Devimco unveils mixed-use project on former hospital site

Devimco unveils mixed-use project on former hospital site

Developer Devimco Immobilier unveiled its plan Thursday for a $400-million mixed-use residential and commercial development project at the site of the former Montreal Children’s Hospital, which the city hopes will help revitalize the western sector of the downtown core.

Montreal Gazette – Canada Newswire

Angels to help a new generation of real estate developers

A group of angel investors and the Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ have teamed up to help create a new generation of real estate developers in Quebec. The deal with investor group Anges Québec “will allow for the emergence of a generation of rising developers and support existing developers who need more liquidity,” says Normand Bélanger, president and CEO of the Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ.

Property Biz Canada

Fonds de solidarité FTQ and partners invest in JLR

Launched in 1986 by Jacques Laroche, JLR develops innovative solutions based on property data. JLR simplifies property data research and facilitates real estate transactions. Its secure research website allows users to obtain all legal information related to a property, evaluate its market value and prospect for new clients.

Canada Newswire

Windmill wants funds from city to clean up Zibi site

The companies behind the Zibi development are seeking up to $60 million from the City of Ottawa to restore heritage buildings, remove soil and clean up toxic chemicals on the former Domtar site.  The companies say the clean up will an increase property tax revenues by more than $10 million a year by 2019.

Ottawa Citizen

Toronto council freezes ‘wild west demolition’ of buildings

Hundreds of buildings will be temporarily protected from demolition in the King Street West and Spadina Avenue area under a new motion passed by city council on Wednesday.  A one-year freeze on demolition of potentially historic addresses will buy time while a new heritage district plan is put in place.

CBC

Financial services continue to drive office market

While new technology will increasingly impact Canadian financial services, a new joint report from CBRE Limited and GWL Realty Advisors says the sector will continue to be a key long-term driver of office space demand.

Property Biz Canada

SmartREIT secures GFL Environmental HQ in KPMG tower

Smart Real Estate Investment Trust (SRU.UN-X) announced that they have completed a 65,000 square foot, 11 year plus two 5 year extensions lease transaction with GFL in the KPMG Tower at SmartCentres Place in Vaughan. The recently opened 360,000 square foot KPMG Tower has direct access to the VMC subway station, which connects to downtown Toronto.

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada

Fengate breaks ground on the Oak West Corporate Centre

Fengate Real Asset Investments has broken ground on the Oak West Corporate Centre in Oakville. This new flex office development is located just south of the Q.E.W., near the intersection of Burloak Drive and Great Lakes Boulevard.

Canada Newswire

Booming investment continues; tech workers seek cheaper digs

Details aren’t being disclosed regarding the stunning $400 million investment a foreign purchaser made in the Lower Mainland on November 15, but it’s the kind of deal that astonishes Jon Ramscar. Ramscar, a senior vice-president with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in Vancouver, told an Urban Land Institute audience last month.

Business in Vancouver

First glimpse inside the new Edmonton Tower

City of Edmonton offices are on the move and will be for the next seven months. Beginning in November and going until July 2017, 3,000 city staff will relocate, with 2,300 of them going to the new city tower down the street from City Hall.

Edmonton Journal

Sobeys owner eyes ways to stabilize business

The owner of the Sobeys grocery business has hired consultants to recommend cost cuts across the company, which has struggled to remain profitable since its 2013 acquisition of Safeway’s stores in Western Canada. The national retailer saw its second-quarter profit fall by more than 50 per cent from last year.

Toronto Star – Financial Post – Financial Post

SkipTheDishes gobbled up by Britain’s Just Eat

Winnipeg-based food delivery company SkipTheDishes Restaurant Services Inc. has been purchased by Britain’s Just Eat PLC in a deal that could be worth up to $200-million. It is one of the biggest “exits” of a Canadian startup in 2016, making SkipTheDishes one of the first firms financed through Ottawa’s Venture Capital Action Plan to deliver concrete returns.

Globe and Mail – Winnipeg Free Press

Costco set to open its first Canadian office, business supplies store

Costco Wholesale Corp. is taking its no-frills, bulk-buying strategy to the office and business supplies market, threatening to shake up a retail segment that has already felt the pinch of digital disruption. U.S. retail giant Costco is set to launch its first Business Centre store in Canada.

Globe and Mail

Beachclub to build floating bar to tour the continent

It started out as a taste of Miami in Quebec, and now the famed Beachclub plans to export its business model to Miami, among other major cities.The owners of the dance bar, restaurant, pool and beach situated in Pointe-Calumet near Oka are building a floating bar they say will host parties while tied up to docks or piers in major cities around the continent.

Montreal Gazette

New ranking looks at health of 10 Canadian cities

Saskatoon gets top marks when it comes to the health performance of the city and its citizens, according to a new ranking comparing at 10 Canadian cities. The Conference Board of Canada released its first-ever City Health Monitor report on Tuesday, assigning grades for the physical and socio-economic health of 10 cities based on 24 indicators in four categories.

CBC – CBC – Canada Newswire

Featured Column

When science fiction becomes science fact

Duncan Stewart, the Director of Telecommunications, Media and Technology at Deloitte, is predicting the future. With a background in science and investment, Duncan forecasts the impacts of technology across a variety of industries, and his message will change your mind.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Rise of non-bank lenders poses risk: BoC

Canada’s growing industry of non-bank mortgage lenders has helped fuel an abundance of cheap housing debt, but has also made the country’s financial system more vulnerable in the event of a real estate correction, the Bank of Canada warns. Policy makers have found that less-regulated mortgage finance companies have become an increasingly important player in the country’s housing market.

Globe and Mail

TREB urges city council to stop proposed LTT increase

The Toronto Real Estate Board is urging Toronto City Council to act early to stop a potential significant Land Transfer Tax increase. Changes in LTT policy could see home buyers of average-priced properties pay another $750 to City Hall, on top of the $11,000 in LTT that they already pay City Hall as a closing cost.

Marketwired

Real Estate Companies

Firm Capital American Realty Partners Corp. completes rights offering

Firm Capital American Realty Partners Corp. (FCA.U-X) as closed its previously announced rights offering issuing an aggregate of 62,933,860 common shares at a subscription price of US$0.16 per common share for gross proceeds of approximately US$10.0 million.

Financial Post

Mainstreet Equity gets a ringing endorsement from an unusual source

It’s one of the more remarkable reports issued on a publicly listed Canadian company in many years. It’s remarkable because the author — Ryan Males, a member of the institutional equity sales team at CIBC World Markets in Vancouver — is not an analyst and he did not talk to the company, in this case Calgary-based Mainstreet Equity, before preparing his five-page report.

Financial Post

REOC Financial Reports

Empire Company reports fiscal 2017 second quarter results

Empire Company Limited (EMP.A-T)

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

RioCan REIT’s results of executive compensation review

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI.UN-T) is pleased to provide a summary of the changes to its compensation practices in the context of the comments received from the Trust’s recent consultations with unitholders that were conducted as part of the Trust’s commitment to continually review and enhance its compensation and governance practices.

Marketwired

American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP closes hotel acquistion

American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP (HOT.UN-T) has agreed to acquire through its subsidiaries the previously announced strategic portfolio of three Embassy Suites by Hilton branded hotels totaling 782 guestrooms located in proximity to Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio for approximately US$124.0 million.

Marketwired

Pure Multi-Family REIT LP acquires Austin, Texas

Pure Multi-Family REIT LP (RUF.U-X) has entered into an agreement to acquire a multi-family apartment community, known as the Lenox Creekside  located in Austin, Texas, for a purchase price of US$40,000,000. The Lenox was constructed in 2016 and consists of 276 luxury residential units averaging 828 square feet. 

Marketwired

Morguard North American Residential REIT announces public offering

Morguard North American Residential REIT (MRG.UN-T) has reached an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters co-led by RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities, to issue to the public, subject to regulatory approval, on a bought deal basis, 4,370,000 trust units at a price of $13.75 per Unit.

Canada Newswire

Dream Industrial REIT renews normal course Iissuer bid

Dream Industrial REIT (DIR.UN-T) announced today that the Toronto Stock Exchange accepted a notice filed by Dream Industrial REIT to renew its prior normal course issuer bid for a one year period.

Marketwired

Retail

Saks OFF 5th to open second store in Metro Vancouver

Saks Fifth Avenue plans to open Metro Vancouver’s second OFF 5th store at West Vancouver’s Park Royal North in summer 2017. The move comes on the heels of the upscale department store chain opening its first Metro Vancouver OFF 5th store at the Tsawwassen Mills mall when that mall opened on October 5.

Business in Vancouver

Restaurants and Eateries

Why Burger King’s whopper Tim Hortons deal is ‘meh’

Burgers and coffee: It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it probably wouldn’t be your first choice for a meal either, right? That’s how I feel about the merger between Burger King and Tim Hortons, which was engineered by Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital with some financing help from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Financial Post

	RENX 2017 media kit now available
	A blended ad program, take-over advertising, writing services and a second weekly edition of Property Biz Canada in 2017. Advertising that reaches thousands of professionals in the commercial real estate industry every business day. Contact sales@renx.ca, 1-855-569-6300

 

New Development

New Ottawa super library recommended for city land west of Bronson

The Ottawa Public Library has announced its preferred site for a landmark central library — and it’s exactly the same city-owned land at 557 Wellington St. that the library named as its “exemplar site” back in July. Library chief executive Danielle McDonald said 557 Wellington, a 3.56-acre parcel of land just west of Bronson Avenue received the highest ranking in the analysis of 12 potential sites.

Ottawa Citizen

Place des Arts to ‘accelerate’ downtown redevelopment, visionary says

Stéphane Gauthier and Martin Lajeunesse have long had a vision to transform Sudbury’s downtown with a Francophone arts and culture hub. Finally, city council is moving in their direction with a new commitment to fund $5 million towards the creation of Place des Arts.

CBC

Sports Venues

Lifetimes of memories in 100 days at Rogers Place

Rogers Place arena has only been open for 100 days, but it has already hosted a lifetimes of memories. Having already hosted sold-out hockey games and world-renowned artists like Drake, Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton and Kanye West, there’s more to come, said Sheena Way, Rogers Place assistant general manager of Live Entertainment.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

Quebec and Ontario sign $1-billion annual hydroelectricity agreement

Quebec and Ontario officially signed a $1-billion hydroelectricity deal on Thursday that the premiers of both provinces said was historic and the beginning of an increased energy partnership in Central Canada. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Quebec’s Philippe Couillard took part in the official signing ceremony for the deal, the details of which were announced in October.

Montreal Gazette

Council moves on new approach to rehab for Gardiner

City council has voted to move forward with plans for rehabilitating the Gardiner Expressway, backing a staff plan estimated to reduce the ballooning costs of the work by more than $1 billion.  The vote followed the news that the cost to both rebuild the Gardiner East and repair the western section of the elevated expressway had increased in price from $2.6 billion to $3.6 billion.

Toronto Star

Billion-dollar Yellowhead Trail upgrades to begin in 2021

Construction on the Yellowhead Trail upgrade is slated to begin in 2021 the province says. Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi and Mayor Don Iveson formally announced the project Friday.

CBC

Other

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