison of GWL Realty Advisors, Paul Reynolds of MHPM Project Managers Inc., Teresa Coady of Bunting Coady Architects, John Sharp of Ventana Construction Corporation and Blair Quinn of CB Richard Ellis .

Ritchie Bros.' new global headquarters is a 15,200+-square-metre (164,000-ft(2)) office with a wealth of work-life features, including a cafeteria, workout facility and a new corporate child-care center. It currently houses more than 300 employees, and was designed with environmental building practices in mind. As such, Ritchie Bros. hopes the building will achieve LEED Gold certification status from the Canadian Green Building Council - it will be the first LEED Gold building in Burnaby.

KEY FACTS:

    
    -   Child-care centre - 465 m(2) (5,000 ft(2)) - licensed to care for a
        maximum of 45 infants, toddlers, preschoolers and a limited number of
        school age children. For now, the centre is available to staff
        members' children, but there are plans in place to open a few spaces
        to specific corporate partners at some point in the future.
        Ritchie Bros. currently subsidizes the child-care fees for its
        employees at this facility.

    -   Café - 325 m(2) (3,500 ft(2)) - catered by Corporate Classics
        Caterers, the café provides healthy choices for staff at subsidized
        prices. Other than a few "grab and go items", the menu changes daily
        to appeal to a variety of tastes.

    -   Workout facility - 275 m(2) (3,000 ft(2)) - contains modern, high
        quality equipment including three treadmills, three elliptical
        machines, four stationary bikes, one stair climber, one rowing
        machine, two total gyms as well as benches with free weights. It is
        available for staff to use 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
    

The NAIOP awards recognize the full range of disciplines involved in creating successful real estate solutions while highlighting the leadership roles played by property owners and developers. There were more than 60 entries for eight categories for last night's awards. Categories included Green Design/Stewardship, Industrial Development, Industrial Lease, Interior Design/Improvement, Investment Transaction, Mixed Use Development, Office Lease and Office Development.

There were more than 10 entries for the Office Development category and three finalists were selected. Besides Ritchie Bros., the other finalists were Discovery Parks Trust and Morguard for the Discovery Green Building and Bentall LP, bcIMC and Bunting Coady Architects for the Broadway Tech Centre.

NAIOP is an association that represents the interests of developers and owners of commercial real estate throughout North America .

About Ritchie Bros.

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE andTSX: RBA) is the world's largest industrial auctioneer, selling more equipment to on-site and online bidders than any other company in the world. The Company has over 110 locations in more than 25 countries, including 39 auction sites worldwide. Ritchie Bros. sells, through unreserved public auctions, a broad range of used and unused industrial assets, including equipment, trucks and other assets utilized in the construction, transportation, agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum and marine industries. The Company maintains a web site at www.rbauction.com and sponsors an equipment wiki at www.RitchieWiki.com.

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For further information: Kim Schulz, Manager, Corporate Communications, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Phone: [phone] or email [email protected]