Rogers Place opens in downtown Edmonton

Rogers Place opens in downtown Edmonton

The sidewalks are a little dusty and the furious hum of construction work is non-stop, but Rogers Place Edmonton’s downtown arena is officially open for business. After years of squabbling and hardball negotiations, the official ribbon-cutting brought visible relief to the face of Oilers Entertainment Group owner Daryl Katz, as he spoke to celebrities and dignitaries at the event Thursday.

Edmonton Journal – CBC

Grand Villa Casino opens near Edmonton’s Rogers Place

Big-money investors have gambled on Edmonton’s downtown being a hit. Now, regular Edmontonians can hit the downtown to do a little gambling themselves at the new Grand Villa Casiono. Attached to the east end of Rogers Place arena, Tony Santo, CEO of Gateway Casinos and Entertainment said the company spent $32 million to build the new facility.

Edmonton Journal

Edmonton’s Scotia Place redeveloped by Morguard

Edmonton’s Scotia Place will undergo a $22-million, 18-month renovation starting in October that will include the installation of 13,000 glass panels and the redevelopment of its three main entrances. The 567,000-square-foot Scotia Place is located at 10060 Jasper Ave. and was completed in 1983. It’s comprised of a 28-storey tower and a 21-storey tower with common connecting floor plates rising from the third to the sixth floor.

Property Biz Canada

Futurist vision of 2037 to spur interest in YVR

Robot servers and travel assistants. An indoor “vertical garden” growing produce for restaurants in the terminal. An automated parking facility where the building parks the cars. Holograms everywhere. Those are just some of the creative ideas introduced by futurist Nikolas Badminton in a series of “design fiction” stories that envision what Vancouver International Airport could look like by 2037.

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver’s industrial market remains red hot

The longtime shortage of industrial land and buildings in Vancouver is becoming increasingly acute, leading to a surge in prices that have reached new heights — especially in the eastern part of the city. The average industrial building price rose to $414.96 per square foot through June compared to $275.62 in 2015.

Property Biz Canada

REITs will gain prominence from GICS Move

Mike Grupe, NAREIT executive vice president for research and investor outreach, offered his perspective on the implications of real estate being elevated to a new headline sector under the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) starting this month.  Overall, Equity REITs account for more than 95 percent of the equity market capitalization of the new real estate sector.

REIT.com – CNBC – Property Biz Canada

Forbes names Yardi to best 100 cloud companies list

Yardi was named one of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world on the first-ever Forbes 2016 Cloud 100, developed in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners. Inclusion in the Forbes 2016 Cloud 100 list, according to Alex Konrad, Forbes editor of the Cloud 100 list, recognizes a company for its financial growth and excellence as reflected by customers and peers.

CP Executive

Documents details concerns with concrete on Ambassador Bridge

Internal government documents show Transport Canada officials quietly expressed concerns last year about the structural integrity of the Ambassador Bridge. The concerns focused on the bridge’s concrete deck, which supports the roadway used by thousands of vehicles annually.

Windsor Star

No delays in Gordie Howe build, governor’s man insists

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s point man Andy Doctoroff insists it’s all smooth sailing ahead for the Gordie Howe International Bridge project. Doctoroff’s optimism runs contrary to what Detroit-Windsor Bridge Authority interim chairman Dwight Duncan recently told the Star, when he attributed delays in moving ahead on the multibillion-dollar project to property acquisition issues in Detroit.

Windsor Star

HBC loss widens in Q2 on real estate joint ventures

Hudson’s Bay Co. posted a net loss of $142 million in the second quarter amid increased costs from its real estate joint ventures. The Toronto owner of Hudson’s Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue has grown dramatically in the last year, acquiring German department store chain Galeria Kaufhof, online retailer Gilt and forming joint ventures with RioCan REIT and Simon Property Group.

Financial Post

Bradley Wilson is new president at Shoes.com

Vancouver-based e-commerce footwear company Shoes.com announced September 8 that Bradley Wilson is its new president. Wilson comes to the company after serving as a general manager at Expedia, where he was in charge of the company’s Travelocity business. He had been chief marketing officer at Travelocity before that company was sold to Expedia in 2014.

Business in Vancouver

Onex Corp hungry for restaurant, retail deals

Onex Corp. is hungry to buy more companies in the restaurant and retail space, says the firm’s senior managing director. Seth Mersky said that Onex’s biggest problem at the moment is an abundance of cash and a limited number of opportunities to deploy it.

Financial Post

CRE loan delinquencies in U.S. near lowest level in 20 Years

The quality of commercial real estate loans on bank books continued to improve in the second quarter with the exception of the nation’s energy markets. Nationally, the amount of delinquent CRE loans declined about 21% (about $4.6 billion) to $17.78 billion in the past year, according to the latest numbers from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

CoStar Group

More Chinese cases target property in B.C., say lawyers

Lawyers in Vancouver say they are seeing a substantial increase in B.C. court cases filed by Chinese companies seeking to seize real estate assets from Chinese immigrants in B.C. The Chinese plaintiffs are asking B.C. judges to enforce monetary judgments awarded in Chinese courts. These Chinese rulings typically involve people found in China to have defrauded Chinese banks or business partners.

Vancouver Sun

Canada applies to join Chinese infrastructure bank

Key players in the Canadian construction industry are cautiously optimistic Canadian firms and the economy could benefit from the federal government’s plan to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The announcement that Canada will apply to join the AIIB was made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Beijing Aug. 31.

Daily Commercial News

Market Trends and Research

Prologis CEO, Industrial vacancy rates at 20-year lows: video

Prologis Inc., (PLD-N)

Bloomberg

Canadian building permits rise, break two-month slide

The value of Canadian building permits issued in July rose by 0.8 per cent from June, led by authorizations to construct non-residential buildings, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. The increase was less than the 3.0 per cent month-on-month advance predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll. Permits had dropped by 5.3 per cent in June and 2.1 per cent in May.

Globe and Mail

A pillar of this year’s record-setting global bond rally is buckling

One of the pillars of 2016’s record-setting global bond rally is starting to buckle. Japan’s sovereign debt is suffering its worst rout in 13 years, handing investors biggest losses over the past two months than any other government bonds amid speculation the Bank of Japan plans to change its asset-purchase strategy.

Financial Post

Real Estate Companies

Elliot Lake mall ‘a mess’ before its collapse, woman testifies

A former Elliot Lake, Ont., resident told the trial of the discredited engineer charged in the deadly 2012 Algo Centre Mall collapse that the building was a “mess” just months before the disaster. Bonnie Ladell, the second witness at the Ontario Superior Court trial in Sault Ste. Marie, began her testimony Thursday morning in the Crown’s case against Robert Wood.

CBC.ca

BrightPath completes transformative Peekaboo acquisition

BrightPath Early Learning Inc., a leading Canadian provider of high-quality, comprehensive early childhood education and care, announced today it has closed its transformative acquisition of 20 Peekaboo child care centres located in the Greater Toronto Area. This acquisition was first announced on June 28, 2016.

Canada Newswire

Zaio Corporation announces departure of Phil Wazonek as President and COO

Zaio Corporation (ZAO-X) announced that Phil Wazonek has been relieved of his duties as President and COO of Zaio Corporation effective immediately. As Mr. Wazonek’s contract does not expire until December 31, 2016 he will fulfill the role of special advisor and specific project lead, as directed by the CEO Shane Copeland. At this time, no replacement has been appointed.

Canada Newswire

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their second-quarter 2016 results. Have we missed any?  Canadian REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

This real estate expert likes these 3 REITs

Derek Warren has become one of Canada’s foremost experts in real estate investing. Warren, who has 18 years of experience in the industry, arrived on the scene with Morguard Corporation back in 1998. He then moved on to Lincluden Investment Management where he became the manager of the CIBC Real Estate Fund – a position he’s held since late 2012.

Motley Fool

New Development

Tender for Memorial University science building on hold

Memorial University is trying to find savings in its plan for a new core science building after bids for the major construction of the building came in too high. A spokesperson from MUN said tenders for the major construction of the building were above budget, and now the university is reworking the specifics for the project in an effort to bring down costs.

CBC.ca

Sports Venues

Possible sports training academy considered for Northlands

A council vote Tuesday opens the door for a serious talk with Hockey Canada about a possible training academy in the Northlands Coliseum. Interested hoteliers and other potential partners can also expect a phone call as city officials promised to consult and bring a report back on a multiplex — possibly with multiple sports — by early next year.

Edmonton Journal

Renovation and Restoration

Federal, provincial cash spurs building upgrades at University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is embarking on a massive improvement project to modernize its research facilities following the announcement of $82.5 million in federal and provincial grants. A list of 10 infrastructure projects, totalling about $132 million over the next two years, was unveiled Thursday.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

Ottawa Mayor pushes for downtown truck tunnel

Mayor Jim Watson will ask the province and feds to split the cost of a study to build a truck tunnel through the downtown core.  The transportation committee gave Watson the go-ahead to start negotiating a cost-sharing agreement to study a downtown tunnel bypass connecting trucks and cars from the Macdonald-Cartier bridge to Highway 417 using the Vanier Parkway interchange.

Ottawa Business Journal

Sustainability

Saskatchewan resort village to raise berms, hold back rising lake

A popular Saskatchewan tourist destination is getting help to hold back rising water that threatens the community and a camp for disabled persons.  The provincial government has approved spending of up to $3.9 million to raise berms by one metre in the resort village of Manitou Beach.

CBC

Burnaby investigating construction sediment runoff

The developer for Eastlake Campus in Burnaby says the sediment runoff into Silver Creek last weekend was an accident caused by an extreme weather event. Norm Couttie, president of Adera, said crews were expecting some rain, but not the 30 millimetres that drenched the construction site, located at the foot of Burnaby Mountain.

The Province

Other

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