Ivanhoé Cambridge, Prologis to form US$890M JV in Brazil

Ivanhoé Cambridge, Prologis to form US$890M JV in Brazil

Global real estate investor Ivanhoé Cambridge and Prologis, Inc. (PLD-N), the global leader in logistics real estate, today announced an agreement to form a 80-20 joint venture in Brazil. Prologis Brazil Logistics Venture will develop and operate logistics real estate in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The venture will acquire an initial portfolio of approximately 6.9 million square feet of operating properties and 371 acres of land from Prologis’ balance sheet.

PR Newswire – Bloomberg

Amazon in advanced talks to put HQ2 near Washington

Amazon.com has held advanced discussions about possibly opening its second headquarters in Crystal City, including how quickly it would move employees, which buildings it would occupy and how an announcement would be made to the public, according to people close to the process. The discussions were more detailed than those regarding other locations, adding to speculation it is a front-runner to land the so-called HQ2 and its 50,000 jobs.

Washington Post – Toronto Star – Global News – CNBC

Innovative Upbrella to be used in Montreal hotel project

When the Hôtel Le Germain Montreal begins work to add six new floors atop its 17-storey downtown hotel, the construction system used for the building expansion will likely turn heads. Instead of a traditional crane, the additional storeys for the President Kennedy Avenue hotel will be built with the use of the innovative crane-less construction technology devised by Upbrella Construction.

Property Biz Canada

Builders cautious, Montreal’s industrial sector in a bind

Industrial vacancy rates in Montreal are in a freefall and the situation will not change until a significant amount of speculative building takes place. That’s the opinion of industry experts who participated in a session on industrial leasing in Montreal during the Montreal Real Estate Strategy and Leasing Conference on Oct. 30. The overall industrial vacancy rate in Greater Montreal now stands at 2.7 per cent.

Property Biz Canada

The open concept office can be right – or so wrong

Ryan Brain recalls his “very anxious night” on the eve of Deloitte Canada’s 2016 move to its new open-concept headquarters in Toronto. At the downtown office, everyone has access to a range of places to plug in their laptops. Work can be done in lounges, cafés, at high-top desks where people can stand, around tables and at communal work stations. There are offices for confidential meetings and “heads-down work.”

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Property Biz Canada

CBRE enters flexible office space sector

CBRE Group (CBRE-N) has moved into the flexible office space sector with the creation of a new division which it says will partner property owners to provide workspaces. The largest commercial real estate services firm, by revenue, said it has launched CBRE Hana. The new subsidiary will partner with institutional property investors who want to enhance their assets by meeting the growing demand for flexible office space.

IPE Real Assets

Lowe’s closing 31 locations in Canada

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Companies Inc, (LOW-N) is closing 31 locations in Canada, including 27 underperforming Lowe’s and Rona stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, along with 20 Lowe’s locations in the U.S. The North Carolina-based chain said Monday morning that the closures are “part of its ongoing strategic reassessment” of its business.

CBC – Reuters – Canada Newswire

The Winslow Devron’s new T.O. boutique condo

Devron Developments is targeting homeowners looking to downsize in Toronto’s Lawrence Park neighbourhood with its new boutique condominium, The Winslow. The Winslow will be located at 2781 Yonge St., between Blythwood Road and Lawrence Avenue, on a site most recently occupied by two semi-detached homes, a parking lot, a three-storey investment building and a two-storey commercial building. Devron acquired the property from an individual landowner in January 2017.

Property Biz Canada

New Quicken Loans tech centre a Windsor ‘beachhead’

The recently announced foray by Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans into Windsor — a 100-job tech centre in the rejuvenated former Fish Market building — could be just the beginning, Gilbert’s second-in-command said Tuesday. Matt Cullen, principal of Gilbert’s umbrella company Rock Ventures, described the new tech centre coming next year as a “beachhead in Windsor,” that’s a “big deal for us.”

Windsor Star

A look inside Calgary’s new Central Library

Decades in the making, Calgary’s long-awaited $245-million downtown library opened its doors to the public Thursday, boasting 240,000 square feet of spectacular architecture, four floors of learning spaces and 450,000 new books and collections. “It really is quite spectacular — a cultural hub of learning and innovation,” said Bill Ptacek, CEO of Calgary Public Library.

Calgary Herald – CBC – CBC

Hamilton smashes records in 2018 construction boom

Hamilton is celebrating its biggest construction year in the city’s history. “On Sept. 11, 2018, the City of Hamilton has, for the very first time, hit the billion dollar mark as early as September,” said Hamilton chief building official Ed VanderWindt. According to Glen Norton, City of Hamilton director of economic development, this represents the largest increase by percentage in the ICI (industrial, commercial, institutional) sector.

ConstructConnect

Brookfield to convert 100 GGP malls into ‘mini cities’

Brookfield Property Partners (BPY-UN-T) plans to “future-proof” a majority of General Growth Properties’ malls by turning them into mixed-use “mini cities.” Executives of the firm said on Thursday it plans to redevelop at least 100 of the 125 malls in GGP’s portfolio. The company estimates it will spend between $800 million and $1 billion each year over the next few years to reposition or add office and/or residential space to the shopping centres.

The Real Deal

Sidewalk Labs told to scrub personal details

Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG-Q) digital city on Toronto’s waterfront is in danger of becoming surveillance city unless data is stripped of personal details from the get-go, according to one of the world’s leading privacy experts. Ann Cavoukian will meet with Waterfront Toronto, the government organization overseeing the project, this week to seek a commitment that information collected will be “de-identified at source.”

Bloomberg – Property Biz Canada

Construction underway on Montreal’s bus network

After a decade of delays, construction of a new kind of express bus network in the city will finally get underway on Monday, but don’t hold your breath for the service to start soon — it’s a four-year construction process. SRB Pie-IX was first promised in 2008, with an expected delivery date of 2012. Here is a brief explanation of the project. 

Montreal Gazette

New $210M transit garage incorporates Edmonton landmark

Kathryn Ivany peeks out from under a hard hat at the new $210M Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage, the future home of 700 transit employees and Edmonton’s fleet of 300 buses. The 13-acre site at 12403 Fort Road was once the heart of Edmonton’s thriving meat-packing industry. “Meat packing actually began out in this area about 1908,” said Ivany, a City of Edmonton archivist.

CBC

Market Trends and Research

Victoria hotel occupancy sets records

Greater Victoria’s tourism industry continued to hum through September and its performance through three fiscal quarters this year is reminding industry insiders of the late 1990s. Victoria-area hotels reported another strong month in September, pushing year-to-date average occupancy to 77.83 per cent, versus 77.12 in the same period last year. At the same time, revenue per available room jumped $12.02 to $148.18, and the average daily room rate hit $190.

Victoria Times Colonist

Top 10 office buildings with highest vacancies in the Twin Cities

The Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro continues to be a tenant’s market due to affordable office rental rates and an emerging start-up scene. Landlords are renovating existing inventory in order to attract tenants, which continue to focus on modern amenities and open space. Developers, especially in downtown Minneapolis, are opting to convert buildings with an industrial past.

CP Executive

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Japan funds turn back on U.S. REITS: Report

A mass offloading by Japan-based REIT investors may be the answer for U.S. REITs performing so poorly recently. In 2016, REIT funds based in Japan that targeted the United States held seven per cent of the U.S. REIT market, or $68 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Those funds have since sold off more than half of their shares, and are now valued at $31 billion, according to a new report from Green Street Advisors.

The Real Deal

Retail

Jean Machine to close all 24 of its stores

Canadian apparel retailer Jean Machine Clothing Inc. will close down all of its stores by the end of winter because of losses. Jean Machine’s president Lisa Hryciuk announced in a letter posted on the company’s social media channels that 20 of its locations will be shuttered by Jan. 31 and another four will be gone by Feb. 28. All of Jean Machine’s locations are in Ontario.

Winnipeg Free Press

New Toys “R” Us owners mull physical stores

The hedge funds that now own the Toys “R” Us brand plan to relaunch the toy retailer as a stand-alone operation next year, according sources. Solus Alternative Asset Management and Angelo Gordon will look to raise capital to help revive the chain, which closed its last stores at the end of June, and are making plans that include brick-and-mortar locations.

Bloomberg

Restaurants and Eateries

Ottawa’s first food hall to open in former Hy’s Steakhouse

A 9,000-square-foot, high-end, licensed “food hall,” bolstered by a stage for live music, is to open Dec. 7 in the Sun Life Financial Centre,  where Ottawa’s Hy’s Steakhouse had been. Queen St. Fare, which will be steps away from the LRT Parliament station that is to open next year, will be a unique addition to downtown Ottawa and an attraction that could help spark the area’s after-hours revitalization, proponents say.

Ottawa Citizen

Food delivery apps a double-edged sword

Ask chef Mollie J Jacques about her experience with delivery apps such as Uber Eats, and she’ll recall the numerous times staff at the Toronto pizza place where she worked had no choice but to deliver orders themselves when drivers failed to show. “At least once or twice a week, we would have to walk orders over to people, drive orders over to people,” she said.

Globe and Mail

Cannabis industry news

Ontario retailers race to sign real estate deals

Recreational cannabis retailers are rushing to sign deals for prime real estate locations ahead of the April launch of legal marijuana stores in Ontario, even before the province’s rules for the outlets are clear. The province is expected in the next several weeks to finalize details of regulations that will clarify which cannabis companies can operate stores, how many outlets each can run and where they can be located.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

New Development

Plans in works for Montreal entertainment venue

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté plans to construct a new entertainment venue in the form of an imposing pyramid on the Clock Tower pier in Montreal’s Old Port. The project was unveiled Saturday by Lune Rouge Entertainment. The pyramid, a temporary structure, is called PY1 and it already has a website promoting the project. The pyramid is described as a “travelling theatre,” 38 metres long and nearly 25 metres high.

CBC

Florida’s tallest building could begin construction next spring

SkyRise Miami, a 1,000-ft tall entertainment and observation tower, is set to begin construction in Q1 2019, according to Plaza Construction, which recently was chosen to build the structure by developer Berkowitz Development Group. Scheduled for completion in 2023, the SkyRise Miami, overlooking Biscayne Bay, would be the tallest building in Florida. It is being positioned as a vertical theme park that will draw more than three million visitors a year.

Building Design & Construction

Infrastructure

Signs of O-Train progress all around in Ottawa

Last week, the City of Ottawa was to have been handed the keys to the Confederation Line, after the first of two LRT delays was announced earlier this year. That didn’t pan out. Transit users won’t board the new O-Trains until sometime in early 2019. As work on the light rail system continues inching along, we sent Giacomo Panico out with a camera to capture some of the progress.

CBC – CBC

Feds selling Prince Rupert’s Ridley Terminals

The Canadian government is looking to sell a 90 per cent stake in Ridley Terminals Inc., a federal Crown corporation on Ridley Island in Prince Rupert, B.C. The remaining 10 per cent stake will be transferred to the Lax Kw’alaams Band and the Metlakatla First Nation.  Canada Development Investment Corp. says the sale will be conducted on an open and competitive basis.

Toronto Star

Other

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