Cominar REIT to sell all non-core real estate

Cominar REIT to sell all non-core real estate

Cominar REIT (CUF.UN-T) will sell its entire real estate portfolio outside of its core markets of the Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa/Gatineau areas in a bid to reduce debt and improve its balance sheet. The sale of its Toronto, Western Canada and Atlantic Canada assets could easily generate more than their fair market value of $1.2 billion, said Cominar CEO Michel Dallaire.

Property Biz Canada

NCC blames financial shortfall for deteriorating buildings

Bridges, roads, paths and buildings across the capital region that are owned by the National Capital Commission are crumbling and the commission doesn’t have the funding to fix them. The auditor general, who reviewed the agency, and found while it’s generally well run, it doesn’t have the capacity to fix everything it owns. Nicholas Galletti, the NCC’s director of communications, doesn’t disagree.

Metro News – CBC – Ottawa Citizen

The Bow front and centre on Calgary sublease market

When the Bow tower was built in 2012 in the heart of Calgary, it was a symbol to the rest of the world the city was an economic powerhouse. The just under two-million-square-foot, 58-storey skyscraper, the tallest one west of Toronto at the time, was Encana’s signature headquarters building in the oilpatch, illustrating the company’s success and the city’s stature on the global energy front.

Property Biz Canada

‘Signs of recovery’ in Calgary CRE market: Barclay Street

After suffering through a vicious economic downturn for two years, investment in Calgary’s commercial real estate market is on the road to recovery. “Signs of recovery illuminate Calgary’s commercial real estate investment market,” says David Wallach, president and broker of Barclay Street Real Estate.

Property Biz Canada

What to do with Calgary’s empty skyscrapers?

Picture Calgary’s downtown core, where tall office towers and cranes working on the next big project have long dominated the skyline. Today, the equivalent of one in four of those buildings sits empty. The city’s record-high downtown vacancy rate has even surpassed that of Manhattan at the height of the Great Depression. That’s a major problem for Calgary.

Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald

Melcor has many big commitments in Calgary

The Trans-Canada Highway near Canada Olympic Park has been a busy construction area for a long, long time. The intersection at Sarcee Trail remains a bit of a maze, but the new turnoff to Bowfort Road is now much improved. That’s good news for Melcor Developments as the company progresses with its Greenwich project, a 70-acre residential, retail and office development.

Calgary Herald – Property Biz Canada

ReDev sells second Edmonton retail property

ReDev Properties Ltd., has sold its second Edmonton retail property in the past three months, announcing Wednesday it has an unconditional agreement to sell the Daly Grove Centre. Located at 4205-4259 23rd Avenue, Daly Grove Centre has 33,311 square feet of rentable retail and office space in the residential Mill Woods area.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

JR Mercantile adding staff, filling retail spaces

Jeff Robson started his own commercial real estate company two years ago from a small 1st Street S.W. office. Today, JR Mercantile Real Estate Advisors is housed on the top floor of a 4th Street S.W. office, where experienced professionals Mark Biglow and Stephen Travers have joined as vice-presidents and associates.

Calgary Herald

Cariboo Mountains proposed ski resort garners support

Standing on top of a mountain, stirred by the force of nature all around him, Oberto Oberti always undergoes something like a religious experience. Today, at 73, Oberti is hoping to make a new dream in the mountains a reality. The place is among the high peaks of the Premier Range in B.C.’s Cariboo Mountains.

Globe and Mail

Mixed uses converge at TO’s Junction Triangle

Castlepoint Numa president Alfredo Romano is the first to admit a soul-crushing process that careens dangerously close to failure and burns years off your life can sometimes have a happy ending. At least that’s his conclusion after overcoming one obstacle after another, in a journey at times resembling the Labours of Hercules, to build a new community in Toronto’s old Junction Triangle.

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada

Goodmans, Osler source of Canada’s in-house CRE lawyers

Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Goodmans LLP, two of Canada’s leading national law firms, seem to be breeding grounds for in-house counsel in the CRE sector. Four lawyers now prominent in real estate industry law departments once worked on the same floor in Osler’s Toronto offices. At least three can trace their careers back to Goodmans.

Financial Post

	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.

 

B.C. builders face unpredictable price hikes

With two of the largest lumber-producing areas and both of the largest plywood/sheathing production regions in B.C. hit by wildfires for much of the summer, builders are facing unpredictable price hikes and diminished supply. To get mills back up and running can take weeks, in part because infrastructure, including roads and communities, has to be repaired and rebuilt.

Daily Commercial News – CTV – CBC

Wildfire east of Kelowna only kilometre from homes

A wildfire that broke out Thursday in B.C.’s Okanagan region is threatening homes and has forced about 1,100 people to flee. On Friday morning, the B.C. Wildfire Service said the fire crept closer to homes overnight. Fire information officer Justine Hunse said flames were only about a kilometre from houses. She said more firefighting resources were being brought in Friday morning.

CBC – CTV – Globe and Mail – Global News

Downtown Victoria experiencing building boom

A new wave of residential and commercial towers is going up in downtown Victoria that is reminiscent of Vancouver’s downtown revival in the early 1990s. “There are cranes everywhere,” said Kathy Hogan, the vice-chair of the Downtown Victoria Business Association and head of the Urban Development Institute for the capital region.

Vancouver Sun – Property Biz Canada

Major changes for Westcorp’s Kelowna hotel, conference centre

Westcorp hotel and conference centre developers have gone back to the drawing board and will now once again need city approval due to major changes to the initial plan. The 24-storey project was approved by Kelowna city council in 2014. Now developers are proposing a 32-storey building, adding condominiums and a restaurant to the top floors.

Global News – Kelowna Daily Courier – Western Investor

Related seeks extra financing for Hudson Yards

Related Companies is seeking $30 million more in EB-5 financing for 35 and 55 Hudson Yards and the Western Rail Yards. The company is looking for $10 million each for 35 and 55 Hudson Yards — respectively, a 1.1 million-square-foot mixed-use tower and a 1.7 million-square-foot office building. In June, Related and Oxford Properties Group sought $380 million for the towers and for a platform over the rail yards.

The Real Deal

E&Y might relocate to Brookfield’s Manhattan West

Negotiations are actively moving along for a possible relocation by Ernst & Young to Brookfield’s Manhattan West. The professional-services giant is in talks for around 400,000 square feet. Ernst & Young is currently at 5 Times Square. Asking rents at Manhattan West run to $105 per square foot.

New York Post

Market Trends and Research

Real-estate hot spots draw world’s affluent

Wealthy people often have business and investment interests around the globe. As such, they are drawn to foreign real estate. New York has one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the world, says Winston Chesterfield, Wealth-X‘s director of custom research. But other cities are climbing the list, especially those in the booming tech sector, such as San Francisco.

Globe and Mail

Extended Stay hotel, LCBO land sales lead Ottawa investments

Despite a soft second quarter, commercial real estate experts say they’re expecting 2017 to be “one of the most significant years on record” for investment sales in Ottawa. The local office of real estate services firm CBRE said in a report last week the investment market lost some steam in the second quarter, with transactions totalling $304.6 million.

Ottawa Business Journal

REIT Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Fronsac REIT, (GAZ.UN-X), Marketwired 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Is CAPREIT a buy after a strong Q2?

Canadian Apartment Properties REIT‘s (CAR.UN-T) second-quarter results showed revenues climbing to $157 million — up seven per cent year-over-year. Profits in Q2 were also strong at more than $102 million, and although they’re down from the previous three quarters, they were up by over four per cent from a year ago. It has also been showing strong growth over the years. 

Motley Fool

Legal Corner

Former bridge official pleads guilty to taking bribes from SNC-Lavalin

In Michel Fournier’s case, crime really did not pay. The former head of the corporation that maintains the Jacques Cartier and Champlain bridges pleaded guilty to accepting more than $2.3 million in bribes from SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal-based engineering firm, between 2001 and 2003. He was left with nothing to show for his crimes, besides a 66-month prison sentence.

Montreal Gazette

Retail

Sears to close more U.S. stores

Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD-Q) says it will close even more stores in the U.S. following declining sales and heightened competition in its fiscal second quarter. The retailer has been trying to cut costs by closing stores, including 180 this year, and already had plans to cut another 150 stores. It now plans to shutter an additional 28 Kmart stores. 

Globe and Mail – Reuters – Toronto Star – Motley Fool

HBC’s president of international business leaving

Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Co (HBC-T) said Thursday the head of its international business, Don Watros, would leave the company at the end of September, but did not name his successor. Watros has been with the company for 11 years and led its expansion into Europe, Hudson’s Bay said. He has also served as chief operating officer of the company. 

Reuters – CBC

Restaurants and Eateries

Joseph Richard Van.’s fastest-growing restaurant operator

While many pub and restaurant owners find it a big enough challenge to successfully run one establishment, several Vancouver companies have found a winning formula capable of helping them expand to many establishments as well as liquor stores. The fastest-growing pub and restaurant venture in the past five years in B.C. is Joseph Richard Group (JRG).

Business In Vancouver

New Development

Ottawa landowners plan redevelopment of property destroyed by fire

A new three-storey building, with retail storefronts and two levels of rental apartments, could soon fill a Somerset Street West lot left vacant by a massive fire nearly two years ago. In October 2015, a four-alarm fire gutted a pair of buildings near the intersection of Somerset and Percy streets on the edge of Ottawa’s Chinatown.

Ottawa Business Journal

Infrastructure

Metrolinx appoints ex-Scotland rail head new CEO

Metrolinx selected an experienced rail operator as the public transit agency’s new chief executive on the eve of a vast $34-billion expansion. But, Phil Verster also comes with a history of public uproar over late trains and missed targets at the British railways he’s operated.

Globe and Mail – CBC

Other

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