New Montreal Maison Radio-Canada to open in 2020

New Montreal Maison Radio-Canada to open in 2020

CBC/Radio-Canada’s Board of Directors has selected the Broccolini group to build the new Maison de Radio-Canada and Groupe Mach to purchase the western part of the large property currently occupied by the public broadcaster’s facilities. Located at the foot of a Jacques-Cartier Bridge the Radio-Canada site redevelopment project is in the heart of a burgeoning neighbourhood.

Canada Newswire – Montreal Gazette

First phase of Carré Saint-Laurent going ahead

A rundown strip of Montreal’s historic Red Light District is about to undergo major changes as part of a redevelopment project that saw its initial launch delayed by two years by the Quebec government. The Société de dévelopment Angus (SDA) is going ahead with a mixed-use development of a stretch of Saint-Laurent Blvd. – also known as the Main – from Ste-Catherine Street to the Monument National theatre.

Property Biz Canada

The American in charge of a beloved Quebec brand

It’s just after noon on a cloudy Tuesday in Montreal’s Laval suburb, and, like bees drawn to a hive, hungry workers are darting into the Couche-Tard  (ATD.A-T) convenience store for snacks. A burly man steps down from a yellow loader in a corner of the parking lot, the hulking machine as big as his appetite, and lumbers inside.

Globe and Mail

Tory set to defend road tolls against all critics

Toronto Mayor John Tory says he will put to voters his plan to add tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway and debate it with all critics, including his 2014 mayoralty opponent Doug Ford. Tory appeared on Metro Morning Friday, one day after laying out a plan to bring in the controversial road tolls to fight traffic congestion and raise money to upgrade Toronto’s overburdened transit system. 

CBC – Toronto Star – Toronto Star

Holiday price war heats up as Wal-Mart, Target chase Amazon

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and other brick-and-mortar chains are counting on heavier discounts and a bigger online selection to help keep up with Amazon.com Inc. this holiday season As Black Friday ushers in the year-end shopping rush, chains are touting larger price cuts than in 2015 — a gamble that maintaining market share is worth squeezing margins.

Bloomberg – CBC

RioCan-Boardwalk JV just the start for retail REIT

RioCan REIT this month announced the creation of a joint venture with Boardwalk REIT to develop a mixed use tower on part of the retail REIT’s Brentwood Village Shopping Centre in Calgary. Rather than a one-off, the $70-million project is likely just the first of many such intensification schemes in the works for the country’s largest REIT.

Property Biz Canada

Tunney’s Pasture site picked for new Ottawa Civic hospital

The National Capital Commission‘s board of directors will recommend the western half of Tunney’s Pasture to Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly as the site of The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic campus. The vote — taken at Thursday’s NCC board meeting — was not unanimous. Local board members Bob Plamondon and Brian Coburn voted against the recommendation.

CBC – Many questions remain about hospital site choice – Ottawa Business Journal

EllisDon wins contract for Sparks Street property

Contractors from construction firm EllisDon will spend up to 18 months rehabilitating the exterior of an office / retail building built in 1870-71 at the corner of Metcalfe and Sparks street. Canada’s Four Corners Building is located at 93 Sparks St. and was the former home of the Merchants’ Bank of Canada when it was known by its original name, the Montreal Telegraph building.

Ottawa Business Journal

Katz Group buys a low-rent apartment building

The Katz Group has purchased the MacDonald Lofts, a low-rent apartment building just northeast of the downtown arena in Edmonton with a history of health violations, including pest infestation and aging infrastructure. The 102-year-old building next to Boyle Street Community Services was named a historic site by the city in 2003. It has been home to, among others, people who are hard to house.

Edmonton Journal

Fund targets jobs as driver of real estate success

If interest rates are going up because there is a credit crisis, that’s bad news for real estate. If rates are rising because of inflation, that’s generally a good thing for real estate because it’s a hard asset. And if interest rates climb because the economy is strengthening, and that results in job growth, once again, real estate should benefit.

Financial Post

CRE ‘Dinosaurs’ face deep data gap

British Columbia commercial real estate industry players need to embrace and leverage big data if they want to survive in a more competitive market, according to Altus Group. Old-school real estate investors and developers – often dismissed as “dinosaurs” – who go on guts and intuition can’t cut it in today’s environment, said Raj Singh, executive vice-president of Altus Group.

Business in Vancouver

Everything cool comes from Vancouver

In Vancouver it’s always been easy to find entrepreneurial greatness. We just drive a couple of hours south to Seattle, the planet’s reigning capital of creative capitalism. Boeing, Costco, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Nordstrom: All of them grew up there. The Scots may have invented the modern world, as the book claims, but Seattleites were responsible for a big chunk of yours and mine.

Globe and Mail

Vancouver stores look to cash in on Black Friday

Vancouver retail stores are hopeful that the low Canadian dollar will help bring this shopping day hype north.  Ally Day, marketing manager for McAuthorGlen Designer Outlet Mall, said Black Friday shopping has really taken off outside the United States in the last few years.

Business in Vancouver – Vancouver Sun – Toronto Star – CBC

Vancouver edged out by Toronto as N.A. hottest hotel market

Anybody trying to find a hotel room in Vancouver this past year could probably give a first-hand account of what’s going in the city’s lodging market — it’s been booked solid. Jones Lange LaSalle Americas Inc., a Chicago-based real estate company, in a report out Wednesday put the occupancy rate in Vancouver at 80 per cent for the first nine months of the year.

Financial Post

Fresh fears of the potential for ‘Buy American’ clauses

An early irritant in Canada-U.S. relations in the Trump era could emerge in the massive infrastructure bill proposed by the president-elect.  Donald Trump spoke passionately during the campaign that his proposed $1 trillion construction plan would ensure “American steel” got used to build “American” skyscrapers and bridges, with “American workers” hired to do the jobs.

Ottawa Business Journal

Market Trends and Research

Vancouver city manager claims residents happy with property tax hike

Vancouver’s city manager is defending his proposed 2017 budget that features big increases in spending and tax and fee hikes that outstrip inflation. For Sadhu Johnston, the increased spending can be chalked up to the pressures and demands of a large, growing city, and given the choice of whether to pay up to improve issues that matter, most residents would say ‘yes.’

Vancouver Sun

Energy retailers say customers will pay more for Alberta power

A company that sells power to Albertans warns that major changes coming to the electricity market will hike costs for consumers while squeezing retailers. The NDP government said Wednesday it will implement a widely anticipated overhaul of Alberta’s power market that moves away from the deregulated system.

Edmonton Journal

Retail

Templeton closes after 150 years in downtown St. John’s

Templeton‘s home supply store is closing after being a fixture in downtown St. John’s for several decades.  According to the store’s voicemail, the store on Harbour Drive is closed as of Friday until early next week, when it will reopen with a liquidation sale.

CBC

Restaurants and Eateries

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Infrastructure

Even a sign from up above needs a city permit

You’re driving or cycling down an Edmonton street, scurrying to work, to pick up a kid from school, to grab groceries.  Suddenly, you see them. Construction barricades. Just sitting there, in the middle of the road, blocking off nothing in particular.

Edmonton Journal

Other

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