Dream Office REIT hit by Alberta oil woes

Dream Office REIT hit by Alberta oil woes

Another top Canadian REIT unveiled a bruising writedown, deepening a rout that has seen more than $1.5-billion in property value vanish from Alberta’s office tower market. Dream Office REIT (D.UN-T) became the latest property owner to materially suffer from Alberta’s woes by slashing the fair value of its portfolio there with a $675-million writedown Thursday.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required.) – Financial Post – CBC

A look at Grosvenor’s influence in Vancouver CRE

The death on Tuesday of Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 64-year-old Sixth Duke of Westminster, elevates his 25-year-old son, Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, as the new Duke and the richest person under 30 in the U.K, with a fortune pegged by Forbes at more than $15.5 billion Cdn. much of that is held in Grosvenor‘s international investments and real estate.

Vancouver Sun

SmartREIT reveals plans for new VMC office building

SmartREIT and its chairman Mitchell Goldhar have plans for a new class-A office building in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC), with professional services firm PwC Canada as the lead tenant. VMC is the new downtown of Vaughan at Highway 400 and Highway 7 in the GTA.

Property Biz Canada

Stantec signs letter of intent to acquire NYC-based Edwards & Zuck

Global design firm Stantec has signed a letter of intent to acquire Edwards & Zuck, a 120-person, New York City-based firm with a history of pioneering engineering technologies to create efficiency, stability, and beauty in buildings along the east coast. In addition to its 80-person New York City office and three other U.S. locations.

Marketwired

City of Edmonton rejects two big-box bars for downtown

Two proposed “mega-bars” for downtown have been rejected by the City of Edmonton, which ruled their impact would undermine the neighbourhood. The city’s sustainable development department gave thumbs down to a 400-seat bar and neighbourhood pub on the ground level of the Fox Two condo tower and a 1,400-seat nightclub also downtown.

Edmonton Journal

Record high land transactions in GTA in Q2

Residential, industrial, commercial and institutional land sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) set a record high at more than $2 billion in the second quarter of 2016.   All real estate transactions for the quarter in the GTA totalled $5.2 billion, the second highest volume for a quarter since 2007 and led only by the fourth quarter of 2015.

Property Biz Canada

Cadillac Fairview unveils CF Rideau Centre redevelopment

Cadillac Fairview (CF) is proud to celebrate the completion of its multi-phase $360 million redevelopment of CF Rideau Centre. The three-year project represents a comprehensive revitalization of the 33-year-old shopping centre and reinforces CF Rideau Centre’s reputation as a leading shopping destination in Ottawa and nationwide.

Canada Newswire – CF Rideau Centre redevelopment now complete

A peek inside the former U.S. Embassy in Ottawa

The former U.S. embassy in Ottawa has sat empty for almost 20 years. Now, in the lead-up to Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations, the Canadian government is looking to clear away the cobwebs on the prime real estate and turn it into a popular destination.

The Hill Times

What the giant mural at Yonge and St. Clair says about Toronto

What used to be a blank side of a 12-storey building at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue is now a giant wall painting and curiosity by the British street artist and illustrator Phlegm. The Globe and Mail spoke with Alexis Kane Speer, the founding director of the STEPS Initiative, a public arts organization, about the large-scale mural and what it means.

Globe and Mail – Slate has monopoly at Toronto’s Yonge and St. Clair

B.C. credit union banks on a fun workplace

With an ad campaign featuring a grumpy monster Coast Capital Savings strives to set itself apart from other financial institutions. The Surrey-based credit union has taken a similarly irreverent approach to the design of its new workplace. Its office space consists of six floors in a recently completed building at the Hub at King George Station, a new mixed-use development taking shape downtown.

Globe and Mail

Former Toronto hostel finds room for change

The young people milling inside Quantum Coffee look beautiful. And in the adjacent common room behind the coffee shop, patrons sit leaning into their laptops or conducting meetings with friends on a breezy summer afternoon. The space is airy and full of natural light, all wood flooring and exposed brick, the same office aesthetic as tech startups and design studios.

Globe and Mail

John Hancock acquires Boston office properties

John Hancock, the U.S. division of Manulife Real Estate, announced that its Real Estate business has acquired 535-545 Boylston, which consists of two interconnected, 13-story office buildings totalling 185,000 square feet. The buildings are located in Boston, Massachusetts and the price paid was US$100.5 million.

Edmonton Journal – Canada Newswire

Caisse takes over Quebec cement project amid cost overruns

Pension fund giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has taken control over the controversial McInnis Cement project in the province’s Gaspé peninsula in the wake of massive cost overruns, as Bombardier Inc.’s founding family cedes majority ownership of the endeavour. BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest fund manager, is also coming in with a $125-million investment.

Globe and Mail – Canada Newswire

Detroit towers returning to past glory

As Detroit works to restore its decayed downtown to former majestic glory, developer Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC is doing it by the Book.

Bedrock is refurbishing Detroit’s long-vacant, 38-storey Book Tower, purchased last year along with an adjacent 13-storey building and two-storey community centre.

Globe and Mail

Hines REIT begins property selloff

Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. has begun proceeding with its plan of liquidation. This week, Preferred Apartment Communities Inc. acquired seven grocery-anchored shopping centers with 650,400 rentable square feet in Georgia, Florida, Texas and North Carolina for $158 million, about $243/square foot.

CoStar Group

Market Trends and Research

Comparing Calgary to Detroit ignores our entrepreneurial zest

Mary Moran is president and chief executive officer of Calgary Economic Development. Summer is prime time for Hollywood blockbusters depicting a dystopian future where everything is bad. But that’s entertainment, not journalism. A recent Globe and Mail article compared Calgary’s current economic challenges to the decades-long decline in Detroit, the home of the U.S. auto industry.

Globe and Mail

Calgary businesses closing at an increasing pace

The number and pace of business closings are growing amid Calgary’s struggling economy, say city statistics and those watching the trend. In the first seven months of this year, the number of closures recorded by city licensing officials was 4,114, a pace that, if continued, would total nearly 7,100 by the end of 2016.

Calgary Herald

Weak retail sales, inflation data dim prospect of Fed rate hike

U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly flat in July as Americans cut back on purchases of clothing and other goods, pointing to a moderation in consumer spending that could temper expectations of an acceleration in economic growth in the third quarter. Other data on Friday showed producer prices recorded their biggest drop in nearly a year in July amid declining costs for services and energy goods.

Globe and Mail

Real Estate Companies

Genesis reports 2016 second quarter results

Genesis Land Development Corp. (GDC-T)

Canada Newswire

Campar Capital Corporation makes qualifying transaction

Campar Capital Corporation, a capital pool company led by CEO Daniel Drimmer, announced that it has agreed to indirectly acquire an approximate 80% interest in a 276-unit apartment community located in San Antonio, Texas as its qualifying transaction pursuant to two purchase and sale agreements made effective August 9, 2016 between the Corporation’s newly created indirect US subsidiary entity and the seller.

Montreal Gazette

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Boardwalk REIT second quarter 2016 results

Boardwalk REIT (BEI.UN-T)

Canada Newswire

InnVest REIT reports second quarter 2016 results

InnVest REIT (INN.UN-T) 

Canada Newswire

NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT second quarter 2016 results

NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT (NWH.UN-T)

Canada Newswire

SmartREIT to issue senior unsecured debentures issue

Smart REIT (SRU.UN-T) has agreed to issue $350 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured debentures on an underwritten basis. The offering is being underwritten by a syndicate co-led and book-run by CIBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets.

Marketwired

Retail

Metro reports higher profit in competitive grocery industry

The Metro (MRU-T) grocery business is reporting a higher profit, more sales growth and a gain in market share during its third quarter. The Montreal-based company says its net profit was up eight per cent from last year, rising to $176.5 million or 72 cents per share.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail

Loblaw’s price war spreads through Canada’s grocery sector

Loblaw Cos. Ltd.’s (L-T) move to reduce the amount it will pay to its major suppliers by 1.45 per cent is reverberating through the grocery sector, with other retailers asking their vendors for the same deal. United Grocers Inc., a buying group for retailers has written to suppliers with requests to match whatever rate they offer to Loblaw.

Globe and Mail

Cineplex profit takes hit on weak spring film slate

Captain America couldn’t rescue Cineplex Inc. (CGX-T) from a 72-per-cent plunge in second-quarter profit as a weaker film slate proved a let-down, even as record demand for premium movie theatres drove higher average spending on tickets and snacks. Attendance of 16.9 million for the three months that ended June 30 was 14.4 per cent lower than the same stretch last year.

Globe and Mail

New Development

Fight over housing density is generational warfare

The battle over densification just got a lot more interesting. It seems this fight is not just folks who want lot splitting and highrise apartments pitted against those who oppose such developments.

Edmonton Journal

Other

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