Kimco sells Canadian portfolio to Anthem

Kimco sells Canadian portfolio to Anthem

Kimco Realty Corporation (KIM-N) has sold its interests in a 17-property Canadian portfolio. The New Hyde Park, NY-based retail real estate investment trust sold this property, covering an area of 1.8 million square feet, to the Vancouver-based Anthem Properties Group Ltd. for CAD $413.2 million another step in its plan to exit Canada.

Businesswire – Globe St.

Canadian REITs adopt new investor protections

A handful of Canada’s real estate trusts, or REITs, are closing gaps in investor protection and giving unit holders who are discontented more avenues for recourse. The moves detailed in the proxy circulars of trusts including Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN-T) and Boardwalk REIT (BEI.UN-T) are taking place during this year’s annual meeting season, and follow the lead of RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T)

Financial Post – The Province

Expect REITs to face pressure to sell, analyst

In the U.S., activist investors are increasingly taking aim at REITs, pressuring them to dispose of assets to boost unit values, dump management or even sell everything and close up shop. Canadian REITs find themselves facing most of the same underlying issues as their American corporate cousins.

Property Biz Canada

Lack of women on corporate boards source of tension

The lack of women on corporate boards has become a source of tension among shareholders at the annual meetings this week of two big-name companies. The CEO of Dollarama (DOL-T) was confronted with the issue head-on Wednesday, when a shareholder urged him to increase the number of women on the retailer’s 10-member board of directors.

Ottawa Business Journal

Dollarama profit soars 28.4% on higher sales, margin

Dollarama‘s (DOL-T) cash registers rang up a strong first quarter with double-digit increases in both sales and profit. The Montreal-based retailer’s net income rose by 28.4 per cent to $83.2 million from $64.8 million. Revenue was up 13.2 per cent to $641 million from $566.1 million, in part because its retail network grew to 1,038 stores from 972 a year earlier.

Edmonton Journal

Hudson’s Bay Company’s transformation leads to fast growth

Hudson’s Bay Company  is probably the fastest growing department store company in the world. The Toronto based company has high quality stores and serves its customers through two channels – department stores and off price value stores. Growth is now accelerating with store openings for Saks Fifth Avenue and Off 5^th Avenue stores in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Netherlands is next.

Forbes

RYU flagship named best store at WGSN Awards

Vancouver fitness clothing and bag designer and retailer RYU Apparel Inc.’s flagship store on West 4th Avenue was named best store in the WGSN Futures Awards in London, England on May 26.

Property Biz Canada

Technology a disruptive force on CRE sector

New technologies are changing the way we live, work and play. At the same time, innovations in material science, construction technology, building operating systems and finance are set to upend the staid commercial real estate market, delivering higher performance, lower cost and reconfigured solutions to the marketplace.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

A Canadian tech star’s unlikely path to an IPO

For many tech entrepreneurs, the path to fortune lies along Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road. Not so for Jason Smith.  The 41-year-old Canadian entrepreneur has raised $200-million to finance his fast-growing online mortgage services business, Real Matters Corp., not from daredevil California venture capitalists but from conservative Bay Street institutions.

Globe and Mail

Canadian and global appraisal institutes strengthen relationship

The Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC) and the global association, Appraisal Institute (AI), two of the leading valuation associations in North America, announced an agreement that mutually recognizes the excellence and quality of the AIC’s AACI and CRA designations and the Appraisal Institute’s MAI and SRA designations.

Canada Newswire

Canadian and European appraisers sign historic agreement

The Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC) and The European Group of Valuers’ Associations (TEGoVA) signed an historic agreement which mutually recognizes the professional valuation standards and qualifications of each organization. This agreement signifies that European clients can confidently engage AIC-designated appraisers to complete valuation assignments of the same quality as those of holders of TEGoVA titles and vise versa.

Canada Newswire

‘Cloud’ newest York University landmark

The cloud is hard to miss on York University’s north Toronto campus. York University’s new Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence was designed by Toronto’s ZAS Architects + Interiors and built by UK-based construction firm Laing O’Rourke in partnership with the Gillam Group.

Daily Commercial News

New Hotels for Millennials?

All eyes are on Millennials these days, and hoteliers should be no exception. With their focus on location over brand, they’re going to change hotel strategy in the next few years, declared James Wiseman, president of Margaritaville Development, during the hotel panel at the National Association of Real Estate Editors 2016 Real Estate Conference last week.

CP Executive

Developers charged after resort project leaves investors out

Criminal charges have been laid against the business partners behind a proposed $1.8-billion mountain resort in the Crowsnest Pass, a failed development that left hundreds of investors out more than $33 million. William Bradley, 68, and Colin Becker, 49 are each facing charges of fraud and theft after a six-year investigation by the RCMP.

Calgary Herald

Goodman buys Shanghai logistics center

Singapore-listed Ascendas REIT is selling a logistics center just outside Shanghai to Goodman Group as the Australian industrial developer expands its China portfolio. Goodman enjoys backing from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which has a US$3.5 billion China logistics joint venture with the warehouse builder.

MingTiandi

Featured Column

5 ways to get your commercial property leased

Location and demand stand out as the major leasing drivers of commercial property however they are not the only factors. Here’s a few tips.

Read more

Buying your own office – Why it’s worth it now more than ever

In Vancouver, there’s a lot of talk about our dwindling industrial land supply. Hemmed in by mountains, ocean, the Agricultural Land Reserve and growing residential demands, the city is struggling to provide enough office and warehouse space for new and existing businesses.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Vancouver’s hotel room rates hottest in Canada

Maybe it should come as no surprise, but Canada’s priciest place for housing is now its most expensive location for lodging, with hotel rates comparable to other high-end cities in North America.  Even by standards set during the Winter Olympics 2016 is shaping up to be the strongest year ever for the hotel industry in Vancouver.

Financial Post

‘Worst downturn in 30 years’: Alberta

Alberta is likely to have a deeper-than-expected recession this year before wildfire reconstruction spurs a rebound in 2017, according to figures in a new Conference Board of Canada report.  The province’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to drop by two per cent in 2016.

Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald

Real Estate Companies

Downtown Ottawa hotel landscape suddenly chic

“Fun” isn’t a word generally associated with business meetings, but it’s the one Ash Wilby chose to describe the “creative spaces” at Ottawa’s newest downtown Group Germain’s Alt Hotel. Among the guest-friendly amenities at Ottawa’s new Alt Hotel are a 24-hour cafe that serves alcohol at night.

Ottawa Business Journal

Shared Workspace provider opens second Winnipeg location

A new place to get work done is giving innovative entrepreneurs and businesses some new options to set up shop. Regus Canada, which provides flexible workspaces around the world, has opened its second Winnipeg location at 330 St. Mary Ave., nine years after it first opened at 201 Portage Ave.

Winnipeg FreePress

Delavaco Residential Properties issues corporate update

Delavaco Residential Properties Corp. (DVO.U-X) announce the corporate following updates, subject to all applicable regulatory and shareholder approvals.  The Company has sent out notices to all holders of the 7.5% SSN due June 30, 2016 of a request for a maturity date extension.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. First-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 report

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

U.S. REITs do more building than buying

By and large, REITs have become net sellers as the current real estate cycle has matured. “Current low cap rates make it a good time to sell, and many REITs are culling under performing assets,” writes Susan Persin, director of research at Trepp LLC.

Globe St.

Retail

Metro Inc bolsters its locally sourced food program

As food margins get thinner amid a deepening price war among grocery retailers, Metro Inc. (MRU-T) Canada’s third-largest grocery retailer, has bolstered its sourcing capabilities to get more local produce from Ontario suppliers, a program similar to one it rolled out in Quebec three years ago.

Financial Post

Online retailer Well.ca launches a bricks-and-mortar store

If you think you’re seeing an increasing number of your favourite websites popping up as stores in the real world, relax – it’s not your imagination. It’s a real trend that’s actually happening. Online health and beauty products retailer Well.ca is the latest e-commerce company to expand from its web roots and into the so-called bricks-and-mortar world.

Globe and Mail

Walmart Canada to stop accepting Visa cards due to ‘unacceptably high’ fees

Walmart says it intends to join the list of retailers in Canada that don’t accept Visa cards, citing high fees for transactions. It’s a move one retail analyst has said will cause “pain on all sides.”  All credit cards charge fees to retailers, which generally are between one per cent and 2.5 per cent of the cost what’s being sold. 

CBC

New Development

Montreal urban development, before and after

Real estate website Point2 Homes has produced an interesting before-and-after feature showing how the frenzy of condo development in and around Montreal has changed the city skyline since 2007. The before-and-after sliders for the 10 projects it focused on were created using Google Street View.

Montreal Gazette

Infrastructure

Protesters rally against Vancouvers Port’s plan to expand

Protesters rallied Saturday against the Port of Vancouver’s plans to expand its terminal near the Downtown Eastside’s CRAB Park. The $320-million Centerm expansion project, led by the Port and DP World Vancouver, aims to increase the container capacity of the existing terminal by about two-thirds.

Vancouver Sun

International

PE companies in India yet to list REITs portfolios

Despite removing key hurdles and ironing out the process of listing Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in India, realty developers and private equity players are yet to step forward to list their portfolios. With the removal of dividend distribution tax (DDT) through a proposal in the Union Budget 2016-17, REITs were expected to kick off in India.

India Times

Developing countries need strong building codes

The idea of a system of well-researched, strictly enforced building codes got a boost recently from the executive director of the International Energy Agency. He said the world’s top priority in tackling climate change must be to ensure that buildings being erected in the developing world meet higher standards of efficiency and safety.

Daily Commercial News

Human Resources

Altus Group welcomes Angela Brown to Board of Directors

Altus Group Limited (AIF-T), a leading provider of independent advisory services, software, and data solutions to the global commercial real estate industry, is pleased to announce the appointment of Angela Brown to its Board of Directors.  Ms. Brown is an experienced executive with more than 25 years in the payments industry.

Marketwired

Other

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