Corner store king Alain Bouchard pursues global conquest

Corner store king Alain Bouchard pursues global conquest

Alain Bouchard in the late 1970s bought a corner store in St. Jérôme, just north of Montreal. Today, the chairman of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ATD.A-T) is one of Canada’s wealthiest entrepreneurs. Couche-Tard has become so big that next year it is set become Canada’s largest company on global revenue of $50 billion.

Financial Post

Hudson’s Bay fined for releasing PCBs into river

The Hudson’s Bay company was fined $765,000 for illegally releasing pollutants into the St. Lawrence River. Prosecutor Frédéric Hivon said the incident happened in May 2011, when electric transformers on the roof of the company’s store in downtown Montreal broke and 146 kilograms of PCBs spilled out, 48 of which ended up in the river.

CBC

Winners and losers in the suburban office market

While the intensification-mixed-use office building boom is getting most of the headlines among those who follow the real estate industry, suburban office is not going away. That was one of the key takeaways from a state of the office market panel at last week’s Toronto Real Estate Forum.

Property Biz Canada

NKFD report on Toronto’s industrial market

In its Industrial Real Estate Market Research study published today, Newmark Knight Frank Devencore (NKFD) reported that availability rates in the Greater Toronto Area’s dynamic industrial market have dropped to 3.4%, a historic low. This low availability rate has been reached despite the 3.3 million square feet of new inventory that was delivered over the past six months.

Marketwired

‘One-of-a-kind’ medical clinic to be built in east Regina

Eastgate Alliance Centre, a suburban medical clinic under construction at 2075 Prince of Wales Dr. in east Regina, is being touted as the first of its kind in the city, the province — even the country.  The 52,000-square-foot building will have about 40 physicians, a walk-in clinic, heated parking, physiotherapy and other medical services, all under one roof.

Leader Post

Proment continues its green ways with newest building

For Quebec’s Proment Corporation, its newly announced 36-storey condo development, EVOLO X, will be the latest green building in its seven year build-out of the Pointe-Nord ecological neighbourhood on Nun’s Island, minutes from downtown Montreal.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Metro Vancouver’s new Evergreen Line boosts suburban options

The opening of Metro Vancouver’s Evergreen Line SkyTrain extension last week will boost high-density development at the line’s suburban stations, making the Tri-Cities region more attractive to developers and new residents, say local experts and stakeholders.

Property Biz Canada

Edmonton hotel’s new life as downtown boutique inn

One of Edmonton’s oldest hotels is being transformed into a funky boutique inn from a rundown relic to serve the city’s revitalized downtown core. The Grand Hotel, built in stages at 103 Street and 103 Avenue starting in 1904, closed in August for major renovations and will reopen New Year’s Eve as the Crash Hotel.

Edmonton Journal

Ottawa construction firm Bassi sells 70% stake for $24.5M

An Alberta-based investment firm says it’s purchased a major stake in a local general contractor. Ottawa-based Bassi Construction is a 50-year-old multidisciplinary firm with more than 120 employees specializing in construction, commercial renovations, tenant fit-ups and fire/flood repairs.

Ottawa Business Journal – Property Biz Canada

Canucks adding The Sportsbar to Rogers Arena

When the Vancouver Canucks host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 16, there will be hundreds of fans who didn’t pay to get into the building. They will be watching from the The Sportsbar at Rogers Arena, the latest component of a three-tower commercial and residential transformation that the Canucks owners have been undertaking in and around the home of the NHL team.

Vancouver Sun

GSM Project to design observation deck on N.Y. skyscraper

GSM Project, based in Montreal, is collaborationg with SL Green Realty Corp. on the design of the upcoming observation deck experience at One Vanderbilt, a 1,401-foot skyscraper scheduled to open in New York City in 2020. One Vanderbilt will be located just west of Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal and will be home to an observation deck sitting more than 1,000 feet above the city.

Canada Newswire

Kheng Ly, Brivia receive Canada China Business Excellence Award

Montreal real estate developer Kheng Ly and his company, Brivia Management, the development and construction manager of the YUL Condominiums project in downtown Montreal, have been recognized with a Business Excellence Award from the Canada China Business Council (CCBC).

Canada Newswire

CBRE adds retail project manager Skye Group

CBRE acquired privately held Skye Group, a national retail project management firm led by Brad Sanders who founded the company in Cleveland in 2000. Skye provides a wide range of project management, development and tenant coordination services to shopping center owners and investors in the U.S. and Canada.

CoStar Group

U.S. household wealth rose $1.59-trillion in Q3

Household wealth in the U.S. accelerated in the third quarter, driven by higher financial assets and real-estate values. Net worth for households and non-profit groups rose by $1.59 trillion, or 1.8 percent, to a record $90.2 trillion in July through September from the previous three months, according to Fed’s financial accounts report, previously known as flow of funds survey.

Bloomberg

Ground breaking for SF’s second-tallest tower

Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings has broken ground on Oceanwide Center, a mixed-use project including two towers, one that will stand second only to Salesforce Tower as the tallest building in San Francisco. The taller of the structures in the two-building project rising at First and Mission in the Transbay district will be 910 feet.

CoStar Group

Featured Column

A railway boom for Ontario and Quebec is long overdue

Shortly after the Liberal win in the last federal election, I wrote about how today’s infrastructure builds become tomorrow’s real estate investments. It’s what happens after the construction workers go home that truly matters.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Property tax concessions have huge cost in N.B.

Up to $3.5 billion worth of property in New Brunswick enjoys some kind of special tax treatment, a tradition of concessions that has cost the province an estimated $380 million, plus interest, over nearly four decades. A CBC News investigation into special tax deals was launched after Premier Brian Gallant challenged the public to help him identify deals that were “not equitable.”

CBC

Retail

Second Cup leases prominent West Wellington retail space

World of Mocha? Second Cup leases prominent West Wellington retail space. Second Cup will construct one of its new café concept stores in the former World of Maps storefront on Wellington Street West as the Canadian coffee chain attempts to regain market share lost in recent years to its expanding competitors.

Ottawa Business Journal

Winter goods retailers not yet ready for colder weather

A year after warm weather curtailed their Christmas cheer, Canadian winter sport vehicle and apparel retailers aren’t ready to pop the champagne despite a forecasted return to seasonally colder temperatures and snow. Following two challenging winters, retailers are cautious after enduring another late start to the season.

The Chronicle Herald

Lululemon Athletica stock surges most in 8 years

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU-Q) quelled industry skeptics with a 28 per cent jump in third quarter profit Wednesday as the sportswear retailer raised its outlook for the year. Thursday, the stock surged 21.5 per cent to US$72.70, the biggest gain in more than eight years.

Edmonton Journal

Retailers injecting creativity to drive store visits

Retailers are putting more emphasis on the customer’s in-store experiences as advertising media and stores begin to swap traditional roles. Sport Chek’s newest downtown Vancouver store already has a gait analysis machine to help runners select the best footwear for their biomechanics. Best Buy’s local Google shop lets customers “fly over” the planet with Portal, a giant immersive Google Earth display.

Vancouver Sun

Restaurants and Eateries

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New Development

Edmonton to fight icy winter blasts with urban design

City council will be asked to endorse a set of winter design recommendations Tuesday that could fundamentally shift what it’s like to walk outside in Edmonton. While the winter strategy so far has been about celebrating frost and outdoor beauty, this is about actually being warmer.

Calgary Herald

Development waiver issued in error a one time error

An error that resulted in a Yaletown condo project being mistakenly granted a development cost levy waiver for which it did not qualify was a one-time, isolated incident, according to an internal review. DCL waivers are a financial incentive offered by the City of Vancouver to developers who agree to build affordable rental housing.

Vancouver Sun

Parking overlooked in rush to embrace Ottawa hospital site

Fiasco was a word that readily came to mind when describing the mess over where to build a new Ottawa hospital. Now, it seems, madness might be a better word. For illustrative purposes only. How – other than “madness” – can you describe the prospect of building a new hospital without adequate parking for the thousands of people who will visit it every hour of every day?

Ottawa Business Journal

Infrastructure

Editorial: Don’t privatize Calgary’s airport

Perhaps you can’t blame the federal Liberal government for musing about selling off Canada’s airports, and getting its hands on the proceeds, but it’s an idea that should never take off. The fact is our airports are well managed and too important to place in the hands of private business.

Calgary Herald

International

CBRE Global Investors raises €753m for second shopping centre fund

CBRE Global Investors has raised €753m for its second shopping centre fund. The European Shopping Centre Fund II (ESCF II), which was oversubscribed, is expected to deliver an 11% net IRR.

IPE Real Estate

How Canada’s sales tax got wrongly targeted by Trump’s team

When Donald Trump goes to Washington he’ll be bringing with him the economic advice of two men that have made it clear Canadians need to watch their back. Wilbur Ross, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Commerce Secretary, and Peter Navarro, an economics professor and an adviser to Trump, released an important paper in September criticizing foreign value-added taxes.

Financial Post

Other

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