Granite REIT to sell Aurora HQ, buy German property

Granite REIT to sell Aurora HQ, buy German property

Granite REIT has entered into an agreement to sell its office properties in Aurora, Ontario which serve as the corporate headquarters for Magna International Inc. The sale will generate total gross proceeds of $60 million representing a capitalization rate of approximately 6.2 per cent. It also entered into an agreement to purchase a logistics property in Erfurt, Germany.

Granite REIT news release

Anthem Properties buys Calgary CBC building

Vancouver-based Anthem Properties Group Ltd. has bought the former CBC building just off Memorial Drive in Calgary and will use the site for a future residential redevelopment. The 2.43-acre site is located at 1724 Westmount Boulevard N.W. in the Hillhurst-Sunnyside neighbourhood.

Calgary Business – Canada Newswire

Firm Capital Corporation marks 30 years in business

Firm Capital Corporation is celebrating 30 years in the private equity business, and the company’s growth since founder Eli Dadouch combined his interests in real estate and finance has been substantial.  “Our name has been associated with literally thousands of homes,” said Dadouch, Firm Capital’s president and chief executive officer. “A lot of housing was created thanks to our participation in transactions.”

Property Biz Canada

AIMCo buys ICE District Edmonton tower

The company formed by the Katz Group and One Properties has sold the first office tower built in the ICE District Properties to the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo). The Edmonton Tower at 10111 104 Ave. opened in late 2016 to accommodate 2,000 city staff as well as other tenants.

Edmonton Journal – Globe Newswire

Battle brewing over proposed suburban mega-mall in Calgary

The City of Calgary and Rocky View County will appear before the province’s Municipal Government Board next month to discuss the county’s OMNI Area Structure Plan, which envisions a massive retail centre, restaurants, three boutique hotels, a children’s creative zone, a senior’s community, and a large office campus. At just over 517 hectares, it is nearly twice the footprint of CrossIron Mills near Balzac on the city’s northern limits.

Calgary Herald

Plaza Retail REIT sells eight single-tenant assets in Alberta

Plaza Retail REIT (PLZ.UN-T) announced that it has successfully completed the sale of eight non-core, single-tenant assets located in Calgary, Airdrie and Sherwood Park, Alberta, for $12,150,000, representing a portfolio capitalization rate of 5.3%. 

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Landmark Vancouver hotel being erased from city skyline

By March of next year, the 44-storey Empire Landmark Hotel on Robson Street will be demolished and the concrete turned into 40,000 tonnes of recycled fill. JMX Contracting expects to start taking down the former hotel and restaurant this week. JMX will be using several Brokk demolition machines that crush concrete and cut steel reinforcing for recycling.

Vancouver Sun

What’s next for hotelier after buying the Trump Toronto?

InnVest Hotels LP, which added the former Toronto Trump hotel to its Canadian portfolio last year, is planning its first foray into the U.S. Canada’s hotel market has become “frothy” so it’s prudent to diversify into the U.S., particularly with trade tensions also hanging over Canada, said Jeff Hyslop, senior vice president of asset management at Toronto-based InnVest.

Bloomberg

The Well to bring ‘King Street feel’ to Front

The corner of Front Street West and Spadina used to feel like the Western outback, alone and removed, even if only a few blocks from Toronto’s downtown core. Wellington, one street north, was a quieter, leafier anomaly with its historic buildings, yet broken by a big gravel parking lot, and King had its rows of similarly aged, converted brick warehouses, punctuated by a backpackers’ hostel.

Globe and Mail

Minto Apartment REIT completes $200 million IPO

Minto Apartment REIT (MI.UN-T) and Minto Properties Inc. announced the REIT has completed its initial public offering of 13,794,000 trust units at a price of $14.50 per unit. The offering raised gross proceeds of $200,013,000.  The units are trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MI.UN.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Buy Canadian when it comes to commercial real estate

Given the developing trade war between the U.S. and Canada, a recent Bloomberg article about the Canadian division of Chicago-based commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL-N) caught my attention. The CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Canadian division is Brett Millar. Since taking the top job in 2012, he’s grown the company’s revenue by 1,000%.

Motley Fool

Colliers completes acquisition of Harrison Street Real Estate

Leading global commercial real estate services firm Colliers International Group Inc. (CIGI-N) (CIGI-T) has completed its previously announced, strategic investment in Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC, one of the largest real estate investment firms dedicated to the education, healthcare and storage sectors with approximately $14.6 billion in assets under management.

Globe Newswire

Brookfield in talks to buy NY complex for $600 million

Brookfield Property Partners LP is in talks to buy Waterside Plaza on the East Side of Manhattan for about $600 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The property, which includes apartments, stores and space rented to the British International School of New York, is owned by Richard Ravitch, a former New York lieutenant governor and onetime chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Financial Post

NYC Waterfront Park celebrates completion

NYCEDC president and CEO James Patchett and NYC parks commissioner Mitchell J. Silver announced the opening of Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park Phase II. The park presents a new model of urban ecology and a prototype for innovative sustainable design. The park is adjacent to the city’s largest affordable housing development since the 1970s.

PR Newswire

Parking space in Hong Kong sells for $765,000

The market for parking spaces is hotter than ever as a single spot in a luxury development in Kowloon’s Ho Man Tin district changed hands for a record HK$6 million ($765,000). “It’s crazy,” said Darrin Woo, a classic car collector who shipped his 1968 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman limo and a fiery red 1957 Fiat Abarth to California to save money on storage.

Toronto Star

Market Trends and Research

TREB releases commercial market figures for Q2 2018

TREB Commercial Network Members reported nearly 6.7 million square feet of industrial, commercial/retail and office space leased through TREB’s MLS® System in Q2 2018. This result represented an increase of 2.2 per cent in comparison to 6.5 million square feet reported leased in Q2 2017. Industrial space accounted for nearly three-quarters of total leased space.

Globe Newswire

Trade war a ‘clear and present danger’: Scotiabank

Scotiabank Economics released its quarterly Global Economic Outlook today. This quarter, the Global Economic Outlook remains optimistic about underlying global growth possibilities, but the economic horizon is clouded by developing and wholly unnecessary trade conflicts touched off by the US with its major trading partners.

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Companies

City of Winnipeg, Peguis reach deal for urban reserve

City officials have negotiated an agreement with Peguis First Nation to establish an urban reserve at 1075 Portage Ave., but the deal will not require Peguis to pay the same level of property taxes as other property owners, and nothing for frontage fees or water and sewer charges.

Winnipeg Free Press

StorageVault to acquire storage asset in GTA for $15M

Storage Vault Canada Inc. (SVI-X) has entered into an agreement and waived due diligence conditions to acquire one store in the Greater Toronto Area from a vendor for a purchase price of $15,000,000, subject to customary adjustments. The acquisition is an arm’s length transaction. It is anticipated the closing will occur on or before July 25.

Globe Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

PROREIT completes three transactions

PRO Real Estate Investment Trust (PRV.UN-T) announced it has successfully closed three previously announced transactions.  The purchase of the assets of Compass Commercial Realty Limited, a property management firm based in Halifax, Nova Scotia is expected to add significant value to the operations of the REIT.

Canada Newswire

Cannabis industry news

Delta 9 announces four Manitoba retail cannabis locations

Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. (NINE-X) announced the planned locations for its first cannabis retail stores. Delta 9 intends to open two stores in Winnipeg, one in Brandon and one in Thompson before the end of the year. At least one of the Winnipeg stores is expected to be open on October 17, the date announced as the first day for legal retail sales of cannabis.

Canada Newswire

Metropolitan Energy Corp. to enter U.S. cannabis sector

Metropolitan Energy Corp. (MOE.H-X) intends to acquire Bertram Capital Finance, Inc., which operates under the business name of Cannabis One, a U.S.-based, professional management corporation formed to service the fast-growing, legal cannabis industry through real estate development and lease-back equipment financing, operating lines of credit, consultation, and intellectual property and brand management within U.S. state-legal markets.

Canada Newswire

CannaRoyalty continues expansion in California

CannaRoyalty Corp. (CSE: CRZ) (OTCQX: CNNRF), a leading North American cannabis products and brands company, has purchased a licensed distribution and manufacturing facility in the city of Cotati in Sonoma County, California for US$2.4 million. Cotati will serve as an additional hub for distribution, as well as supporting manufacturing infrastructure, to meet the strong demand of CannaRoyalty’s distributed brand portfolio.

Canada Newswire

International

Colliers creates dominant market leader in Denmark

Leading global commercial real estate services firm Colliers International Group Inc. (CIGI-N) (CIGI-T) has acquired a controlling interest in Sadolin & Albæk, Denmark’s leading capital markets specialist, which will be merged with Colliers International’s current operations in Denmark.

GlobeNewswire

Other

	RENX has surpassed 10,610 Twitter followers
	Recent follower JLL Edmonton is an Alberta office of the financial and professional services firm specializing in creating real value for real estate owners, occupiers and investors in Canada and worldwide.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.