Burnaby’s Metrotown plan passes despite protests

Burnaby’s Metrotown plan passes despite protests

The City of Burnaby is moving forward with its plans to make Metrotown the city’s “true downtown.” Burnaby council unanimously passed the controversial Metrotown development plan – a mass rezoning of the neighbourhood that will increase density even further by replacing low-rise walk-ups with high-rise towers.

Business in Vancouver

Building boom in Kemptville, Ont., to continue … for years

The community of Kemptville, Ont., is in the midst of a boom that has new residents, and development companies, flocking to the town just south of Ottawa.  The area has experienced impressive growth during the past five years, spurred by investments from companies such as Colonnade Bridgeport and LA Group. These firms saw potential in the Township of North Grenville’s largest community years ago and are continuing to lead the charge today.

Property Biz Canada

Canadian office-space markets to be squeezed by low vacancy

Office space is filling up so quickly that some Canadian cities will have some of the lowest vacancy rates in the world by 2019, says a leading commercial property firm. Within two years, Toronto will have the fourth-tightest office market in the world and the tightest in the Americas, with a vacancy rate of just 3.9 per cent, says a report by Cushman and Wakefield.

Globe and Mail

Pacific Reach new owner of iconic Rosewood Hotel Georgia

The Rosewood Hotel Georgia has a new owner. Pacific Reach Properties, a Vancouver-based real estate investment firm, has purchased the hotel from Delta Land Development Ltd., Pacific Reach said in a release. The iconic 90-year-old hotel will continue to be managed by Rosewood and it will retain the same name.

CBC

Proposed cannabis facility upsets Strathcona Cty. residents

People in Strathcona County are concerned about a proposal to construct a medical marijuana and industrial hemp facility on land near their homes. Canadian Rockies Agriculture has applied to put up nine buildings in the first phase of a project that includes greenhouses, processing and underground storage vaults on 30 hectares about 12 kilometres southeast of Josephburg.

Edmonton Journal

PIRET buys 8 Canadian industrial properties

When Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust president and CEO Kevan Gorrie told RENX in an interview earlier this year his company would continue its torrid buying and selling pace in 2017, he wasn’t exaggerating. The total purchase price for the properties, which comprise about 1.9 million square feet and 181 acres of land, is $365 million.

Property Biz Canada

Gary Whitelaw joins Welltower Board of Directors

Welltower Inc. announced that Gary Whitelaw has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Mr. Whitelaw currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Bentall Kennedy Group of Companies  where he is responsible for the performance and governance of all operating and investment groups.  

Benzinga.com

Metrolinx Herbie’s property in Hamilton requires a new plan

The first property Metrolinx purchased for Hamilton’s LRT project was bought for an east-end transit terminal that will no longer be at that location. Metrolinx purchased a large piece of property that used to house Herbie’s Drug Warehouse at the Queenston traffic circle. That was supposed to be the final stop for Hamilton’s $1 billion LRT line and the property would be necessary for the end-of-the-line terminus.

CBC

Hudson’s Bay to open new namesake store in Montreal

Hudson’s Bay Co is planning to open its first namesake department store in Canada in at least five years even as other competitors are shuttering stores in a brutal retail market. HBC’s planned opening in Montreal comes as it faces pressure from activist shareholder Jonathan Litt, who is pushing for the company to make better use of its marquee properties, worth more than $10-billion.

Globe and Mail

Loblaw taking stock of ‘very compelling threat’ of Amazon: CEO

Loblaw’s (L-T) business is being challenged by rising competition, the lingering effects of food deflation, minimum wage hikes and drug reform, but none of the threats seemed to loom as large in the grocery company’s second-quarter conference call as the potential impact of Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods on the industry.

Financial Post

Amazon-Whole Foods combination seen as game-changer: Part I

Grocery stores, once considered more immune to risks from online competition compared to clothing and department store counterparts, may not be as resilient as many have long thought. After Amazon dropped the bombshell news that it plans to buy Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.2 billion, analysts are reassessing the prospect for e-commerce to make more rapid incursions into the food retail business. 

CoStar Group

Dream Global REIT completes transformative Netherlands acquisition

Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN-T) has completed the previously announced transaction relating to a portfolio of 135 office and light industrial properties located in the Netherlands, expanding the REIT’s geographic presence in Europe and complementing the REIT’s existing platform with an experienced management team.

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada

CPPIB lends $408 million to U.K. shopping centre owner

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has provided $408 million in debt to U.K. shopping centre owner and operator Intu. The subordinated facility will support corporate business plans and is indirectly secured by the Intu Trafford Centre in Manchester.

IPE Real Estate

London’s ‘Walkie Talkie’ sold in record deal

The London skyscraper nicknamed the ‘Walkie Talkie’ located at 20 Fenchurch Street, has sold for almost C$2.2 billion in the UK’s largest-ever office deal. Infinitus Property Investment bought the 37-storey building from Land Securities and the Canary Wharf Group, the two companies which completed its construction in 2014.

IPE Real Estate

Celebrating 30: Cushman brothers return to firm

Cushman & Wakefield has gone through many significant changes and monumental moments on its way to reaching 100 years old in 2017. One of those events in its storied history was the return of twin brothers John Cushman and Louis Cushman to the firm their grandfather J. Clydesdale Cushman and great-uncle Bernard Wakefield had founded in 1917.

CP Executive

Market Trends and Research

Canada’s GDP expanded by 4.6% in the year up to May

Canada’s economy grew by 0.6 per cent in May, the seventh straight monthly gain. The overall economy has grown by 4.6 per cent in the 12 months leading up to the end of May, Statistics Canada said. That’s the biggest 12-month figure since 2000. The strong showing blew past what economists were expecting, which was modest growth of 0.2 per cent for the month.

CBC

Improved economic outlook for many Canadian mid-sized cities

In line with recovering oil prices, economic growth in Medicine Hat and Red Deer is expected to return to positive territory this year. In fact, with real GDP growth of 2.7 per cent in 2017, Medicine Hat is anticipated to post the strongest economic growth among the eight mid-sized cities included in The Conference Board of Canada’s latest Mid-Sized Cities Outlook.

Canada Newswire – Bloomberg

Montreal’s Trudeau airport sees 11 per cent spike in traffic

Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport welcomed 4.4 million passengers during its second operating quarter, an increase of 11 per cent compared with last year. International traffic jumped by 17.5 per cent, while domestic traffic rose by 7.6 per cent. Meanwhile, trans-border traffic from the United States increased by increased 6.8 per cent.

Montreal Gazette

REOC Financial Reports

Bentall Kennedy announces first close of High Yield Cdn. Property Fund

Bentall Kennedy (Canada) Limited Partnership announced the successful first close of the Bentall Kennedy High Yield Canadian Property Fund I Limited Partnership totalling $145 million in commitments. The first close raised $115 million in commitments from three leading Canadian institutional investors.

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

NADG NNN REIT files final prospectus for IPO

NADG NNN REIT has filed with the securities commissions of all provinces in Canada, and obtained a receipt for, a final prospectus for an initial public offering of trust units. NADG NNN REIT is a U.S.-based, open-ended unincorporated investment trust.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Restaurants and Eateries

Starbucks puts spotlight on China amid U.S. growth worries

Starbucks Corp.’s new chief executive said the world’s biggest coffee chain is making a long-term investment in China, as worries that growth from its dominant U.S. market is cooling. Kevin Johnson, who succeeded Starbucks (SBUX-Q) co-founder Howard Schultz as CEO in April, is tasked with the difficult job of finding new ways to deliver the robust growth.

Globe and Mail

New Development

The slow death of urban parking: Don Pittis

Build it and they will come is a business mantra. It encourages entrepreneurs to take a shot at something new with the expectation of a flood of customers. In urban planning the term has taken on a more sinister meaning, especially when it comes to parking.

CBC

Infrastructure

Thirty-metre telescope project gets nod from Hawaiian judge

A Hawaiian judge has determined that the construction of a massive new astronomical observatory can proceed – with conditions – atop the state’s highest mountain peak despite opposition by native groups. It is a US$1.5-billion spyglass,  in which Canadian companies have an interest, designed to peer to the farthest reaches of the known universe.

Globe and Mail

Human Resources

Industry advocate Gopal Sahota delivers the straight goods

Asked about his reputation for plain speaking and forthright dealing, the new president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) says it was founded in the bedrock of his upbringing in the B.C. Interior. “I shoot straight from the hip,” said Gopal Sahota. “I’m not going to go out there and be a spin doctor. And that comes from my roots and my value system where we grew up.”

Business in Vancouver

Other

Homburg Institute partners with MSVU, NSCC in real estate program

A Charlottetown-based company is partnering with two Maritime post secondary schools to launch a new real estate development program. The Homburg Institute explained that the collaboration with the Nova Scotia Community College and Mount Saint Vincent University will launch the Executive Certificate in Real Estate Development in September.

The Journal Pioneer

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