LaSalle launches its biggest Canada fund

LaSalle launches its biggest Canada fund

LaSalle Investment Management Inc. is launching its biggest Canadian real estate fund as investors seek a safe haven amid global turmoil.  LaSalle’s fund is targeting assets of about C$750 million over the next three to six years. The Chicago-based company is finding interest in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and U.K.

Bloomberg

UPDATED: Cominar to sell non-core assets to Slate for $1.14B

Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust (CUF.UN-T) will sell its entire non-core market portfolio, 97 properties valued at $1.14 billion, to Slate Asset Management in one of the largest commercial real estate transactions announced in Canada in 2017.

Property Biz Canada

Mainstreet a ‘counter cyclical’ investor: CEO Bob Dhillon

Fresh off buying 641 apartment units in its first foray into the Regina market, Mainstreet Equity Corporation (MEQ) is setting its sights on expansion into other new Western Canadian centres. “The expansion story is pretty simple. I’m a counter cyclical investor. I don’t want to be in booming environments wherever they happen to be,” Bob Dhillon, founder and chief executive of Mainstreet, told RENX.

Property Biz Canada

After delays, cost overruns, tragedy the subway to Vaughan opens

When trains carrying the first passengers on the Spadina subway extension started rolling Sunday morning, it marked the opening of the first addition to Toronto’s rapid transit network in more than a decade. But while dignitaries who gathered at the new Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station Friday to finally cut the ribbon on the project were all smiles, the journey to opening day was anything but smooth.

Toronto Star – Toronto Star – CBC – CBC

RioCan, Woodbourne JV at second Toronto development

RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) has sold a 50% interest in its 740 Dupont Avenue mixed-use development project in Toronto, Ontario to Woodbourne Canada Partners at a sale price of $8.8 million. RioCan will act as development manager for the project.

Globe Newswire

China’s Greenland builds Lakeside Residences in Toronto

Downtown Toronto’s East Bayfront is about to receive its latest injection of new life with Lakeside Residences by Greenland Group (Canada). The 3.85-acre site formerly occupied by FedEx will be “transformed into a master-planned community with seven towers and upwards of 2,000 new residential units and over 30,000 square feet of retail space,” according to Amanda Ireland, CEO of Milborne Group.

Property Biz Canada

Greybrook, Marlin Spring JV on Toronto Waterfront II

Greybrook Realty Partners Inc. and Marlin Spring have acquired a prime parcel of lakefront Toronto land and will develop a two-tower, mixed-use, high-rise condominium on the site. The towers will provide residents with unobstructed views of Lake Ontario. The plan is for the Waterfront II development to have more than 540 residential units and 11,500 square feet of commercial space.

Property Biz Canada

Halifax Convention Centre open for business

The Halifax Convention Centre, which hosted its official opening ceremony Friday, features 120,000 square feet of flexible event space including a mix of multi-purpose and meeting space, and a spectacular ballroom area with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking downtown. The configuration has an above-ground ballroom, two distinct convention levels and a floor of dedicated meeting space.

Canada Newswire – Halifax ChronicleHerald – CBC

Amazon remains retail disruptor-in-chief: Analyst

If senior executives of companies, running either a chain of retail stores or a portfolio of shopping centres, had a few doubts about their prospects a one-hour conversation with Vancouver-based Barbara Gray, an analyst with Pennockideahub.com, will not allay any of them. Gray’s message: the retail “apocalypse” will get worse, she believes, noting about 20 per cent of U.S. retailers are now rated CCC — way below investment grade.

Financial Post

Kroger and Walmart lure shoppers with curbside pickup

As Amazon.com looks to upend the U.S. grocery market with home delivery, some veteran supermarket operators are betting on a different strategy: curbside pickup. Americans have long loved the convenience of drive-through service for burgers and coffee. Kroger Co and Walmart Inc are tweaking that formula for groceries.

Reuters

Sexual harassment no issue at their firms: Cdn. executives

A large majority of Canadian executives don’t believe sexual harassment is a problem at their company – despite nearly a third of them admitting they know of specific cases. At least three separate surveys this year have found significant numbers of Canadian women say they have been sexually harassed in the workplace at some point in their lives.

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

Ivanka Trump opens very first store in Trump Tower

To get to Ivanka Trump’s store in Trump Tower, shoppers must first walk past metal barricades and police in body armour toting automatic weapons. Through the revolving doors is another checkpoint, where security employees check your bags. Then, once you’ve made it through, the now famous lobby and its golden elevators appear.

Financial Post – Business Insider – The Iindependent

Donald Trump, RE investors get windfall in tax overhaul bill

U.S. lawmakers scrambling to lock up Republican support for the tax reform bill added a complicated provision late in the process — one that would provide a multimillion-dollar windfall to real estate investors such as President Donald Trump. The change would allow real estate businesses to take advantage of a new tax break that’s planned for partnerships, limited liability companies and other so-called “pass-through” businesses.

Edmonton Journal

Xceligent shuts down operations, files for Ch. 7 Liquidation

The board of real estate information provider Xceligent today announced it decided to dissolve the company and file for Ch. 7 liquidation under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.  The decision to shut down comes less than a month after Xceligent’s owner, London-based Daily Mail and General Trust plc, announced it had written off its investment in the business.

CoStar Group

Gazit Brasil completes sale of Extra Itaim

Gazit-Globe (GZT-T, GZT-N), a global owner, developer, and operator of supermarket-anchored shopping centres and retail-based, mixed-use properties located in urban growth markets, announced its wholly owned subsidiary, Gazit Brasil, completed the sale of Extra Itaim in São Paulo for total proceeds of $137 million Cdn, realizing a cash gain of $55 million.

Global Newswire

Market Trends and Research

Economy expected to stay grounded until 2019

Canadians shouldn’t be surprised if economic growth continues to moderate during 2018 and into the next year, if not farther out. Nor should a steady uptick in interest rates, in tandem with the milder-but-steadier growth trajectory, come as a shock. Both those trends, after all, began to take root midway through 2017.

Financial Post

Canadians splurging during holiday home stretch

With Canadians heading into the holiday shopping home stretch, some may think they can take a spending sigh of relief. Think again. According to RetailMeNot.ca, Canadians could be spending upwards of $600 on Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve alone – on top of the $1,400 they’ve already spent on holiday celebrations.

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Companies

	RENX website page views up 35% in Q4 2017
	RENX 2018 media kit is now available. Enquire about our blended advertising rate that combines newsletter and website exposure. Advertising that reaches thousands of professionals in the commercial real estate industry every business day. Contact sales@renx.ca, 1-855-569-6300

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

DDR to spin off $3-billion of properties into new REIT

DDR Corp. (DDR-N), a Cleveland-based shopping center REIT, plans to spin off a portfolio of 50 assets, including all of its Puerto Rico portfolio, into a separate publicly-traded REIT to be named Retail Value Trust.  The new REIT will eventually sell its 38 continental U.S. properties and all 12 of DDR’s Puerto Rico holdings with a combined gross book value of approximately $3 billion.

CoStar Group

Retail

Retail industry meltdown hits women hard

As embattled U.S. retailers shed jobs over the past year, women have borne the brunt of the losses. Men, on the other hand, have made steady gains in the retail workforce. Women lost 129,000 retail positions in the last year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Men gained 106,000 positions.

Bloomberg

Worker shortage hits Vancouver retailers

As the all-important holiday-shopping season approached, Vancouver clothing-store owner Ed Des Roches did the opposite of what most retailers do: he cut back opening hours. Des Roches, owner of the Plum clothing chain, because of a staffing shortage was forced to cut hours at three of his locations.

Globe and Mail

Grocers make $3M per year from penny-rounding: UBC study

Grocery stores across the country are cashing in on the demise of the penny, according to a young researcher at the University of British Columbia. Third-year economics and mathematics student Christina Cheng has written a paper that says Canadian grocers are making $3.27 million per year from penny-rounding.

Calgary Herald

New Development

City councillor enters dust-up over Calgary gravel pit

The province should relocate a Calgary gravel pit creating dust that has nearby residents up in arms, a city councillor said Sunday. Recent measures taken to reduce the noise and dust produced by the gravel operation feeding the construction of the southwest ring road has failed to satisfy West Springs residents whose homes back onto the facility.

Calgary Herald

Sports Venues

Memories fill Northlands Coliseum as Edmonton says goodbye

On his 27th birthday, Kent Strayer took in the Coliseum for the last time.   Strayer sat in the lower bowl of the Northlands Coliseum with Shauntae Manders, 27, Saturday morning and basked in the nostalgia of the arena while contemplating its future.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

Noted railroader Hunter Harrison dead at 73

Noted railroader Hunter Harrison, who died on the weekend, was remembered by allies and rivals as an outspoken leader who transformed much of the North American railway industry. Harrison, 73, died in Florida from an undisclosed illness, less than two days after leaving his job as chief executive officer at Florida freight carrier CSX Corp. for medical reasons.

Globe and Mail – Reuters

Human Resources

DIALOG architectural duo receive lifetime achievement award

Architects Joost Bakker and Norman Hotson of DIALOG  continue to collaborate on hit after hit. As Jim Anderson, the chairman of DIALOG, has said: “Much of what we see and love about Vancouver today has been shaped by Joost and Norm’s design thinking yesterday.” Bakker and Hotson are the latest recipients of the lifetime achievement award bestowed by the Architectural Institute of B.C.

Vancouver Sun

Other

	RENX has surpassed 10,300 Twitter followers
	Recent follower Marvin Stone is the CFPB program manager and senior vice president, business integration at Stewart Title.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.