Artis converting Calgary office spaces for residential use

Artis converting Calgary office spaces for residential use

Artis REIT (AX.UN-T) is preparing to repurpose four of its downtown Calgary offices into residential buildings. The company, founded in 2003, also plans to reclassify a surplus office land site near Stampede Station to accommodate a 300-unit multi-family development. The news follows a Land Use Bylaw amendment made by the city in June which makes it easier to repurpose office spaces. 

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Winnipeg industrial space catches national eye

One of the largest industrial buildings to hit the Winnipeg market in recent years is attracting interest from investors from across the country, according to one of the leasing agents for the Fort Garry property. The building in question is the 412,849-square-foot former TruServe Canada/Ace Canada head office and distribution centre at 1530 Gamble Place.

Winnipeg Free Press

C & W buys 20 VIC, expands services in Canada

Cushman & Wakefield’s acquisition of 20 VIC Management puts the company in the asset services and property management business for the first time in Canada, says Chuck Scott, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Canada. “The asset services business is something that we in Cushman & Wakefield are in in most other geographies around the world, but until now haven’t been in it in Canada,” Scott says.

Property Biz Canada – CoStar Group

JLL to base new property management group in Calgary

Commercial real estate firm JLL has launched a new property management services group in Canada which it says will be a key in the company’s expansion efforts across the country. The initiative will be led by Ron Fiell based in the JLL Calgary office with practice leads in several cities/regions, providing service with local expertise backed by global real estate knowledge, said the company.

Property Biz Canada

Developers help fill Burnaby’s coffers

There are cranes galore and condo towers are popping up all over Burnaby’s major town centres. The physical transformation around Brentwood, Lougheed, Metrotown and Edmonds is dramatic, with nearly 100 new residential buildings underway or in the pipeline. All of this construction is also helping fill the city’s coffers. Burnaby is one of only two municipalities in B.C. that operate debt-free.

Vancouver Sun – Property Biz Canada

North Van. developers to pay higher rates for bigger projects

If you build denser you’ll pay dearer. That’s the message in the City of North Vancouver where rates for community amenity contributions – which tend to be levelled on developers who exceed density guidelines – are set to rise 35 per cent in the city centre and 52 per cent on the outskirts beginning Jan. 1, 2018. 

Business In Vancouver

Amazon’s ambitions big boost to Vancouver’s tech sector

Online retail and technology giant Amazon has been coy about its ambitions for growth in Vancouver, but the careers section of its Canadian website tells part of the story — more than 300 employment postings for skilled tech-sector jobs in the city. It hints at a significant expansion of one of Vancouver’s bigger tech players.

Vancouver Province

Film industry feeling Vancouver’s real estate woes

Adam Hogarth’s job challenge is a byproduct of Vancouver’s empty-home crisis and the region’s real estate market. Hogarth is a location scout for television shows and he’s often on the hunt for old buildings. But Vancouver’s current lust for redevelopment means the old buildings are coming down at a rapid pace: It is a city erasing itself.

Globe and Mail

Chinese e-commerce giant targets Vancouver

After the emergence of smaller, homegrown B.C. players gaining access to China’s booming e-commerce market, the China-based giants of the sector have now started eyeing Canada and Vancouver in their quest to expand beyond Asia. The biggest such player, Beijing-based JD.com, recently made a stop in Vancouver in its three-city Canadian promotional outreach tour.

Business In Vancouver

Morguard acquires Oakville’s Argus Corporate Centre

Morguard Corporation (MRC-T), a fully integrated North American real estate company, announced the company has purchased the Argus Corporate Centre, a five-storey class-A suburban office building located at 586 Argus Road in Oakville. The acquisition was completed for a purchase price of $18.5 million, excluding taxes and transaction costs. 

Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire

Glen Abbey could get heritage protection, halting development

Oakville town council is preparing for a high-profile vote that could give Glen Abbey golf course heritage status, possibly blocking its owner from building thousands of houses on the site. ClubLink Corp. owns and operates the course and has been working for years to win approval to build some 3,000 homes as well as park land, office and residential buildings on the 200-plus acres site. 

CBC – Winnipeg Free Press – Globe and Mail

	B.C. wildfires’ impact on real estate, residents
	The following section of the RENX newsletter is dedicated to news about the wildfires in British Columbia and their impact on real estate.

 

State of emergency extended for third time

British Columbia has extended a province-wide state of emergency because of wildfires that have scorched a record amount of land this season. Chris Duffy of Emergency Management BC said this third extension of the state of emergency is expected to remain in effect until Sept. 1, which will bring its total duration to eight weeks.

Globe and Mail – CBC – Victoria Times Colonist – Victoria Times Colonist

CN Tower was intended to help with communication services

The CN Tower sits nestled among dozens of highrises, but defines Toronto’s skyline. Although the tower is now one of the city’s major tourist attractions — boasting a gravity-defying glass floor, a thrill-seeker’s dream on the EdgeWalk and gourmet cuisine in a revolving restaurant — the tower which once held the world’s tallest free-standing structure title had practical beginnings.

CBC

Architects McKinley Burkart build national presence

A good indicator of an upturn in Calgary’s fortunes is the amount of work currently keeping architects busy, and one of the busiest has to be mcKinley burkart. Founding partner Walker McKinley says there is a real feeling of confidence as new developments and renovation projects are plentiful, both in Calgary and in cities around the world.

Calgary Herald

Seattle hotel will be the largest in the Pacific Northwest

At 1.4 million square feet, the Hyatt Regency Seattle, currently under construction, is destined to become the largest hotel in the Pacific Northwest. The 45-storey, 500-foot-tall tower is composed of two primary volumes. The first is a semi-detached, eight-story podium bisected at street level by a mid-block connector. This podium will comprise 105,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.

Building Design & Construction

Toyota’s new North American HQ opens in Texas

The new Toyota Motor North American Headquarters brings together 19 different corporate functions on one 100-acre campus. The new LEED Platinum campus in Plano, Texas will house more than 4,000 employees, including new hires and relocated workers from the Torrance, Calif., campus. The new campus uses a layout that is 50 per cent open and collaborative with numerous indoor and outdoor places to work.

Building Design & Construction

Market Trends and Research

Kanata, downtown Ottawa office markets ‘turning the corner’: AY

Avison Young said Ottawa’s office market can be characterized as “in recovery” heading into the second half of 2017. “Class-AA buildings had sub-six per cent vacancy at mid-year 2017, with large-block space a rare commodity,” the firm wrote. “While the class-B market continued to struggle, it will not be long before these buildings get pulled along with the low-vacancy wave . . .”

Ottawa Business Journal

U.S. millennials see benefits in malls

Millennials aren’t buying everything online. The demographic, which has fuelled a major disruption in the retail market, does see a benefit to shopping centres, according to Jeff Rinkov, CEO at Lee & Associates. He says millennials may prefer buying items online, but there are some goods millennials would prefer to buy in-store.

GlobeSt.com

Real Estate Companies

China to limit overseas investments in real estate

China’s government is moving to curb domestic companies’ investments abroad in property, sports, entertainment and other fields, following a series of high-profile, multibillion-dollar acquisitions by Chinese firms. A document released Friday by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, was the latest move by regulators to tap the brakes on a string of foreign acquisitions.

CTV

Vegreville facility helping develop Canadian hemp industry

A Vegreville research centre is on the cutting edge of a booming Canadian hemp industry one scientist predicts will be worth $1 billion annually within a few years. That’s roughly five times the industrial hemp industry’s current approximately $200-million value, but InnoTech Alberta’s Jan Slaski says the business is poised to become larger.

Edmonton Journal

TO re-assessing 80 small commercial properties

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation will be re-assessing the value of dozens of Yonge Street commercial properties, which could potentially bring business owners some relief after a 100 per cent tax hike, the neighbourhood’s councillor announced on Friday. About 80 small commercial retail properties in the area’s heritage conservation district will be re-assessed by MPAC.

CBC

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Invest in other countries with Dream Global, AHIP

Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN-T) owns and operates office and mixed-use space, totalling 151 properties with about 12.5 million in square footage in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. As the name suggests, American Hotel Income Properties REIT (HOT.UN-T) invests in hotel properties, primarily in the United States.  

Motley Fool

Retail

Reports: China accuses luxury e-retailer of smuggling

The founder of a Chinese luxury online retailer has been extradited from Indonesia to face charges his company smuggled goods into China by having travellers pretend they were personal belongings, news reports said Monday. Ji Wenhong of Xiu.com joins a growing number of Chinese fugitives who are being returned from abroad to face charges of corruption or financial misconduct.

Winnipeg Free Press

New Development

Colonnade BridgePort seeks more retail amenities on Ottawa site

Local Ciena and BlackBerry QNX employees could see several retail stores appear outside their office if city councillors give the green light to a development application later this month. On Tuesday, the city’s planning committee will consider a request by Ottawa-based property manager and developer Colonnade BridgePort to rezone its two-acre property at 5045 Innovation Dr., at Terry Fox Drive.

Ottawa Business Journal

Infrastructure

Historic eclipse to test U.S. power grids

On Monday, the first total eclipse of its kind in 99 years will plunge broad swaths of the U.S. into darkness, sending solar supplies sliding and testing the resilience of the power grid for the first time since the rapid rise of renewable energy. Grid operators, utilities and electricity generators are bracing for more than 12,000 megawatts of solar power to start falling offline.

Vancouver Sun

Sustainability

Perfect partners in reinventing the wheel

For more than a decade, two local companies have enjoyed what, in many ways, is the perfect partnership. Selkirk-based Gerdau Recycling Manitoba collects wheels of all sizes, shreds the steel rims, then melts down the steel and uses it to make a variety of new products, including grader blades and elevator guide rails.

Winnipeg Free Press

Other

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