InterRent to buy GTA land, Montreal apartment buildings

InterRent to buy GTA land, Montreal apartment buildings

InterRent REIT (IIP-UN-T) is issuing $100 million in new stock and intends to make two major purchases with the bulk of the proceeds; a parcel of development land for a mixed-use project in the Greater Toronto Area, and two income-producing properties in Montreal. In the GTA, InterRent has conditionally agreed to acquire a 6.3-acre parcel of land for $42 million. Additionally, it is negotiating to acquire adjacent parcels of land.

Property Biz Canada

Allied provides leasing update on Montréal properties

Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T) Thursday provided a leasing update on several recently completed lease transactions in Montréal. Included in the update was Le Nordelec, which Allied purchased on May 31, 2016 when 73% of the total GLA was leased. At the end of Q1 2018, the leased area was 97% with Allied having established the groundwork to replace the one remaining industrial tenant in the complex with office users at higher levels of rent.

Globe Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Montreal’s historic Sun Life Building wins modern awards

It’s 100 years old, but the Sun Life Building in Montreal could easily survive another century in excellent condition if investments continue to be made in its upkeep, its property manager says. When new tenants think of the Sun Life Building, “they think of an older building because of the architecture,” says Ryan Zamestrieus, senior property manager at Bentall Kennedy (Canada). “But we’re innovative and fully automated.”

Property Biz Canada

Minto buys Ottawa’s Manor Village in receivership sale

Minto Capital Management has purchased and will immediately begin upgrading a 111-unit townhouse complex in Ottawa that has been the subject of headlines in local media during the past year. Minto announced this week it is the new owner of Manor Village, which had been listed by JLL in a receivership process. The property is located west of the city’s inner core.

Property Biz Canada

Minto Apartment REIT price rising; analysts expect more

Canada’s newest apartment REIT is already undervalued, according to a couple of Bay Street analysts.  Ottawa-based Minto Apartment REIT (MI-UN-T) started trading this month and has shot well past the initial public offering price of $14.50. Troy MacLean, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, suggested units are still trading at a one per cent discount to net asset value compared to a seven percent premium for peers. 

CoStar Group – Property Biz Canada

Alignvest Student Housing REIT makes first purchase

Alignvest Student Housing REIT has made its first acquisition as it sets out to consolidate what its managing partner calls a highly fragmented Canadian purpose-built student accommodation real estate sector. Alignvest managing partner Sanjil Shah said most purpose-built student accommodations in Canada are owned by local developers and investors. He added major Canadian institutional investors have put money into the sector mainly in other countries.

Property Biz Canada

Halifax office vacancy rate dips modestly

The office vacancy rate in Halifax is down from a year ago, now sitting at 15.25% overall, down from 16.97% a year ago. This is still about ten percentage points above a balanced market (five per cent), but it’s a move in the right direction. The Halifax market is broken down into eight submarkets: seven of them enjoyed falling vacancy between June 2017 and June 2018, including the Halifax Central Business District (CBD).

Turner Drake & Partners media release

Big brick-and-mortar stores still opening

The news for big retail stores seems dire in the age of online shopping. Sears stores that were once anchors of shopping malls have become empty shells. Hudson’s Bay Co. is preparing to shut as many as 10 of its U.S. Lord & Taylor outlets, including its iconic Fifth Avenue flagship in New York. Toys “R” Us closed the last of its U.S. outlets a few weeks ago. But some retailers are still opening large stores.

Globe and Mail

Costco launches online grocery shopping, delivery

As the grocery delivery wars heat up across the country, Costco Wholesale (COST-Q)  is finally entering the battle, at least in parts of Ontario. The warehouse club retailer announced Wednesday it is launching Costco Grocery, the company’s first online grocery site in Canada.

Canadian Grocer – Financial Post

BMO ranks 20 Canadian cities

Ottawa, Quebec City, Hamilton and Edmonton are the top four locations in Canada for “attractiveness as an economic destination,” Bank of Montreal says in a study that notes some “stark changes” from a look five years ago. “Employment prospects are typically the biggest factor driving migration trends, and we often simplify this by saying there are two key reasons to move,” said BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Labour shortage constrains Victoria’s booming buildout

Dollars devoted to building navy jetties, schools, shopping centres and roads in B.C.  capital region were up 10.5 per cent for the second quarter of this year compared with last.  Limiting the positive outlook, however, is the capital region’s ongoing labour shortage as older workers reach retirement age, said Rory Kulmala, chief executive officer of the Vancouver Island Construction Association.

Victoria Times Colonist

Saskatoon hotel to re-emerge as office and retail space

A longtime fixture on the Saskatoon club circuit has been acquired by a local insurance broker, which plans to move in as well as establish additional office and retail spaces. Rayner Agencies Ltd., which is owned by the Wasylenko family, bought the Sutherland Hotel — located down the street from its current office — from local entrepreneur Trevor Mawson, who ran it for the the last 32 years.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Property values at centre of RCMP’s Fortress fraud probe

Inflated property values and the promotion of non-qualifying investments as being RRSP-eligible are some of the key allegations made by the RCMP in a search warrant application it filed to authorize an April raid on six Toronto-area offices. Fortress Real Developments, its lead mortgage broker Building and Development Mortgages Canada (BDMC), and three other affiliated brokerages, including FDS Broker Services, were searched by police.

CBC

Merger to create $6.3B Grocery Center REIT

Phillips Edison & Co. has initiated another merger to grow what is already one of the largest REITs in the U.S. focused solely on grocery-anchored shopping centres. The REIT has agreed to a stock-for-stock merger with a fund it created, Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT II. Phillips Edison will now have a portfolio of 323 grocery-anchored shopping centres across 33 states totaling 36.7 million square feet, worth a total of $6.3 billion US.

Bisnow – CoStar Group

eXp Realty employees work on virtual island

The next phase of working remotely could well be epitomized by eXp Realty (EXPI-Q). In most respects, eXp is your typical real estate brokerage company. It employs thousands of licensed agents to help clients buy and sell their homes. And business seems to be good: eXp’s stock price has almost quadrupled since this time last year, giving it a market cap of over $610 million.

Business Insider – Singularity Hub – Globe Newswire

Featured Column

There is no fear in Ford Nation

The two or three people out there who didn’t think Doug Ford’s Ontario would be markedly different than that of Kathleen Wynne certainly had their eyes opened during last week’s brief Throne Speech. Lower electricity bills. Lower personal and business taxes. Lower gas prices. Investments in healthcare. Transparent and accountable bookkeeping…

Read more

Market Trends and Research

WeWork plans to open largest Denver office

WeWork, the New York-based shared workspace provider, will open its largest Denver location yet in the first quarter of 2019 after signing a lease for nine floors in one of the city’s tallest towers.   The company said it will occupy the first floor of the 1.2 million-square-foot Wells Fargo Center at 1700 Lincoln St., known locally as the Cash Register Building, as well as floors 13 through 18, 46 and 47.

CoStar Group – Bloomberg

Real Estate Companies

Part of Target’s HQ complex for sale

Jones Lang LaSalle appears to be marketing a 499,000-square-foot, 12-storey building in downtown Minneapolis that is home to a portion of Target Corp.’s main office. A newly created website for the listing at 950 Nicollet Mall quietly went live over the past week. According to the site, a team at JLL  are leading the effort on behalf of the current owner, Hamburg-based Union Investment Real Estate GMbH.

CoStar Group

REIT Financial Reports

Latest financial reports:

* Choice Properties REIT, (CHP-UN-T), Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Summit a little-known REIT worth recommending

REIT investors are experiencing a much better year than originally anticipated. As a result, I am adding Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU.UN-T) to the recommended list of my Income Investor newsletter. This REIT invests in a portfolio of light industrial properties. Its prime focus is on Ontario and Quebec. As of the end of March, the REIT owned 84 income-producing properties totalling 8.9 million square feet of gross leasable area.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Property Biz Canada

Specialty REITs carve out bigger niche in U.S. market

Specialty REITs that dabble in everything from prisons and casinos to billboards and cell phone towers are getting more REIT investment dollars. “These non-traditional REITs are taking advantage of the opportunity to fill voids in the market,” says Phillip Owens, managing director, advisory and consulting group, at Newport Beach, Calif.-based research firm Green Street Advisors.

National Real Estate Investor

Retail

Sobeys’ FreshCo outlets coming to Winnipeg

Sobeys Inc. is going to test Winnipeg’s appetite for discount grocery stores with the opening of the first FreshCo outlets in Western Canada. Sobeys announced it will convert two Winnipeg Safeway stores into FreshCo groceries, which have proved popular in Ontario. Discount grocers appeal to customers whose prime concern is price. The stores claim to offer lower prices by cutting services and product selection to reduce costs. 

Winnipeg Free Press

Amazon’s choppy start in Australia could give eBay an edge

Australian home entertainment installer Paul Boon has relied for years on Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) U.S. website for cheap wall racks and other parts to keep his costs down. But Amazon’s recent move to stop Australians from shopping on its foreign websites, due to a new law that requires it to collect taxes, is turning away once-loyal customers like Boon.

Reuters

Cannabis industry news

N.S. unveils Canada’s first combined liquor/cannabis store

Nova Scotia has unveiled what is believed to be the globe’s only retail model that combines liquor beverage sales with recreational cannabis under one roof. A dozen of the hybrid stores, operated by the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. (NSLC), will be open for business on Oct. 17, when recreational cannabis officially becomes legal in Canada. Each store will sell cannabis separately from alcohol.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

North American cannabis sales outpacing estimates

A recent report by Arcview Market Research specifies consumer spending on legal cannabis products in North America is outpacing previous estimates. The report emphasizes retail cannabis sales will grow 33 per cent from 2016, to about $10 billion US this year. The data issued projects that by 2021, the legal cannabis market will reach a value of $24.5 billion while increasing at a 28% compound annual growth rate.

PR Newswire

Invictus to acquire medical cannabis clinics

Invictus MD Strategies (GENE-X) today announced it has entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire 100 per cent  of the issued and outstanding shares of a medical clinic and cannabis retail company that operates medical clinics in, Alberta, and is awaiting final review and approval for a retail cannabis license from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

PR Newswire

Infrastructure

B.C.’s Site C dam project behind schedule

B.C.’s mammoth Site C hydro-electric project is seriously behind schedule, plagued by quality problems and marked by secrecy, says an assessment by an international dam expert. E. Harvey Elwin was hired by a First Nation asking for a court injunction against the dam construction. He expresses concern about work at the job site in his 196-page report, which cites internal B.C. Hydro and government documents, many of them previously confidential.

Vancouver Sun

Other

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