Crestpoint acquires Vancouver office building for $225M

Crestpoint acquires Vancouver office building for $225M

Toronto-based Crestpoint Real Estate Investment has acquired a Vancouver class-A office building for approximately $225 million – or more than $1,000 per square foot. In addition to the office and retail property at 800 Georgia Street, the firm also acquired a 53 per cent stake in a similar Montreal office property, at a value of $300 per square foot.

Western Investor – Property Biz Canada

True North Square developers to pay affordable housing grant

Winnipeg’s latest deal to finance True North Square will require the developers to help build market-rate rental housing elsewhere in the city. On Thursday, city council approved a series of changes to Winnipeg’s financing package for True North Square, a $550-million development led by the owners of the Winnipeg Jets. It will now include a provision for the developers to pay the city an affordable-housing grant estimated at $185,000 to $200,000.

CBC – Winnipeg Free Press – Property Biz Canada

Sobeys owner Empire pays ‘top dollar’ to buy Farm Boy

Empire Company Ltd. (EMP-A-T) will pay “top dollar” for 26 Ontario Farm Boy stores because of the fresh food retailer’s dramatic growth, industry-leading per-store revenues, and its pipeline of future expansion potential. That was the message from Empire president and CEO Michael Medline on a Monday-morning conference call. The Stellarton, N.S.-based parent company of Sobeys and FreshCo is buying Farm Boy for a total enterprise value of $800 million.

Property Biz Canada

Ivanhoé Cambridge buys U.S. firm Callahan Capital Properties

Ivanhoé Cambridge has acquired U.S.-based Callahan Capital Properties (CCP). Although financial details have not been disclosed, Callahan’s assets under management in the U.S. are in excess of $10 billion. The takeover comes after a six-year collaboration between Ivanhoé Cambridge and Callahan. It began in 2012, when Ivanhoé Cambridge entered into a strategic relationship with CCP designed to significantly expand its U.S. office properties platform.

Property Biz Canada

REALPAC calls for smoothing of tax inequities

An illogical quirk in the apportionment of business education tax continues to undermine competitiveness for some of Ontario’s major cities, advocates for the commercial real estate sector maintain. REALPAC, an organization representing many of Canada’s largest real estate companies and institutional investors, is urging the provincial government to replace the current patchwork of differing tax rates with a benchmark rate of 0.86 per cent.

REMI Network

Microsoft Research Montreal moving to Mile-Ex development

Microsoft Research Montreal will relocate its state-of-the-art lab and office to a new facility being developed by Canderel and Claridge at Mile-Ex, the city’s new artificial intelligence hub. The facility, at 6795 Marconi, is expected to open in the fall of 2019. The current Microsoft lab is located just off the McGill University campus along du Maisonnneuve Blvd.

Property Biz Canada

Marcus & Millichap buys Montreal’s McGill Commercial

Marcus & Millichap hopes to have at least 20 agents in its new Montreal office by the end of next year after its recent acquisition of brokerage McGill Commercial. Montreal became the site of Marcus & Millichap’s fourth Canadian office after it closed on McGill Commercial on Aug. 31. The commercial real estate investment services firm has offices throughout the U.S. and opened offices in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver in 2014.

Property Biz Canada

DesignHive boosts Brookfield’s Calgary office properties

Brookfield Properties (BPY-UN-T) has launched an innovative office design project in downtown Calgary to make space more appealing to prospective tenants. Ian Parker, Brookfield’s chief operating officer for Canada and the Western U.S., told RENX the DesignHive concept is a spec suite design created to meet the changing needs of modern space users.

Property Biz Canada

Regina office landlords sweeten tenant deals

It’s a good time to be an office tenant in downtown Regina. “There are deals to be had,” said Duncan Mayer, Saskatoon-based research manager at Colliers International (CIGI-T). “Landlords are reducing rates. It’s the only thing they can do.” They’re also dangling carrots such as $20-per-square-foot tenant improvement rebates to help offset some of the outfitting costs.

Western Investor

Improbable opens first Canadian office in Edmonton

A steady stream of top-class technology graduates and a tax credit aimed at the industry have led a British video game startup to establish its first Canadian office in Edmonton. London-headquartered Improbable was founded in 2012 and now employs around 300 to develop virtual and simulation technology for video game makers.

Edmonton Journal

TaylorMade Canada HQ includes golf laboratory

TaylorMade’s new Canada headquarters space, located in Woodbridge, Ont., recently completed construction. The 20,000-square-foot space includes the company’s corporate offices, a golf laboratory, and a product showroom. The golf laboratory and product showroom are both open to the public. The public-facing spaces feature three golf performance labs, a putting green, and a workshop for custom-ordered TaylorMade products on-site.

Building Design & Construction

Reopening Portage and Main would be good for Winnipeg: Opinion

What does Portage and Main have to be to serve Winnipeg well? Portage and Main is the intersection of Winnipeg’s two most important high streets. It is the very definition of the centre of the city; the crossroads of Winnipeg. What makes a great city is a combination of several factors. The most visible is a vibrant, healthy downtown brimming with businesses, cultural experiences and extraordinarily beautiful historic streetscapes.

Winnipeg Free Press

4D movie theatre coming to Calgary

4D theatre is coming to Calgary. Cineplex Cinemas announced plans Wednesday to open a 4DX auditorium at the Chinook Centre. Sarah Van Lang speaks for Cineplex and she’s promising a full sensory experience. “They’re sitting in a chair that moves in concert with the action on the big screen and then there’s all these other atmospheric effects going on around you . . . ” she said.

CBC – Calgary Herald – Financial Post

Europe’s top 10 largest real estate developers

SLIDESHOW: This article examines the Top Ten Real Estate Developers in Europe, according to the 2018 Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s largest companies. The European real estate market is, according to Statista, primarily geared towards the office real estate market, with $20.6 bn being invested in the sector in 2016.

Construction Global

What we learned about Apple Park from the keynote intro

You take what you can get. So far as I know, the architectural critics have not been let loose in Apple Park yet. Last year, when it was almost complete, I wrote “I am going to stop complaining about it.” I still hate the planning ideas behind it, but “Norman Foster is one of the world’s great architects and he has designed a masterpiece here. Let’s leave it at that.”

TreeHugger

Market Trends and Research

Lower Mainland industrial investment value increases twofold

Industrial investment during the first half of 2018 has increased 253 per cent over the same period last year, according to a new report. Industrial transactions hit $991 million during the first six months of the year, compared to just $392 million in 2017, Colliers International reports. Sales volume also increased, from 135 the previous year to 246 this year to date.

Western Investor

Conference Board raises forecast for economic growth

The Conference Board of Canada expects the Canadian economy to grow by 2.0 per cent in 2018, up 0.2 percentage points from its previous forecast. “The Canadian economy performed well in the second quarter of 2018, with consumers increasing their pace of spending, businesses raising investment in their capital stock and a double digit increase in exports,” said Matthew Stewart, director, National Forecast. 

Canada Newswire – Globe Newswire

2,600-plus commercial properties damaged by Florence

More than 2,600 buildings spanning almost 30 million square feet of CRE across the Carolinas were under at least a foot of water after Hurricane Florence, according to the first major analysis of confirmed property damage. Storm surges, days of rain and cresting rivers caused by the season’s first substantial U.S. hurricane to make landfall left portions of 2,616 properties in North Carolina and South Carolina underwater, some as late as Thursday. 

CoStar Group – CP Executive – CoStar Group

Real Estate Companies

Altus Group announces disposition of Real Matters shares

Altus Group Limited (AIF-T) announced it has disposed all 10,458,142 of its common shares of Real Matters Inc. (REAL-T), representing approximately 11.8 per cent of the issued and outstanding common shares (on a non-diluted basis). Altus Group also owned 92,405 options of the issuer, which together with the 10,458,142 common shares previously owned by Altus Group, represented approximately 11.9 per cent of the outstanding common shares (assuming the exercise of options).

Globe Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Videogame developer Capcom shutters Burnaby office

Capcom Vancouver, the videogame developer behind the Dead Rising series, is closing its doors and laying off all of its staff. The company confirmed it closed the Burnaby studio on Tuesday and will offer severance packages to 158 employees. In a written statement, the developer said it’s “focused on increasing the efficiency and growth” of its operations.

CBC

Revera opens Regina retirement community

Revera Inc., a leading owner, operator and investor in the senior living sector, last week officially cut the ribbon to celebrate the grand opening of Regina’s newest retirement community, Green Falls Landing. The modern, 222-suite retirement residence represents a $67-million investment and offers a range of lifestyle options, from seniors’ apartments, to independent and assisted living, to memory care.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Three diversified REITs to help you get defensive

Artis REIT (AX.UN-T) is nicely diversified, offering a low-risk entry into the sector. If you are looking for a closed-end REIT that owns a diversified range of retail, office, and industrial properties across the nation, Morguard (MRT-UN-T) is for you. Agellan Commercial REIT (ACR-UN-T), offered at a discount of 48 per cent off its future cash flow value, is definitely a strong contender if you’re still in the market.

Motley Fool

Retail

Lampert delivers proposal to Sears Holdings board

Sears Holdings (SHLD-Q) holder Eddie Lampert, though ESL, delivered a proposal to the board requesting Holdings to consider liability management transactions, real estate transactions and asset sales intended to extend near-term debt maturities, reduce long-term debt, eliminate associated cash interest obligations and obtain additional liquidity. These potential exchange offers together could save Holdings approximately $33 million per year in cash interest and eliminate approximately $1.1 billion in debt.

Street Insider – PR Newswire

Cannabis industry news

Canada’s first-year sales projected to eclipse $4B US

Earlier this June, Canada stepped into the spotlight as the first G7 country to legalize recreational cannabis nationwide. Data provided by Deloitte projects the total cannabis market in Canada, including medical and illegal as well as legal recreational products, to generate up to $7.17 billion US in total sales in 2019. Legal sales are expected to contribute more than half of this total-up to $4.34 billion US in the first year.

PR Newswire – Windsor Star – Globe Newswire

New Development

North Van council approves 187-foot tower

City of North Vancouver council voted to approve an 18-storey, 162-unit strata building. The 162-unit project includes seven ground floor commercial retail units, totalling 18,331 square feet. The Millennium Northmount Properties proposal also includes 31,718 square feet of office space on the second and third floors – approximately half of the office space currently on the site.

Western Investor

Westman Village officially opens its doors in Calgary

The weekend marked the grand opening of Westman Village, Jayman BUILT’s (Jayman) highly anticipated lakeside development located in south Calgary, welcoming guests to experience 14 unique show suites, the 40,000-square-foot Village Centre and the opening of Headquarters Restaurant. The amenity hub and heart of the community, the Village Centre, features a movie theatre, wine cellar, pool, gym facilities and more.

Globe Newswire

Moncton land rezoned without notice 22 years ago: Owner

A Moncton businessman is again calling on the city to reverse or fix a 22-year-old decision to rezone his company’s property he says was done without his knowledge. Gary O’Dwyer says Unitex N.B. Co. Ltd. continues to struggle with the consequences of the city’s decision to rezone the Highlandview Road property from light industrial to residential in 1996.

CBC

Renovation and Restoration

WEM waterpark undergoes $2.5M renovation

One of Canada’s most famous waterparks is temporarily closed as it undergoes a $2.5-million renovation. West Edmonton Mall’s World Waterpark crews will, among other things, repaint the 50,000-square-foot wave pool. Spokesperson Darcy Hewson said other work includes newly renovated cabanas, additional bathroom facilities near the beach and new beach area flooring and upgraded signage throughout.

Edmonton Journal – CBC

Other

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