Residential tower to highlight SmartCentres Place

Residential tower to highlight SmartCentres Place

A 55-storey, residential tower that will be the tallest landmark on Vaughan’s emerging skyline, is being touted for bringing a distinctly urban vibe to that city’s ambitious downtown plans. CentreCourt Developments’ Transit City condos will be the first residential building in SmartREIT’s (SRU.UN-T) 100-acre Vaughan Metropolitan Centre development SmartCentres Place. 

Toronto Star – Property Biz Canada

Manulife acquires Singapore office tower

Manulife Real Estate announced it has acquired 8 Cross Street, a 28-storey, 355,000-square-foot, class-A office tower located in Singapore. The transaction, valued at $701 million Cdn, is the second-largest in Manulife Real Estate’s global portfolio to date. The property will house Manulife Singapore’s operations. Singapore represents Manulife’s third largest market in Asia.

Canada Newswire

Mainstreet’s Dhillon sees signs of Western turnaround

It’s said that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. In the case of Western Canada-based apartment owner Mainstreet Equity Corp., (MEQ-T) it has seen its fair share of body blows and has emerged a bit battered but perhaps leaner and better for the experience. 

Property Biz Canada

Edmonton OK’s land sale for 80-storey Alldritt Tower

Edmonton City Council gave conditional approval Tuesday to sell a piece of river valley parkland for an 80-storey tower in The Quarters. The motion passed 9-3, with councillors Ben Henderson, Scott McKeen and Michael Walters opposed. The project still needs rezoning approval April 24 to go ahead. “The public interest, I didn’t feel was protected enough,” McKeen said after the vote.

Edmonton Journal

Automotive Properties REIT increases portfolio

Automotive Properties REIT (APR.UN-T) has acquired three more automotive dealership properties from two existing partners in the past month, bumping its total to 34 since it went public in July 2015. “All of them have 17- and 18-year leases with rental escalations and new facilities in strategic markets that we already have a presence in,” said president/CEO Milton Lamb. 

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver’s last downtown gas station for sale

After a record-breaking sale for the Chevron station property on West Georgia Street, the sole remaining gas bar in downtown Vancouver has been listed for sale. The Esso at the corner of Burrard and Davie streets in the West End was just listed by Colliers International. The listing for the 17,292-square-foot property does not have a price attached.

CTV – CBC

Web map created for publicly owned land in GTHA

Ryerson University‘s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development has partnered with Evergreen CityWorks to develop a web map and database of publicly owned land in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The web map uses Google Fusion Tables.

Property Biz Canada

Real Matters to end Canadian tech IPO drought

Real Matters Inc. is set to end Canada’s two-year drought for information technology IPOs. The Markham-based mortgage services firm filed a preliminary prospectus late Monday to raise an undisclosed sum in an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The last Canadian software company to go public was Ottawa-based Shopify Inc. (SHOP-T) in May 2015. 

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail – GlobeSt.com

Pattison interested in Sobeys if Empire wants to sell

Canadian business magnate Jim Pattison is ready to snap up Western Canadian grocery stores from Empire (EMP.A-T), the embattled operator of Sobeys and Safeway Canada if those assets hit the market. Pattison owns grocery chains Overwaitea and Save-on-Foods through his Jim Pattison Group conglomerate. 

BNN

Sears disavows department store model with new pop-up

Versace, Tom Ford and BCBG are not brands you’d typically associate with Sears Canada (SCC-T), but the retailer’s latest iteration on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West strip doesn’t look anything like a typical Sears outlet. “Internally, we have banned the word ‘department store,’ ” executive chairman Brandon Stranzl said. 

Financial Post – Toronto Star – Bloomberg – Canada Newswire

CF to launch national vehicle charging program

Cadillac Fairview (CF) announced its national electric vehicle (EV) charging program, with plans to deploy a fleet of new networked chargers at 15 CF properties across Canada, starting with 45 in 2017 and continuing into 2018. “At Cadillac Fairview, we are dedicated to making strategic investments that drive growth, innovation, and corporate responsibility,” commented Sal Iacono, Operations executive vice-president.

Canada Newswire – Winnipeg Free Press – Montreal Gazette

KPMB ahead of the curve

As Sally Blount returned to Chicago, the U.S. border guards asked what had she been doing in Toronto. The dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management was coming back from meeting her architects at the Toronto firm KPMB. “They asked me, couldn’t you have found someone in the U.S. to work with?” “And I said, ‘No.’”

Globe and Mail

Regina eyes Railyard Renewal Project with optimism

As the finishing touches are put on the new Mosaic Stadium, the focus of the Regina Revitalization Initiative will shift to the Railyard Renewal Project (RRP). The project, which will develop 17.5 acres of the former CP rail yard, is expected to include a pedestrian bridge linking it to the downtown. 

Regina Leader-Post

Ottawa keeps tight lid on airport privatization report details

Finance Minister Bill Morneau will not be releasing the results of a federally commissioned study on airport privatization, nor will the government reveal how much it paid Credit Suisse AG to conduct the review. Morneau’s department confirmed Tuesday Ottawa agreed to give the Swiss investment bank a veto on the release of any information related to the study.

Globe and Mail

Q1 sees cooldown in U.S. office growth

Growth in the office sector nationally cooled during the first quarter, according to reports from CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE on Friday reported a modest increase of 10 basis points in vacancies from the previous quarter, while Cushman & Wakefield’s tale of net absorption told of a steeper decline compared to the year-ago period.

GlobeSt.com – GlobeSt.com

Market Trends and Research

Cemeteries running out of room

Canada’s cemeteries are in a crisis. They are already packed with bodies, and both urban and rural areas alike are struggling with where to bury their dead. Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery, the city’s only cemetery, sits on 106 acres of land and is home to 92,000 graves.

Globe and Mail

Wood construction reaching new heights

The building industry is one of the last large-scale “craft industries,” but it is breaking down and ripe for a big shakeup. That’s the message from Michael Green, of MGA, a Vancouver-based architecture firm that is a pioneer in the design of tall wood buildings.

Daily Commercial News

Real Estate Companies

Avison Young inks office lease renewal

Avison Young’s Atlanta office has arranged a lease renewal and extension at 1775 West Commons Oak, a 79,000-square-foot office building located in Marrietta, a northwest suburb of Atlanta. The building serves as the headquarters of MiMidex Group, a biomedical device firm and a leading integrated developer, processor and marketer of regenerative biomaterial products and bioimplants.

CP Executive

Winnipeg sells heritage building to private school

A city-owned Exchange District building has been sold to a private school that teaches English to foreign students. Councillors on the property and development committee Tuesday approved the sale to Heartland International English School for $1.7 million. Gary Gervais, owner and president of Heartland, told the committee the school has taught more than 4,000 foreign students since it opened in 1999.

Winnipeg Free Press

AutoCanada acquires Mercedes-Benz Rive-Sud

AutoCanada Inc., (ACQ-T) one of Canada’s largest multi-location automobile dealership groups, announced it has entered into an agreement to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Mercedes-Benz Rive-Sud, which has operated in the greater Montreal region for close to 50 years. The transaction increases AutoCanada’s dealership count to 57. 

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Artis REIT provides update on property dispositions

Artis REIT (AX.UN-T) today provided an update on its capital recycling and geographic diversification program, which includes the sale of: Airdrie Flex Industrial for $5.4 million; Southview Centre for $28.1 million; its 75% interest in Westbank Hub Centre North and Westbank Hub for $80.1 million; Ford Tower and Alpine Building for $37.5 million; and Edson Shoppers Mall for $7 million. 

Canada Newswire

REIT IPO market off to active start

Ron Bohlert, sector leader of the real estate and insurance group at the New York Stock Exchange, said IPO activity in 2017 is off to a “really active start”. Three REITs have listed on the NYSE so far this year – Invitation Homes Inc. (INVH-N), Clipper Realty Inc. (CLPR-N) and Sachem Capital Corp. (SACH-A).  

REIT.com

Are U.S. REITs maxing out on bank borrowing?

U.S. REITs have been busy tapping commercial banks for term loans and lines of credit. That borrowing has raised added scrutiny from ratings agencies who tend to frown on the over-reliance on a single capital source. According to a new report by Fitch, the U.S. REIT sector has seen a “significant” increase in commercial bank borrowing in recent years.

National Real Estate Investor

When Is the best time to buy CAPREIT ?

Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAR.UN-T) is not only in a recession-resilient class of residential real estate, but also has its properties in quality locations. CAPREIT maintains high occupancies and growing margins in its three largest net operating income (NOI) contributing geographies: Ontario, Quebec and B.C. 

Motley Fool

H&R the only REIT you need to own

H&R REIT (HR.UN-T) owns all different kinds of real estate, both in Canada and the U.S. The portfolio as it stands today consists of 38 office properties, 156 retail properties, 101 industrial locations, 12 residential complexes and four projects under development. In total, the portfolio is worth $13 billion and stretches out over 44-million square feet. 

Motley Fool

Retail

HBC shares rise after positive presentation

Hudson’s Bay Co (HBC-T) shares rose 8.5 per cent on Tuesday after it revealed additional financial details about its business on capital structure, debt and real estate. HBC said it has a stable capital structure that included non-recourse mortgage debt, a floating rate term loan balance of $500 million, and flexible access to capital. 

Reuters

Whole Foods facing pressure from key investor

Whole Foods (WFM-Q) once shook up the grocery store aisle. Now it is facing pressure for its own shake-up. Jana Partners, an activist hedge fund founded by Barry Rosenstein, took broad aim at the company, criticizing everything from how it has handled its brand development to what Jana says are deficiencies in customer service. 

Toronto Star

Failing sale approval, Dollar Express threatens to close all stores

Dollar General, which had to spin off 330 stores to satisfy federal requirements to complete its acquisition of Family Dollar Stores Inc. in 2015, may get them all back, and a few more. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners, the new owner of the portfolio of former Dollar General stores renamed Dollar Express, has decided to close the chain down.

CoStar Group – Minnesota StarTribune.

Organic Box plans to grow across Alberta

An Edmonton-based home grocery delivery service is expanding across Alberta in hopes it can bite off a bigger piece of the province’s organic food business. About half The Organic Box’s roughly 5,000 customers are in Edmonton, but the company also covers such centres as Peace River, Hinton, Red Deer, Banff and Fort McMurray.

Edmonton Journal

Restaurants and Eateries

Tim Hortons to open first U.K. location in Scotland

Overseas media were abuzz Monday with reports Scotland would be home to the first standalone Tim Hortons location in the U.K. The first Tim Hortons will open on Argyle St. in Glasgow this spring. Parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR-T) announced last summer it would be taking the Tim Hortons brand into the U.K. 

Financial Post – CTV – Evening Times – The Telegraph

Eateries feeling strain of changing tastes

Feeling the bite of emerging rivals touting healthier and more international fare, often in hipper settings, many incumbent restaurateurs are rewriting their business recipes. The growing urgency among eateries to move in new directions comes in a relatively stagnant overall restaurant market, with sales in decline at sit-down, full-service eateries.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Resorts

Aspen Skiing buying California resorts

Aspen Skiing Co.’s ski resort acquisition spree is expanding with a deal to buy Mammoth Mountain and three other southern California ski areas. Mammoth Resorts will be purchased by the new joint venture of Aspen Skiing and Denver-based KSL Capital Partners. The announcement came two days after the JV bought Intrawest Resort Holdings for about $1.5 billion, including debt.

Winnipeg Free Press

Infrastructure

Manitoba cuts back on infrastructure spending

Manitoba flood control projects will get substantially more money this year — but infrastructure spending is dropping in most areas of highways, health, education and housing. The Pallister government kept its promise in Tuesday’s provincial budget of spending at least $1 billion annually on strategic infrastructure. Water-related infrastructure spending was $40 million last year, and this year it is $60 million.

Winnipeg Free Press

Human Resources

Wal-Mart cutting hundreds of jobs to slash costs

Wal-Mart (WMT-N) is eliminating hundreds of jobs in its latest attempt to cut costs as it invests in online. The layoffs span the company’s international, technology and Sam’s Club divisions. They follow Wal-Mart’s decision to eliminate some 1,000 corporate positions earlier this year, including 200 in its e-commerce division. 

CNBC

Technology

Wormholes connecting workers across the globe

Forget email, Slack and the humble telephone. When workers at one Australian company want to talk to colleagues in China, they just turn their heads and look down the “wormhole”. Large screens offer a digital window between offices in Melbourne and Xi’an —7,000 kilometres apart — at real-estate company REA Group Ltd.

Bloomberg

Other

Department-store dynasty heir Thor Eaton dies at 73

Thor Eaton, one of the heirs to the former Eaton’s department store dynasty, has died at the age of 73. Born in 1943 to John David and Signy Eaton, Thor Eaton was the second- youngest of “the boys” – the four sons who assumed control of the namesake department store chain in 1973, after a brief period of non-family management.

Globe and Mail

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