Calgary property assessment plunges year-over-year

Calgary property assessment plunges year-over-year

Calgary’s residential and non-residential property assessment base has dropped to $303 billion — a $6 billion year-over-year decline, largely due to a sky-high downtown office vacancy rate. The city released its 2017 property assessment report Thursday, showing an average value of residential homes and businesses fell four and six per cent, respectively, over last year.

Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald – Globe and Mail

Canada’s insurable damage sets record in 2016: IBC

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says last year set a record for insurable damage — estimated at more than $4.9 billion. The industry group says that’s $1.7 billion higher than the previous full-year record set in 2013, when insurable damage totalled $3.2 billion. Canada’s most costly disaster last year was the Alberta wildfires that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, Alta., and surrounding areas.

Winnipeg Free Press

Intelligence House finds niche in Alberta market

Down times in the Alberta residential market have meant rapid growth for three-year-old real estate research, marketing and sales and leasing agency Intelligence House Ltd. Intelligence House was launched because its founders believed there was a gap in the Alberta marketplace and that there was no other “one-stop shop” agency specializing in all three of its primary areas of expertise.

Property Biz Canada

Barriers must remain on dumped U.S. drywall imports

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal is ruling that barriers to cheap American drywall imports into Western Canada must continue. Preliminary duties of up to 276 per cent imposed last September are blamed by industry for price increases of 30 to 50 per cent on the construction material used extensively in commercial and residential buildings.

Globe and Mail – Marketwired

ReDev Properties set for a number of acquisitions in 2017

Despite a challenging economy, ReDev Properties Ltd. reported significant business transactions in 2016, and expects a strong showing in 2017. “We made several key sales during the year, as part of our strategy that focuses on divesting properties in a five to ten year timeframe,” said ReDev Founder and President Richard Crenian.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

BAM, Milestone Apartments REIT top picks: RBC

Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.A-T) and Milestone Apartments REIT (MST.UN-T) are rated as top pick in the sector at RBC Capital Markets for 2017. Analysts Neil Downey and Michael Smith said RBC is “dialing-it-down” in terms of their expectations for real estate investment trusts and real estate operating companies for this year.

Financial Post

Real Estate Forum marks 25th anniversary

Given that 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of the Toronto Real Estate Forum, it seemed appropriate that it end with senior real estate executives looking back at the past quarter-century while forecasting what’s to come. Real Estate Forum co-chairs Blake Hutcheson, the chief executive officer of Oxford Properties, and Peter Menkes, the president of Menkes Developments Ltd.’s asked for input from the five panelists.

Property Biz Canada

How Westin Ottawa created a Canada 150 ‘perfect shot’

Ross Meredith, the general manager at the Westin Ottawa hotel, wanted to create the “perfect shot” as the countdown to Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations was in full swing. To do so, Meredith needed to hash out a secret plan that would ultimately see half of the guests leave their room lights on or off to spell 1-5-0 on the façade of the landmark hotel downtown.

Ottawa Citizen

PCL & EllisDon team up on Centre Block

Centre Block has loomed large over Ottawa’s economy for more than a century, symbolizing the outsized role the federal government plays in the local business community. The popular tourist attraction will take on added importance to the local construction industry in 2017 as preliminary work starts on the largest heritage rehabilitation project of its kind in Canada.

Ottawa Business Journal

Once-formidable retailer now looks set to sink

Sears (SHLD-Q) once the kingpin of U.S. retailers, is closing another 150 stores, selling its Craftsman brand to raise cash and borrowing money to pay down debt, but those steps may not be enough to stop the unravelling of an iconic American company. The pending store closures, which include 108 Kmart locations, are the latest round of scheduled closings for Sears.

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press – CoStar Group

Macy’s discloses first 68 of 100 store closures

Macy’s (M-N) announced the first 68 of 100 stores it plans to close and the elimination of about 6,200 employees as part of a long-awaited series of actions to offset declining sales in its retail operations.  The department store retailer said the actions are expected to achieve approximately $550 million in annual cost savings beginning in 2017.

CoStar Group

U.S. retail outlook: Shopping centers brace for more space rationalization

Even as holiday shoppers were hunting for bargains and exchanging gifts, news began leaking on the latest expected big store closures. Sears Holding was quietly closing another 50 or so stores, and The Limited was closing several stores or letting inventory dwindle so much that store employees worried they were next in line to close.

CoStar Group

U.S. office outlook: Momentum shift from CBDs to suburban, second-tier metros

Analysts are seeing the first hint of caution in the U.S. office market after ending the year with slowing absorption ahead of increasing new supply. Meanwhile, the nascent recovery of suburban and second-tier office markets that began to take hold in 2016 is expected to accelerate in 2017, outperforming CBDs and richly priced U.S. gateway office markets in terms of leasing and absorption in 2017.

CoStar Group

AP Exclusive: Golf club shows pitfalls of Trump presidency

The decorative clock bearing the name of America’s incoming 45th president has yet to start at the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai, but the developers behind the project already are counting the money they’ve made. The 18-hole course is likely to be the first Trump-connected property to open after his Jan. 20 inauguration as president, joining his organization’s projects stretching from Bali to Panama.

Yahoo.com

Dubai’s latest mega project looks spectacular

A 1,400 berth marina—the largest in the Middle East and North Africa region—and a giant lighthouse will be among the major focal points of Dubai’s latest mega project, a 20 million-square-foot luxury waterfront development to be called Dubai Harbour. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum unveiled the master plan for the development.

CP Executive

Market Trends and Research

GTA REALTORS® release commercial market statistic

Toronto Real Estate Board President Larry Cerqua announced that the total amount of leased space reported through TREB’s MLS® System by TREB Commercial Network Members in the fourth quarter of 2016 was down by 5.1 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2015. There was a combined 5,849,174 square feet of industrial, commercial/retail and office space leased.

Marketwired

Ottawa hotel industry gears up for historic year

‘Pretty spectacular’ array of events means downtown accommodations could be at a premium in 2017. As a former general manager of two of Ottawa’s largest hotels, Pat Kelly is all too familiar with the peaks and valleys of an industry that tends to boom in the summer when tourists flock to the capital but can be sluggish at other times of the year – especially the dead of a Canadian winter.

Ottawa Business Journal

Big cities are much more unequal than Canada as a whole

It is no secret that big, global cities such as London and New York are highly unequal and display harsh extremes of wealth and poverty. This is increasingly true of Canada’s largest cities, as shown by recently released Statistics Canada data on the geographical distribution of high-income earners.

Globe and Mail

New Chinese money rules threaten tide of foreign buyers in Canada

Strict new government scrutiny on Chinese people who want to convert their money into other currencies threatens to slow the rush of foreign property buying that has stoked sky-high home prices in Canada and around the world. For months, China has sought to dam the flood of money pouring out of its borders, which has rapidly diminished its stockpile of foreign reserves.

Globe and Mail

Real Estate Companies

The Molson Amphitheatre is now the Budweiser Stage

In what some are calling the latest “Skydome to Rogers Centre” switch-up, Budweiser and Live Nation Entertainment have teamed up to revitalize the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, including changing the name of the outdoor music venue to Budweiser Stage.

CBC

New lenders cater to investors’ demand for private debt

The hunt for higher returns is luring more investors to the private debt space, prompting an increase in Canadian firms and funds that can do this specialized lending. Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group Ltd. is the latest to add such a team. The Toronto-based asset manager is set to announce Thursday that it will launch a private lending arm through a new partnership with MidStar Capital Corp.

Globe and Mail

Retail

Saks OFF 5TH to open at CF Galeries d’Anjou in 2017

Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH is pleased to announce that it will open a new store at CF Galeries d’Anjou in Montreal. The approximately 30,000 square foot store will open in the summer of 2017.

Yahoo Finance

Wal-Mart unit Sam’s Club chief executive to retire next month

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said Rosalind Brewer, the chief executive of its warehouse club stores Sam’s Club, would be retiring from the company effective Feb. 1, and would be replaced by John Furner. The world’s biggest retailer’s shares were down 1.3 per cent in early trading on Friday and was the top percentage loser among Dow-listed stocks.

Globe and Mail

Walmart and Visa put an end to their public Canadian feud

Walmart and Visa have ended an acrimonious and public battle over fees that saw the retail giant refuse to accept Visa credit cards in its northern Ontario and Manitoba stores. In a brief statement Thursday afternoon, Walmart said it would allow customers in those regions to once again use Visa cards beginning Friday.

Financial Post

U.S. department stores suffer weak holiday season sales

A cheerless holiday season is rolling over into the new year for department stores, with bad news from Macy’s and Kohl’s dragging down the entire sector. Both reported falling sales at established stores during the crucial holiday season late Wednesday, and shares are under heavy pressure in early trading Thursday.

Toronto Star

	RENX top story picks for 2016
	The past year generated more real estate news than any year since RENX started publishing in 2001.  Instead of 5 top stories we selected ten and while we have confined our entire list to 100 stories in the past we let it run on this year. RENX top story picks for 2016

 

Restaurants and Eateries

YVR lifts off with new restaurant

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is ringing in the New Year with a new full-service restaurant, Lift Bar & Grill. Inspired by the original location in downtown Vancouver, passengers are now able to enjoy their well-known selection of seasonal cuisine with a focus on local seafood offerings.

Canada Newswire

Renovation and Restoration

Red Rock Inn could get new lease on life

The paint is peeling, the windows leak and the front stairs might be rickety, but Don Evans thinks the old Red Rock Inn has lots of potential. Evans has been working for months on the old building, which is perhaps the largest building in the northwestern Ontario community of 800.

CBC

Infrastructure

City of Vancouver taking property owners to court for icy sidewalks

The city has issued more than 1,700 warning notices and is taking court action against 36 property owners who have not cleared their properties of snow and ice. Commercial property owners, which have been the most defiant, will be the primary target.

Business in Vancouver

International

Denver’s last development frontier

A checkerboard of low-slung buildings and vacant parcels, the River North Art District in this fast-growing Colorado city has developed a funky vibe over the past few years. Among the unconventional work spaces and restaurants in the district, known as RiNo and north of downtown, is Comal, a lunch spot with Latin American cuisine.

Globe and Mail

Loans secured for ultra-luxury Manhattan towers

Ultra-luxury multifamily assets in Manhattan remain in high demand, leading to strong interest from the lending community. On behalf of JDS Development Group, JLL’s Capital Markets experts announced the firm secured $660 million in financing for the American Copper Buildings at 626 First Avenue in Manhattan.

Marketwired

Technology

Storm Kiosks help businesses connect with clients

While travelling through London’s Heathrow airport, Simon House observed passengers in the security screening area pushing one of two buttons that told management if their experience was positive or negative. After a year of design and production, his company, Storm Division, has created Storm Kiosks, which give companies a new way to connect with customers.

Calgary Herald

Other

	RENX has surpassed 9,635 Twitter followers
	Follower Steve Rose is an active engineer/geoscientist with a focus on groundwater and environmental site characterization. Founding principal at MALROZ Engineering.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.