Oakville rejects Glen Abbey development

Oakville rejects Glen Abbey development

Oakville’s town council voted unanimously Wednesday night to reject ClubLink’s development proposal for the famous Glen Abbey Golf Course. The decision followed a special meeting of the planning and development council, which lasted for two nights and heard from approximately 25 delegations. ClubLink applied for a zoning change for 3,222 residential units, 69,000 square feet of commercial/retail space and 107,000 square feet of office space.

Insidehalton.com

Metro in advanced talks to take over Jean Coutu

Grocer Metro Inc. is in talks to acquire pharmacy retailer Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. (PJC.A-T) for $4.5 billion amid rising consolidation in the grocery and drugstore segments and tough new drug reforms that are squeezing retailers’ profits. Montreal-based Metro has been looking for a partner since its unsuccessful attempt to acquire rival Safeway in Western Canada in 2013. 

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Toronto Star – Montreal Gazette

Allied, Westbank to develop Toronto’s 19 Duncan

Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN-T) has had a busy couple of days, announcing a major Toronto joint venture with Westbank will proceed, while adding a key downtown property to its portfolio. Allied and Westbank will partner on a multi-use tower incorporating an existing heritage building at 19 Duncan St. Allied also purchased 70 The Esplanade, adding to a portfolio of buildings it owns along that block.

Property Biz Canada – Marketwired

Challenges remain in hot downtown Toronto office market

Confidence is high due to historically low vacancy rates in downtown Toronto offices, but how long will the good times last? “This is a great office leasing environment that we’ve all benefitted from, but there are still some significant challenges,” said Mike Scace of Cushman & Wakefield at The Real Estate Strategy & Leasing Conference in Toronto.

Property Biz Canada: Part II – Property Biz Canada: Part I

Canada could be right fit for Amazon HQ2: Colliers

Quality of life and a more accommodating immigration regime are two reasons why Colliers International can see Amazon deciding to locate its new headquarters north of the border. Amazon announced earlier this month that it is hunting for a site for a new US$5 billion headquarters in North America, in addition to its sprawling Seattle campus.

Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – CBC – Windsor Star

Ottawa transit hub to attract CRE investments: Avison Young

The record-breaking $480-million sale of Constitution Square is “a harbinger of things to come” for Ottawa’s commercial real estate market as investors get ready to ride light rail’s momentum, a new report from Avison Young says. The firm’s fall review said the total investment volume in Ottawa fell 57 per cent year-over-year to $320 million in the first six months of 2017.

Ottawa Business Journal

Slowdown coming in B.C. CRE transactions: Avison Young

The end of 2017 will also likely be the end of an unprecedented five years of commercial real estate sales in British Columbia, an Avison Young report says. There has been a record-smashing amount of investment in the first half of 2017, to the tune of 109 deals worth just under $5.1 billion in B.C, according to the semi-annual report.

Property Biz Canada

Temple announces sale of Sherwood Park hotel

Temple Hotels Inc. (TPH-T) announced it has completed the sale of the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Sherwood Park, east of Edmonton. The disposition was completed for $9.6 million, excluding taxes and transaction costs. “This divestiture is an important step in the execution of our strategic plan that will drive the long-term success of the company,” said K. Rai Sahi, chief executive officer. 

Canada Newswire

Put Alta. hotels on level playing field with Airbnb: Association

Canadian governments should update regulations governing home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb to create a level playing field for the hotel industry, the Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association says. The association released figures Wednesday indicating Airbnb bookings in Edmonton has tripled to three per cent of the combined hotel and Airbnb accommodations in the last two years.

Edmonton Journal – Ottawa Business Journal

Loblaw exploring grocery home delivery

Loblaw Companies Ltd. says it’s exploring the possibility of one day offering grocery home delivery. Spokesman Kevin Groh says in a statement the company has “engaged” a number of e-commerce innovators around the world, including Instacart, as it continues to explore the best ways to serve its customers in the future. He says that may include home delivery. 

Winnipeg Free Press

B.C. wildfires cost $127 million in insured damages

The two largest wildfires in B.C. this summer caused more than $127 million in insured damage. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the wildfires around Williams Lake caused close to $100 million in damage to insured homes, vehicles and businesses, while the Elephant Hill wildfire caused more than $27 million in damage to insured property.

Calgary Herald – Business In Vancouver – Business In Vancouver

More CEOs than ever fired for ethical failures

CEOs of large and small companies alike are increasingly being let go as a result of workplace indiscretions, including sexual impropriety, insider trading, bloated resumes and fraud. A recent study from PwC found forced turnovers of chief executives due to ethical lapses rose by 36 per cent in the period 2012-‘016 over 2007-’11. The sharpest increases came from BRIC nations, Western Europe, Canada and the United States.

CorporateKnights.com

To be great, you must be good: AY CEO

In the wake of the catastrophic flooding and human tragedy in Texas and Louisiana that resulted from Hurricane Harvey, the words and actions of Jim McIngvale have struck a chord with a sympathetic nation. That is according to Mark Rose, chair and CEO of Avison Young. McIngvale, the Houston-area entrepreneur known as “Mattress Mack,” provided his furniture and mattress stores as places of refuge.

GlobeSt.com

AMP Capital, Unisuper buy into Brookfield’s Sydney project

Australia has witnessed its largest single office deal with AMP Capital and Unisuper jointly taking a 49.9 per cent stake in Brookfield Asset Management’s (BAM.A-T) Wynyard Place, in a deal believed to be worth close to $882 million Cdn. Wynyard Place is a large urban renewal scheme in Sydney’s central business district, which is expected to be worth between $1.76 billion and $1.96 billion once completed. 

IPE Real Estate – Sydney Morning Herald – Euromoney.com

U.S. office investors pulled toward value-add acquisitions

Sales velocity in the U.S. office sector is starting to catch up to last year’s levels. Second-quarter sales volume reached $31.5 billion, just 3.6 per cent off transaction volume in the second quarter of 2016, according to the latest Office Investment report from  JLL. Investors continue to prefer core and core-plus investment strategies, but some of their focus has shifted to value-add class-B assets.

National Real Estate Investor

Market Trends and Research

Commercial construction industry evolving amidst digital disruption

Canada’s commercial construction industry is changing to accommodate demographic shifts, economic trends and digital disruption. Altus Group vice-president of data operations and solutions Raymond Wong spoke at the CanaData East economic forecast conference, held on Sept. 21 at the Liberty Grand in Toronto, about the changing landscape of commercial construction.

Daily Commercial News

Activists not easing up on Canadian companies: Kingsdale

The number of public proxy contests undertaken in Canada may be on the decline, but that doesn’t mean activism is having less of an impact on Canadian companies.  That’s one of the key takeaways from a 40-page report, Proxy Season Review 2017 prepared this week by Kingsdale Advisors, which found “activism is a persistent investment style and a continued threat to public companies.”

Financial Post – Canada Newswire

Real Estate Companies

SpruceLand expects dissolution to be complete in 2018

SpruceLand Properties Inc. today announced it continues to anticipate being in a position to complete its dissolution by mid to late 2018. The Alberta Securities Commission issued an order on Nov. 16, 2016 that the corporation ceased to be a reporting issuer.

Canada Newswire

Home Capital exec quickly exits newly created position

A Home Capital Group Inc. (HCG-T) executive is leaving the company mere months after he assumed a newly created position. In July, Greg Parker helmed the newly established position of executive vice-president of strategy at the Toronto-based alternative lender. “Mr. Parker made this decision in order to pursue other opportunities,” the company said in a release issued Thursday. 

CBC – Canada Newswire

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Real Estate Investment Trusts

OneREIT obtains final order for plan of arrangement

OneREIT (ONR.UN-T) announced it has obtained a final order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) with respect to OneREIT’s previously announced plan of arrangement involving, among others, OneREIT, SmartREIT (SRU.UN-T) and Strathallen Acquisitions Inc. As part of the final order, the court approved an amendment to the plan of arrangement agreed to by OneREIT and SmartREIT. 

Marketwired

NorthWest announces Generation Healthcare agreements

NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT announced its wholly owned Australian subsidiary Generation Healthcare has substantially completed or entered into several agreements to complete significant leasing, acquisition, development and financing initiatives including the substantial completion of the $107 million Cdn, 183,000-square-foot state-of-art private hospital development adjacent to the Casey Public Hospital and the Casey Specialist Medical Centre. 

Canada Newswire

MOB REIT gives itself a growth spurt

Physicians Realty Trust, a self-managed health-care REIT based in Milwaukee, will be buying six medical office buildings, in two separate transactions, for a total purchase price of $189.4 million. Given PRT’s approximately $4 billion in total assets, John Thomas, its president & CEO, said these acquisitions grow its asset base by roughly five per cent, while adding about four per cent in terms of rentable square feet.

CP Executive

Post-merger REIT moves toward ‘Sabra 3.0’

Calling the post-merger Sabra 2.0 “a Formula 1 pit stop” that was necessary to move toward completion of the mission, Sabra Health Care REIT chairman and CEO Rick Matros said Monday that 2018 will see the rollout of Sabra 3.0. With that goal in mind, the company has begun marketing its 43 remaining facilities leased to Genesis Healthcare Inc. and plans to sell them by the end of next year.

GlobeSt.com

Legal Corner

How B.C. casinos are used to launder millions in drug cash

On Oct. 15, 2015, a Mountie burst through the front door of an office in Richmond, carrying a battering ram and with a rifle slung on his back. The door swung shut behind him, locking him inside. He was in the lobby of Silver International Investment, a high-end money transfer business, surrounded by bulletproof glass.

Vancouver Sun

Infrastructure

Winnipeg diverts water and waste revenue to pay for other services

A Toronto-based think-tank has singled out Winnipeg for having one of the best management practices within its water and waste department for calculating its infrastructure deficit and devising a financial plan to resolve it. But the Ecofiscal Commission questions whether city council is undermining the effectiveness of the administration by repeatedly skimming money from the department’s water and sewer revenues.

Winnipeg Free Press – Ottawa Citizen

Other

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