Oakridge Centre’s remake scaled back

Oakridge Centre’s remake scaled back

One of the biggest building projects the City of Vancouver has ever approved – a $1.5-billion remake of the high-end Oakridge Centre shopping mall – will be scaled back significantly after owners said it would be too expensive and disruptive. The decision to reduce the project size is an unprecedented one for real-estate giant Ivanhoé Cambridge.

Globe and Mail – Vancouver Sun

Seattle tech giant eyes Vancouver office

One of Seattle’s biggest tech companies is looking for a large office space in downtown Vancouver, part of a growing trend in demand for big floorplates. Tableau Software Inc. recently opened a temporary office at 885 West Georgia St., and is seeking a permanent 55,000-square-foot space downtown.

BC Business

Housing puts squeeze on Vancouver industrial

Tucked away in a tiny alley in the heart of Burnaby’s Brentwood Town Centre, behind a short strip of tire and service shops, Arc Automotive looks small and forlorn, its shop dwarfed by a series of Solo residential towers being built a block away. The towers reach high into the sky, setting the stage for a new residential community.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun

Experts forecast strong demand for Vancouver CRE

Commercial real estate investors will likely continue to see Vancouver as a stable market this year amid turmoil in global financial, commodity and stock markets. Strong demand for investment-quality real estate assets in Canada’s major centres, including Vancouver, is expected to continue despite the impact of low energy prices on Canada’s economy.

Vancouver Sun – Business In Vancouver

Bettman pitches new arena for Calgary

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in town Monday, stumping on behalf of CalgaryNEXT, the Calgary Flames’ vision of how the city should redevelop the western edge of its downtown core. The harder sell will be convincing mayor Naheed Nenshi and the 14 councillors who will ultimately decide whether the city will help finance the ambitious $890-million project.

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail – Calgary Herald – National Post

Number of empty Calgary offices pile up

Lucas Beck, who leases commercial office space for Colliers International, is leaning on a cabinet in a fully furnished floor in one of Calgary’s premier office towers. The floor’s 24,000 square feet hosts about 100 workstations, but there’s no one to sit at the desks. The rent has been slashed and some downtown office buildings have even offered free rent.

Globe and Mail

Groupe Germain expands into N.L.

Montreal’s Groupe Germain Hotels, which operates Alt and Le Germain hotels in four provinces, announced Tuesday the addition of another Alt, this one in St. John’s, N.L. The 148-room hotel is due to open in 2017. The hotel will be the second property in the Atlantic provinces for the family-owned company, following the 2013 opening of the Alt Hotel in Halifax.

Montreal Gazette

Gatineau residents petition for condo towers

Residents have started a petition in favour of large-scale condo developments that far exceed Gatineau, Que.’s plan for their area. Brigil’s proposed Place des Peuples features two mixed-use hotel and condominium towers. The 35- and 55-storey towers would sit directly across from the Canadian Museum of History and would include an underground link to the museum.

CBC News

Land rights, city-building at odds in Ottawa development

An ideal new urban neighbourhood would be near the centre of a city, easily accessible by transit, by bike and on foot. It would mix residences and workplaces. It would be sensitive to its historical context, have short blocks and sustainable buildings suited to the local climate. In short, it would look more or less like Zibi.

Globe and Mail

Ottawa’s CRE vacancy rates not necessarily a bad thing

Most analysts agree 2015 was a year of uncertainty in Ottawa’s commercial real estate sector, with a federal election and a topsy-turvy economy leaving everyone wondering where the market was headed. Now that the dust has settled and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are in power on Parliament Hill, the future is beginning to come into focus.

Ottawa Business Journal

Brookfield A.M. eyes Blackstone status

Bruce Flatt, chief executive officer of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM.A-T), is putting Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, KKR & Co., and others on notice his Toronto-based firm is about to make a major push into private equity. Flatt says his buyout firm will earn comparisons to the largest of Wall Street’s alternative-asset managers.

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

Psychology trumps technology for office, retail space

How people interact with a space and with each other is key to contemporary retail outlet and office design. “It’s the humanist touch and storytelling that matter. Décor is secondary,” said Nick Baker, CEO and creative director of SmartDesign Group. With technology shrinking the per-worker-space in offices, the goal is to create creative places where people want to stay.

Business in Vancouver

Five REIT investment ideas for 2016: Canaccord

For Canadian REITs, 2015 was a volatile year that started off strong and turned negative through the spring. While many REITs had positive returns, the overall sector was down 4.6 per cent, and REITs with significant exposure to Alberta posted the lowest returns. Assuming no material change in long-term interest rates or widening of credit spreads, we expect Canadian REITs to perform well in 2016

Globe and Mail

Slumping loonie holds silver lining for Canadian retailers

The Canadian dollar’s plunge to a 12-year low is seen boosting sales for the country’s retailers in 2016 as fewer shoppers cross the border south, but profit growth will vary depending on their ability to control import costs and push through price increases.

Financial Post

Buzz Talk with DevMcGill president

A proud Montreal native, Stéphane Côté always loved the city’s urban landscape and rich architectural history. After studying at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Côté worked in a variety of fields from sales and marketing to home renovation. But it was in 1998 when he made his passion for design and architecture a reality by launching DevMcGill.

Buzzbuzzhome.com

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 has forecast two per cent GDP growth in 2016.

Read more

Will investors play real estate as a safe haven in 2016?

We’re starting the year with oil prices that remain at record lows, stock market volatility, continued Middle East conflict and an activist Liberal government in Ottawa.

Read more

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 had been developing at their own pace, but have seemingly been accelerated by market conditions.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Calgary CRE returns remain flat

Investment in Calgary commercial real estate was limited during the final quarter of 2015 as the majority of investors, particularly those from outside Alberta, took a wait-and-see approach as energy prices remained weak, says Colliers International.

Calgary Herald

Global interest in China’s real estate wanes

Global institutional investors and fund managers are taking a dimmer view of China’s property market and instead are placing their bets in Japan and Australia, according to a new Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles (Anrev) survey.

Wall Street Journal – The Australian Financial Review

Real Estate Companies

Showdown of German titans heats up

The wrangling between Germany’s two biggest landlords is heating up ahead of a late-January deadline for investors to decide on Vonovia SE’s $21.6 billion Cdn takeover offer for Deutsche Wohnen AG. Vonovia Tuesday said the new outlook and 2015 numbers Deutsche Wohnen presented are even more attractive.

Wall Street Journal

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

Housing regulator closes U.S. REIT loan loophole

A top federal housing regulator on Tuesday shut the door on mortgage investors who had been using a loophole to access low-cost, government-backed financing. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said so-called captive insurance companies, which insure the risks of the companies that own them, no longer will be eligible for membership in government-backed federal home loan banks.

Wall Street Journal

Retail

Planet Organic added to Edmonton tower

Planet Organic Market’s new central Edmonton store is right across the street from the old one – but the two sites are worlds apart in the retail world, says the head of the company. At 17,000 square feet, the new Planet Organic in the commercial podium of a new residential tower is three times larger than the old store.

Edmonton Journal – Edmonton Journal

Downtown Winnipeg HBC to close fourth floor

The downtown Hudson’s Bay store is, quite literally, a fraction of its former self. The quintessentially Canadian retailer has consolidated its operations at the corner of Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard by closing off the fourth floor and leaving its merchandise to its main and second floors. Hudson Bay has been reducing the shopping space at its downtown location for years.

Winnipeg Free Press

Latest reports:

* ALBI le Géant, Canada Newswire

* Birks Group Inc. (BGI-A), Canada Newswire

Restaurants and Eateries

Edmonton bar approved despite concerns

An Edmonton appeal board approved plans Tuesday to open a 388-seat downtown bar despite concerns by residents the new facility will saturate the neighbourhood with drinking spots. Some building residents had hoped to overturn a city development officer’s decision last November to approve the scheme, which they argued will increase problems from partiers behaving badly.

Edmonton Journal

New Development

Sidney gateway project a step closer

A plan to develop a 10-acre parcel of Victoria Airport Authority property has taken a step forward now that is has been excluded from the Agricultural Land Reserve. Developer Omicron’s proposed $35-million Gateway commercial project must still go before Sidney council.

Victoria Times Colonist

Ontario selling lands for mixed-use community

The province is moving ahead with the sale of the Seaton Lands in Pickering, Ont., in order to make way for a community development that will be home to 70,000. The mixed-use community will support 35,000 jobs, the province states, with the sale including approximately 800 acres of employment lands and 269 acres of residential and mixed use lands.

Daily Commercial News

Sports Venues

NFL approves Rams’ relocation to new stadium

In a historic vote Tuesday evening, NFL owners approved the relocation of the St. Louis Rams to a 300-acre stadium under development by Rams owner Stan Kroenke in Inglewood, Calif., and also gave the San Diego Chargers the option of moving north to share the $2.65-billion development near the Hollywood Park horse racing track.

CoStar Group

Human Resources

Teachers’ finds new CIO in Denmark

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has appointed a new chief investment officer to replace longtime CIO Neil Petroff, who retired in June. Bjarne Graven Larsen, who will also serve as executive vice-president, takes the role Feb. 1, and will report to chief executive Ron Mock. Graven Larsen is a former CIO and executive board member of ATP.

Financial Post

Other

	RENX has surpassed 8,560 Twitter followers
	Follower Plugged in America provides complete commercial and governmental electric vehicle (EV) charging station products, management services, and enterprise integrations.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.