GTA’s 10 largest real estate sales of 2017

GTA’s 10 largest real estate sales of 2017

The Greater Toronto Area is on pace for its fifth straight record year in both the number of commercial real estate transactions and the total dollar volume invested. “At the end of Q3 2017, we have nearly matched the $17.1 billion invested in all of 2016,” said Altus Group data solutions manager Kenneth Lien. The torrid pace continued into Q4.

Property Biz Canada

600-acre commercial development approved for Edmonton area

St. Albert city councillors have approved funding for an area structure plan for the Lakeview Business District, which will be restricted to commercial and industrial real estate. Formerly known as the Employment Lands, the Lakeview Business District encompasses 617 acres of unserviced land on the west side of the city immediately north of Edmonton. Mayor Cathy Heron said the land would provide for approximately 13 years of non-residential development.

Western Investor

Summit, Urbacon to JV on digital data centres

Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU-UN-T) announced it has entered into a joint venture partnership with Urbacon to develop, own and operate high-yielding, state-of-the-art digital data centres in key markets across Canada. Summit has exclusive rights to participate in Urbacon’s future data centre projects in Canada. “We are very pleased to be establishing this new relationship with Urbacon,” Summit CEO Paul Dykeman said in the release.

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

Allied sells Quebec City properties

Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T) announced it has sold its portfolio of six properties in Québec City for aggregate proceeds of $24 million. The portfolio was comprised of 224,174 square feet of GLA. As at Sept. 30, it was 60.8% leased and represented a negligible component of Allied’s net rental income. “This transaction represents substantial completion of the sale of our non-core assets,” said Michael Emory, president & CEO. 

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Facelift planned for B.C.’s University Heights Shopping Centre

The owners of University Heights Shopping Centre, taking note of the region’s desperate need for rental housing, are planning a major overhaul for the Saanich mall with 350 residential units as part of the mix. Wesbild Holdings bought the 10-acre property in 2015 for about $50 million. Wesbild director of marketing Jennifer Derbyshire said the vision is to have a new mixed-use building with commercial space and about 350 residential rental units.

Victoria Times Colonist

Vancouver industrial market ‘terrible’ for tenants

In October 2016, National Concrete Accessories started searching for an industrial space for a new branch in the Surrey-Langley area. It took six months to find a location near the Golden Ears Bridge. It was lucky to find a decent space in what is becoming a seriously constrained industrial property market, and one stakeholders say will experience lower vacancy and higher lease rates in 2018.

Vancouver Sun

Stackt thinks inside the box

The now-vacant 100,000-square-foot lot at Bathurst and Front Sts. that was by a slaughterhouse until 2014, and previously housed a smelting plant, has been an unpopular mainstay of its southwest downtown neighborhood for decades. Former residents Matt Rubinoff and Tyler Keenan are working to transform it into a modular, shipping-container marketplace for community gathering, programming, retail and social enterprise called Stackt by the summer of 2018.

Toronto Star

Toronto’s Distillery District contains architectural gems

Distillery District millers William Gooderham and James Worts established one of Toronto’s first waterfront industries in 1832; its windmill became a landmark in the young town. The site operated – including through Prohibition – until 1990; a decade later it began its second life as a retail, cultural, and residential neighbourhood, a likely precedent for 21st-century downtowns.

Globe and Mail

Last hurrah for live music in Toronto?

Inside The Cameron House, Corin Raymond and The Sundowners are on stage. It’s standing room only for 100 music lovers who cram the narrow bar’s front room to hear Raymond’s weekly pay-what-you-can gig. The Cameron House is one of the few left in the downtown Toronto neighbourhood that once had handfuls of places where live music could be heard on a nightly basis.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star

Google’s Sidewalk Labs project creating jobs – in NYC

Quayside, the lakeside neighbourhood in Toronto being spearheaded by Google parent Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs company, has been touted as a test bed for new urban technologies and models, with residents and businesses experiencing what life can be like in a hyper-connected, technologically enabled community. Sidewalk Labs recently posted seven jobs, but they are not  necessarily for Canadians — at least not those who want to remain in the country. 

Maclean’s – Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

Google unveils big plans for Silicon Valley office campus

After amassing nearly 50 properties in Sunnyvale, Calif., at a cost of more than $1 billion US, Google, Inc. has submitted its first plan to build a new corporate campus comprising more than one million square feet of office space, housing 4,500 workers, at Moffett Park. Google plans call for a pair of five-storey, single-occupancy buildings totalling just over 1 million square feet across 10 parcels totalling 40.5 acres.

CoStar Group

China’s 2018 property clearance sale

As 2018 approaches, the great unwinding by China’s once acquisitive conglomerates is gathering pace. Fosun International Ltd. sold an office tower in Sydney earlier this month while HNA Group Co. has reportedly identified about $6 billion of properties it can offload. Dalian Wanda Group Co., another company that has faced government scrutiny over its high debt levels, in August backed out of buying a key site in London.

Bloomberg – Reuters – Better Dwelling

Brookfield, Onex make takeover approach for IWG

The U.K.-based company behind the Regus brand of rental office space says it has been approached with an informal takeover proposal by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM-A-T) and Onex Corp. (ONEX-T). However, IWG PLC said there was no certainty any offer will be made for the company, or what terms may be offered by the Canadian  consortium.  

Financial Post – Reuters – The Real Deal – Globe and Mail (Subscriptiion required)

Brookfield selling stake in Chilean power provider

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP-UN-T) on Tuesday announced the sale of its 27.8 per cent stake in Chile’s main electricity provider to China Southern Power Grid International for $1.6 billion. Brookfield said it has signed a definitive agreement to unload its interest in ETC Transmission Holdings, the parent company of Transelect SA. 

Globe and Mail – GlobeNewswire

Château Frontenac enters 125th year of glitz & glamour

Quebec City’s Fairmont Château Frontenac, one of Canada’s most recognizable architectural gems, which turns 125 years next year, has seen nobility and rock stars roam its expansive hallways. World leaders strategized in secret in its conference rooms. The prestigious copper-spired hotel towering above the St. Lawrence River will be holding events throughout the year to mark its 125th anniversary.

CBC

Market Trends and Research

The 10 juiciest real estate lawsuits of 2017

Real estate players are among New York’s most litigious characters and 2017 was no exception to that. Family feuds, angry partners and jilted tenants all meant that the courts were full of industry drama this year, and one high-flying landlord swapped a Hamptons mansion for a Rikers cell. Lawyers prepared colorful complaints full of references to sex, drugs and breach of contracts, and racked up the billable hours.

The Real Deal

Real Estate Companies

Teachers’ to sell PetVet to KKR

Three years ago, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan acquired U.S. veterinary hospital chain PetVet Care Centers LLC and announced plans to back the 30-outlet business as the company expanded in a fragmented industry. PetVet now runs 125 hospitals staffed by 600 vets in 22 states, and on Wednesday, the Teachers’ fund announced it is selling the company to New York-based private equity fund KKR & Co. L.P. The price was not disclosed.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Mergers & Acquisitions – Business Wire

Gazit Brasil acquires 70% of Internacional Shopping

Gazit-Globe (GZT-T), a global owner, developer, and operator of supermarket-anchored shopping centres and retail-based, mixed-use properties located in urban growth markets, announced today its wholly owned subsidiary, Gazit Brasil, has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 70 per cent of Internacional Shopping, a 829,000-square-foot shopping mall in the northern part of metropolitan Sao Paulo, for $357 million Cdn, excluding closing costs. 

Globe Newswire

OSC intervenes in Aurora’s bid for CanniMed

The Ontario Securities Commission has intervened in the first major hostile takeover bid in the brief history of Canada’s cannabis industry, ordering Aurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB-T) to provide more robust disclosure regarding any ties to individuals “in a special relationship” with target CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (CMED-T), and blocking CanniMed from adopting a so-called “poison pill” defence.

Financial Post – CTV – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

WeWork’s Chinese rival nixes ‘UrWork’ label

The “UrWork” brand is no more. WeWork Cos.’s Chinese rival is renaming its shared-office service “ucommune,” a re-tool that may help it side-step potential legal hassles as it pursues a global expansion. URwork (Beijing) Venture Investment Co. retains its formal name but decided to drop the moniker from all of its hundred-plus locations after WeWork called off a trademark battle against its competitor.

Bloomberg – The Real Deal

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REOC Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Empire Company Limited, (EMP-A-T), Canada Newswire  

* Mainstreet Equity Corp.., (MEQ-T), Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

TH Real Estate entering non-traded REIT market

TH Real Estate is joining the growing list of global investment institutions and money managers jumping into the non-traded REIT sector. London-based TH Real Estate, an affiliate of New York-based Nuveen LLC with $107 billion US of real estate assets under management, is ranked as the fourth-largest real estate investment manager by the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF).

CoStar Group – GlobeSt.com

Retail

Sobey families consolidate Empire voting shares into single company

The three branches of the Sobey family that control Canada’s second-largest grocery business have decided to put all of their class-B shares of Empire Co. Ltd. into a single holding company. The president of the new holding company, Stewart Mahoney, says the three families believe the new governance structure will be a better way to administer their interests in Empire (EMP-A-T) – the publicly traded parent of Sobeys Inc. 

Globe and Mail

Big Box Outlet Store keeps merchandise out of landfill

For most retailers, sales peak in November and December, accounting for 20 per cent or more of annual revenue, according to the U.S.-based National Retail Federation. But for B.C.’s Big Box Outlet Store, Christmas arrives later. “The volume in January and February goes up by 50 per cent,” notes co-founder and president Mark Funk. “It’s the busiest two months of the year for us.” 

BCBusiness

Apple, Amazon in talks to set up in Saudi Arabia: Sources

Apple and Amazon are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia, two sources told Reuters, part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s push to give the conservative kingdom a high-tech look.  A third source confirmed Apple was in talks with SAGIA, Saudi Arabia’s foreign investment authority. Both companies already sell products in Saudi Arabia via third parties.

Reuters – Business In Vancouver

Sustainability

Pattern Development, F.N. wind project underway

Pattern Energy Group LP announced the completion of a $1 billion financing for the 300 megawatt (MW) Henvey Inlet Wind project located on Henvey Inlet First Nation Reserve No. 2 on the northeast shore of the Georgian Bay in Ontario. Pattern Development and Nigig Power Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Henvey Inlet First Nation, are joint venture partners in the project.

Canada Newswire

Technology

Amazon Web Services ‘chief architect’ on Canadian potential for AI

For more than two decades, artificial intelligence and machine learning have been playthings for Amazon.com Inc. With its cloud-computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), the company is now in the business of selling AI and machine-learning capabilities to other businesses. Glenn Gore is AWS’s “chief architect” – his job to sell the world on AWS’s capabilities, with AI and machine learning among its biggest frontiers.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Other

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