Did Stuy Town set a world price record?

Did Stuy Town set a world price record?

In October, when news broke of the sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village to the Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge, most news outlets reported a sales price of $5.3 billion. But recently, news outlets like the New York Post and the New York Times have adjusted the price up to $5.46 billion, which would be a world record.

The Real Deal

Blackstone No. 1 NYC real estate buyer

Blackstone Group LP (BX-N) jumped to the top spot in real estate acquisitions in New York last year, with purchases that encompassed Manhattan’s biggest apartment complex and stakes in a group of office properties including the Starrett-Lehigh building on the Hudson River. Blackstone bought $9.6 billion of real estate in the New York metropolitan area in 2015.

Bloomberg – New York Post

NexusCrowd, Downing Street JV on crowdfunding

Crowdfunding startup NexusCrowd Inc. is celebrating its second successful money raise, gathering $500,000 over five weeks for a GTA industrial redevelopment. The raise was part of a $5.8-million equity raise for Toronto-based Downing Street Realty Partners, which has two industrial properties in Toronto and one in Mississauga that require redevelopment and remediation spending.

Property Biz Canada

Small Vancouver businesses brace for assessment fallout

Jesse Cooper, project manager for Our Community Bikes, is focused on making more money. It’s top of mind after the 22-year-old organization was forced to move this summer because of a steep rent increase. Luckily, the organization found a cheaper space with an understanding landlord, but Cooper knows future rent increases are inevitable.

Business In Vancouver

Vacant storefronts on rise along Vancouver street

An increase in retail vacancies in one of the main shopping areas in Vancouver’s West End isn’t stopping one young chef from opening her first restaurant. Along Denman Street, the number of vacancies has been increasing. There are now more than a dozen empty ground floor or second level retail spaces in the 12 blocks.

Vancouver Sun

Espace Montmorency builds Montoni’s legacy

Groupe Montoni, which marked its 20th anniversary in October, got its third decade off to a strong start in November by partnering on the $420-million Espace Montmorency development project in Laval, Que. “We own three million square feet of office, industrial and institutional buildings,” business development director Mike Jager said of the Laval-based company.

Property Biz Canada

Winnipeg’s first lady of real estate

During Winnipeg’s earliest decades, the real estate business was not for the faint of heart. Known for its booms and busts, fortunes could be made or lost in a matter of days. Like most industries, it was strictly a man’s world. That is, until Evelyn Bertie Gibson came on the scene in 1910.

Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg’s Assiniboia Downs may become urban reserve

Peguis First Nation and the Manitoba Jockey Club are promising to turn Assiniboia Downs into Winnipeg’s largest urban reserve, home to a regional racing and entertainment hub complete with bike paths. A master plan for the Downs is to be debated Tuesday at city hall. “It’s very early days,” said Darren Dunn, CEO of the Downs.

Winnipeg Free Press

Millbrook First Nation rebuilding Mi’kmaq presence at Shannon Park

The Millbrook band is negotiating with Canada Lands, the federal agency in charge of the rest of the 82 acres Shannon Park site located in Halifax harbour.  Chris Millier, Canada Land’s director of real estate, says the agency is open to selling some of the property to Millbrook at some point.

CBC.ca

Calgary’s underserved by grocery stores: Report

Calgary’s inner-city is underserved by grocery stores, says a new report by the University of Alberta School of Retailing. The Grocery Stores in Canadian Urban Centres study examined the current and proposed grocery store locations in seven Canadian urban centres, as well as mapping out potentially underserved areas which may benefit from new grocery stores.

Calgary

Tory zaps speculation of Toronto Hydro sale

Toronto Mayor John Tory pulled the plug Saturday on talk of privatizing Toronto Hydro or the Toronto Parking Authority. While the idea of selling off a portion of hydro was brought up during his transition into the mayor’s office, Tory stressed there are no discussions on the table to push ahead with that plan.

Toronto Sun – Toronto Star

Value of Canadian building permits plunges

The value of Canadian building permits issued in November fell 19.6 per cent on widespread declines in the energy-producing province of Alberta, which had seen a boom in October, Statistics Canada said on Friday.  The value of residential building permits dropped by 17.8 per cent in November across Canada while non-residential permits nose-dived by 22.7 per cent.

Globe and Mail – Calgary Herald

Macy’s closing 40 stores after holiday sales go cold

Macy’s Inc. (M-N) has launched a series of cost-efficiency measures following same-store sales declines of 5.2 per cent in November and December. The department store chain is closing 40 stores and a call centre and laying off up to 4,800 employees. Four of the 40 stores marked for closure have already been shuttered. Macy’s said the measures will save approximately $400 million US.

CoStar Group – Commercial Property Executive – MarketWatch – Fortune

Starboard urges Macy’s to strike real-estate deals

Hedge fund Starboard Value LP urged department store chain Macy’s Inc (M-N) to enter into joint ventures for its stores, including its flagship Herald Square store in New York, to realize greater value from its real estate assets. The activist investor said Monday it supported Macy’s cost-cutting plans, but wants the company to follow through with real-estate deals.

Globe and Mail

Twelve tycoons who own pro teams

PHOTO GALLERY: Have you made a fortune in real estate and are looking for some ideas on how to spend that wealth? Consider the path of these 12 commercial real estate tycoons who own full or partial stakes in at least one of America’s four major professional sports leagues.

National Real Estate Investor

Featured Column

Conference Board may be overly optimistic

Traditionally, the general economic activity affecting Saskatchewan’s commercial real estate industry is impacted by three main outputs: agriculture, energy and potash.  The Conference Board of Canada’s has forecast of two per cent GDP growth in 2016.

The Saskatchewan Edge

A perfect storm of social trends

In the current economic situation, the market for most things, including real estate, has changed dramatically. Five interconnected social trends have been developing at their own pace and have seemingly been accelerated by market conditions.

Let’s Make Things Interesting

Market Trends and Research

Aberdeen boom town for CRE buyers

The oil industry, which spurred Aberdeen’s boom in the 1980s, faces tough times, but the city is leading the regions for investment in business property. Research indicates it is the city outside London that has attracted the greatest spend by buyers of office, industrial and retail space per head of population over the past 10 years.

This is Money

U.S. office rent gains accelerate in ’15

Office rents across the U.S. increased last year at the fastest pace since the depths of the downturn, Cushman & Wakefield said Thursday. The year-over-year gain of 4.9 per cent during the fourth quarter was the best since rent growth peaked in 2008, according to C&W.

Globest.com – Globest.com

Real Estate Companies

Avison Young acquires U.K.’s North Rae Sanders

Avison Young chair/CEO Mark E. Rose today announced it has acquired market-leading U.K. firm North Rae Sanders (NRS) and opened a new office in Coventry. The newest U.K. office represents Avison Young’s fourth office in the U.K, eighth in Europe and an additional step in the firm’s ongoing aggressive growth and expansion strategy.

Canada Newswire

Dubai reality check felt by developer

Morgan Parker’s first job at one of Dubai’s biggest developers was to tell his bosses everything that was wrong with their $20-billion plan to build the world’s largest mall and 100 hotels to surround it. The former head of the Rockefeller family’s Rose Rock real estate firm took Dubai Holding LLC’s Mall of the World project back to the drawing board.

Bloomberg

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Third-quarter 2015 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. Fourth-quarter results will be available at the end of January, 2016. Canadian REITs & REOCs – Third-quarter 2015 report

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

REIT filling gap in self-storage lending

John Good, president and COO of Jernigan Capital (JCAP-N), said  self-storage developments have no cash flow or tenants on Day 1, so they are effectively shut out of the marke. “We are seeing an amazing volume of deals coming our way.” Good also said he expects 2016 to be a solid year for development.

REIT.com

Italian REITs look to test investors’ appetite

Two Italian REITs are planning IPOs in coming weeks in a test of investor appetite for the country’s recovering commercial property sector. Coima Res, which is set to begin its investor roadshow this week, and De Agostini Group’s Idea Res are the latest attempts at expanding listed real estate in Italy.

Financial Times

DDR under contract to sell 17 properties

In a preview of the coming year, DDR Corp. (DDR-N) told analysts it expects to continue taking advantage of strong demand for retail property to sell from $600 million to $800 million of its portfolio. As long as shopping centres command current historically high pricing levels, DDR said it will continue to seek to sell “bottom tier” properties.

CoStar Group

No alarm bells after minimal U.S. rate hike

News and predictions surrounding interest rates have dominated industry headlines for quite some time. The Federal Reserve’s first interest rate hike since 2006, which arrived in mid-December after months of speculation, should act less as a cause for alarm than as a bellwether of even better things to come for the U.S. CRE industry.

Commercial Property Executive – Forbes

REITs focusing on redevelopment: Kite Realty CEO

John Kite, CEO of Kite Realty Group Trust (KRG-N), said he expects to see more REIT redevelopment rather than ground-up development in 2016. “Most of the REITs have pretty strong portfolios, but they are looking to improve them,” he said. Kite Realty, for example, has about $120 million of identified redevelopment projects.

REIT.com

Legal Corner

Alleged kickbacks ‘very isolated’: Expert

Allegations of lavish kickbacks in return for contracts at The Ottawa Hospital are “very isolated,” says  DeVries, president of the Ottawa Construction Association. Four local contractors were named in a civil lawsuit this week alleging they offered two hospital managers free fishing trips, cars and home renos in return for favouritism on hospital contracts.

Ottawa Business Journal

Retail

Investor group offers to buy American Apparel

Hagan Capital Group and Silver Creek Capital Partners said they had jointly offered to acquire bankrupt teen apparel retailer American Apparel Inc for $300 million US. The offer, which includes $90 million of new equity and a $40-million term loan, has the support of American Apparel founder and former chief executive Dov Charney, Hagan Capital and Silver Creek said.

Globe and Mail

Restaurants and Eateries

Freshii riding the health food boom

Freshii founder Matthew Corrin hasn’t heard back from McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook since the former’s cheeky proposal last year suggesting the two go into business together. But clearly the home of the Big Mac has been influenced in recent years by Freshii’s style of fast food: healthy, convenient and nutrient-dense.

Financial Post

Renovation and Restoration

Galeries de la Capitale getting a facelift

Galeries de la Capitale, owned by Oxford Properties and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, announced a new $40-million investment to enhance the customer experience at the shopping centre through common area renovations. Galeries de la Capitale’s is positioned as Quebec City’s No. 1 shopping and entertainment destination.

Canada Newswire

Infrastructure

FNs make offer for Manitoba railway and port

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation has emerged as the leader of an effort by a group of northern Manitoba First Nations to purchase the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill. It was disclosed Friday Mathias Colomb Chief Arlen Dumas has sent an offer to purchase to Omnitrax Canada. Other First Nations are said to be part of the action.

Winnipeg Free Press

Ontario to refurbish four nuclear reactors

Ontario Power Generation was set to unveil plans Monday for a $12.8-billion refurbishment of four nuclear reactors at the Darlington generating station east of Toronto. The Canadian Press has learned the Liberal cabinet has given approval to start the rebuild of the first reactor this fall, and OPG will need to seek approval of each subsequent reactor refurbishment project.

National Post

International

Demand for U.S. MOB may plateau in 2016

U.S. health care real estate, particularly medical office properties, promises to continue to post strong occupancy stats in 2016. However, there’s still enough volatility in the sector stemming from the Affordable Care Act aftermath, changes in technology and hospital consolidation to keep growth and transactions to a minimum, according to industry executives.

National Real Estate Investor

Human Resources

Teacher’s finds new chief investment officer in Denmark

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has appointed a new chief investment officer to replace longtime CIO Neil Petroff, who retired in June. Graven Larsen is a former CIO and executive board member of Denmark’s largest pension plan, ATP, which is the fourth largest pension in Europe.

Vancouver Sun

Other

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