Metro to expand online offering in Quebec, Ontario

Metro to expand online offering in Quebec, Ontario

Metro says 60 per cent of Quebec’s approximately 8.2 million residents will be able to shop online at Metro.ca by the end of the year, as it continues to build both its click-and-collect and delivery capabilities. Metro also plans to introduce online grocery in Ontario at an undisclosed date. The retailer first launched online shopping in Montreal in October 2016, and recently expanded the service to include both the Greater Montreal Area and Quebec City. 

Canadian Grocer

Centre RioCan Kirkland will incorporate Montreal light rail

RioCan REIT, the owner of Centre RioCan Kirkland (situated in the West Island of Montreal), has received a notice of expropriation from the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec related to roughly seven acres of the site in order to accommodate a major station and parking facilities as part of Montreal’s Reseau Electrique Metropolitain, which is expected to be completed in 2020.

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

Downtown Montreal office ‘has never been stronger’

The future looks brighter than it has in a long time for commercial leasing and development in downtown Montreal, panelists agreed during a discussion on the state of the city’s office market.  “I think next year is going to continue to be strong. Downtown has never been stronger,” says Robert Giglio, vice-president, leasing at Bentall Kennedy.

Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail

After earlier successes, Montreal sets sights on Amazon

Things are going well for Montréal International, the economic development agency tasked with encouraging foreign direct investment in the Montreal region. Since September, Facebook, Samsung, DeepMind (a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet), IBM and Thales have all opened new offices in Montreal or announced plans to do so.

Montreal Gazette

CRE property tax more than double residential

Commercial property tax rates were at least double those of residential rates in eight of the 10 Canadian cities surveyed in the new Altus Group Canadian Property Tax Rate Benchmark Report 2017. The average commercial-to-residential property tax ratio for the 10 cities in the report produced in partnership with the Real Property Association of Canada (REALPAC) was 2.85. 

Property Biz Canada

Canada should reinvent infrastructure development model

Canada ranks 23rd in the world in terms of the quality of its infrastructure network with nearly 20 per cent of its buildings and transportation infrastructure in critical condition, according to the World Economic Forum. This situation not only reduces the growth potential for the Canadian economy but also increases maintenance spending which, in our experience, can be more than 20 per cent higher for older assets.

Globe and Mail

Feds told to be careful before approving Aecon takeover

The Trudeau Liberals are facing warnings to proceed cautiously and in as transparent a manner as possible as they weigh a $1.5-billion bid by CCCC International Holding Ltd. of China to buy Calgary-based Aecon Group Inc. The warnings come in the face of strong affirmations by the Liberal government Canada’s pursuit of deeper trade relations with China is full steam ahead.

Global News – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

RH unveils RH Toronto, The Gallery at Yorkdale

RH (Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc.) announced the opening of RH Toronto, The Gallery at Yorkdale. Commanding four levels and nearly 70,000 total interior and exterior square feet, this innovative retail concept features artistic installations of home furnishings in a gallery setting, including entire floors dedicated to RH Interiors, RH Modern and RH Outdoor.

Canada Newswire

TD Insurance relocating Edmonton operation to East Coast

Edmonton is losing another TD Bank Group call centre after TD Insurance confirmed it’s closing its facility in the provincial capital and shifting the service to the Maritimes. “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to move our TD Insurance call centre operations that are currently in Edmonton to Halifax and Saint John, effective March 2, 2018,” TD spokesperson Geraldine Anderson wrote in a brief email.

Edmonton Journal

Starlight sells Houston apartment complex

Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 5) Core Fund announced it has sold The Reserve at Jones Road, a class-A, garden-style apartment community in the Tomball submarket in Northwest Houston. The property consists of 114 multi-family units and was constructed in 2013. The purchase price was approximately US$14.35 million.

Canada Newswire

CAPREIT continues Netherlands expansion

Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust announced it has waived conditions and entered into a binding agreement of purchase and sale to acquire a portfolio of 11 properties with a total of 540 residential suites well located in Rijswijk, Venlo, Venray and five surrounding towns throughout the Netherlands. The purchase price is approximately $123 million Cdn.

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

Shindico still looking to fill Target space

Winnipeg’s former CF Polo Park Target store, sitting empty since the U.S. retail chain left Canada in 2015, is getting some work done as efforts continue to find a replacement tenant, or tenants. A spokesman for Shindico, one of the co-developers of the Plaza at Polo Park retail/office/restaurant development, said the support pillars are being strengthened to make the 120,000-square-foot building suitable for a wider variety of tenants.

Winnipeg Free Press – Property Biz Canada

Winnipeg’s Royal Albert Arms heading for auction

Winnipeg’s Royal Albert Arms, a heritage property located one block from Portage and Main, is up for a mortgage auction next month in what downtown development officials hope will be a prelude to its redevelopment. The 53-room property, completed in 1913, currently serves as low-incoming housing, even though it’s only zoned for use as a hotel.

CBC

OMERS opens Singapore office

OMERS, the pension plan for municipal workers in the province of Ontario announced it will open an office in Singapore in January 2018. “OMERS is proud to establish a presence in Singapore, which is recognized internationally as a major financial hub,” said Michael Latimer, president and CEO of OMERS. 

Globe Newswire

Canopy Growth enters Jamaica’s cannabis market

Canada’s largest cannabis producer is expanding to the “renowned sun, soil and water of Jamaica” thanks to a new strategic partnership with an island grower. Canopy Growth Corp. announced last week it has signed ownership for a 49 per cent stake in Grow House JA Ltd. – henceforth to be known as Tweed Ltd. JA.

Ottawa Business Journal – Bloomberg – Calgary Herald

Market Trends and Research

Manhattan office owners lure tenants with concessions

Manhattan office leasing is on the rise — thanks in large part to deal sweeteners offered by landlords. With big companies reducing space and new towers rising across New York, office owners are trying to attract tenants by lowering asking rents and shelling out cash to fix up properties. Such moves helped prop up demand in the third quarter, according to a new report by Savills Studley. 

Bloomberg

Real Estate Companies

Mucci Farms creating N.A.’s largest greenhouse strawberry grower

Mucci Farms is spending $12 million on top of its $24-million investment in greenhouses built just for strawberries to become the largest strawberry grower in North America under glass. The company that mainly grows greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers wants to grow strawberries year-round using artificial lights in the expanded acreage .

Windsor Star

	RENX 2018 media kit now available
	A blended ad program, take-over advertising, writing services and a second weekly edition of Property Biz Canada in 2018. Advertising that reaches thousands of professionals in the commercial real estate industry every business day. Contact sales@renx.ca, 1-855-569-6300

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Starwood eyes $5B non-traded REIT

Starwood Capital Group is going the non-traded REIT route with plans to launch Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, according to an SEC filing. It plans to raise $5 billion in both common stock and distribution reinvestment plan shares; the offering has not been scheduled as yet.

GlobeSt.com

U.K. REIT targets private-rented housing investments

K&C REIT plans to invest $672 million Cdn in the U.K.’s private-rented housing after announcing plans to raise $252 million by issuing shares at $1.68 each. The REIT, established in 2015, has to date made small acquisitions, but intends to begin buying larger assets. K&C REIT earlier bought Coleherne in West London for $6.05 million  and Osrey for $2.69 million.

IPE Real Estate

Growth is hiding in REITs

Shares of Morguard North American Residential REIT offer a monthly dividend of more than four per cent while retaining close to 70% of cash flows from operations (CFO). Near a 52-week high, shares of Dream Industrial REIT has close to $500 million of equity at its disposal, which can be used to purchase new industrial properties should the opportunity present itself.

Motley Fool

Retail

Amazon turns to video to win slice of online ad pie

Amazon.com Inc. is aiming to post more promotional and instructional videos on its website to hawk pet supplies, baby products, housewares and electronics, a move to keep people from clicking on Google’s YouTube and Facebook Inc.’s social-media sites to find video reviews before buying.

Toronto Star

Department stores scramble to remain relevant

Sears Canada’s plan to close all its stores and liquidate its assets in the lead-up to the holiday season has retail watchers musing about the future of department stores. Retail analysts and pollsters say competition is getting fiercer and department stores that do not operate efficiently or embark on wrong-headed strategies could start to feel the pain.

Business In Vancouver – Bloomberg

Healthy food the future of convenience stores

Long known as late-night outposts of roller hotdogs and greasy pizza, convenience stores now also want to sell you healthier food, preferably lots of it. This shift in the $550-billion industry was on display at the National Association of Convenience Stores trade show in Chicago this month, a massive and labyrinthine convention of grab-and-go commerce. 

Toronto Star

Restaurants and Eateries

Fast-food success still depends on burgers

Turns out the fast-food wars are still all about burgers. Forget, for the moment, kale and quinoa, the current “it foods” of American cuisine. The leafy vegetable and the ancient grain have for years fed the prevailing narrative more Americans are trying to clean up their diets. Try telling that to McDonald’s and Burger King.

Bloomberg

New Development

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside changes with development

Fraser Stuart looks at a chic, new tattoo shop metres away from the heart of Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside and shakes his head. A man saunters by mumbling “Drugs?” and flashes plastic bags in the palm of each hand. Inside, a young man in tight jeans and a toque chats with a tattoo artist, a bear’s head hangs from the wall.

Vancouver Province

Sports Venues

Ski industry slaloms through change

Adriaan Demmers spends most winter weekends as an instructor at Chicopee Ski & Summer Resort, a bunny hill near his home in Guelph, Ont. But the real estate agent and his wife also logged 57 days last winter on slopes from Maine to Utah, using a MAX Pass, which for $679 buys up to five days each at 44 mountains across North America.

Bloomberg

Technology

BuildDirect co-founder Jeff Booth resigns as CEO

One of Vancouver’s highest-profile tech entrepreneurs, Jeff Booth, has abruptly resigned from BuildDirect.com Technologies Inc., the e-commerce company he co-founded 18 year ago and hoped would become the Amazon of heavy-duty home-improvement supplies. In a LinkedIn posting about his departure, the 48-year-old Booth cited an inability to see eye to eye with debt holders who stepped in to finance the company.

Globe and Mail

Other

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