‘Biggest mixed property project’ in Quebec plows ahead

‘Biggest mixed property project’ in Quebec plows ahead

The company behind the Dix30 shopping development in Brossard is plowing ahead with another major South Shore project, which will include a station for the new Caisse-backed light-rail train. Estimated at more than $1 billion, the Devimco project called Solar Uniquartier is described as “the biggest mixed property project in Quebec”.

CBC

Halifax airport hosted 8,000 passengers, 40 planes on 9-11

Fifteen years ago dozens of planes landed in Halifax after being diverted as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Halifax Stanfield International Airport saw the first plane, a United Airlines B767, land at about 11:35 a.m. Thirty-nine more planes followed. A total of approximately 8,000 passengers and crew were aboard the 40 planes. It was the greatest number of aircraft accepted by any airport in the world that day.

The Chronicle Herald – CBC – Montreal Gazette – Global News

RioCan REIT’s big city bet still paying off

Edward Sonshine still remembers the moment that changed the fate of Canada’s largest REIT. It was more than a decade ago that the RioCan chief executive was reading a Statistics Canada report “It was all about population growth so it caught my interest because at the end of the day retail is all about population,” he explained. The report stated that the lion’s share of Canada’s population growth in the prior decade had been in the country’s six major urban centers.

Property Biz Canada

HQ for PotashCorp/Agrium merger to be in Saskatoon

The head office of a newly merged PotashCorp and Agrium will be located in Saskatoon. Both companies announced a merger that would create a giant agriculture company worth an estimated $36 billion US. The new company announced its registered head office will be located in Saskatoon, with a corporate office located in Calgary.

CBC – CBC

RBC’s Cottle helps seal landmark Calgary office deal

It’s no secret real estate in downtown Calgary is suffering from a lack of activity, due largely to the downturn in the oil and gas industry. Vacancy rates are far too high, the leasing market is soft and the decline in sales is rather shocking. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has shown an aggressive confidence in the local market by acquiring a 50 per cent, non-managing interest in an office portfolio in Calgary and Toronto from Oxford Properties.

Calgary Herald

CPPIB creates new real assets division

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has created a new real assets department, bringing together real estate, infrastructure and agriculture. Graeme Eadie, the pension fund’s global head of real estate, has been appointed senior managing director and global head of real assets. CPPIB said the change will create a better alignment with its strategic portfolio.

Real Estate IPE

Bassi grows with a multi-disciplinary approach

Bassi Construction started doing masonry in Ottawa more than 50 years ago and has since grown to encompass a number of divisions while accumulating a client list that includes some of Canada’s top real estate companies.

Property Biz Canada

How Toronto’s latest mega tower got the green light

What’s been pitched as a “sanctuary in the clouds” is making heads spin at ground level. An unprecedented development — an 80-storey Toronto condo tower that will be second in height only to the CN Tower — sets a new standard for density at a crucial downtown intersection. Those extremes have created schisms at city hall over more than a year, during a planning process that has left key questions lingering.

Toronto Star

York University revamps engineering school to look like a startup

Students in York University’s engineering program might be forgiven for thinking they’ve walked into a brash young startup or a Silicon Valley technology company rather than a stodgy school campus when they begin classes this month. Wood floors, primary colours, whiteboards everywhere and not a single lecture hall – the new Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence packs all the hallmarks of a Google or Facebook operation, and purposely so.

Globe and Mail

Controversial Outremont zoning change to go to referendum

Outremont has received enough signatures on a registry Thursday to require a referendum on a zoning change that would prohibit houses of worship from opening on Bernard Ave. Outremont borough council recently adopted a controversial bylaw that would restrict the opening of new synagogues, mosques and churches to an industrial area in the northwest part of the borough.

Montreal Gazette

Bayview Hospitality expanding in Ottawa with Kanata hotel, apartments

“It’s a great place to live, it’s a great place to bring up a family, it’s a great place to work (and) the transportation network is phenomenal,” he says. “The ecosystem of amenities in Kanata is pretty amazing.” That’s part of the reason why Mr. Gulamani, president of Toronto-based Bayview Hospitality, wants to build in the area. His company is in the final stages of the development application process for a hotel and apartment building.

Ottawa Business Journal

Building a better Ottawa

Ottawa city planner Alain Miguelez brings a world of experience to a job that comes with more than its fair share of challenges. Born in Argentina, he and his parents moved to Ottawa via France when he was two. An urban geography buff who is fluent in three languages, Mr. Miguelez earned his master’s degree in planning from the University of Montreal before doing an internship with the National Capital Commission.

Ottawa Business Journal

Bentall Kennedy’s announces new investment allocation from CalPERS

Bentall Kennedy  announced an equity allocation from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) of US $400 million for the period from  July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. This period’s mandate, representing an even greater investment capacity with the inclusion of leverage, will be made to Institutional Logistics Partners (ILP), the CalPERS majority-owned joint venture partnership with Bentall Kennedy.

Canada Newswire

Brexit banks risk finding no offices in the EU

Banks planning to move staff out of London after Brexit face a stark reality: There isn’t much prime real estate up for grabs in rival cities. With vacancy rates for prime space in the business districts of Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam at the lowest levels in a decade, there are only a handful of empty and appropriate office buildings in those cities capable of housing the thousands of employees.

Bloomberg

TPG, Gramercy create real estate venture

TPG Real Estate and Gramercy Property Trust agreed to create a venture to buy as much as $1 billion of properties over three years. In addition, Gramercy Property Trust sold a 75 percent stake in a portfolio of six office assets valued at $187.5 million to TPG Real Estate as part of the agreement.

Bloomberg

Featured Column

A close look at that assessment notice could be worth tens of $1,000s to your bottom line

If you operate a business in Ontario you pay property taxes. Mark Oct. 18 on your calendar.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Why U.S. office pricing and fundamentals don’t match up

Despite slow recovery, modest vacancy improvement and tepid rent growth, office prices are robust, Ten-X’s chief economist Peter Muoio tells GlobeSt.com. The firm’s August Office CRE Nowcast posted the strongest gain for the third consecutive month, rising 5.8% from July and 13.3% above its year-ago level, which is oddly juxtaposed against still-tepid fundamentals including vacancy rates.

Globe St.

Toronto’s Pearson airport to break passenger record

A boom in summer travel is propelling Pearson International Airport in Toronto to record levels of passenger traffic, bolstering the airport’s goal of becoming one of the world’s elite international airports by 2020. About 9.6 million people travelled through the airport between Canada Day and Labour Day, putting Pearson on pace to break its 2015 record of 41 million passengers annually.

Globe and Mail

Real Estate Companies

ReDev Properties Ltd. closes Trail South Corners in Edmonton

Richard Crenian, President of ReDev Properties Ltd., is pleased to announce the sale of Trail South Corners located at 10417 51st Avenue NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. CBRE Edmonton was engaged as the Broker for the Vendor. Trail South Corners, purchased in 2004, is a 29,024 square foot retail plaza on 3.77 acres of land in one of Edmonton’s prime retail districts.

Canada Newswire

Dream Unlimited Corp downgraded to hold

Slower economic growth in Alberta and Saskatchewan prompted TD Securities to downgrade Dream Unlimited Corp. (DRM-T) to hold from buy on Monday. Analyst Sam Damiani cut his price target on the stock to $9 from $15, telling clients that growth in adjusted earnings is unlikely until fiscal 2018.

Financial Post

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

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

OneREIT announces retirement of chairman

OneREIT (ONR.UN-T) has announced the retirement of Patrick Lavelle from his role as a trustee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of OneREIT. The Board wishes to thank Mr. Lavelle for his twelve years of dedicated service as a trustee and for having agreed to extend his tenure on the board to serve on the Special Committee.

OneREIT news release

Legal Corner

Chilliwack airport landlord sues tenants group

The leaseholder that manages the Chilliwack Airport, Magnum Management Inc., is suing theChilliwack Airport Tenants Association and several members for defamation in a longstanding war of words that has now spilled into BC Supreme Court.  Magnum and its principals Bryan Kirkness and Garry Atkins filed a notice of civil claim on August 23.

Business in Vancouver

New Development

Site of Surrey roller rink to become education mega centre

The building where many Surrey residents had birthday parties, dates and fights during their adolescent years will soon be replaced with a skyscraper. CIBT Education Group wants to build a $220 million, 50-storey education centre aimed at foreign students.

CBC

NCC reveals possible sites for new Civic hospital campus

An open house and presentation will take place Sept. 22 at the Canadian War Museum. View the interactive map of the 12 possible sites.

CBC

Vancouver seeks input on new Robson Street plaza

What do you think a new, permanent public space on Robson Street should look like? That’s what the City of Vancouver wants to know as it launches its #VIVARobson consultations on the future of the plaza between the Vancouver Art Gallery and the law courts. 

CBC

Hotel X is the canker of the CNE: Micallef

There was a new, disturbing addition to the Canadian National Exhibition this year, and it wasn’t something concocted in the Food Building. Rather, it was Hotel X. Under construction for a few years now, CNE-goers saw the “urban resort” rising above the midway as it finally nears completion. The tallest thing on the site, it’s impossible to ignore.

Toronto Star

Sports Venues

City should take control of Northlands: arena poll

The city’s municipal government should take over responsibility for running the facilities at Northlands, Edmontonians say in a new poll that also found substantial support for converting part of the site into a festival and concert venue. The Mainstreet Research-Postmedia survey of 817 city residents was conducted last week to gauge opinions on the future of Northlands subject of a number of redevelopment proposals.

Edmonton Journal

Resorts

In a city of pedways, new Winter Garden is a masterpiece

You know that old Edmonton lament about our crappy architecture and lack of amenities: “Why can’t we have nice things here?” With the official opening of Edmonton’s new downtown arena, that no longer applies. Rogers Place is going to wow this city.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

Ottawa’s next big dig set to start on $230M sewage tunnels

Another big dig is set to start under Ottawa’s downtown, this time to carve out tunnels with the capacity to store up to 43 million litres of raw sewage and runoff resulting from big storms. The combined sewage storage tunnel is the centrepiece of the Ottawa River Action Plan approved by city council in 2010, and aimed at preventing sewage from spilling into the waterway.

CBC

Ottawa has abandoned idea of heated Champlain Bridge deck

When plans for the new Champlain Bridge were announced, there was mention of using the constant energy from the water flowing under the bridge to generate electricity that could be used to melt snow in the winter. What happened to this idea? I thought it was brilliant, but I have not heard anything about it since.

Montreal Gazette

Why B.C.’s Site C dam could become a national issue

For the last week, a large bus with the slogan “Stand with First Nations to protect the Peace River” on its sides has been making its way across Canada. A federal judge will hear an appeal from two northeastern B.C. First Nations groups in Montreal on Monday about the $8.8 billion dam known as Site C. The Treaty 8 First Nations want construction to stop on the Site C dam site.

CBC

International

Vornado closes refinancing of iconic Chicago Building

Vornado Realty Trust recently announced it has completed the $675 million refinancing of theMART building in Chicago. The five-year, interest-only loan has a fixed rate of 2.7 percent. Vornado realized approximately $124 million in net proceeds after repaying the existing 5.57 percent, $550 million loan and closing costs.

CP Executive

Other

Markham development opens centrepiece art installation

Almost 10 years to the day after the launch of its $4-billion Downtown Markham multi-use development, the Remington Group unveiled a centrepiece art installation and gathering space on July 1 known as the Pride of Canada Carousel. The carousel is a 50-foot merry-go-round featuring 44 rideable sculptures with whimsical characters including a beaver, a bumblebee, a moose, a mermaid and a Canadian Mountie, all made from repurposed materials.

Daily Commercial News

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