Brookfield, KIC buy Berlin complex

Brookfield, KIC buy Berlin complex

Brookfield Property Partners (BPY.UN-T) has finalized the purchase of Potsdamer Platz, an iconic mixed-use estate in a prime area of Berlin. The 2,900,000-square-foot, 17-building, 10-street and two-square development was part of a joint venture with state-owned Korea Investment Corporation. According to the Financial Times, the purchase price was $2 billion Cdn.

REMI Network – Vanguard Tribune

Calgary downtown office vacancy rate balloons

The downtown Calgary office market is ending a difficult 2015 with a vacancy rate approaching 18 per cent. CBRE Limited statistics indicate there were 7.1 million square feet of vacant space out of an inventory of just over 40 million square feet in the Q4 2015 — a vacancy rate of 17.6 per cent, up from 11.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.

Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald

What will 2016 bring for RioCan?

Despite the dark cloud hanging over Canada’s economy, the country’s largest publicly traded real estate company is doubling down on its home country. Entering 2016, RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI.UN-T) is proudly waving the Canadian flag. Right before Christmas, RioCan announced the sale of its entire U.S. portfolio to private equity behemoth Blackstone Group (BX-N).

Globe and Mail (Subscription Required) – Financial Post

Quad Windsor major boost for Montreal

Cadillac Fairview’s $2-billion, five million-square-foot Quad Windsor will include the recently opened Deloitte Tower — the first privately financed office tower built in Montreal in 20 years — renovations to historic Windsor Station, two phases of condo towers carrying Canadiens branding, retail, restaurant and green space sectors and two office towers.

Daily Commercial News

Repurposing Montreal’s religious buildings tricky

For some Montreal real estate developers, selling sanctuary can be hell. In these secularizing times, Montreal’s plentiful stock of centrally located religious buildings suitable for repurposing as condos or for other uses would appear to represent a Holy Grail of opportunity for developers.

Globe and Mail

FerroAtlantica cancels Quebec plant project

Plans for a $382-million investment to build a new silicon metal plant in Port-Cartier, Que., have been abandoned. Spanish-owned Grupo FerroAtlantica had unveiled plans to build its first North American silicon metal plant at a June 2014 media conference. A recent media release explained the firm was acting “in light of recent market developments.”

Daily Commercial News

Toronto emerging mecca for indie video game stores

Gar Wan Toy, 33, has been a gamer since he was three and his family bought a Commodore 64. Toy has put his passion into practice as co-owner of A&C Games with his brother Chan. Toy’s independent gaming store is one of at least 15 in Toronto — an astonishing number considering even London and Sydney have only two each.

Toronto Star

Sports mogul gains ground in real estate

On the wall of Stephen Ross’s Manhattan office is a painting he bought two years ago that reads: “I’m busy for the rest of my life.” That sums up the career plan of the self-made American real estate billionaire and professional sports magnate who turns 76 later this year.

Globe and Mail

U.S.’ largest ski area unveiled

Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort, a new 2,443-metre-long gondola, has created the largest ski area in the U.S. by connecting Park City and Canyons Resort. Visitors can access nearly 3,000 hectares of skiable terrain – in North America, it’s second only to B.C.’s Whistler Blackcomb – with 41 lifts and 314 marked trails.

Globe and Mail

U of T received funds for MaRS collaboration

The Ontario government gave the University of Toronto $18.3 million to fit out a floor in the MaRS West Tower for a collaboration with a biotech firm, money additional to the loans the province has made to keep the building afloat. The grant was presented as an overall investment toward bringing JLabs, a biotech subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, to Toronto.

Globe and Mail

Hamilton buildings’ heritage legislation appeal delayed

A strip of historic buildings lining Gore Park will have to endure a third season of snow, sleet and cold. The lengthy saga between the City of Hamilton and developer David Blanchard isn’t coming to an end any time soon. Blanchard is appealing the city’s last-minute heritage designation at the Ontario Environment and Land Tribunal.

CBC

Green Vancouver benefiting from China’s toxic wealth

Against the backdrop of this month’s historic Paris Agreement for climate change, a modern tale of two cities was playing out. Officials from Vancouver, led by Mayor Gregor Robertson, were in Paris to receive the C40 Cities Award in the category of carbon measurement for Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan to become the greenest city in the world by 2020.

Globe and Mail

The impact of interest rates on industrial REITs

Interest rates are critical to the owners of warehouse facilities, as they drive the financials and value of these properties. Owners should track interest rates in both the short-term and long-term. The graph below shows the relationship between the US inflation rates and new warehouse construction.

Market Realist

Amazon steamrolling online competition

Two decades after Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN-Q) in his Bellevue, Wash., garage, his e-commerce juggernaut could be forgiven for letting up on its rapid growth.  Not Amazon, though, which steamrolled through 2015, capturing an ever-growing share of U.S. retail sales. Of every additional US$1 Americans spent for items online this year, Amazon captured 51 cents.

Financial Post – Financial Post – Business In Vancouver

Infrastructure top story of 2015: Industry

Infrastructure prevailed as one of the key topics on the campaign trail during the 2015 federal election and it also was the top newsmaker this year for the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) and the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies — Canada (ACEC).

Daily Commercial News

Featured Column

Why we love the Prairies

Lately, people have been looking at me with concern and asking “Are you OK?” They know ReDev Properties Canada has a number of properties on the Prairies and are worried the oil slump and current economic downturn has had a negative impact. There is a feeling the market is depressed, but in my view the worst has already happened.

The Long View by Richard Crenian

Garbage in, garbage out

GIGO stands for “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” It’s an informal concept common to mathematics and computer science. The quality of the output is determined by the quality of the input.  I’d like to discuss how this concept applies to the world of commercial real estate.

Capital Commentary

Exciting times on Saskatoon’s CRE horizon

With all the economic doom and gloom, it’s time someone looked at what’s going right in Saskatoon. National tenants continue to look at our market and there are brave developers out there with the belief if they build it they will come. Read the story in The Saskatchewan Edge, November 26, 2015  — Contributed by Kelly Macsymic, Sales Associate, ICR Commercial Real Esate and Business Manager, B. Stuart P.C. Inc.

 

Market Trends and Research

Vancouver well-served by grocery stores

Downtown Vancouver is among the best urban centres in the country when it comes to the availability of grocery stores, but there remain pockets on the fringes of downtown that have become “food deserts,” according to a new study by the University of Alberta School of Retailing. 

Vancouver Sun

World investing in Dubai real estate

There are more than 200 nationalities investing in Dubai’s resilient real estate sector, which is supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure. Billions of dirhams have been invested in the property sector, the world’s hottest destination for real estate for years. Internationally, the returns on investment are much higher than global cities.

Emirates 24|7

U.S. stocks hope for savior in indexes

The U.S. real estate industry is hoping attention from a new set of investors will send more money flowing its way in 2016. Starting next summer, MSCI Inc. and S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a unit of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. and purveyor of the S&P 500-stock index, will break out real estate into a distinct sector.

Wall Street Journal – The Real Deal

Five predictions for U.K. CRE in 2016

James Roberts, chief economist at Knight Frank, gives his view on what will be the key trends in U.K. commercial property in the next 12 months

WalesOnline

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

Pure Multi closes on sale of Dallas property

Pure Multi-Family REIT LP (RUF.U) announced the successful and profitable sale of Dallas’ Windsong Apartments for gross proceeds of US$22.0 million. Windsong is comprised of 264 residential units, situated on 10.0 acres of land and was built in 1985. Pure Multi acquired Windsong in July 2013 for US$16.5 million.

REMI Network

Top 10 U.S. REIT performers for 2016

This year I decided to create an article highlighting the REITs I expect to generate the most robust dividend growth in 2016. As Josh Peters explained in The Ultimate Dividend Playbook, “dividend increases provide the best possible evidence of dividend safety” and dividend increases provide the “loudest and clearest message that management can send.”

Forbes

Retail

Save-On-Foods unveils Winnipeg store

The arrival of Save-On-Foods is giving the Polo Park area back some of its moxie. The Vancouver-based grocery chain plans to unveil a unique shopping experience to Winnipeggers in the fall when it cuts the ribbon on a trio of stores. The other two are a former Zellers space and a new location in the south neighbourhood of Bridgwater.

Winnipeg Free Press

Toys R Us closes NYC flagship store

For decades, children visiting New York City savoured a trip to the kind of toy store that existed only in their imagination. Sadly, the massive Toys R Us superstore in Times Square, which wowed shoppers with a 60-foot indoor Ferris wheel, a growling, 20-foot animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a life-size Barbie dollhouse, had its last shopping day Wednesday.

Winnipeg Free Press – New York Times

Pep Boys agrees to be bought by Icahn

Carl Icahn is acquiring Pep Boys for $1 billion, ending his weeks-long bidding war with Japanese tire company Bridgestone. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. Icahn Enterprises offered $18.50 in cash for each share of Pep Boys, $1.50 more than the most-recent offer from Bridgestone. With the contest becoming too rich, Bridgestone bowed out Tuesday.

Winnipeg Free Press

U.S. holiday retail sales grow: MasterCard

Strong online sales and demand for furniture and women’s apparel helped U.S. retail sales grow by a “solid” 7.9 per cent this holiday season, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles and gas, had grown 5.5 per cent in the period between Black Friday and Christmas Eve last year.

Globe and Mail

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