Consortium buys land near proposed Pickering Airport

Consortium buys land near proposed Pickering Airport

A consortium of developers has purchased the first major parcel of real estate in the area known as Seaton Lands, a massive area northeast of Toronto first expropriated in the 1970s in connection with an airport in Pickering. Seaton TFPM Inc. (Mattamy Homes, Tacc Construction, Paradise Developments and Fieldgate Homes) is paying $156.67 million for the 397-acre area known as section three, one-third allocated for employment and two-thirds residential land.

CoStar Group

Pure Multi-Family says Electra bid undervalues REIT

The board of directors of Pure Multi-Family REIT LP  (RUF-UN-X) says it has rejected an acquisition bid by Florida-based Electra America because it believes “the proposals do not fully value Pure Multi-Family’s highly attractive portfolio” and other potential bidders might be willing to offer more money.

Property Biz Canada – CoStar Group – Property Biz Canada

Starlight buys four Vancouver apartment buildings

Starlight Investments announced Thursday afternoon it has acquired four “landmark” concrete high-rise apartment buildings comprising a total of 456 units in downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver. The acquisition lifts Starlight’s Victoria and Vancouver portfolio to approximately 1,700 units in 18 concrete high-rise towers and mid-rise multi-residential buildings. Financial terms were not disclosed in a release issued by Starlight.

Property Biz Canada

Starlight finding success with ‘near-urban strategy’

Toronto’s Bloor Islington Place has made an impressive turnaround since Starlight Investments acquired it four years ago. The three-tower, million-square-foot office and retail complex on Bloor Street West has direct access to the Islington subway station and is adjacent to a MiWay transit hub. It’s in close proximity to the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and Highway 401 and a 15-minute drive from downtown and Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Property Biz Canada

Arbutus wants to transform Saskatoon’s industrial area

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Richardsons bringing $30-M innovation centre to Winnipeg

Richardson International is building a $30-million innovation centre down the street from its Portage and Main headquarters as a testament to its commitment to downtown Winnipeg and its optimism for the Western Canadian agricultural industry. Construction on the four-storey, 62,000-square-foot building on the southeast corner of Westbrook Street and Lombard Avenue — the current site of two surface parking lots — will begin next week.

Winnipeg Free Press – CBC – Global News

Spaces to open three Vancouver locations this year

Creative workspace company Spaces is moving quickly in Vancouver. Before even opening its first Gastown location, the co-working firm has announced plans for two additional locations. The five-storey, 35,000-square-foot Gastown location at 151 W. Hastings St. will be the first to open this summer. It will accommodate 450 to 500 employees, feature a rooftop patio and l be surrounded by restaurants, cafes, clubs, boutiques and galleries in a gentrifying neighbourhood.

Property Biz Canada

Ontario Northland sells North Bay property via web auction

Ontario Northland has sold a historic downtown North Bay, Ont., commercial property for more than $200,000 over its initial bid, via a website which specializes in government asset sales. The 9,559-square-foot building at 195 Regina Street sold Thursday afternoon for $567,000 after a last-minute flurry of bids at the GovDeals.ca website. 

Property Biz Canada

Record office investment sends Victoria tenants scrambling

While B.C. landlords might be paying top dollar to acquire properties with stable cash flow, tenants don’t necessarily want to ante up. This is playing out two ways in Victoria: a growing number of companies from Vancouver are looking for space in the city because it’s cheaper than in the Lower Mainland; and companies with established operations in downtown Victoria are seeking cheaper digs farther out from the core.

Business In Vancouver

Artis includes Sandpiper representative among trustee candidates

Artis REIT (AX-UN-T) has entered into a voting support agreement with Sandpiper Group to include Lauren Zucker on its slate of trustee candidates for its 2018 annual general meeting. “As a significant unitholder of the REIT, we see substantial value in Artis’ high-quality commercial real estate portfolio and believe Artis has the potential to become Canada’s leading cross-border, diversified, internally managed REIT,” said Sandpiper Group CEO Samir Manji.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Granite acquires two U.S. properties for $74.1M US

Granite REIT (GRT-UN-T) announced it recently acquired two properties in the United States consisting of approximately 1.0 million square feet of gross leasable area for a total purchase price of US$74.1 million. A 400,000-square-foot property is located in Greencastle, Pa., and the other is in Plainfield, Indiana. Both properties were built in 2017, are single-tenanted and 100% occupied with a weighted average lease term of approximately 9.5 years.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

American multi-national buys oilsands camp company

One of Alberta’s major oilsands accommodation companies has been bought for $367 million by an American multi-national workforce housing firm. Nisku-based Noralta Lodge Ltd., which operates 11 lodges and a total of 7,900 rooms for workers across northern Alberta, was taken over by Houston’s Civeo Corp. (CVEO-N) in a deal completed last weekend, the companies said in a news release.

Edmonton Journal

Quebec’s crumbling road network needs $15B in repairs

A recent government report shows more than half of Quebec’s major roads need to be repaired. “Nobody’s waking up this morning saying ‘Oh, our roads are so much worse than they were yesterday,'” said Transport Minister André Fortin. The province’s public infrastructure report shows half of the 31,000 kilometres of roads under the province’s care are rated “poor” or “very poor.”

CBC

Flexday turns empty tables into shared workspaces

The most expensive thing in a restaurant is an empty seat, according to restaurateur Erik Joyal. That’s why Joyal and co-owner John Sinopoli are partnering Gare de l’Est Brasserie with Flexday – a Toronto startup that transforms restaurants into workspaces during their downtime. Joyal says the rising cost of food, labour and rent over the past few years has independent restaurants under a lot of financial pressure.

Globe and Mail

HNA wants to sell $6.5B stake in Hilton Worldwide

HNA Group is seeking to sell “some or all” of its 26% stake in Hilton Worldwide (HLT-N), according to a regulatory filing made on Thursday. The Chinese company’s stake in the hotel conglomerate is approximately $6.5 billion US. The sale would be done through one or more stock offerings, and their timing would depend on market conditions. HNA bought its stake in Hilton in 2016 from Blackstone Group (BX-N). 

GlobeSt.com – Reuters

Featured Column

Hydro usage penalties, and how businesses can avoid them

Thousands of Canadian businesses are unwittingly paying hydro penalties which are, in most cases, buried in their monthly hydro bills. These charges – which can be excessive – relate to the unused portion of energy supplied by hydro companies to their customers. If the used portion is below a certain threshold, these penalties are applied.

Read more

Real Estate Companies

Video game giant Ubisoft to open Winnipeg office

Video game giant Ubisoft is coming to Winnipeg. The France-based company, best known for its Assassin’s Creed series, was set to formally announce plans today to open an office in the city. Ubisoft says it has the largest in-house development staff in the industry, employing more than 12,000.

CBC – Winnipeg Free Press

Morguard increases ownership in Temple Hotels

Morguard Corporation (MRC-T) announced Wednesday it has acquired 549,895 common shares of Temple Hotels Inc. (TPH-T) at a price of $2.65 per common share. Following the acquisition, Morguard owns 14,795,343 common Shares, (including common shares issuable upon conversion of the convertible debentures) representing 58.53% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Temple (based on the issued and outstanding Temple common shares as of April 1).

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

AY acquires Vancouver-based Alcor Commercial Realty

Mark E. Rose, chair and CEO of Avison Young, the world’s fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm, announced Wednesday it has acquired Vancouver-based Alcor Commercial Realty Inc. Founded in 2006 by Aaron Burry, Alcor Commercial Realty is a boutique commercial real estate management company specializing in property management, acquisition due diligence and consulting, and construction and project management.

Canada Newswire

Retail

In-store restaurants give grocers a competitive edge

As competition heats up, more grocery banners are partnering with well-known restaurants and chefs to give consumers another reason to visit their stores. The restaurant-within-a-store concept can drive traffic — a critical advantage as food retailers battle for share. Tien Ho, head of culinary and hospitality at Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market (WFM-Q), seeks partnerships with local chefs who come with an established fan base. 

Canadian Grocer

Online shopping goes in-store

At the base of Canadian Tire Corp. (CTC-T) headquarters on Yonge St. near Eglinton Ave., a small, chic experiment is taking place. Beside the wall of sneakers and shoes at the concept store is a tablet, where customers can swipe to find the shoe they want, to see whether it is in stock in their size, and have a sales associate bring it out of the storeroom to try.

Toronto Star

The days of the retail clerk are over

The days of the retail clerk are over. By clerk, I’m referring to the millions of retail workers who operate checkouts, greet customers at the door, count inventory, look up prices, scan bar codes, corral shopping carts and do their best to remember snippets of product information about the vast assortments they carry. These jobs will all but disappear within 20 years, perhaps sooner.

Globe and Mail

Cannabis industry news

Marijuana millionaires ride Canada’s legalization wave

Terry Booth didn’t expect his life would come full circle, thanks to marijuana. He sold pot in high school, peddling quarter ounces for $25 to help out his dad. Today, Booth and Steve Dobler are the largest individual holders of Aurora (ACB-T), Canada’s second-largest marijuana firm. Their combined stakes are now approaching $200 million, making them among the wealthiest shareholders in Canada’s growing crop of newly minted marijuana millionaires.

Bloomberg – Canada Newswire

Infrastructure

Winnipeg’s Kenaston Boulevard project stuck in neutral

Every weekday morning, thousands of Winnipeggers begin their traffic crawl along Kenaston Boulevard. Past the empty buildings, empty fields and razor wire-enclosed compounds of the former Kapyong Barracks, situated on federal government-owned land. City Hall does have an ambitious plan to widen Kenaston Boulevard and Route 90, but faces a roadblock in the uncertainty surrounding the availability of the Kapyong site.

Winnipeg Free Press

Technology

Morden may become first city to offer internet to all

More than 8,000 people in Morden, Man., will be able to say goodbye to monthly internet bills this fall, after the community rolls out high-speed, community-owned internet as a city service. In May the city will begin phasing in Morenet, a 5G internet service built and maintained by the city through property taxes and offered at no extra monthly fee to users.

CBC – Global News – Winnipeg Free Press

Other

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