Price spikes hit Vancouver RE construction

Price spikes hit Vancouver RE construction

A spike in imported steel prices, higher lumber costs and rising labour rates could threaten the speculative building dominating Metro Vancouver development. It is already being partially blamed by critics for the shutdown of three residential condo towers. Of the 25 major industrial projects underway across the Metro region, all but three are speculative plays, and the majority of the developers are trying to pre-sell rather than lease the space.

Business In Vancouver

GWL Realty lands U.S. tech tenant for Vancouver Centre 2

GWL Realty Advisors was mum last week regarding reports it had landed an initial tenant for Vancouver Centre 2, launched earlier this year to much fanfare. GWL has reportedly signed a deal with a U.S. technology firm for approximately 105,000 square feet of the 33-storey triple-A office tower being built at 753 Seymour Street. The deal represents nearly 30 per cent of the 371,000-square-foot tower.

Business In Vancouver – Property Biz Canada

Companies crave larger Vancouver industrial spaces: Beedie

Companies in Metro Vancouver are seeking ever-larger footprints as the region’s “mind-boggling” industrial market vacancy remains tight and land prices continue to soar, says the president of Beedie Industrial. “It seems that anyone with a significant e-commerce presence is looking around,” Todd Yuen told RENX in an interview. “It wasn’t that long ago that if someone had a 100,000-square-foot requirement for Vancouver, it was considered huge.”

Property Biz Canada

JLL Canada’s dramatic growth continues in 2018

JLL Canada has grown by 1,000 per cent, from both employee and revenue perspectives, since Brett Miller was named chief executive officer and the multinational corporation’s global board decided to increase investment in Canada in 2012.  “There was a very methodical business plan that we followed through on,” said Miller of JLL Canada’s growth, which has come both from within its own ranks and through acquisitions.

Property Biz Canada – Commercial Real Estate

Looking long-term at Vancouver’s waterfront

Vancouver is overdue to develop a co-ordinated plan to manage and develop its waterfront, say several organizations including the Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Leaders of the GSA, ULI and the Vancouver Public Space Network came together on Aug. 23 at Lot 19 plaza in downtown Vancouver near the waterfront for a public conversation meant to encourage support for a unified waterfront strategy.

Vancouver Sun

B.C. mall owners seek attractions over anchor tenants

Shopping centre owners are relying less on large department stores and more on innovative community events and a diverse range of compelling small tenants to attract shoppers, as e-commerce continues to transform consumer behaviour. It is a natural progression, given the recent collapse of Sears Canada – a shutdown that earlier this year closed the last 189 Sears, Sears Home or Hometown stores.

Business In Vancouver – Business In Vancouver

The People Space: New faces at Colliers, CDPQ, CBRE

Colliers International has named 25-year industry veteran James MacQueen its new executive vice-president of valuation and advisory services in Canada. MacQueen, who assumed the role this week, leads the Canadian valuations team, designing and implementing strategies to achieve business goals, recruiting best-in-class managers and professionals, strengthening and forging client relationships, and developing business opportunities.

Property Biz Canada

U of T, Daniels build residential tower to ease housing crunch

University of Toronto has reached an agreement with the City of Toronto to partner with The Daniels Corporation and build a 23-storey student residence at the corner of Spadina and Sussex avenues. “The university is interested in providing quality housing for its students, especially those that are coming to Toronto for the first time,” said Gilbert Delgado, U of T’s chief of university, planning, design and construction.

Property Biz Canada

Edmonton’s new planWhyte aims to balance history with progress

Edmonton city council’s new plan for the Whyte Avenue heritage area aims to promote new opportunities while respecting the historic character in the heart of Old Strathcona. Councillor Ben Henderson hopes planWhyte will help council avoid the type of decisions made with Mezzo and SouthPark. Council approved the 16-storey Mezzo in 2016 in defiance of the city’s own heritage parameters that govern the historic Strathcona district.

CBC

Shared work environment options expanding in Winnipeg

Jason Abbott has been running small modular furniture company Oi Furniture for a few years and has always had a hard time finding the right space to work out of, alternating between working from his home office or conducting meetings with clients at coffee shops. He didn’t necessarily need a full-time office, and while the co-working concept was exploding elsewhere, there were no real options in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press – CP Executive

Nonsuch Brewing finds new Winnipeg headquarters

When La Brasserie Nonsuch Brewing Co. set sail in search of a home in 2016, there was no way of knowing the course it would chart would lead through many corners of downtown Winnipeg before it could drop anchor near the replica of its eponymous boat. After being outbid for a location near Broadway, Nonsuch set its sights on a famous downtown space: the Nutty Club building.

Winnipeg Free Press

TH Real Estate buys stakes in three Brookfield malls

TH Real Estate’s US regional shopping malls fund has acquired ownership interests in a portfolio of three assets from Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (BPY.UN-T) for $714 million US. Earlier this week, Brookfield completed a $15.3-billion cash-and-stock offer to acquire U.S. shopping mall owner General Growth Properties (GGP) and also sold a 49% stake in a portfolio of three malls, previously owned by GGP, to CBRE Global Investors. 

IPE Real Assets – Property Biz Canada

As Sears circles the drain, its REIT spinoff flourishes

Eddie Lampert is the chairman of two companies headed in opposite directions. As chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings, Lampert decided to spin off much of the company’s real estate — 235 Sears and Kmart stores — into the new Seritage Growth Properties REIT (SRG-N) in 2015, paying the original company $2.7 billion to settle some debt obligations. While Sears has continued to bleed money and shutter stores, Seritage has flourished.

Bisnow

Yum China rejects $17.6B Hillhouse-led offer

Fast-food chain operator Yum China Holdings Inc (YUMC-N) has rejected a $17.6-billion buyout offer from a consortium led by Chinese investment firm Hillhouse Capital Group, quashing what would have been one of Asia’s biggest deals this year, sources said. The Hillhouse-led consortium, which included regional investment house Baring Private Equity Asia, expressed an interest to offer $46 per share, or nearly 24 per cent above Tuesday’s closing price.

Reuters

Coca-Cola takes plunge into coffee with $5.1-billion Costa deal

Coca-Cola Co (KO-N) has agreed to buy coffee chain Costa for $5.1 billion to extend its push into healthier drinks and take on the likes of Starbucks and Nestle in the booming global coffee market. The purchase from Britain’s Whitbread (WTBDY) of Costa’s almost 4,000 outlets thrusts the world’s biggest pop company into one of the few bright spots in the sluggish packaged food and drinks sector.

Reuters – Toronto Star

Real Estate Companies

Moody’s to acquire Reis for $278 million

Financial ratings and information company Moody’s Corp. (MCO-N) said it plans to acquire all outstanding shares of real estate data provider Reis Inc. (REIS-Q) in an all-cash transaction valued at about $278 million. Reis is a competitor to CoStar Group in providing commercial real estate data.The acquisition expands Moody’s network of data and analytics providers in the commercial property industry, including recent investments in startups.

CoStar Group

Moody’s withdraws WeWork’s credit ratings

Moody’s Investors Service withdrew its credit ratings on coworking space provider WeWork Companies Inc., citing inadequate data to analyze the company.  Withdrawn were WeWork’s B3 Corporate Family rating, B3-PD Probability of Default rating and Caa1 senior unsecured rating assigned this spring by Moody’s. At that time, Moody’s rated the firm’s outlook as stable.

CoStar Group

Norway’s wealth fund in talks to buy Amazon London office

Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund is in exclusive talks to buy a London office building, leased to Amazon.com Inc., for about $430 million, two sources said. The fund is close to finalizing terms with Hines Interests LP for the ‘Sixty London’ building in the Farringdon district. It would be the second London office building the world’s largest wealth fund has invested in this year.

Bloomberg

REOC Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Halmont Properties Corp., (HMT-X), Globe Newswire

* Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 1) Value-Add Fund, (SUVA-A-X), Canada Newswire

* Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 5) Core Fund, (STUS-A-X), Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

$3.7B Bangkok development may lead to REIT

Parts of Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s $3.7 billion US downtown Bangkok real estate project could be sold into a real estate investment trust, the head of the development said. While Charoen’s TCC Group views the One Bangkok project as a long-term asset, a REIT is an option for efficient capital management, though nothing has been decided yet, the development’s chief executive officer Soon Su Lin said.

Bloomberg

Retail

Sleep Country Canada fights back

The Sleep Country Canada (ZZZ-T) store in suburban Toronto, which recently received a decor overhaul, is deserted, except for a couple of staffers tapping on keyboards behind a desk. Soft music wafts from speakers, and pillows lining the fullheight windows filter out the bright morning sun. A cloud-shaped plastic light cover suspended over my head informs me enigmatically that “koalas need 22 hours of sleep.” 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

‘Amazon effect’ could have impact on inflation dynamics

More frequent price changes for goods and a rise in the consistency of pricing due to the growth of online retailers may be affecting inflation, according to an academic paper presented on Saturday to some of the world’s top central bankers. “In the past 10 years online competition has raised both the frequency of price changes and the degree of uniform pricing across locations,” said Alberto Cavallo, an associate professor at Harvard Business School.

Reuters

Uniqlo to open fourth B.C. store at Coquitlam Centre

Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo will open its fourth B.C. store at Coquitlam Centre on Sept. 14. In addition to the new 12,000-square-foot store, Uniqlo’s B.C. stores include a 20,630-square-foot store at Metropolis at Metrotown, a 12,800-square-foot store at Guildford Town Centre and an 8,010-square-foot store at Richmond Centre. The company also announced several other store openings this fall in Ontario.

Business In Vancouver – Canada Newswire

Cannabis industry news

Beleave picks Lloydminster for first Saskatchewan retail store

Beleave Inc. (BE-CN) announced it has secured a prime location for its first Saskatchewan retail store in the city of Lloydminster. Lloydminster has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border with neighbouring Alberta. The city is incorporated by both provinces as one city with a single municipal administration. With a total population of more than 27,000, Lloydminster also benefits from high pass-through traffic between the provinces.

Canada Newswire

Beverage makers explore entries to Canadian sector

Some global beverage makers are taking a close look at Canada’s legal marijuana industry as they weigh the possibility of getting into the business. Officials from Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, Pernod Ricard SA, Heineken Holding NV, Coca-Cola Co. and Diageo PLC are among companies that have been making the rounds with legal cannabis producers, meeting executives and touring their facilities, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Globe and Mail

New Development

Brigil takes patient stance after condo project spiked

Brigil Construction’s plans for a $400-million high-rise complex across the street from the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau was dealt a seemingly fatal blow, but a Brigil spokesman Wednesday said the company is a very patient one, seeming to hint that it may simply wait for more favourable political winds before developing land on rue Laurier.

Ottawa Citizen

Winnipeg planners urge rejection of redevelopment proposal

City of Winnipeg officials have given a thumbs down to developer Andrew Marquess and his plans for redevelopment of the Parker lands. The city’s planning staff is recommending councillors reject the plan Marquess’ firm has proposed for the 133-acre parcel, which is located south of the CN Rivers rail line and west of Pembina Highway.

Winnipeg Free Press

Other

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