Edmonton’s Blatchford development ready for buildings

Edmonton’s Blatchford development ready for buildings

With more than eight kilometres of pipe in the ground and the first paved road, city officials are keen to see buildings go up in Blatchford next year. “We’re making exactly the kind of progress we’re intending to do,” said development manager Mark Hall in a report.  There are 60 builders who responded to the city’s proposal call willing to commit to townhouses and low-rise apartments move-in ready by 2019.

Edmonton Journal

Small businesses snap up downtown Calgary offices

Soaring vacancy and plunging leasing costs in Calgary’s downtown office market have opened the door for many companies to set up shop in the core – an opportunity they would not have had when the city’s economy was booming. “. . . when oil was at $100 it was a bad business decision to try and compete with the oil companies for the space . . .” says lawyer Timothy O’Hara.

Property Biz Canada

U.S. mall owner GGP rejects Brookfield Property’s offer

GGP Inc. (GGP.N), one of the largest owners and operators of U.S. shopping centers, has rejected a initial $14.8 billion buyout offer from its biggest shareholder, Brookfield Property Partners LP (BPY-UN.T). Brookfield Property made a $23-per-share cash and stock offer last month for the 66 percent of GGP it does not already own. 

Reuters – Bloomberg

From Mideast to Metro Vancouver, a developer’s story

Amber sunlight sifts onto Melville Street below where Mohammed Esfahani, president of Qualex-Landmark Group, has his office. The company, he said, is a boutique developer, and while Vancouver wrestles with big-picture issues of supply, he prefers to work at a human scale. “The measure of accomplishment is the design, the quality, the reputation rather than mass production,” Esfahani said. 

Business In Vancouver

Golpro Holdings puts the tenant experience first

Goldy Singh was well aware of the highs and lows of CRE when his firm, Golpro Holdings, acquired its first properties in 2014. Singh founded the company with the intention of ensuring he offered tenants an exemplary experience, and success at delivering on that commitment has led Golpro to increase its holdings to now include owning and/or managing 10 properties totalling almost 250,000 square feet.

Ottawa Business Journal

Chatting with Landa CEO Kevin Cheung

As part of a so-called astronaut family, property developer Kevin Cheung opens up about being raised in Vancouver while his father remained in China. The 29-year-old’s family reunited only once or twice a year after he immigrated to Canada as a toddler with his mother. The co-founder and CEO of Landa Global Properties Ltd earned a bachelor of commerce from UBC’s Sauder School of Business. 

BCBusiness

Prince Rupert forced to own an island it didn’t want

For previous generations of Prince Rupert residents, Watson Island is a symbol of wealth and jobs, says Coun. Blair Mirau.  “But for people my age,” he said. “It’s a symbol of economic decline.”  Mirau was 11 years old when the Skeena Cellulose pulp mill, which operated on the island, filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The mill spent years as both the North Coast city’s main employer and the source of roughly 1/3 of tax revenues.

CBC

Automotive Properties REIT to buy Montreal dealership site

Automotive Properties REIT (APR.UN-T) has entered into an agreement to purchase the Mazda des Sources automotive dealership property in suburban Montreal, Quebec for a purchase price of approximately $8.0 million.  The Property includes a newly built, 16,700 square-foot, full-service Mazda dealership facility located on approximately 1.7 acres in a busy commercial area of Dorval.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Starlight acquires Dallas multi-family property

Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 5) Core Fund (STUS-A-X) announced late Friday it has acquired The Callie, a 261-unit multi-family property completed in 2016 and located in Dallas, for approximately US$48.05 million. The acquisition of The Callie was completed utilizing the tax-deferred proceeds from the recently announced sale of The Reserve at Jones Road, the proceeds from a recently completed refinancing and with cash on hand.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Northview Apartment REIT completes acquisition of 1,250 units

Northview Apartment REIT (NVU.UN-T) has closed the previously announced acquisition of a 1,250 unit portfolio for an aggregate purchase price of $196.8 million with a weighted average capitalization rate of 4.4% in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. In addition, Northview has closed the sale of a 216 unit non-core asset located in Kitchener, ON, for $37.7 million.

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada

The death of the department store (1796-2017)

In 1796, a company called Harding, Howell & Co. opened the Grand Fashionable Magazine in London.  The true department store era didn’t begin until well into the 1800s, with the founding of Le Bon Marché in Paris, Harrods in London and R.H. Macy & Co. in the U.S. In Canada, the era was defined by three names—Eaton’s, Simpson’s and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Maclean’s

How Canadians are constructing NA’s biggest green buildings

In January, tenants will move into a six-storey Vancouver apartment building designed to be so energy efficient, you could heat each bedroom with a 100-watt light bulb. Boasting a total of 85 studio, one- and two-bedroom units, The Heights at 388 Skeena St. will be the largest “passive house” building in Canada.

CBC

Implications of a tight office market and Amazon’s HQ2

Since early September the real estate world has been enthralled by Amazon’s search for a second home, and justifiably so. The new co-headquarters is being billed as opportunity to bring more than 50,000 full-time jobs to the winning metro, a tantalizing prize for any governor or mayor.  Nearly 240 cities raced to meet the RFP’s response deadline by mid-October focused on fulfilling all its requirements.

CoStar Group

CPPIB invests in Goodman Hong Kong Logistics fund

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is expanding its Asia logistics partnership with Australia’s Goodman by investing U.S. $248 million in a Hong Kong warehouse development scheme. The investment will earn the global fund management giant an unspecified stake in Hong Kong’s largest industrial vehicle Goodman Hong Kong Logistics Partnership, which currently has a portfolio of 13 assets totalling U.S.$3.68 billion.

MingTiandi – IPE Real Assets

Newmark Knight Frank parent ready to shop IPO

Newmark Group, Inc., a commercial real estate and advisory firm that includes brokerage Newmark Knight Frank (NKF), has set terms for an initial public offering aimed at raising $615 million. Newmark, backed by NKF parent firm BGC Partners, Inc. (BGCP-Q), announced this week it will launch its “road show” in offering an initial 30 million shares of common stock.

CoStar Group

Market Trends and Research

Canadians’ Black Friday spending hits a plateau: study

Canadians’ spending at “Black Friday” shopping events seems to have peaked, according to new spending data. Moneris, Canada’s largest processor of electronic payments, reports that year over year, shopping on Black Friday 2017 saw a slight 4.5 per cent increase in spending over Black Friday 2016.

Ottawa Citizen

This Canadian city has the lowest business taxes

Saskatoon has the most competitive tax rates on business investments of any major city in Canada, beating Calgary for the third straight year following recent tax hikes in the Alberta region. Policy think-tank C.D. Howe Institute released its annual report card on Wednesday that measures the marginal effective tax rate (METR) on new business investments in Canada’s biggest cities.

Financial Post

An insider’s guide to real estate syndication

When the equity for what would become New York City’s tallest residential skyscraper came together, it looked less like a partnership than a billionaire boys club. More than 200 ultra-high-net-worth investors crowded into the capital stack for a piece of 432 Park Avenue, CIM Group and Macklowe Properties project that sought to oust One57 as the city’s priciest condominium.

The Real Deal

Tax plan crowns a big winner: Trump’s industry

After a frenzy of congressional action to rewrite the tax code, salesclerks and chief executives are calculating their gains. Business was treated with the everyone’s-a-winner approach that ensures no summer camper goes home without a trophy. Perhaps the biggest winner is the industry where President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made their millions: commercial real estate.

CNBC – Forbes

Real Estate Companies

Impark deploys new parking app in Canada

Imperial Parking Canada Corporation (Impark) has deployed hangTag™, a new parking app at its parking facilities throughout Canada.  HangTag allows parkers to conveniently locate parking facilities on a map, view lot details, get driving directions, and pay for parking without going to the meter. The app also provides an early notification when a session is about to expire, allowing parkers to extend time right from their phone.

Canada Newswire

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Retail

DavidsTea is evaluating its strategic options

Canadian beverage retailer DavidsTea is evaluating its strategic options more than two years after it went public and soon after rival Teavana shut its doors. The Montreal-based company announced the move Thursday while reporting weaker than expected third-quarter results.

Financial Post

Dollarama beats expectations as sales continue to rise

The Canadian discount giant now has 1,135 stores, up from 1,069 stores a year ago. Dollarama Inc. (DOL-T) says it earned $130.1 million in its third quarter, up from $110.1 million in the same quarter last year, boosted by higher sales.

Financial Post

Farm Boy opens Ottawa’s Rideau Centre food court

A new Farm Boy location opened at the Rideau Centre on Saturday with a bigger selection of ready-made food to go. The official opening of its newest “urban fresh food experience” took place in the former food court of the newly renovated downtown mall.

Ottawa Citizen

Strip malls Toronto’s final independent commerce outposts

When Drake and Rihanna shot the music video for Work at the Real Jerk on Gerrard St. E. last year, it seemed just about perfect. Not just because it’s an awesome place, but because the story of that restaurant, and how it wound up there, was an interesting episode symbolic of Toronto’s commercial and cultural evolution.

Toronto Star

Restaurants and Eateries

Goodfood Market Corp.’s first full year as a meal kit company

Three years back Jonathan Ferrari and Neil Cuggy — two Montrealers and two former RBC bankers — launched the country’s first meal-kit company, Goodfood Market Corp. The idea was that customers would select the food they required for the week based on recipes supplied by the company and within a short period the food and the cooking instructions would arrive in a box.

Financial Post

Flexday redefines workspace with off peak restaurant space

Open-concept offices have become the norm, touted for helping to promote a tight-knit company culture and a collaborative atmosphere. But for many employees, the office is just about the last place you want to be when you need to hunker down and do some distraction-free thinking.

Canada Newswire

New Development

​All-day 2-way GO Toronto-Kitchener-Waterloo feasible with funding

All-day two-way GO service between Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo by 2024  is doable according to a local transit planning expert, but only if the Liberals throw enough money at the project to get past any unforeseen snags.  “There’s really no technical reason, no physical reason why we can’t have two-way all-day GO service by 2024,” said Jeff Casello, professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning.

CBC

Contractor who built TD Place veil rebounding from bankruptcy

When the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders clash at TD Place in Sunday’s Grey Cup, Eric Sommer intends to give the spectacle a pass. It was his company that built the distinctive wooden veil that adorns the stadium entrance. Seeing that backdrop, even on television, would simply conjure up too many painful memories.

Ottawa Citizen

Sports Venues

Seattle arena overhaul could benefit Canucks Nation

Seattle city council has approved a memorandum of understanding with Oak View Group to revamp Seattle’s Key Arena, which first broke ground back in 1960. The project is worth an estimated US$600 million. It would “provide a world-class civic arena to attract and present music, entertainment and sports events, potentially including National Basketball Association and National Hockey League events to Seattle and the region.”

Business in Vancouver

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