World’s investors checking into Canadian hotels

World’s investors checking into Canadian hotels

In a sizzling real estate market, the Sheraton Centre hotel and convention complex on Queen Street West drew the attention of multiple buyers and sold in October to a unit of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM-A-T) for $335 million, making it the largest single hotel transaction in Canadian history. The deal is part of a boom in interest in hotels across Canada by equity investors from around the world. 

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

HBC to close WeWork deal as activist bows out

A U.S. activist investor has abandoned an attempt to scuttle a multi-million-dollar share sale by Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T), likely putting an end to his campaign to force strategic changes at Canada’s oldest retailer. Real estate investor Jonathan Litt has withdrawn an appeal with the Ontario Securities Commission that sought to overturn a $632-million sale of HBC shares to Rhône Capital LLC, the two sides said Friday. 

Globe and Mail – Reuters

Blackstone CEO: Tech drives Canadian, international CRE

When Jonathan Gray talks, everyone else stops. And listens. The global head of real estate for U.S.-based Blackstone (BX-N), who oversees the world’s largest assemblage of commercial real estate (assets worth approximately $244 billion Cdn) spent an hour Wednesday offering insights into building and expanding successful CRE portfolios. 

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Ivanhoé, Manulife unveil Montreal’s $220M Maison Manuvie

Ivanhoé Cambridge and insurance and investment firm Manulife (MFC-T) have joined forces to open Maison Manuvie, a new 27-storey office building in downtown Montreal that serves as Manulife’s Quebec headquarters.   The $220 million class-AAA building at 900 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West is 83 per cent leased at opening with major tenant Manulife occupying more than 260,000 square feet of office space on 11 floors. EY and Boralex are the other major tenants.

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

What to do with a tired office tower

Owners of office buildings in high-vacancy markets are kicking the tires on the idea of converting problematic B- and C-class buildings to apartment or condo properties, but analysts in the commercial real estate field predict there will be no large trend to actual conversions. Even in Alberta, the economics look positive for only a handful of conversions, say executives at Avison Young and CBRE.

Globe and Mail

How will tech’s appetite for office space change downtowns?

Along bustling Westlake Avenue, running up a gentle incline from South Lake Union to the highrise heart of Seattle, about half the lunch-hour pedestrians and patrons sitting on café patios sport the distinctive blue lanyard and badge of the Amazon.com Inc. employee. The world’s preeminent digital retailer and cloud services provider employs more than 30,000 people spread over 30 buildings here. And its presence is growing, in size and visibility.

BCBusiness – Business In Vancouver – CP Executive

Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre earns global award

The Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre, built and managed by Ivanhoé Cambridge on Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, has been named “Best Outlet Centre” in the annual MAPIC Awards in Cannes, France. The 1.2-million-square-foot facility is what Ivanhoé calls a “hybrid” shopping centre which contains factory outlets and premium fashion retailers.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Manulife plans 25-storey building in downtown Kitchener

Manulife Financial (MFC-T) has big plans for what’s now a parking lot at the corner of Charles Street and Water Street in downtown Kitchener. The City of Kitchener has received Manulife’s site plan application for a 25-storey building, which details a ground-floor retail space, five storeys of offices and topping off with 20 storeys of residential space, along with parking. 

CBC

Regional malls evolve into town centres

Attention shoppers! If it feels like you’re living in the mall, it may turn out that you do. Retail centres are changing, turning into mixed-use locations with more offices, street-like walking areas and residential units. And Canada is no exception to a widespread movement to rethink the mall.

Globe and Mail

The owing never ends at the Big O

The Big O isn’t much of a baseball park, with dim light and long-distance sight lines. The venue’s echo makes it even worse for concerts. The stadium can be fine for occasional football or soccer games – provided the teams can fill the place with fans to turn drab concrete festive. Plus, those balls are big enough to be seen from far away.

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada

Oxford took Manhattan — Now it takes Berlin

Since 2008,  Michel Vauclair  has hunted prime European property investments as senior vice president of Oxford Properties Group, the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). With $85 billion in net assets and a stellar track record, OMERS is one of the most powerful investment operations worldwide. The lion’s share of the value comes from investors like Vauclair and assets such as Berlin’s Sony Center. 

Institutional Investor

Ottawa eyes 4% hotel and Airbnb room tax

Whether they choose a traditional hotel room or make use of platforms such as Airbnb, Ottawa tourists may find a new tax on their stays in the new year. City staff have proposed the new hotel and short-term accommodation tax in a report to the finance and economic development committee. If implemented, visitors would see an extra four per cent charge added to the cost of their rooms.

Ottawa Business Journal

HGI expands U.S. apt. holdings with mega-deal

Harbor Group International has increased its investment portfolio by more than a third with a single mega-transaction, its largest to date. The Norfolk, Va.-based investment and management firm said Friday it had acquired a 25-property multi-family portfolio from affiliates of Lone Star Funds for $1.8 billion, bringing its total portfolio to $7.1 billion US.

GlobeSt.com – CoStar Group

Hong Kong world’s most expensive office location

Hong Kong has replaced London’s West End as the most expensive office market in which to accommodate staff, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield. The annual Office Space Across The World report surveys occupancy costs across 215 office markets in 58 countries/regions worldwide. Using proprietary data, it ranks occupancy costs per workstation and workplace densities for newly developed or refurbished office space globally.

Marketwired

Amazon brings voice-command technology to the workplace

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN-Q) announced new voice-activated tools for the workplace, hoping that verbal commands — “Alexa, print my spreadsheet” — will handle common office tasks. Alexa for Business will let users issue voice commands to begin a video conference or print documents, among a multitude of common workplace functions, Amazon said Thursday at its cloud computing conference in Las Vegas. 

Bloomberg

Market Trends and Research

Retail leads U.S. CRE in pricing gains

A 0.1% contraction marked the seventh consecutive month of declines in U.S. commercial property pricing, Ten-X Commercial said. The firm’s latest Commercial Real Estate Nowcast is now up just 1.5% from a year ago. “The U.S. presidential election is a year behind us, but the events of intervening months have done nothing to alleviate investors’ wariness,” says Peter Muoio, chief economist with Ten-X. 

GlobeSt.com

Investing in alternative mortgage lending: Risks and rewards

With strict new federal mortgage regulations on banks coming in January, more borrowers – and investors – will be looking at alternative financing. Investing in alternative mortgage lending is already a fast-growing, multi-billion dollar industry. Two key avenues for investors are Mortgage Investment Corporations (MICs) and syndicated mortgages.

Western Investor

Real Estate Companies

Optical firm Infinera expands West Ottawa footprint

A California-based optical networks company Infinera, which creates products to facilitate high-speed transfer of information over optical networks, arrived in Ottawa in 2009 with an initial local workforce of three employees. Infinera offices currently occupy 12,549 square feet on the second floor of the Blackwood Business Centre in the Kanata Research Park and will be expanding by more than 6,000 square feet.

Ottawa Business Journal

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Real Estate Investment Trusts

Significant regulatory innovations for Belgian REITs

The Situation: Belgium’s Law of Oct.  22 modifies the REIT Regime by broadening the scope of REIT activities and relaxing the country’s existing regulatory framework for REITs.
Looking Ahead: The new regulatory framework will lead to increased cooperation between REITs and other market players in the real estate, infrastructure, energy, oil and gas, water, waste management, and social care sectors.

Mondaq

Retail

McKesson Canada acquires online retailer Well.ca

Health care services company McKesson Canada has acquired retailer Well.ca, which sells health, wellness, natural and baby products online. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available. McKesson says the deal brings online commerce capabilities and digital experience to McKesson Canada’s retail assets, including the Rexall Drug Store chain.

Winnipeg Free Press – Canada Newswire

Toys R Us UK to close stores in restructuring

Toys R Us UK is to seek creditor approval for a restructuring plan involving closing at least 26 of its 105 stores in Britain in 2018, it said on Monday.  The British arm of Toys”R”Us, Inc, which filed for bankruptcy in September, said it had submitted a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) plan to its creditors and would seek their approval in the next 17 days.

Reuters – Canada Newswire

B.C.’s private retailers battle for e-commerce booze bucks

British Columbians are increasingly shopping online but when it comes to buying alcohol through e-commerce websites, the only options are to buy from private retailers. The largest liquor retailer in the province – the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) – stays stuck at the starting gate with no clear plan for when its e-commerce sales will start.

Business In Vancouver

Metro Vancouver municipalities brace for cannabis retail gold rush

Ottawa’s Cannabis Act, Bill C-45, passed third reading in the House of Commons on November 27, little more than seven months before the federal government’s July 1, 2018, target date for legalizing recreational marijuana. The bill must be approved by the Senate and achieve royal assent but the writing is on the wall that legalization is on the way.

Business In Vancouver

Infrastructure

Vancouver mulling streetcar network

The City of Vancouver is studying ways to ensure it keeps its options open for a network of streetcars in the future, despite the irritation the vehicles have generated among travellers in some cities. The transit vehicles operating on electricity have been maligned by some in Toronto for slowing traffic.

Globe and Mail

Other

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