Build Toronto opens its first shopping mall

Build Toronto opens its first shopping mall

They’re typical of the shops in a suburban shopping mall. But the Starbucks, A&W restaurant, nail salon and assorted clothing stores and boutiques gathered just west of the Wilson subway station have an unusual landlord: the City of Toronto. The Shops at Wilson Station, officially opened on Thursday, is the first — and maybe the only — shopping mall developed entirely by the city’s real estate development firm, Build Toronto.

Toronto Star

Ikea Canada eyes space as Sears Canada departs

Industry fears about the future of store-based retail might be assuaged by the scene outside IKEA Canada’s store opening in Nova Scotia in September. Crowds began lining up outside the Dartmouth Crossing location at 4 p.m. on the day before the Swedish furniture giant debuted its first store in Atlantic Canada. On Tuesday, IKEA Canada announced total sales of $2.17 billion in Canada for the financial year.

Financial Post – Canada Newswire

Regus affiliate Spaces launches in Canada

Shared office and co-working space provider Regus acquired European-based Spaces in 2015 to boost its portfolio. Now, the Canadian roll-out of Spaces has begun. Spaces launched in Canada with the opening of a 46,000-square-foot facility in a heritage brick-and-beam building leased from Allied Properties REIT at 180 John St. in Toronto’s vibrant Queen Street West neighbourhood.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Sobeys to lay off 800 office workers nationwide

The first phase of Michael Medline’s plan to transform Empire Ltd.’s Sobeys grocery subsidiary is substantially complete. Medline, president and CEO of Empire (EMP-A-T), is expected to tell employees Friday decisions made to date “will result in the departure of approximately 800 people from Sobeys offices across the country.” Medline took control of the Stellarton, N.S.-based company in January. 

Halifax ChronicleHerald – CTV – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Toronto West Don Lands wins ULI award

Toronto’s West Don Lands is one of only 13 development projects to receive the Urban Land Institute’s prestigious 2017-2018 Global Award for Excellence. “West Don Lands is a complex project that articulates creative real estate development that capitalized with a vision the Pan Am Games as an early catalyst,” said Wendy Rowden, chair of the jury that decided the winners.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Sale of Quebec government buildings cost millions: AG

Quebec’s auditor general is blasting the provincial Crown corporation tasked with handling government-owned properties for striking a losing deal when it sold three buildings in exchange for long-term leases. “Basic prudence and sound management rules that should guide such significant transactions were not followed,” Guylaine Leclerc’s office said in a scathing report released Thursday. 

CBC

Fiera Capital launches Fiera Properties CORE Mortgage Fund

Fiera Capital Corporation (FSZ-T), a leading independent asset management firm, announced the launch of its new Fiera Properties CORE Mortgage Fund and the appointment of Fiera Properties Debt Strategies Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiera Properties Limited, to lead the mortgage strategy. Fiera Capital also announced the appointment of Peter Cuthbert as president of Fiera Properties, effective immediately. 

Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire

Robson Street rents drop 15 per cent in past year

Rents on Vancouver’s Robson Street have dropped more than 15 per cent in the past year to US$141 per square foot per year, according to the Cushman Wakefield study Main Streets Across The World 2017, which ranks rents for streetfront-retail districts globally. That rental rate is the ninth priciest in the Americas. In 2016, Robson Street rents were US$166 per square foot per year, the study noted.

Business In Vancouver

Fortress remains hopeful about Winnipeg hotel redevelopment

Fortress Real Developments of Richmond Hill, Ont., remains hopeful about the redevelopment of its downtown Winnipeg property into a parkade, retail and restaurant complex. Fortress plans to demolish the former St. Regis Hotel and build a four-storey, 290-stall parkade in its place, with 13,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Fortress needs to secure financing for the project before the St. Regis can be demolished.

CBC – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Automotive REIT acquires three Edmonton properties

Automotive Properties REIT (APR-UN-T) announced it has entered into an agreement with a private third party to purchase a portfolio of three properties consisting of two automotive dealership properties and a vehicle service compound facility in Edmonton: the Ericksen Infiniti dealership property, the Southtown Hyundai dealership property, and the Kentwood Ford vehicle service compound. The combined purchase price for the properties is approximately $23.2 million. 

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

Ontario cottage country to reconsider lake development limits

It’s time to abandon a draft proposal that could ease development limits around Muskoka’s picturesque lakes, Muskoka district chair John Klinck said after facing hundreds of cottagers who were worried about the environmental impact of new construction. The vast majority were opposed to the region’s move to consider allowing the redevelopment of failed resorts into condominium complexes.

Globe and Mail

Why ‘Black Friday’ is a crock

Has ‘Black Friday’ lost all meaning? The value of the so-called deals retailers offer on this dubious shopping holiday has been debated since it migrated to Canada close to a decade ago, but what was once a sale held on the day after U.S. Thanksgiving has spread to so many other dates in November and December it might have become virtually pointless.

Financial Post – Montreal Gazette – Windsor Star – Globe and Mail

Aurora Cannabis launches hostile takeover bid for CanniMed

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB-T)  formally launched its all-stock hostile takeover bid for CanniMed Therapeutics (CMED-T) Friday, on the condition the medical marijuana producer cancel its own planned acquisition of Newstrike Resources Ltd. (HIP-X) The Vancouver-headquartered licensed marijuana company says it placed a newspaper ad for its offer, valued at $24 per share, and a takeover bid circular will be mailed to CanniMed’s shareholders.  

Winnipeg Free Press – Globe and Mail

Legal pot will be available in N&L stores to 19 and up

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has released details of how marijuana legalization will work in the province. The legislation will allow for the sale of marijuana in private stores, but it will be licensed and regulated by the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC). Innovation Minister Chris Mitchelmore said there will also be an online option for isolated communities.

CBC – Globe and Mail

Pandemic: Nothing to worry about?

The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was mild. Some said public health authorities got the world all worked up about nothing. However, it is critical to understand pandemics are unpredictable. It’s only a matter of time before another pandemic occurs and its severity is entirely unknown. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “…pandemics are unpredictable, but recurring events that can cause severe social, economic, and political stress.”

Boma Canada Blog

Featured Column

ABC’s of leasing: Don’t get caught in a pinch

In an ideal universe tenants could plan ahead and leave themselves enough time to complete a comprehensive commercial real estate search before leasing. They wouldn’t feel pressured to take space that isn’t quite right or doesn’t entirely suit their needs. But it happens far too often in my world world. Why?

Read more

Market Trends and Research

U.S. industrial outperforms other CRE sectors

The U.S. industrial market rebounded during the third quarter from a relatively slow start to the year, according to the latest stats from Colliers International. Tenants absorbed just a bit under 69 million square feet, the third-highest quarter on record. The firm’s researchers attribute much of the market’s energy to e-commerce and third-party logistics users.

GlobeSt.com

More Canadians plan to do holiday shopping online this year

A new survey suggests more Canadians are planning to do some or all of their holiday shopping online this year. A survey commissioned by FedEx Canada and released today found 65 per cent of Canadians polled planned to shop online this year, while 55 per cent said they did so last year. Six per cent of those polled said they planned to shop online this holiday season for the first time.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Financial Post – CBC

Real Estate Companies

Trump SoHo to shed ‘Trump’ amid reports of sagging business

The Trump SoHo hotel is dropping the name it shares with the U.S. president. The Trump Organization said Wednesday it is ending its licensing deal with the New York hotel amid reports the property has struggled to attract business.  The announcement comes as the company’s other hotels and resorts around the world are showing mixed results.

Winnipeg Free Press – The Guardian

E-commerce boom propelling Prologis to new heights

Peer out the 56 garage doors lining the walls of the warehouse giant Prologis’ new 260,000-square-foot facility in Oakland, and you’ll spot three highways. It’s those roads that most interest Hamid Moghadam, Prologis‘ CEO. “We are focused on the markets where there are large numbers of people and there’s lots of money in their pockets,” Moghadam says.

Forbes

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Real Estate Investment Trusts

U.S. REIT occupancy reaches record high in Q3

Broader macroeconomic concerns as well as a rise in Treasury yield have affected returns on REIT stocks in recent months. However, per a NAREIT media release, occupancy rates reached a record high in the third quarter, while funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, reported growth year-over-year.

Nasdaq

Net-lease REITs continue to favour dollar stores

They aren’t sexy, but they are stable. Dollar stores—buoyed by budget-cutting consumers and largely insulated from the rise of e-commerce—are small, but mighty workhorses for some REITs. In fact, Barry Wolfe, senior director of the national retail group and net leased properties group at brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap, says freestanding net-leased dollar stores are “among the safest and best bets in retail.”

National Real Estate Investor

Slate Retail, Plaza Retail just raised distributions by 3.7%

Slate Retail REIT (SRT-UN-T) and Plaza Retail REIT (PLZ-UN-T) are two of the largest owners and managers of retail real estate in North America, and they just rewarded their shareholders with distribution increases of 3.7%. Slate Retail owns and manages 85 grocery-anchored retail properties in the United States that total about 10.9 million square feet of gross leasable area. Plaza Retail owns and manages 295 retail properties. 

Motley Fool

Retail

Retail sales rise falls short of expectations

Canadian retail sales rose far less than expected in September as higher gasoline prices were offset by a decline in purchases of vehicles and clothing, pointing to cooler economic growth and reinforcing expectations the central bank is on hold until next year. The 0.1 per cent increase reported by Statistics Canada on Thursday was short of economists’ forecasts for a gain of 0.9 per cent.

Reuters – Toronto Star

‘Airbnb of pop-ups’ unveils Toronto retail store

It wasn’t until he tried to find a spot to sell his homemade hummus that the idea popped into Yashar Nejati’s head. Out of frustration, he took a one-year lease on a 600-square-foot retail storefront in Vancouver’s Chinatown. That storefront became the launching pad for thisopenspace, an online, short-term rental marketplace that matches brands with all manner of retail spaces in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City.

Toronto Star – CBC

New Development

Parking expected to be hot topic in Ottawa hospital zoning

A year after a site was selected for a new multi-billion dollar Ottawa Civic hospital, officials are turning to the public for input on what the health institution should look like. Public engagement sessions, which will take place across the region over the next three weeks, are a first step in the long process of building the hospital to replace the century old Civic.

Ottawa Citizen

Infrastructure

Winnipeg rejects design for pumping station redevelopment

City planners have rejected the design for the second phase of Winnipeg’s James Avenue Pumping Station redevelopment, a complex project that involves the preservation of a 106-year-old heritage building and the construction of two new residential towers on either side of it. In 2016, developers Bryce Alston and Rick Hofer started work on a $20-million adaptive reuse of the downtown pumping station.

CBC

Washington state governor calls for high-speed rail to Vancouver

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee says it’s time to seriously consider a high-speed rail link between Seattle and Vancouver. Inslee told MLAs at the B.C. legislature Tuesday his state will soon release the results of a $1-million study into a rail line that would cut transportation time between the two cities from three hours to one.

Vancouver Sun

Other

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