DIRTT demonstrates power of mixed reality

DIRTT demonstrates power of mixed reality

On the Chicago Theatre stage, in front of more than 700 people from DIRTT’s worldwide team of distribution partners and employees, DIRTT (DRT-T) unveiled the first-ever demonstration of ICEreality™ — mixed reality technology for design and construction.  Mixed reality overlays virtual reality with the real world.

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada – Can Tech Letter

A Toronto property mogul and a deal gone awry

Sam Mizrahi, one of Canada’s best-known property developers, was building two luxury condominiums in midtown Toronto last year when he says he received a phone call from someone who demanded millions of dollars, threatened to burn his house down and ruin his reputation.

Financial Post

Mainstreet Health seeking Canadian investments

Mainstreet Health Investments Inc. raised $95 million in an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange early this month that will be used to acquire senior housing and care properties.

Property Biz Canada

Dream Industrial REIT potentially for sale

Canada’s Dream Industrial REIT (DIR.UN-T) has held talks with potential suitors to explore the prospect of selling itself, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Possible buyers could include asset managers, pension funds, private equity firms, insurers and real estate companies, the sources said.

Globe and Mail

Firm Capital Property Trust in JV with First Capital Realty

Firm Capital Property Trust (FCD.UN-X) is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 40% interest in The Whitby Mall and Thickson Place two retail properties located in Whitby, Ontario. The acquisition price for 100% of the Portfolio is approximately $75.3 million, excluding transaction costs.

Canada Newswire

Partners appoints COGIR to manage Quebec assets

Partners REIT (PAR.UN-T) is pleased to announce its selection of Cogir Real Estate as the provider of property management services at the REIT’s 10 Quebec properties.

Marketwired

Oakridge Centre’s assessment reduction under appeal

A citizens’ group that wants to overturn the BC Assessment Authority’s valuation of Oakridge Centre claims the Crown corporation’s decision costs Vancouver taxpayers millions of dollars a year and benefits the Quebec pension fund that ultimately owns the 28-acre property.

Business in Vancouver

SITES rating system for sustainable landscapes

Sustainability has become an increasingly important factor for new and existing buildings, and the people who inhabit them, in recent years. TheSustainable SITES Initiative and rating system is looking to create the same awareness when it comes to developing sustainable landscapes.

Property Biz Canada

Brownfields group presents its first awards

The Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) presented its first annual HUB Awards at its national Conference in Toronto on June 14. The awards acknowledge individual contribution to the redevelopment of brownfields (also known as contaminated sites), according to CBN Vice-President and Awards Chair Grant Walsom.

Marketwired

B.C. first to land Federal transit project cash

Transit users in Metro Vancouver will see a boost in service after regional mayors on Thursday secured funding from the provincial and federal government. The deal will see $740 million put toward capital funding projects, including new SkyTrain rail cars, a new SeaBus and station upgrades.

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver developers making insider condo sales

Major condo developers in Vancouver are shutting out average buyers by selling their most affordable new units privately – to clients of select realtors and “family and friends” – before their advertised sale dates, The Globe and Mail has learned. The typical sales contracts also allow those insiders to legally flip the units under construction.

Globe and Mail

94-year-old developer has seen it all

In her 60 years in the real estate and development business, Martha Zenker, owner of Lisgar Commercial Real Estate in Oakville, Ont., has witnessed her share of trends in the market. But when it comes to commercial real estate, it’s the shift in the direction of commuters that really stands out for the 94-year-old.

Globe and Mail

Supreme Court rules in favour of Rogers in cell tower dispute

Canada’s top court ruled in favour of Rogers Communications Inc. Thursday on a case that saw the wireless provider clash with a Quebec municipality over the site of a new cell tower. The decision affirmed a long-standing principle that the federal government has authority over telecommunications.

Globe and Mail

Wal-Mart ‘taking a stand’ in battle with Visa

Wal-Mart Canada Corp. (WMT-N) says Visa should lower its credit-card fees for all merchants and non-profit groups – and not just for the giant discount retailer. Wal-Mart came out swinging against Visa on Thursday, saying its “hidden fee” is four times higher than what consumers pay in other countries.

The Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – CBC – Edmonton Journal

Is U.S. office market shifting from lease-up to asset preservation?

Despite muted levels of construction, continuing rent growth and vacancies still drifting downward and a pick-up in overall economic activity, investor sentiment indicates a widening belief that the office market may have reached its peak, or is expected to continue slow but steady improvement and not a spike in leasing activity as previously hoped.

CoStar Group

Featured Column

The sky is not falling in Saskatoon

I had a conversation with a small contractor this week whose view of the commercial real estate market was a little off to me. He indicated that landlords should be bowing to tenants and taking whatever offers they can, given Saskatoons current vacancy.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Alberta still has the fastest-growing population in Canada

Alberta’s recession is into its second year, but the province still has the fastest-growing population in the country, according to Statistics Canada. In the first three months of 2016, Alberta’s population grew by 0.4 per cent, faster than Canada as a whole and any other individual province.

CBC

Want to buy your own private island?

The real estate team at Unique Properties don’t see themselves as kingmakers, but if your home really is your castle, it’s no wonder the occasional client sees them that way.  The group at Colliers International sells and part of a distinct collection of valuable real estate that falls somewhere between the residential market and the commercial industry.

Financial Post

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

Slate Retail REIT buys Sunset Plaza in Tennessee

Slate Retail REIT (SRT.UN-T), an owner and operator of U.S. grocery-anchored real estate, has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Sunset Plaza, a 100% occupied Kroger anchored centre, in the Johnson City, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.  The property will be acquired for U.S. $9.0 million (U.S. $63 per square foot). 

Marketwired

Artis REIT closes previously announced equity offering

Artis REIT (AX.UN-T) closed its previously announced public offering through a syndicate of underwriters co-led by CIBC World Markets Inc., TD Securities Inc. and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., and including other underwriters, on a bought deal basis, pursuant to which Artis sold 8,712,400 trust units for gross proceeds to Artis of  approximately $115-million.

Canada Newswire

Summit Industrial Income REIT completes equity offering

Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU.UN-T) has completed its previously-announced public offering of 5,650,000 units at a price of $6.05 per unit for total gross proceeds of approximately $34.2 million, which includes proceeds from the partial exercise of an over-allotment option to purchase an additional 650,000 units.

Newswire

Dream Office REIT renews normal course issuer bid

Dream Office REIT (D.UN-T) announced today that the Toronto Stock Exchange accepted a notice filed by Dream Office REIT to renew its prior normal course issuer bid for a one year period. Under the bid, Dream Office REIT will have the ability to purchase for cancellation up to a maximum of 10,732,867 of its REIT Units, Series A.

Marketwire

REIT investors should consider this key factor

Real estate investment trusts come in all sorts of flavours, from apartments to offices, medical buildings to senior living, and, of course, retail. It’s a little bit harder, however, to distinguish which REITs make payments to investors that are most advantageous, tax-wise, and which might have payouts that are a bit more aggressive than they might seem.

Globe and Mail

Retail

Shares of Whole Foods weighed down by FDA warning

Whole Foods  (WFM-Q) is under heavy selling pressure this week after receiving a letter from the Food and Drug Administration about unsanitary conditions at a Massachusetts plant. The FDA sent the company a warning letter dated June 8 claiming food products may have been contaminated with “filth or rendered injurious to health.”

Globe and Mail

New Development

Proposed motorsports park raises concerns near Carstairs

Residents living around a proposed motorsports park are worried it will lead to increased traffic and noise, as well as affect wildlife and property values in the area. The facility is billed as five kilometres of challenging F2 race track with a commercial area for businesses, performance driving school and private garages to store cars.

Calgary Herald

More U.S. public universities partnering with private developers

High tuition levels and government cutbacks have cut into higher education’s ability to fund on-campus academic and research facilities through such traditional means. As a result, more colleges and universities have turned to public-private partnerships to develop income-producing properties to raise operating funds.

CoStar Group

Could King St. in Toronto be closed to cars?

City officials outlined plans for King Street on Thursday night, telling local businesses and residents that the historic street is due for a makeover because it needs to catch up to the development all around it.

CBC

International

Sebi to change REIT criteria to attract investors, realtors

With an aim to make REITs more attractive to investors and real estate players, India’s market regulator Sebi today decided to relax its norms to allow these Trusts to invest more in under-construction assets and have a larger number of sponsors.

India Times

Other

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