Canadian pension funds hold $188B in real estate

Canadian pension funds hold $188B in real estate

A new report from RBC Capital Markets highlights the increasing dominance of Canadian pension funds in the real estate sector globally. The position of pension funds, who own such Canadian real estate landmarks as the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and the TD Centre in Toronto, continues to grow and the top 24 Canadian pension funds now own $188 billion of real estate, say RBC analysts Neil Downey and Michael Smith.

Financial Post

Mainstreet snaps up another Saskatoon apartment complex

One of Saskatoon’s biggest landlords just got bigger after paying almost $17 million for an east-side apartment complex containing 142 units, bringing its total ownership to almost 11 per cent of the city’s roughly, 13,500 apartments. Calgary-based Mainstreet Equity Corp.’s bought the Fairway Greens property on Edinburgh Place for $16.9 million, according to a news release from CBRE Ltd., whose National Apartment Group brokered the deal. 

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

World’s tallest Passive House towers planned in Vancouver

A pair of developers are planning to build the world’s tallest Passive House structure in Vancouver. Landa Global Properties and Asia Standard Americas have submitted a rezoning application for a two-tower rental home and condo development at 1400 Alberni Street in downtown Vancouver.

Property Biz Canada

Allied, RioCan buy commercial portion of TO’s The Well

Allied Properties REIT  and RioCan REIT are buying Diamond Corp.‘s 20 per cent interest in the office and retail components of Toronto’s The Well  for up to $42 million. The transaction, which was scheduled to close Thursday, means Allied and RioCan will each own 50 per cent of the commercial component of the three million square foot, mixed-use development.

Property Biz Canada – Winnipeg Free Press – GlobeNewswire – Motley Fool

RioCan sale suggests uncertain future for retail: Colliers

The recently announced sale of 100 properties by RioCan REIT suggests retail as an asset class is losing steam, according to a confidential report from Colliers International. “If guidance for the future for retail in Canada is to be taken from this change in direction for RioCan, it may be that retail as an asset class is a questionable focus . . .,” wrote Craig Hennigar.

Toronto Star – Property Biz Canada

Auburn Developments has major plans for Kitchener property

The former Schneider’s meat plant in Kitchener is getting a massive redevelopment, thanks to a London builder. Auburn Developments plans to bring more than 2,000 homes, and commercial development to the  site. It is the third major core-area redevelopment project by Auburn in ­Kitchener-Waterloo. “It is not too often you find a site like this close to downtown, it is an area of transition,” said Auburn vice-president Stephen Stapleton.

London Free Press – CBC

Sidewalk Labs preferred partner on TO waterfront development

Google’s Sidewalk Labs has been selected as the top candidate to turn part of Toronto’s waterfront into a smart neighbourhood designed to integrate new technology and advance sustainable architecture and urban design. The Quayside project aims to turn 12 acres of waterfront land into a mixed-use community that Waterfront Toronto says will use advanced technology, innovative building techniques and funding to encourage “climate-positive urban development.”

Globe and Mail

Winnipeg on verge of an industrial shortage

A cursory look at Winnipeg’s industrial real estate market shows a sector firing on all cylinders, but some troubling trends emerge after digging down into the data. Vacancy dropped from 4 per cent to 3.8 per cent during the first six months of 2017 while absorption jumped by nearly 400,000 square feet during the same period, according to a new report from Colliers International.

Western Investor

Opinion: Time for bold solutions to Calgary’s tax shift

It’s likely the most crucial and complex economic policy issue that will face Calgary businesses in the next four years. To date, however, there’s been precious little discussion in the municipal election campaign about what the next city council should do about the empty downtown office towers in the city — and an enormous tax shift that awaits businesses outside the core.

Calgary Herald – CBC – CBC – Barclay Street Real Estate media release

OneREIT completes plan of arrangement

OneREIT announced it has completed its previously announced plan of arrangement involving, among others, OneREIT, Smart Real Estate Investment Trust and Strathallen Acquisitions Inc. The OneREIT units were expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange at the close of Thursday’s trading.

Marketwired – Canada Newswire

Sears Canada could face liquidation by Oct. 19

Sears Canada could begin a full liquidation of the business as soon as Oct. 19 as the clock runs down on an offer from executive chairman Brandon Stranzl. Stranzl, who made his latest revised bid for the company on Tuesday night, is the only potential buyer of the distressed retailer’s assets who wants to run the retailer as a going concern.

Financial Post – CBC

Building’s best honoured at 2017 BOMA awards

BOMA has once again celebrated excellence in the Canadian commercial real estate industry, handing out its annual national awards at the BOMEX gala in Toronto on Sept. 28. The BOMA Canada National Awards Program features three levels, with local award winners qualifying for the national competition. Winners of the Canadian TOBY and Earth awards can now move into the international competition.

Property Biz Canada

Shopify ‘vigorously’ defends business model

Shopify Inc. fired back Thursday after being accused by a U.S.-based short-seller of promoting a “get rich quick” scheme. “We vigorously defend our business model and stand resolutely behind our mission and the success of our merchants,” Shopify said in a statement.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Ottawa Citizen – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Tribune Media unveils plans for massive Chicago redevelopment

Tribune Media Co. has submitted planned development and rezoning documents aimed at transforming its 37-acre printing plant industrial site along the North Branch of the Chicago River into an 18-building neighbourhood and commercial centre totalling nine million square feet of office, hotel and shopping, along with 5,900 housing units. 

CoStar Group

Strong demand for U.S. hotels keeps boom going

The U.S. hotel business keeps reaching new heights. “The continued strength in room demand surprised on the upside,” says Jan Freitag, senior vice president of lodging insights for data firm STR. Because of that strong demand, room rates continue to rise and more hotel rooms have been occupied over the last year than ever.

National Real Estate Investor

Featured Column

Retail is not going anywhere; it’s just changing

It is hard to believe the hype surrounding the announcement that Target was coming to Canada just FOUR years ago. The frenzy suggested this was going to herald a new era for consumers. Many analysts were right, things were about to change, but they got it completely wrong on the implications for the retail industry.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Closed churches find second life as breweries

Ira Gerhart finally found a place last year to fulfil his years-long dream of opening a brewery: a 1923 Presbyterian church. It was cheap, charming and just blocks from downtown Youngstown, Ohio. But soon after Gerhart announced his plans, residents and a minister at a Baptist church a block away complained about alcohol being served in the former house of worship.

Winnipeg Free Press

Real Estate Companies

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	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

H&R REIT yielding 6.3 per cent with payout ratio of 74%

H&R REIT has a diversified portfolio of North American real estate assets containing office properties, retail properties, industrial properties, and residential properties. H&R is Canada’s largest diversified REIT with total assets of approximately $14 billion. At the end of June, H&R held a portfolio of 530 properties across North America: 337 in the United States, 102 in Ontario, 43 in Alberta, and 48 in other regions.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

ShopOne Centers launches with 46 grocery-anchored centres

Funds managed by Davidson Kempner Capital Management in New York have launched ShopOne Centers REIT Inc., a private real estate investment trust focused on acquiring, operating and managing market-dominant, grocery-anchored shopping centers. The company comes to market with a high-quality, geographically diverse portfolio.

CoStar Group

U.S. retail REITs insist business is ‘solid’

Nowadays, a mix of realism and optimism permeates the retail REIT sector, with landlords acknowledging the rocky atmosphere for brick-and-mortar retail while touting the rise of “experience” retailers that don’t rely heavily on e-commerce. On one end of the spectrum are retail REITs with a heavy concentration of older regional malls in secondary and tertiary markets.

National Real Estate Investor

Retail

Why traditional retail hasn’t hit rock bottom — yet

A friend of mine who runs a private equity shop in Toronto has a problem. His fund owns a medium-sized retail footwear chain that is making profits. He and his partners want to unload it but can’t find any buyers willing to offer a non-giveaway price. That’s because traditional retailing is dying, he says, and the sell-off might just be getting started.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Costco steps up grocery battle with new delivery services

Shares in Costco fell more than four per cent in premarket trading Friday after the retailer reported a decline in quarterly gross margins and underlined the growing competition in the industry by launching new delivery services. CFO Richard Galanti said in the post-results call the firm had started offering two-day delivery of dry groceries as well as a same-day delivery service for groceries including fresh foods.

Reuters

Aritzia continues strong growth streak in Q2

Vancouver-based fashion chain Aritzia continued to outperform rival fashion retailers in the second quarter, with double-digit sales and adjusted earnings growth. Net revenue for the quarter, which ended Aug. 27, rose 10.2 per cent to $174 million from $157.9 million a year ago, as the retailer ended the period with 83 stores, up from 75 a year ago.

Financial Post

New Development

DeepMind to open research lab in Montreal

DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company owned by Google’s parent, Alphabet, is opening an AI research lab in Montreal. The lab will be headed by Doina Precup, a professor in the computer science department at McGill University. Precup will keep her job at the university and divide her time between it and DeepMind.

Montreal Gazette

Human Resources

Ottawa developer John Ruddy honoured

It’s a rare entrepreneur whose name alone would be enough to convince some of Ottawa’s most astute businessmen to pour their hard-earned dollars into bringing CFL football back to the capital after two previous attempts had ended in financial disaster. But it’s a measure of the esteem in which Trinity Development Group‘s John Ruddy is held.

Ottawa Business Journal

Technology

Ring of Fire zone to get high-speed internet

The sparsely populated, but mineral-rich, Ring of Fire zone in northwestern Ontario will be getting high-speed internet at a cost of $67.1 million to taxpayers. Funding for the project, which involves the installation of 880 kilometres of new fibre-optic cable, is being announced Friday in Thunder Bay by the federal and provincial governments.

Toronto Star

Other

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