Revitalized Broadview Hotel latest star on TO’s east side

Revitalized Broadview Hotel latest star on TO’s east side

Sitting on the second-floor rooftop patio of the stunningly revitalized Broadview Hotel, Les Mallins is looking out at a view he knows will change. The president of Streetcar Developments is enjoying his new gig as an innkeeper. The Broadview Hotel — on the site of a former rooming-house and old strip club — is the company’s first non-condo project. 

Toronto Star – Toronto Sun

Maison de Radio-Canada sells old building, lot

CBC/Radio-Canada has signed agreements to sell its existing building and the western portion of its lot to developer Groupe Mach for $42 million. The state-owned radio and television broadcaster said in a press release the price was decided after several adjustments were made. The Crown corporation said the sale freed it of maintenance and reparation costs equivalent to $170 million.

Montreal Gazette – Canada Newswire

Vancouver city council approves 57-storey tower

A 57-storey West End tower has been approved by Vancouver city council. The rezoning application for 969 Burrard St. and 1019-1045 Nelson St. was approved Wednesday evening following multiple nights of public hearings. The development, a partnership between The First Baptist Church of Vancouver and Westbank Project Corp, will tower over the 48-storey Wall Centre across the street.

Vancouver Sun – CBC – Straight.com – Marketwired

Vancouver cheapest city to launch tech company: Report

Among 50 U.S. and Canadian markets, the cheapest place to start up a tech company is Vancouver, says a new report. It costs about $24 million US a year to cover employee salaries and rent in Vancouver, says a report by Commercial Real Estate Research. The most expensive place cited was the San Francisco Bay area, which costs $57 million.

CBC – Vancouver Province

Starlight JV to acquire Southern U.S. apartment properties

Starlight Investments (SUVA.A-X) announced it has formed a partnership with two globally recognized institutional investors to identify and acquire US$1.3 billion of recently constructed, class-A, garden-style, multi-family properties in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Texas, Denver, Orlando. Tampa and Phoenix. The partnership will target the acquisition of recently constructed communities in the suburban markets of select major U.S. cities.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Feds paying to maintain land seized for an airport

Over the past 19 years, the Canadian government has spent more than $150 million maintaining Pickering land it seized in the 1970s — for an airport that’s never been built. And while $59.2 million of that sum is listed for site repairs and maintenance, advocates say the properties were left to rot and the tenants evicted before the buildings were demolished.

Toronto Star

Activist pushes for HBC to sell Saks, go private

Activist Land & Buildings Investment Management said it may call for new directors at Hudson’s Bay Co. if the company ignores suggestions for unlocking value, including selling off Saks Fifth Avenue and potentially going private in a management-led buyout. Jonathan Litt, CIO of Land & Buildings, issued the warning in a letter sent Monday to Hudson’s Bay’s board.

Bloomberg – Financial Post – Financial Post

Starbucks to close all Teavana stores

Starbucks (SBUX-Q) announced it is shuttering all 379 Teavana units by the end of next year, ending a diversification strategy that began with some promise but ultimately yielded little other than new brands being incorporated into existing Starbucks locations. The first Teavana stores to close will be in Canada and will do so by the end of September. 

Forbes – CTV – Chicago Tribune

Winnipeg retail glut slowly luring in tenants

Winnipeg’s empty Zellers stores are nearly filled. Peavey Mart – a Canadian-owned urban-farm market, hardware and general store scheduled to open next spring – has taken nearly half of the 72,000-square-foot location in the Fort Richmond Plaza. Shindico Realty’s John Pearson said the mall had been in a “difficult state” for several years.

Western Investor

	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.

 

B.C. ranchers say costs likely to top hundreds of millions

British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association manager Kevin Boon says wildfires  are estimated to have charred about 1,000 square kilometres of ranch land. He says cattle, fences, feed and infrastructure have all been destroyed. Boon expects financial losses for the association’s nearly 1,200 beef producers will top hundreds of millions of dollars.

Toronto Star

More than 426,000 hectares scorched so far

As the third-worst fire season in B.C.’s history continues, more than 820 fires have scorched about 426,000 hectares since April. Officials are estimating about 6,000 people are still displaced due to evacuation orders. Thousands of fire personnel are working to battle the flames around the province, with about 750 of them coming from outside B.C.

Global News – CBC – CBC – CTV

Sunshine Village closes again as wildfire grows

Parks Canada has ordered Sunshine Village to close down operations again after the Verdant Creek fire burning south and west of the resort crept closer on Sunday. “We will close for commercial operations (until further notice) starting tomorrow,” Sunshine said on its Facebook page Monday.

CBC – Calgary Sun – Calgary Herald

Corporate focus drove Sears into the ground: Opinion

Sears Canada’s woes stem from an apparent methodical process of value extraction. While Sears’ pension funding position deteriorated from a $220-million surplus in 2008 to a $110-million funding shortfall last year, its leadership funnelled cash out of the firm. Over the period, Sears Canada paid out more than $1.4 billion, with a large chunk going to Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert.

Globe and Mail

When companies ditch the office, everyone’s a remote worker

Buffer used to have an office until the company realized almost none of its employees worked there. Most people working for the social media company opted to work remotely. Buffer closed its office in San Francisco in 2015, becoming one of a small but increasing number of companies that rely exclusively on remote workers.

CBC

MAA tapped to design $1.3B Dallas project

The development of Grandscape, the 3.9 million-square-foot mixed-use project sprouting up in The Colony, Texas, takes a significant step forward. Developer Nebraska Furniture Mart, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, recently tapped Merriman Anderson/Architects to serve as designer and architect of record for the $1.3 billion, suburban Dallas/Fort Worth project.

CP Executive – Dallas News

CBRE arranges record Philly office sale

The 1.8 million-square-foot Centre Square, a prominent office complex in Philadelphia’s central business district, has come under new ownership in the largest office transaction in the city’s history based on square footage. Acting on behalf of Equity Commonwealth (EQC-N), CBRE Capital Markets orchestrated the sale of the seminal two-tower property to Nightingale Properties LLC for $328 million US. 

CP Executive – CoStar Group – Philly.com

Market Trends and Research

Yonge Street vacancies hurt small businesses

Toronto’s most renowned intersection is going through a transformation. The Yonge and Dundas streets area is a tourist destination, but vacancies are hurting surrounding smaller businesses, and some owners say they won’t survive the transition. “I plan on maybe two years, then I’ll be done,” said Ming Lau, owner of Shoe Tree on Yonge, which he opened 21 years ago.

CBC

Ottawa Q2 industrial vacancy rate flat at four per cent

Healthy tenant demand, combined with limited availability in desirable locations, kept Ottawa’s industrial vacancy rate at four per cent for the second straight quarter, a recent report says. Colliers International‘s midyear research report says many properties that were on the market at the start of the year are still sitting empty even as tenant demand rises.

Ottawa Business Journal

U.S. net lease industrial market still robust

Big box distribution facilities are incredibly attractive — they can easily be repurposed if the tenant vacates, according to Jim Gibson, the regional director of Stan Johnson Co. “The net lease industrial market is still very robust. I can’t broad-brush the advice we’re giving our clients, but demand for industrial properties is very strong right now.”

GlobeSt.com

Real Estate Companies

As Toronto Islands reopen, drowning businesses rejoice

Amid Toronto Islands’ suspended ferry services and muddied beaches, Derek Davis and his fleet of voyage canoes have carted tourists to and from the mainland. Except there weren’t many of them to transport. Despite keeping the canoe taxi service open all summer, Davis had to cut staff, struggling to stay afloat during the upheaval caused by widespread flooding.

CBC – CTV – Globe and Mail – Toronto Star

Real Estate Investment Trusts

U.S. apartment REITs steady as earnings season begins

In a survey of the REIT landscape heading into second-quarter earnings season, analyst Dane Bowler of 2nd Market Capital Advisory Corp. summed up his feelings about multi-family trusts: “overall steady fundamentals with slow to moderate same-store growth. Healthy demand will be weakened by supply, particularly in top 25 MSAs. Location will be the primary desideratum of an apartment’s success.”

GlobeSt.com

RioCan, Dream Global better than owning property

Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN-T) has a portfolio of 170 properties in both Germany and Austria. It recently paid $143 million to purchase the Airport Plaza in Brussels, Belgium, and further expansion into other European markets seems likely in the future. RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) has a portfolio of 300 properties across the country that caters to retail tenants. 

Motley Fool – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Retail

Retail shifting as digital wallets ‘cannibalize’ cash

Over the next year and a half, Alan Bekerman plans to grow his healthy fast-food chain iQ Food Co. from five to up to 11 locations and not a single one will accept cash. “It was one less thing that we had to think about, which is a huge benefit,” says Bekerman, who tested the idea at two locations.

CTV

Investors needn’t be worried about Amazon.com

Amid all the chatter about Amazon.com Inc.’s sharp profit decline in Q2, the stock fell only slightly the next day. The online retailing giant posted a 77 per cent drop in quarterly earnings, North American and International operating margins contracted, and Q3 operating income guidance was significantly lower-than-expected, but Amazon’s revenue of US$38 billion beat expectations by a significant margin.

Financial Post

New Development

Luxury B.C. development pits city against citizens

Officials in the quiet seaside town of Gibsons, B.C., are crying uncle after facing dozens of expensive legal challenges against a controversial waterfront development. Last week, the Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a complaint related to the George Hotel, a project approved for rezoning in October 2015. The development features two mid-rise towers with a 118-room hotel and a conference centre.

CBC

North Korea unveils 105-storey pyramid hotel

While North Korea’s second launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile dominated headlines late last week, Pyongyang quietly unveiled renovations around the capital’s biggest landmark: a futuristic, pyramid-shaped 105-storey hotel, the world’s tallest unoccupied building. After decades of embarrassing delays and rumours the building may not even be structurally sound, could this be Kim Jong Un’s next pet project?

Windsor Star

Renovation and Restoration

Window project takes CN Tower view to new heights

The LookOut level at Toronto’s iconic CN Tower will be getting a complete overhaul, which started with a unique window replacement project enhancing the view from above. The first phase of the project, located at 1,136 feet, involved the installation of two new floor-to-ceiling panoramic window walls that offer a new perspective for visitors.

Daily Commercial News

Infrastructure

Nearly a million hectares of oilsands exploration leases abandoned

In another sign the bloom is off the boom for the oilsands, the industry has returned almost one million hectares of northern Alberta exploration leases to the province over the past two years — abandoning an area far bigger than P.E.I. The total area covered by oilsands leases remained constant at about nine million hectares between 2011 and 2014.

CBC

Concrete key to new noise dampening facility at Billy Bishop

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has unveiled a new addition. The new concrete and steel Ground Run-up Enclosure (GRE) was officially opened in April and is designed to dampen noises associated with ground run-up operations of high-power aircraft engines. The three-sided, open-top facility will accommodate commercial aircraft and is located on the south west side of the airfield.

Daily Commercial News

Technology

Park Assist: Guiding users to available parking

What if customers, tenants or visitors of commercial properties didn’t have to circle to find available parking spots? Park Assist’s M4 smart-sensor parking guidance system makes every driver’s dream a reality with technology that also reduces costs, provides operational benefits and increases revenue. The M4 system uses License Plate Recognition technology in tandem with directional signage.

CP Executive

Other

Esquimalt Legion clashing with developer

The Esquimalt branch of the Royal Canadian Legion is fighting for its financial life amid fears it might go under due to a disputed high-rise development project. At issue before a Vancouver arbitrator is a joint-venture agreement the legion undertook with Monimos Equities and Developments Inc., and its principals, Christopher Fitzpatrick and Robert Schmidt, to build a $32-million seniors’ high-rise on the legion property.

Victoria Times Colonist

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