Vancouver to get unique ‘soft skyscraper’

Vancouver to get unique ‘soft skyscraper’

Vancouver’s skyline is about to get a unique addition: a ‘soft skyscraper’, clad with shingled panels to create soft, blurred reflections expected to make the building look ephemeral. The 43-storey tower at 1550 Alberni is designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Kuma described his tower’s shape as organic and unique.

Vancouver Sun

Winnipeg office vacancy rate plunges

Winnipeg’s class-A office-vacancy rate has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, thanks in part to a downtown highrise office tower landing a new 10-year government contract. The tower at 360 Main St. beat out 11 other contenders late last fall for a federal contract to supply 68,000 square feet of office space for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Winnipeg Free Press

Montreal’s Maison Manuvie adds EY as future tenant

As construction continues to meet a third quarter completion date, downtown Montreal’s Maison Manuvie has added EY as a major tenant, with a planned move-in for the summer of 2018.

Property Biz Canada

Dream Office REIT sells K-W portfolio

Dream Office REIT (D.UN-T) today announced the sale of its Kitchener-Waterloo portfolio, comprising eight properties totaling almost 1.1 million square feet of gross leasable area, for gross proceeds of approximately $140 million. The sale of seven of the properties has been completed with the remaining property expected to close in the first quarter of 2017. 

Marketwired

HMV Canada to close all 102 stores

The digital music and movie boom has claimed another bricks and mortar victim, with HMV Canada set to close all of its 102 stores in the coming months after 30 years in business. The ailing company, which first opened its once-expansive stores in Canada in 1986, was put into receivership in Ontario Superior Court Friday and the majority of its head office staff was laid off. 

Financial Post – CBC – CTV – Ottawa Citizen

Calgary passenger volumes set new record

Passenger traffic at Calgary International Airport hit a new record in 2016, in spite of the fact the local economy was mired in recession for a second straight year. The Calgary Airport Authority said Friday 15.7 million passengers passed through YYC in 2016, an increase of 1.3 per cent from the year before.

Calgary Herald

Cineplex’s Rec Room concept set to go nationwide

Cineplex launched its first Rec Room in South Edmonton Common in September and is now in full roll-out mode with its “eats and entertainment” complexes.

Property Biz Canada

QuadReal opens Calgary office

QuadReal Property Group, a new, privately held global real estate company with managed assets totalling more than $18 billion, is set to open a new office at Calgary’s BP Centre on Wednesday. The Vancouver-based firm was formed through a consolidation of four seasoned players in Canada’s real estate investment and management industry.

Calgary Herald

Alberta business park attracting non-energy companies

The face of North America’s second-largest petroleum industrial park is slowly changing as it works to diversify by wooing companies from outside the oil-and-gas sector. The Leduc-Nisku area has been identified for decades with drilling rigs and other energy-related activities, but Alberta’s downturn is spurring enthusiasm for changing that mix.

Edmonton Journal

NCC’s vacancy rates at ‘historic’ lows

A National Capital Commission official says taking a more “business-based approach” to commercial leasing has helped the Crown corporation reduce its vacancy rates. The NCC has slightly less than 200,000 square feet of local retail space, including a large block at the intersection of Sparks and Metcalfe streets as well as a section along Sussex Drive.

Ottawa Business Journal

Fifth of Ottawa’s federal buildings crumbling

Nearly one in five federally owned buildings in Ottawa are listed in critical or poor condition, according to the government’s own list of its buildings, the Directory of Federal Real Property. Of more than 1,700 buildings, 104 are in critical condition, while more than 200 are in poor condition.

Ottawa Business Journal

Immigration order ‘a boon’ for Canadian tech industry

Canadian technology executives are making plans to capitalize on U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration orders to help their efforts to recruit skilled workers from overseas. “I think it’s really sad and horrible from a political landscape perspective, but very selfishly it’s an incredible opportunity,” said Dennis Pilarinos, whose Buddybuild is in hiring mode.

Globe and Mail – Ottawa Business Journal – Globe and Mail – Financial Post

Opinion: TO’s economy will pay the toll for Wynne’s ‘no’

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced on Friday she will not allow the City of Toronto to proceed with road tolls. I’ll leave the politics of this decision to others, but the economic consequences of the decision will be more congestion and myriad problems for cities reliant on unsustainable provincial grants.

Globe and Mail

High-speed rail from Vancouver to Seattle?

When business and government leaders from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates to B.C. Premier Christy Clark gathered in Vancouver for the Emerging Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference last September, one proposal for linking the city and Seattle was high-speed rail (HSR). 

BCBusiness

Resurgent Tesco buying wholesaler Booker

Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco has agreed to buy leading wholesaler Booker for $6.09 billion Cdn, reasserting its dominance in food with a bold move into the faster-growing catering market. Tesco’s planned takeover of Booker shows the supermarket chain’s renewed confidence after two years of gradual recovery under CEO Dave Lewis following an accounting scandal.

Reuters – The Guardian

Market Trends and Research

GM layoffs show need to retool NAFTA: Union

The head of the union representing Canadian General Motors’ workers says the company’s decision to eliminate 625 jobs at an assembly plant in southwestern Ontario and shift the work to Mexico shows the need to retool or even abandon NAFTA. Unifor national president Jerry Dias said NAFTA has favoured the lower-cost Mexican jurisdiction.

Toronto Star – Vancouver Sun

Chinese foreign investment hits new high

Rhe Chinese are not slowing down in their quest for trophy properties across the globe. Investment in foreign property by the Chinese increased by more than half last year, setting a new record. Chinese overseas investment in residential, commercial and industrial property reached $33 billion US in 2016, according to JLL data cited by the Financial Times.

The Real Deal Magazine

Real Estate Companies

Klipfolio moving into former World Exchange movie theatre

In the midst of aggressive hiring plans, Klipfolio is moving into the former theatre space at Ottawa’s World Exchange Plaza later this year. The Ottawa-based business dashboard developer has been in its current location at 176 Gloucester St. since 2004. As the company grew, it expanded into adjacent spaces on the second and third floors.

Ottawa Business Journal

Real Estate Investment Trusts

H&R completes unsecured debenture financing

H&R Real Estate Investment Trust (HR.UN-T) announced today it completed its previously announced offering of $200 million principal amount of 2.923% Series L senior unsecured debentures due May 6, 2022 . H&R REIT had previously agreed to sell the Series L Debentures to a syndicate of underwriters on a bought deal basis.

Canada Newswire

Why REITs will soar in 2017

If you’re wondering which sector is set to take off in 2017, look no further than REITs. First, let’s look at the sector’s recent performance, and what it says about where REITs (which own properties ranging from warehouses to apartment buildings) are headed.

Forbes

Retail

Second H&M store to open in Winnipeg

Popular fashion retailer H&M is opening a new store in Winnipeg’s Kildonan Place Shopping Centre. The Swedish company announced on Monday the new outlet will open late this spring, confirming a long-standing rumour it would be one of three high-profile retailers setting up shop in a portion of the former Target department store space in the mall.

Winnipeg Free Press

Vancouver’s online shoe retailer ceases operations

One-time Vancouver e-commerce star, Shoes.com, announced Friday it is ceasing operations and some or all of its companies will declare bankruptcy. The online shoe retailer announced in a news release it is shuttering its three e-commerce channels: shoes.com, shoeme.ca and onlineshoes.com, along with its two brick-and-mortar locations in Vancouver and Toronto.

Vancouver Sun – Business In Vancouver

Abercrombie cuts 150 corporate jobs; comeback elusive

Abercrombie & Fitch Co., (ANF-N) facing sluggish mall traffic and a shift to fast-fashion brands, is eliminating about 150 corporate jobs after years of struggling to turn around the chain. The cutbacks are meant to “ensure we are structured appropriately for the current retail environment,” the New Albany, Ohio-based company said in a statement.

Bloomberg

Restaurants and Eateries

Tim Hortons may face challenge in Mexico

Restaurant Brands International (QSR-T) might find Mexico a tough market to enter, particularly given the brewing discord between the United States and Mexico, said Doug Fisher, president of Toronto-based foodservice consulting firm FHG International. “Politics have changed, and Mexico’s economy is going to be altered because of the Trump presidency,” he said.

Financia Post

Infrastructure

Howe bridge on list of infrastructure priorities

The Gordie Howe International Bridge has been included on a list of 50 major infrastructure projects being touted as priorities by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. The list surfaced in documents obtained by the McClatchy news service. The “draft list” was put together by a Washington-based consulting firm.

Windsor Star

The Fort Hills oil sands gamble

The great oil sands building boom is coming to an end, after a decade-long $227-billion industry spending spree. At the end of the line is the giant Fort Hills mine, set to come on line in the midst of a deep oil slump. Skeptics question if the $15.1-billion project will ever be worth its hefty price tag.

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Groups weigh in on nuclear waste bunker

Ten groups and individuals have been given another $146,000 to help weigh in on the wisdom of burying hazardous nuclear waste in a bunker close to the shore of Lake Huron. The bulk of the new money from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is earmarked for indigenous people to take part.

Daily Commercial News

Sustainability

IKEA acquires Alberta wind farm

IKEA Canada has acquired its second wind farm in Alberta, purchasing the 88 MW Wintering Hills facility near Drumheller for approximately $119.6 million. The furniture retailer — which purchased a 48 MW wind farm near Pincher Creek in 2013 — has vowed to become globally “energy independent” by 2020. 

Edmonton Journal – Financial Post – CBC – Canada Newswire

Human Resources

Tremblay new head of Invest Ottawa

Ottawa’s economic development agency’s new leader says he has a passion and commitment to Ottawa. Invest Ottawa‘s new president and CEO, 55-year-old Michael Tremblay, will be leaving his current role as vice-president, public sector with Microsoft Canada and starting his new position on March 2. The role has been vacant for close to a year.

CBC – Ottawa Business Journal

Montreal Canada’s new job-creation capital

After years of languishing on the employment front, Montreal is finding itself suddenly, and with little fanfare, in the midst of a job boom. Long a leader in the unemployment rankings, the tide turned suddenly last year. Between December 2015 and December 2016, the number of people employed on the island of Montreal increased by 70,000, Statistics Canada reported.

Montreal Gazette

Google recalls staff to U.S. after immigration order

Alphabet Inc.’s Google delivered a sharp message to staff traveling overseas who may be impacted by a new executive order on immigration from President Donald Trump: Get back to the U.S. now. Google CEO Sundar Pichai slammed Trump’s move in a note to employees Friday, telling them more than 100 company staff are affected by the order.

Bloomberg

Starbucks CEO plans to hire 10,000 refugees

Starbucks Corp (SBUX-Q) CEO Howard Schultz said on Sunday the company planned to hire 10,000 refugees over five years in 75 countries, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees from certain countries.

Reuters – Globe and Mail

Technology

Driverless cars coming to Edmonton?

Driverless cars, the vehicles could be zooming around downtown Edmonton within a decade, said David Dale-Johnson, a real estate specialist in the Alberta School of Business. A self-driving cab is operating in Singapore, Uber is testing autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh, and major manufacturers such as BMW and Nissan plan to sell them in 2020.

Edmonton Journal

Technology reinventing role of real estate agents

Real estate tech is an emerging industry that has seen a rise in investment, innovation and demand in recent years. CB Insights – a venture capital database – shows funding in real estate tech businesses have jumped from $300 million in 2012 to $1.5 billion in 2015. That’s more than a 350 per cent increase in a field that’s been dominated by in-person relationships. 

Huffington Post Canada

Car parks could become ‘lungs of the city’

Sucking polluted air out of car parks can lead to significant reductions in the presence of deadly fine particles in the atmosphere, says a Dutch company. It has joined forces with university researchers to simulate how mobile air purification units could help car parks and municipal buildings act as ”lungs of the city”. Jim Drury reports.

Reuters

Other

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