HOOPP to buy half of Calgary office tower

HOOPP to buy half of Calgary office tower

An Ontario-based pension plan has agreed to buy a half interest in the TransCanada Tower in Calgary for $257.4-million. H&R Real REIT (HR.UN-T)says the property has almost doubled in value in the 15 years since it was built in 2001. The buyer is HOOPP Realty Inc., a subsidiary of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP).

Globe and Mail – Canada Newswire

Tsawwassen Mills mall hoping to attract far-flung customers

A new, sprawling outlet mall on native land is an “amazing feat” that signals that First Nations in B.C. are open for business, a regional chief says. The grand opening of Tsawwassen Mills near the B.C. Ferries terminal included chanting native drummers in traditional dress and trapeze artists floating from the ceiling.

CBC – Canada Newswire – Vancouver Sun

Pent-up demand filling Vancouver office towers

When Manulife Real Estate unveiled a 16-storey, 250,000-square-foot office tower 980 Howe at the corner of Howe and Nelson Streets in downtown Vancouver last November, they were facing a downtown office leasing market with a 10% vacancy rate, the highest it had been in a decade.

Property Biz Canada

Can downtown Edmonton’s ‘magnet effect’ fix an office glut?

Edmonton is about to see two big new downtown office complexes open: the Kelly Ramsey project in Rice Howard Way and the Edmonton Tower in Ice District. They’re the first two new towers in the downtown proper in decades. “We’re in for an interesting ride in the office market here,”  said David Young, executive vice-president and Edmonton managing director with CRBE.

Edmonton Journal

Alternative lenders face ‘major changes’ due to new rules

Ottawa’s attempt to cool Canada’s overheating housing market and impose stricter regulations on mortgage lending is likely to have a profound impact on alternative lenders that compete with the country’s largest banks. The new rules, announced Monday, apply to all residential mortgage lenders. However, the banks, which account for 70 per cent of the market.

Globe and Mail

Walmart to expand online warehouses to compete with Amazon

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT-N) is accelerating its investment in e-commerce in a bid to narrow the gap with Amazon.com Inc. and to give it an even more dominant position against the rest of the field in retail.  The world’s largest retailer is now on track to double the number of giant warehouses dedicated to online sales to 10 by the end of 2016.

CBC – Toronto Star

New ownership for Four Seasons Hotel Toronto

Auto parts and sports magnate Shahid Khan has entered the hotel business by purchasing Four Seasons Hotel Toronto from an affiliate of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) for $225 million. “The buyer acted very responsibly through the transaction and was very motivated,” said JLL Canada Hotels and Hospitality Group senior vice-president Mark Sparrow.

Property Biz Canada

New acquisition for Automotive Properties REIT

Automotive Properties REIT just acquired the Pfaff Audi property in Vaughan, Ont. and completed a $35-million equity offering that had an over-allotment option picked up, bringing the total value to $40 million. These are the latest steps in the progress of Automotive Properties REIT, and president and chief executive officer Milton Lamb is pleased with how the investment community has embraced it since it went public in July 2015.

Property Biz Canada

The rise of the super-skinny skyscraper

A new golden age for skyscrapers has dawned, a race to the sky on a scale we haven’t seen since the frantic construction that gripped American cities in the 1920s. No fewer than 342 new buildings over 150 metres are expected to be completed in 2016. And many of the highest will be engineered by Montreal’s WSP Global Inc.

Globe and Mail

Architects say city hall has role in building a beautiful Halifax

At the end of Nova Scotia’s first-ever architecture week, architects in Halifax say that building a beautiful city will take more than good design. “The municipal government has a really strong role to play,” Christine Macy, dean of Dalhousie University’s school of architecture, told CBC. Macy said a planning mechanism such as HRM By Design can ensure a balance between the interests of the public and those of developers.

CBC

Sporting Life comes to Calgary with first store outside Ontario

The opening of the new 44,000 square feet Sporting Life store at Southcentre mall on Thursday will not only provide work for 135 people, it also shows real optimism on the part of the Ontario-based retailer.  Sporting Life was founded in Toronto by Brian McGrath and the husband-and-wife team of Patti and David Russell, the firm’s CEO.

Calgary Herald

Calgary council approves in principal Green Line tunnel

Calgary city council voted Tuesday in favour of what’s seen as the best but most expensive option for the eventual new Green Line of the LRT — a $2-billion tunnel beneath Crescent Heights, the Bow River and downtown hedging slightly with a two-word caveat — “in principle” — to their recommendation to city staff.

CBC

Hearings for review of Ontario Municipal Board underway

The provincial government has launched a review of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), with an eye to making it more efficient and accessible, with two months of public hearings beginning today. One of the issues under consideration is the OMB’s scope, with the government saying it has heard complaints that too many matters are appealed to the board.

CBC – Ottawa Business Journal

Brokerages build valuation practices as transaction activity grows

In acquiring the Houston affiliate of independent franchise firm Integra Realty Resources (IRR) last month, JLL became the last of the major global CRE services providers to launch a valuation and advisory practice in the United States.  The acquisition, scheduled to close next week, has prompted industry speculation about the U.S. growth plans of JLL, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and Cushman & Wakefield.

CoStar Group

Hurricane Matthew may cause $25-30 billion in insurance losses

A hurricane threatening the first direct hit on the United States in more than a decade could cause insurance losses of $25-30 billion and be the second costliest U.S. hurricane on record for insurers, according to initial industry estimates. Hurricane Matthew is just off the east coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on Friday.

Globe and Mail

Featured Column

Access Private Equity (PE) through crowdfunding portals

A 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report suggests the combination of higher interest rates, lower economic growth and weak corporate profits is here to stay – and a portfolio made up only of stocks and bonds will generate lower returns for years to come.

Read more

	Multi-residential Property Biz Canada in 2017
	In 2017, or sooner, RENX is going to publish a second weekly edition of Property Biz Canada focused primarily on the multi-residential sector in Canada. This is a great new advertising opportunity to reach professionals in this sector of the industry. Contact sales@renx.ca, 1-855-569-6300

 

Market Trends and Research

Women 8% of top executives in Alberta’s largest companies

While more than a third of board members at Alberta’s largest companies in 2016 are women, fewer than 10 per cent are at the top executive level, according to a new report. The second annual Alberta Women on Boards Index is meant to shine a light on the gender diversity of boards of directors within publicly traded TSX and TSX-Venture Alberta companies.

CBC

Sky-high Hydro One bills enraging consumers

Carol Paranuik once loved to bake. “I used to bake pies and tarts and cakes and cookies all the time,” she said. “I rarely bake now.” This grandmother’s problem is not her health, but rather her hydro bill.  Forty years ago, she and her husband, Dave, built a modest brick bungalow on a winding road north of Madoc, Ont. — about 225 kilometres east of Toronto.

Financial Post

Canada’s August building permits jump on condos, commercial buildings

The value of Canadian building permits issued in August surged far more than expected on higher construction intentions for condominiums and commercial buildings, data from Statistics Canada showed on Thursday. The 10.4 per cent increase well exceeded economists’ expectations for a 3.0 per cent gain.

Globe and Mail

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their second-quarter 2016 results. Have we missed any?  Canadian REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report

 

Retail

Lowe’s makes another run at Rona preferred shares

Lowe’s has boosted its offer for Rona’s remaining preferred shares, more than four months after the U.S. home renovation retailer closed its $3.2-billion takeover of its Canadian rival. Lowe’s is offering a total of $165.5 million, or $24 per share in cash, to the holders of the 6.9 million preferred shares.

Winnipeg Free Press

New Development

CHUM superhospital faces yet another delay in opening

It was supposed to open to patients this month, but it now looks like the $2-billion superhospital of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal might be delayed by as much as a year.  Construction Santé Montréal, the private consortium in charge of the project, confirmed late Thursday that it won’t be able to deliver the superhospital for a Nov. 6 deadline.

Montreal Gazette

Halifax condo tower has height restrictions eased

A group of Halifax homeowners say council’s decision to allow a 29-storey tower at Quinpool Road and Robie Street should worry people throughout the municipality. “It has implications for everyone,” said Andrea Arbic, a member of the Willow Tree Group. “That, really, the rules that are in place don’t mean anything.”

CBC

Infrastructure

Montreal’s Champlain Bridge in ‘palliative care’

Montreal’s Champlain Bridge is a monument on life support. The span that has been the butt of jokes and source of jitters to millions of motorists has transformed into something else as it approaches its demise: A massive feat of end-of-life engineering. Canada’s busiest bridge has passed its best-before date.

Globe and Mail

Other

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