Bosa buying Victoria’s Dockside Green development

Bosa buying Victoria’s Dockside Green development

Bosa Development, which bought the Empress Hotel three years ago, is adding Dockside Green in Vic West to its portfolio as it plans to build out the mixed-use property. Construction is expected to start late next year, said Ryan Bosa, president of Vancouver-based Bosa. Vancity Credit Union, through Dockside Green Ltd., is selling the 10 acres of the 15-acre site. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Victoria Times Colonist – Victoria News

Thomson Reuters pledges $125M for TO technology hub

Thomson Reuters Corp. plans to invest $125 million Cdn to help build a permanent home for its growing Toronto technology hub. The news and information company has snapped up naming rights and all of the commercial office space in a major redevelopment of the former Southam Press Building. The original brick structure was built in 1908.

Globe and Mail – Marketwired

Oak West Fengate’s latest GTA commercial development

Fengate Real Asset Investments continues to bet heavily on its hometown of Oakville, most recently with the Sept. 27 completion of the first building in Phase One of the almost 700,000-square-foot Oak West Corporate Centre (OWCC). “The Oakville hub is energetic, dynamic and evolving, and increasingly attractive to businesses and talent,” said Fengate managing director of real estate John Bartkiw.

Property Biz Canada

Sears Canada to end 65 years of retail history

Sears Canada is closing up shop, announcing Tuesday it is seeking court approval to close all of its stores across the country and lay off about 14,000 employees. The move came after weeks of discussions with executive chairman Brandon Stranzl to save the money-losing retailer, but the company failed to reach an agreement after his most recent bid last week.

Financial Post – Toronto Star – Canada Newswire – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Closing stores starts a spiral that ‘can’t be stopped’: HBC CEO

Retailers that close a big chunk of their store fleet are likely only hastening their demise, predicted Hudson’s Bay Company CEO Gerald Storch. Storch, speaking on Monday at the Shoptalk conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, said his company would instead “play to win” in the radically changing world of retail, and not retrench and close stores.

Fortune

PROREIT buys two-building Montreal commercial site

PROREIT is purchasing a two-building, commercial mixed-use complex in Montreal and intends to “exploit fully” the development potential for excess space on the 332,206 square foot site. The $8.65 million purchase price represents a going-in capitalization rate of 6.3 per cent. PROREIT believes there is potential for further increases once the property is fully leased and further developed. It is currently 67.5 per cent leased.

Property Biz Canada

Shared office space, coworking major growth trends

Shared office space could account for 20 per cent of the overall office market in Canada within the next decade, according to a new Cresa study. “There are two distinct markets,” said Cresa senior vice-president Ross Moore, who co-authored the study with research analyst Sheldon Dobsi. “There are the big companies that are looking for temporary space for whatever reason, and startups.”

Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail

Walmart expects online sales to surge 40 per cent

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expects U.S. e-commerce sales to surge 40 per cent in the next fiscal year as its online investments allow the retail giant to play catch-up with Amazon.com Inc. The company also plans to add 1,000 online-grocery locations — roughly double the current number of sites, which help fill orders from customers buying their food on Walmart.com.

Bloomberg – Financial Post – Bloomberg

Online sales jump encourages IKEA to think outside the box

Fast-growing online sales are helping to convince IKEA Group to step up its investment in digital technology and look beyond its traditional model of selling cheap furniture from huge out-of-town stores.The Swedish group, which runs the bulk of IKEA stores worldwide, was initially slow to embrace the Internet, reportedly worried about the impact on its low prices.

Reuters – Bloomberg – CTV – Globe and Mail

Metro to eliminate 280 jobs in Ontario

Grocery store chain Metro Inc. says it will eliminate about 280 jobs starting in 2021 as part of a $400-million overhaul of its Ontario distribution network. The company says the move to modernize and automate its network will mean the loss of about 180 full-time and 100 part-time positions.

CTV – Canada Newswire

Retail giants seized on popups to woo millennials

To drum up excitement around the launch of a credit card targeting the oft-pursued millennial demographic, American Express Canada tapped several star chefs last month to serve Instagram-worthy plates at a restaurant in Toronto that would launch and shutter within a week. Before Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo opened its first Vancouver location this month, it ran a shop with a twist for one day.

Financial Post

Tim Hortons franchisees sue corporate parent for $850M

Tim Hortons franchisees who created an association to address their grievances with parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc. have filed an $850-million class action lawsuit against the company, alleging the fast food operator is trying to intimidate its restaurant owners and force the franchisees who formed the group out of their restaurants.

Financial Post

Urbanfund seeks JV for 50% of Brampton industrial complex

President/CEO Mitchell Cohen announced Urbanfund Corp. has entered into a letter of intent to form a joint venture, with an arm’s length real estate investment firm, to purchase, renovate, change to condominium title and sell units in an industrial building, aggregating 46,790 square feet, in Brampton. The complex is under contract for a purchase price of $4.7 million.

GlobeNewswire – GlobeNewswire

Phillips Edison forms $4 billion grocery-focused REIT

Phillips Edison, one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of grocery-anchored shopping centers, has formed a new $4 billion REIT focused on this still-growing sector of physical retail. The Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT I was formed with the acquisition of certain real estate assets and third-party management businesses of its former sponsor and external advisor, Phillips Edison Limited Partnership

Chain Store Age – CP Executive

Hurricane Nate’s insured losses to near $500M US: KCC

Insured losses in the United States from Hurricane Nate will be close to $500 million, catastrophe modeling company Karen Clark & Company (KCC) said Monday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday that the former hurricane has become a post-tropical cyclone that continues to pack heavy rain and gusty winds. 

Reuters – GlobeSt.com

Market Trends and Research

Healthcare providers perfect fit for vacant big boxes

Big-box retailers have shuttered a score of locations across the nation in recent years, with many more to come, and one of the big challenges facing property owners these days is figuring out how to respond. Skokie, Ill-based Next Realty, LLC has found perfect solutions for several locations, including a just-completed lease with Advocate Health Care.

GlobeSt.com

U.S. investors pour cash into small markets

CRE investors priced out of major U.S. markets have expanded their scope to secondary and tertiary markets to find properties yielding more generous returns, a trend typical of late-inning property cycles. But the robust demand for real estate and the current cycle’s longevity set this growth period apart from past ones and suggest smaller markets will continue to reap investment for some time. 

CoStar Group

Real Estate Companies

Colliers, Menkes and HOOPP partner to lease AeroCentre

Colliers International has partnered with HOOPP Realty Inc. and Menkes Property Management Services Ltd. to manage the leasing of AeroCentre’s award-winning office buildings. Ideally located along Highway 401, the six buildings provide tenants with exceptional branding opportunities for premiere companies looking for a first-class facility. 

Colliers Canada media release

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Real Estate Investment Trusts

Investors should consider Dream Industrial REIT

While some REITs are facing considerable headwinds because of the retail meltdown and the demise of the shopping mall, others are poised to grow as the demand for warehousing and other industrial properties grows. This makes Dream Industrial REIT, which owns 212 light industrial properties across Canada, an attractive investment. 

Motley Fool

Washington Prime turning over pair of malls

Washington Prime Group Inc. continued its portfolio re-construction agreeing to turn two malls over to lenders but with plans to buy back one of them. It also sold an additional mall and repaid the debt on a fourth. Only 15% of the REIT’s net operating income is now represented by Tier 2 assets, of which about half are unencumbered, said Lou Conforti, CEO of the Columbus, Ohio-based firm.

CoStar Group

Are retail REITs the next big short?

RioCan REIT has seen its stock fall by nine per cent over the last year because of the headwinds facing brick-and-mortar retailers. Choice Properties, which has a portfolio of 537 retail properties across Canada, is also vulnerable to the dramatic shift underway. Partners‘ stock has declined by almost 10% over the last year because of the impact of Sears filing for bankruptcy,.

Motley Fool

Legal Corner

RE professionals River Rock Casino high-rollers: Audit

A background review of hundreds of VIP gamblers at Richmond’s River Rock Casino in 2015 found that the highest proportion of players involved in large and suspicious cash transactions worked in real estate, according to a confidential memo obtained by Postmedia. The memo did not state whether these gamblers work in B.C.’s or China’s real estate sector.

Vancouver Sun

New Development

Flames owner eyes more than just a new arena

The partnership that owns the Calgary Flames proposed a deal for a new arena that would give the private company a chance to transform into the real estate developer for a potentially lucrative new community, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. (CSEC) owns the Flames and other sports teams.

Globe and Mail

Renovation and Restoration

Marriott unveils new Toronto Marriott City Centre

Marriott Hotels has transformed the downtown hotel formerly known as Renaissance Toronto Downtown into the new Toronto Marriott City Centre. The unveiling was held September 19 at the hotel, located near the Metro Toronto Conference Centre, the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium and attached to the Rogers Centre.

Daily Commercial News

Infrastructure

TO launches public consultations on rail line

Work on Mayor John Tory’s signature transit project — the SmartTrack rail line — reached a landmark in its implementation Tuesday evening as the public got its say in the first of three consultations this week. “We want to hear exactly where the stations should be, how they should look, what’s best for the neighbourhoods . . .” Tory said in Scarborough Tuesday.

CBC

Brookfield unit to buy Center Coast Capital

Brookfield Asset Management’s Public Securities Group (PSG) has agreed to buy Center Coast Capital Holdings (CCC), an energy infrastructure-focused investment firm, for an undisclosed amount, according to a statement on Tuesday. Houston-based Center Coast Capital has more than $4 billion of assets under management.

Reuters

Other

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