Local Data Hub launched in Cambridge

Local Data Hub launched in Cambridge

The City of Cambridge, Ont., has been selected by the World Council of City Data (WCCD) to be one of the first of a global network of Local Data Hubs using city data to drive change. The launch of the Cambridge-WCCD Local Data Hub, along with seven other hubs worldwide, was announced during a United Nations (UN) forum in New York City on sustainable development.

Exchange Magazine – CBC

Fast-growing tech sector drives Toronto office demand: CBRE

Toronto is North America’s fastest growing technology market, according to CBRE’s fifth annual Scoring Tech Talent Report, which shows Canada’s largest metropolis moving up six spots to No. 6 out of 50 cities. “We’ve had 30 per cent growth in the tech sector over the last five years and we added more jobs than San Francisco and New York City combined last year,” said Werner Dietl with CBRE Canada.

Property Biz Canada

Oxford puts Ottawa Constitution Square up for sale

One of downtown Ottawa’s most significant office properties, Constitution Square, is up for sale according to a Colliers International report. The property came on the market late in the second quarter, and includes three Class A office towers linked by a retail podium, Colliers Q2 2017 Office Report states.

Property Biz Canada

Toronto industrial sale prices ‘unprecedented’: AY’s Hillis

David Hillis, who brings 33 years of industrial and office investment sales and leasing experience to his new role as Avison Young principal, has completed more than 1,100 industrial transactions in the Toronto market. With that type of background, the former CBRE senior vice-president has a solid perspective on what’s happening in the GTA.

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver is fastest growing industrial market in Canada: report

Vancouver and Toronto have been dominating the country’s industrial growth since mid-2014, when the bottom started to fall out on oil prices, according to a new report by Cushman & Wakefield. The two cities have accounted for 80.3 per cent of total national industrial space absorption since oil prices started to decline dramatically in spring of 2014.

Vancouver Sun

Declining U.S. municipal airports eyed for redevelopment

Coleman Young International Airport was once one of the busiest U.S. airports and a thriving piece of Detroit’s economy. But like so much else in the city, it festered for decades after the economic action moved to the suburbs. Now local officials want to reinvigorate the 264-acre plot. The question is whether that means it will survive as an airport or be remade for other purposes.

Globe and Mail

Dream Industrial updates strategy, buys Nashville property

Dream Industrial REIT has updated its investment strategy and announced its first U.S. property purchase, a 717,000 square foot, modern distribution facility in Nashville, Tenn. The REIT also plans to “actively leverage” its existing land bank and new industrial development group to explore development opportunities and further acquisitions.

Property Biz Canada

Home Capital repays $2B line of credit from Berkshire Hathaway

Home Capital Group, the Toronto-based alternative mortgage lender that was on the verge of collapse earlier this year, says it has repaid a $2-billion line of credit from Berkshire Hathaway. The company was given the financial lifeline last month by Berkshire Hathaway, which is headed by Warren Buffett, as it was trying to regain investor confidence following a run on deposits from customers.

CBC – Bloomberg

Hydro One’s $1.4-billion bought deal sells out quickly

Underwriters had little trouble selling Hydro One Ltd.’s $1.4-billion bought deal, which was announced last week with the utility’s $4.4-billion acquisition of U.S.-based Avista Corp. The entire allocation of convertible debentures was sold within a day, say sources familiar with the financing.

Globe and Mail

Topgolf, Cineplex partner to bring entertainment venues to Canada

Global sports entertainment leader Topgolf® and Cineplex (CGX-T), a leading entertainment and media company, today announced an exclusive partnership that will bring Topgolf’s sports entertainment experience to Canada. The joint venture will see the opening of multiple Topgolf venues in markets across the country during the next several years.

Canada Newswire

Fight for wetland protection stalls large Niagara Falls development

Billed as Paradise and backed by Chinese investors, a proposed massive residential and commercial development in Niagara Falls is at a standstill amid wrangling over protecting sensitive wetlands.  The conflict has pitted the land developer and the city of Niagara Falls, against the provincial government, whose biologists have increased the amount of swampland shielded from development.

Globe and Mail

	B.C. wildfires’ impact on real estate, residents
	The following section of the RENX newsletter is dedicated to news about the wildfires in British Columbia and their impact on real estate.

 

‘Some of them might fail’: entrepreneurs get help during wildfires

Some people displaced by wildfires aren’t just worried about their homes; entrepreneurs are worried about the fate of the businesses they’ve left behind. The B.C. Economic Development Association is hoping to help those businesspeople with a toll-free hotline to give them advice and direction on how to get back on their feet.

CBC – CBC

Family fears 70-year-old fishing resort lost to B.C. wildfires

Growing up in Loon Lake, B.C., Kelli Ladoski describes what felt like a certain future: one day, running the family fishing resort her great-grandfather started more than 70 years ago.  She and her father, Ken, don’t know if a single cabin of HiHium Lake Fishing Resort has been spared by the Ashcroft Reserve wildfire that forced the evacuation of the area.

CBC

U.S. businesses celebrate recovering Canuck buck

After two years in the doldrums, Canadian cross-border shoppers are heading south again. Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism CEO Sandy Ward said hotel booking in Whatcom County were 12 per cent higher compared to the same period last year.  The Canadian dollar touched 80 cents U.S. on Monday, capping a 10 per cent rise in just two months.

Vancouver Sun

Engineering firm WSP Global acquires Chilean company

Quebec engineering firm WSP Global (WSP-T) will double its work in Latin America after acquiring Chilean firm Poch. The amount of the transaction hasn’t be released, but Mona Nazie, an analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities, estimates it was about $50 million.

Montreal Gazette

Mainland developer Cheung Kei buys Canary Wharf office

Shenzhen’s Cheung Kei Group has recently completed the biggest real estate deal in London’s Canary Wharf since 2014, buying up a 12-storey prime office building in the financial district for C$670 million. Canadian real estate investor Brookfield bought the building in 2005 for $C533 million, and put it up for sale through property consultancy JLL this past March.

Ming Tiandi

World needs $94 trillion spent on infrastructure by 2040: report

Nearly a fifth of the $94 trillion in global infrastructure investment needed by 2040 risks being unfunded if current spending trends continue, the G20-backed Global Infrastructure Hub said. To close the spending gap, annual infrastructure spending needs to rise to 3.5 per cent from 3 per cent of global gross domestic product, the GIH said in a report.

Reuters

Market Trends and Research

Toronto’s tax program compared to other global cities: video

Enid Slack, director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto, on Toronto’s budget needs and taxing capability compared to comparable cities around the world.

CBC

Canadian economy poised to grow 2.5% this year: IMF

The International Monetary Fund expects Canada to lead the G7 for economic growth this year. The IMF raised its outlook for Canada as part of its latest world economic outlook update.

CBC

Real Estate Companies

Mainstreet Health Investments agrees to sell two U.S. properties

Mainstreet Health Investments Inc. (HLP.U-T) has entered into a definitive agreement to sell two transitional care facilities located in Wichita, Kansas and Fort Worth, Texas to Mainstreet Property Group, LLC for a total sale price of approximately US$47 million. The transaction is expected to close prior to year-end.

Canada Newswire

B.C. home to one of world’s most expensive luxury resorts

B.C. is home to one of the world’s most expensive resort experiences.  According to a recent survey from Luxury-Hotels.com, the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort is among the most expensive luxury hotels in the world. 

Business in Vancouver

Real Estate Investment Trusts

InterRent REIT Results for the Second Quarter of 2017

InterRent REIT, IPP.UN-T

Marketwired

Now may be the right time to buy REITs

We’re starting to see sale prices on rate-sensitive stocks. One name to consider adding is Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust (REF.UN-T) a blue chip name in the REIT sector. In the past month or so, as the market digested the fact that interest rates are on the rise, CREIT fell about 5.5 per cent in price.

Globe and Mail

Retail

Minimum wage hikes to cost Loblaw $190M next year

Loblaw Companies Ltd. says minimum wage increases in Ontario and Alberta and health care reform in Quebec are expected to hurt its bottom line. The grocery and drug store operator says the minimum wage increases announced in Ontario and Alberta are expected to increase its labour expenses by about $190 million in 2018.

CBC.ca

New Development

Parker Wetlands battle in Winnipeg heats up

The situation at the Parker Wetlands is escalating and protesters are emboldened a lawyer for the Winnipeg protest site’s landowner said Tuesday. More tents have been popping up each day and a project manager employed by real estate developer Gem Equities Inc. has been followed around the property by a protester carrying an axe, Kevin Toyne said.

Winnipeg Free Press – CBC

Infrastructure

Richmond urges halt to Massey Tunnel replacement bridge

Richmond city council is urging B.C.’s premier to suspend all work on the George Massey Tunnel replacement project and consider whether the tunnel should be twinned instead of scrapped in favour of a bridge. A report from director of transportation Victor Wei with recommendations for the proposed bridge was supported by eight of nine council members.

Vancouver Sun

Human Resources

Kozakewich brings new leadership to Ledcor’s Calgary office

Ledcor Group prides itself in its people development; promoting its own talent to take over leadership. A recent example is the appointment of Mike Kozakewich as Calgary regional manager of Ledcor Construction. Kozakewich has been with the company since 1998, when he was hired as a carpenter in the Edmonton office.

Calgary Herald

Other

Artist renderings of projects that were supposed to happen

Here are 12 examples of how Hamilton is imagined by artist renderings

CBC

City unveils public art along Confederation Line LRT stations

The City of Ottawa is spending more than $7 million on art at 13 LRT stations along the Confederation Line. It is now giving Ottawans a sneak peak at what we will be getting for that public money.

CBC

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