Alberta ski resorts urged to diversify

Alberta ski resorts urged to diversify

The cancellation of the men’s World Cup downhill races at Lake Louise due to lack of snow could be a sign of things to come, with a tourism expert warning climate change could force some resorts to make all of their snow in a decade. Some resorts in B.C. and the northwest U.S. are already getting a jump on offering more than just skiing.

CBC

Okanagan resort projects undergo a renaissance

Calgary-based Horizon North Logistics Inc. describes itself as “a remote resource development service company that provides workforce accommodation solutions, camp management and catering services, and road and access matting solutions.”  It made local headlines this past September when the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency chose it to build temporary housing units.

Business in Vancouver

Hungerford building new Calgary industrial park

Hungerford Properties has acquired an empty Calgary building from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) that it will transform into Mayland Heights Industrial Park.  “The building has been on our radar for years,” said Hungerford partner Michael Hungerford. “It’s an extremely well-built building and we always look for good bones when we’re buying property.”

Property Biz Canada

Walmart Canada snatches more gains from traditional grocers

Walmart Canada (WMT-N) charted its 10th-consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth in the third quarter as the big-box giant continued to put pressure on this country’s traditional grocery retailers. Sales at stores in Canada open for more than a year, a key industry performance metric, rose 1.1 per cent in the period ended Oct. 31.

Financial Post

Loblaw profit climbs 25% with help from property businesses

Canadian grocery and pharmacy retailer Loblaw Cos Ltd. (L-T) reported a 25.5 per cent rise in quarterly profit, helped by a drop in expenses and improved performances by its financial services and property businesses. Adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders rose to $512 million, or $1.26 per share, in the third quarter.

Financial Post – CBC – Canada Newswire – Globe and Mail

Metro’s profit climbs 10 per cent

Grocery store chain Metro Inc. reported a 10 per cent increase in its fourth-quarter profit compared with a year ago. The Montreal-based company says it earned $145.0-million or 60 cents per diluted share for the 12 weeks ended Sept. 24. That’s compared with a profit of $131.7-million or 52 cents per diluted share a year ago.

Globe and Mail – The Chronicle Herald

TOBY winner profile: EIA air terminal building

Edmonton International Airport (EIA) was the first Canadian airport to receive a LEED Gold certification, and its air terminal building followed that distinction in September by winning a Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada TOBY Award for corporate facility.

Property Biz Canada

SVN expands Canadian footprint with new office in Alberta

SVN International Corp. (SVN) announced further expansion into Canada with the addition of its newest office SVN | 360 Commercial Real Estate Ltd. in Alberta, Canada. The new franchise office provides full-service commercial real estate brokerage services throughout the Edmonton and northern Alberta markets and will be led by industry veteran President Dennis Aubin.

SVN News Release

Growing MNP office doubles Ottawa footprint

Being forced to hold meetings at nearby coffee shops because there’s no longer space inside the office can be a sign of success for rapidly growing firms. For the accounting firm MNP it was time to start searching for new office space and last month it doubled its physical footprint when it moved from its old office on Richmond Road to the Corel building.

Ottawa Business Journal

Château Laurier owners unveil new drawings

The architects behind a controversial plan to expand the Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel unveiled a 3D scale model on Thursday of a proposed addition two months after their initial submission was met with widespread criticism.

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Business Journal – CBC

StatCan tests crowdsourcing in mapping Ottawa’s buildings

Canada’s national statistics agency is testing the power of crowdsourcing through an unusual project that aims to map Ottawa’s buildings.  As part of its pilot project, Statistics Canada is asking people who live in Ottawa-Gatineau to contribute information about local buildings to an open source map. The project was launched online last month.

Ottawa Citizens

SpruceLand ceases to be a reporting issuer

Spruce Land Developments Ltd., was founded with the construction of a single multi-family project in Slave Lake, Alberta in 1969. The Corporation grew consistently and, prior to the sale of the vast majority of its real estate assets, had a diversified portfolio of revenue producing properties in numerous communities in Western Canada. 

Canada Newswire – SpruceLand Properties well-prepared for oil’s plunge

Oakridge Centre assessment heading to court

A BC Supreme Court judge will be asked to review the Property Assessment Appeal Board’s decision on the Oakridge Centre assessment. PAAB chair Simmi Sandhu filed a requisition to B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 20, which said a judge must decide whether PAAB erred in failing to apply certain valuation methodology.

Business in Vancouver

CPPIB provides mezzanine debt to Lone Star’s Quintain

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is providing £240m (€276.2m) in mezzanine debt to Lone Star’s UK developer, Quintain. CPPIB’s Credit Investments subsidiary is financing the firm as part of a larger five-year, £800m facility.

IPE Real Estate

Global bonds headed for biggest two-week loss in 26 years

Bonds around the world are headed for their steepest two-week loss in at least 26 years as President-elect Donald Trump sends inflation expectations surging. It hasn’t been just an ordinary selloff, it’s been a full blown meltdown — but we probably shouldn’t have been surprised by both the election results and the market action.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail

Featured Column

Occupancy cost transparency

In commercial real estate leasing the landlord can fully recover the hard costs associated with operating the building from the tenants. These expenses are most commonly referred to as occupancy or operating costs.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Alberta still has the highest employment rate in Canada

Alberta has seen tens of thousands of layoffs in the past couple of years but its employment rate — a measure of working-age people who have jobs — remains the highest in the country. That seemingly contradictory situation is due to Alberta’s relatively young population and the fact that older people in this province tend to keep working longer than other Canadians.

CBC

Tough times for downtown Calgary health-care providers

Thousands of layoffs that have hollowed out many of Calgary’s downtown office towers are translating into tough times for health-care businesses that offer services covered by workplace insurance plans. Dentists, massage therapists and optometrists say they’re cutting staff and getting by with lower profits.

Calgary Herald

Yaletown now top spot to get a parking ticket in Vancouver

Dylan Jones returns to his big, white work van in the 800 block of Homer Street in Vancouver. He glances at the parking ticket under the windshield wiper, but otherwise ignores it, as he begins rummaging through his electrician’s equipment in the back of the vehicle.  “I don’t really care, myself. If it was my personal car though, I’d be pretty pissed off,” he said of the ticket.

CBC

Real Estate Companies

Ownership changes at Halifax’s Lindsay Construction

Lindsay Construction, whose building projects include the $20-millionHalifax’s Discovery Centre as well as the Agricola Street Brasserie, Tampa Food + Drink, and Dartmouth Sobey’s, is under new ownership after a deal that saw three vice-presidents sell their interests in the company and an as-yet-unnamed investor join the board of directors.

The Chronicle Herald

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Fortis Inc. sells trust units to Slate Office REIT

Fortis Inc. (FTS-T) has agreed to sell 4,729,729 trust units of Slate Office REIT (SOT.UN-T) representing approximately 10.3% of the issued and outstanding trust units of Slate Office on a fully diluted basis, in a secondary sale on a “bought block trade” basis at a sale price of $7.78 per trust unit, for aggregate gross proceeds to Fortis of approximately $36.8 million.

Marketwired

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Retail

Velvet may not be enough to help Gap profits

Gap Inc. chief executive officer Art Peck has an answer for critics who say the company can’t get its clothing selection right: velvet. The apparel chain, which owns Old Navy, Banana Republic and other brands, is making a bet that velvet will be in demand this holiday season.

Toronto Star

New Development

Halifax Convention Centre will open in Dec. 2017

The developer of the Halifax Convention Centre, part of the controversial Nova Centre project, has pegged next December as the goal for their opening.  On Friday, Argyle Developments said they will achieve substantial completion by August 2017.

The Chronicle Herald – CBC

Montreal’s Robillard building demolition continues following fire

Demolition work on the building that housed Canada’s first film screening has resumed after crews capped a gas leak at the site Friday. The Robillard Building on St-Laurent Boulevard in Chinatown served as a theatre, cabinet of curiosities and venue for travelling performance artists went up in flames around 11 a.m. Thursday.

CBC

Sustainability

LEED buildings in Vancouver failing to meet targets

Many green-certified commercial buildings in Vancouver are failing to meet their sustainability targets due to gaps in oversight and poor operations management, local experts say. The City of Vancouver requires commercial developments that are seeking a rezoning to be designed and built to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-gold certification.

Vancouver Sun

Other

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