Value of new builds along Waterloo LRT corridor $2.1B

Value of new builds along Waterloo LRT corridor $2.1B

Even before the ION starts to move through Waterloo and Kitchener next year, there has been significant investment in the idea and the future of the LRT as the region’s transportation system.  A recent report presented to the Region of Waterloo’s community planning committee shows so far, private companies have invested $2.1 billion along the LRT corridor.

CBC

Rail Deck Park planning work gets green light

Torontonians are one step closer to kicking back in Rail Deck Park, the city’s ambitious plan to build a green space across the rail corridor cutting through the downtown core. Toronto city council voted 36-4 in favour of pushing ahead with planning work for the park, which is now estimated to cost some $1.665 billion although only five per cent of the design is complete.

CBC

Oxford offers WeChat Pay, AliPay at shopping centres

Oxford Properties Group says it is the first in the retail industry in Canada to allow customers to use their WeChat Pay and Alipay mobile wallets in 11 Canadian shopping centres in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, affiliated hotels and other travel partners. The two Chinese mobile payment services work by linking with users’ debit and credit cards, providing a platform for peer-to-peer transfers and enabling purchasing in renminbi, the company said in a Monday morning release.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Summit Industrial buys 14 properties in GTA, Ottawa, Montreal

Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU.UN-T) announced Monday it has deals in place to acquire two separate industrial portfolios, comprising a total of 14 properties, for just over $138 million. The purchases involve buildings located mainly in the Greater Toronto Area, though one site is located in Montreal and another in Ottawa.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Choice Properties completes acquisition of six properties

Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CHP-UN-T) has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of five properties from certain subsidiaries of Loblaw Companies Limited (L-T). Choice Properties also completed the acquisition of a multi-tenant shopping centre located in Mont-Saint Hilaire, Que., from a third-party vendor. Choice Properties’ portfolio currently consists of 546 properties comprising 525 retail properties, 14 industrial properties, one office complex, and six parcels of undeveloped land.  

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Ex-Gazette printing press buillding to become data centre

The building housing the Montreal Gazette’s old printing press in Nôtre-Dame-de-Grâce was purchased by Montreal-based eStruxture Data Centers, the company announced Wednesday. The company said it will build a data centre with a power capacity of 30 megawatts, and the $150-million investment will allow the company to pursue growth, while providing customers with a world-class infrastructure and unique proximity to downtown Montreal. 

Montreal Gazette

Parking space disappearing in new downtown office developments

The amount of parking spaces included in the next wave of downtown Vancouver office tower development is likely to see a sharp reduction compared to the existing inventory, say local commercial property brokers and developers. Nearly all new developments will have roughly half the number of parking spaces that buildings were designed with in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, according to Ross Moore, a senior vice-president with Cresa.

Vancouver Sun

Warehouses getting bigger, taller, faster

Those boxes piling up on your doorstep over the holidays don’t ship from Santa’s workshop. As Americans spend more money shopping online, real estate developers are sinking record amounts of money into new warehouse space, building bigger, taller structures to meet the needs of e-commerce — and the robots that help it along.

Bloomberg

Tax revolt pays off for downtown Toronto tenants

In August, Toronto furniture store owner John Anderson was shocked to learn his taxes, maintenance and insurance costs were set to jump by $35,000 over the coming year. Morningstar Trading had seen its assessed value skyrocket, with nearby condo development driving up land prices. Over the next several months, a self-styled “tax revolt” by Yonge Street businesses convinced the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. to reassess 84 properties.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Heritage, development at odds as cities come under pressure

A move to add 94 Toronto buildings to the city’s heritage registry list amid letters of objection — including from one owner who says his building is a “box” with “no redeeming qualities” — is the latest example of growing tension between community groups, property owners and developers as municipalities come under pressure to accommodate growth.

Wnnipeg Free Press

Laurentian Bank finds ‘misrepresentations’ on $89M in mortgages

Laurentian Bank of Canada (LB-T) says it found “client misrepresentations” in $89 million worth of mortgages it sold to a third party earlier this year, and will as a result buy back the loans where it found documentation issues. The lender revealed the news in its annual report on Tuesday, in which it separately announced quarterly profit more than tripled to $58.6 million from $18.4 million a year earlier.  

CBC – FInancial Post – Bloomberg – Reuters

Public, private stores to sell recreational pot in B.C

Recreational pot sold in British Columbia will be sold at both public and privately run stores, the provincial government says. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth also announced the minimum age to purchase pot would be 19. The provincial Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) will handle wholesale distribution.

CBC – Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – Victoria Times Colonist

Aphria set to be Shoppers Drug Mart’s cannabis supplier

Marijuana producer Aphria Inc. announced it has entered a five-year agreement to supply pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart (L-T) with medical cannabis. The company said it will provide the pharmacy with four strains of dried marijuana flower in two different sizes and four cannabis oils. All 12 products will carry the Aphria brand name. 

Ottawa Business Journal – Windsor Star – Financial Post – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Roots doubles down on number of physical stores

Roots Corp. (ROOT-T) sees ample room to grow its store base in Canada even as it looks to broaden its global footprint beyond North America and Asia. The apparel, footwear and accessories company reported sales increases of 10.1 per cent at stores open for more than a year and better than expected earnings in the third quarter.

Financial Post – Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – Motley Fool

Is Dollarama about to meet its match in Miniso?

Japanese dollar store Miniso is expanding across Canada and has been described as Dollarama’s (DOL-T) biggest potential threat, but its diverse product range hews more closely to that of Muji or Loblaw’s Joe Fresh brand. After debuting its first six stores in Vancouver in the spring, the retailer opened its first two Ontario locations last month and a third is opening this coming weekend in Newmarket. 

Financial Post – Reuters – Financial Post

Market Trends and Research

Bank of Canada holds interest rate at 1%

The Bank of Canada Wednesday maintained its key interest rate at one per cent, confirming expectations the bank would hold off on further rate hikes amid slackening economic data. The decision comes as BoC Governor Stephen Poloz has struck a decidedly more cautious tone in recent months, saying future interest rate decisions would be data-driven rather than prescribed.

Financial Post – Bloomberg – Gobe and Mail (Subscription required)

Real Estate Companies

Ottawa-based Relogix makes every square foot count

Optimizing space is a concern of all office managers, but corporate real estate companies face that problem on an enormous scale, to the point where walking around with a clipboard and taking notes simply won’t suffice. “When you have millions of square feet of space, there’s no way you’re going to be able to understand what’s going on across that portfolio,” Relogix founder Andrew Millar told Techopia Live.

Ottawa Business Journal

Carleton eyeing purchase of historic Ottawa church

Carleton University is entering into talks to purchase Ottawa’s Dominion-Chalmers United Church, with plans to turn the historic downtown building into a performance space for students and faculty. The university’s board of governors has agreed to enter into negotiations to purchase the church, which has become a popular venue for concerts, events and festivals including Chamberfest and the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

CBC

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Real Estate Investment Trusts

Melcor announces $80.875M sale to Melcor REIT

Melcor Developments Ltd. (MRD-T), an Alberta-based real estate development and asset management company, announced it has agreed to sell a portfolio of five commercial properties comprised of 172,629 sf gross leasable area to Melcor REIT (MR-UN-T) for $80.875 million. “Selling commercial properties to the REIT is a key element of the growth strategy for both companies,” Melcor president/CEO Darin Rayburn said.  

Marketwired

U.S. retail REITs lift overall market performance

U.S. REITs delivered an encouraging performance in November backed by increased shareholder activity in the retail real estate market. Per data from REIT.com, total returns of the FTSE Nareit All REITs Index logged in a gain of 2.6% in the month, after reporting negative returns in the last two months – a 0.2% decline in October and 0.6% fall in September.

Nasdaq

Retail

HBC shares plummet on report of lower sales

Sales at Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) slid 4.2 per cent and losses almost doubled as the department store conglomerate saw ongoing weakness in its Lord & Taylor and European business. The retailer’s shares plunged 11 per cent to $10.58 in early trading. The company’s stock had fallen 20 per cent over the last year prior to Wednesday’s market open due to the retailer’s tepid performance and concerns about the future of department stores.

Financial Post – Financial Post – Business Wire

Restaurants and Eateries

World’s biggest Starbucks to open in Shanghai

Starbucks Corp. (SBUX-Q) sees China surpassing the U.S. as its largest market within a decade as it counts on the country’s affluent consumers to offset stagnant growth in the rest of the world. Ramping up its focus on China, Starbucks is opening its biggest cafe in the world in Shanghai today. The 30,000-square-foot store is part of upscale moves championed by founder/chairman Howard Schultz. 

Bloomberg

Resorts

$30M in upgrades planned for Sun Peaks Resort

Sun Peaks Resort is planning to spend $30 million on upgrading and improving chairlifts, as well as increasing the number of beds and adding more food and beverage options to the resort. Sun Peaks has seen record-breaking numbers lately: last winter there were 400,000 unique visitors to the resort. The summer of 2017 saw 200,000.

CBC – CBC

Infrastructure

Committee approves millions to fix Calgary’s Plus-15 network

A council committee has OK’d spending nearly $8 million on critical repairs to Calgary’s elaborate downtown skywalk system and another $12.2 million to fix a faulty truss at the Calgary Municipal Building that forced hundreds of city employees to relocate last year. Both funding requests were unanimously approved by council’s priorities and finance committee on Tuesday and both items will now go to council as a whole for final approval.

Calgary Herald

Toronto city council approves six SmartTrack stations

Toronto’s plan to build six SmartTrack stations is moving ahead, but councillors spent the bulk of the debate considering tunneling a future LRT line in Etobicoke. City council voted 36-6 to approve the locations and design of six SmartTrack stations, which are set to be built on the existing GO Transit corridors that cut through the city.

CBC – Toronto Star

Winnipeg to abandon East Exchange parkade

The City of Winnipeg is poised to abandon a six-year-old plan to build a parkade in the east Exchange District and spend most of the money on trees instead. The 2018 capital budget calls for $5 million set aside in 2010 to build a parkade on James Avenue, east of the Centennial Concert Hall, to be earmarked for two other capital projects.

CBC

Other

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