AIMCo to redevelop Edmonton’s HSBC Bank Place

AIMCo to redevelop Edmonton’s HSBC Bank Place

Faced with stiff competition for tenants from ICE District and other new office developments in downtown Edmonton, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) says it will completely redevelop its HSBC Bank Place Tower in the downtown business sector. The renovations will upgrade HSBC Bank Place from a class-A building to class-AA. AIMCo says. Preliminary work got under way in June, with completion set for late 2019.

Property Biz Canada

Investors again set sights on Edmonton CRE

Driven by renewed interest in ICI land, residential land and industrial assets, the renewed appeal of Edmonton commercial real estate that took hold in mid-2016 continued through the mid-point of 2018. This is demonstrated by the 31% year-over-year increase in the number of transactions as of June 30. With that said, the transactions completed during the first half of 2018 were generally smaller in nature than during the first half of 2017

Barclay Street Real Estate media release

Simple strategy lifts Avenue Living above $1B in assets

Calgary-based Avenue Living Asset Management began in 2006 with the purchase of 24 rental units in Brooks, Alta., for $3 million. From those modest beginnings, Avenue has authored a phenomenal success story in just 12 years; today it has 320 buildings in its portfolio, just over $1 billion in assets under management in three investment vehicles, 7,350 multi-residential units, 440,000 square feet of commercial space and 20,000 acres of agricultural real estate.

Property Biz Canada

Hillcrest shopping centre renovations in home stretch

Hillcrest in Richmond Hill, Ont., continues to add new retailers as part of $90 million in renovations which have been ongoing at the shopping centre since 2015.  “We were looking at bringing new life to the property,” said Hillcrest general manager Ryan Da Silva of the mall, which was built by Cadillac Fairview in 1974 and purchased by Oxford Properties Group and Montez Holdings Inc. in 2011.

Property Biz Canada

Concert buys Victoria YMCA property for $22M

The downtown Victoria YMCA-YWCA property has been sold to Vancouver-based Concert Real Estate Corp. for nearly $22 million. Brian McCauley, Concert’s president and chief executive, said: “While our plans for this site are yet to be confirmed, we are committed to thoughtful planning and engagement that reflects Concert’s commitment to be a community-builder.” 

Victoria Times Colonist

Summit to acquire GTA logistics property

Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU-UN-T) announced it has waived conditions and will acquire 100% of a 369,500-square-foot single-tenant logistics facility in Oshawa. The building, constructed in 2007, has 28-foot clear celling height, excellent rail and highway transportation links, and extensive truck trailer storage on site. Summit will pay $36.6 million ($99 per square foot) for the property, well below replacement cost,

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

StorageVault acquires Oakville asset for $15 million

StorageVault Canada Inc. (SVI-X) announced it has completed the $15 million acquisition of all of the storage assets, property and business used in the operation and business of one store in Oakville. The acquisition was an arm’s length transaction. StorageVault now owns 29 stores in the strong Ontario market and 95 across Canada for a total of 153 stores when including managed stores. The purchase price was paid for with cash on hand.

Globe Newswire

CRA probe to include Vancouver’s Trump Tower

The Canadian government continues to widen the net cast over Vancouver’s real estate market to catch possible tax cheats, now ensnaring the developers behind Vancouver’s Trump Tower, the sprawling Wall Centre Central Park project near the Vancouver-Burnaby border and Amacon’s Tempo project in Richmond.

Business In Vancouver

B.C. toughens rules for property acquired by corps., trusts

B.C. will soon force people who use corporations or trusts to buy property in the province to disclose more complete information, a move the government says will close a loophole which has allowed speculators to evade real estate taxes. Starting Sept. 17, new property-transfer-tax forms will require people’s name, citizenship and social insurance number if they purchase residential or commercial real estate through a corporation or trust.

Globe and Mail

Ontario to turn to private retailers to sell marijuana

The Ontario government is turning to private retailers to sell marijuana in stores come October, shifting policy dramatically less than three months before Canada legalizes recreational use. Provincial Finance Minister Vic Fedeli and Attorney-General Caroline Mulroney are expected to make an announcement as early as next week outlining in broad strokes the province’s plan to scrap the existing public retail model.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – CBC

Shopify to open first brick-and-mortar location in L.A.

Canadian e-commerce company Shopify Inc. says it will open its first bricks-and-mortar location in downtown Los Angeles. The Ottawa-based company says it chose L.A. because the area is home to a large number of Shopify merchants who can benefit from the services and community the space will provide. It will open later this year at ROW DTLA, a historic district filled with shops, restaurants and offices.

CBC

Toys ‘R’ Us still a success in Canada

It’s an uncommon management challenge to be the head of a traditionally profitable Canadian division of a U.S.-based global retail brand when the U.S. operation itself — 10 times the size of the Canadian one — declares bankruptcy, liquidates inventory and closes all its stores. But Melanie Teed-Murch, CEO of Toys’R’Us Canada, sounds like someone who is determined to make losing a parent a liberating experience.

Winnipeg Free Press

C&W IPO to test investor faith in economic expansion

Stock market investors are awaiting one of the real-estate industry’s most closely watched initial public offerings in years, setting up what could be a Wall Street referendum on the current economic expansion. Cushman & Wakefield, a global brokerage and real-estate-services firm that reported $6.92 billion US in 2017 revenue, is hoping to sell $719 million to $931 million in shares in an IPO that would value the firm at roughly $6 billion including debt.

Toronto Star – CoStar Group

GGP shareholders approve $15B takeover by Brookfield

GGP (GGP-N) shareholders have approved a takeover by Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (BPY.UN-T, clearing the way for the $15-billion deal for the second-largest U.S. mall owner to go forward. Investors in GGP voted in favour of the transaction at a special meeting Thursday in the company’s hometown of Chicago, according to a statement. Brookfield’s shareholders had already approved the deal, which the companies expect to be completed next month

Bloomberg – Property Biz Canada

Global investors find Chinese CRE ripe for the picking

Foreign buyers are increasingly investing in Chinese commercial property, making the most of the absence of once cash-flush Chinese competitors whose hands are now tied by Beijing’s financial deleveraging campaign, according to market watchers. “There are definitely opportunities for cashed-up investors with access to inexpensive capital to take advantage of the current deleveraging taking place throughout China,” said Anthony McQuade, the managing director of Savills Northern China.

South China Morning Post

Featured Column

Why sales-leasebacks appeal to modern corporations

Companies seeking ways to increase capital could literally be sitting on a viable solution says Dave Anderson of Cushman and Wakefield (Waterloo Region). The senior vice president – who is also a broker – suggests for companies operating from buildings they own, there is no better time to engage in a sale-leaseback.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Industrial, residential demand spurs Fraser Valley land rush

B.C.’s Fraser Valley is in the midst of a land rush that has driven prices up three-fold in the last two years and helped make land the dominant real estate investment in the Lower Mainland. In Q1, land accounted for 56.8 per cent of all property transactions in the Lower Mainland, according to Altus Group, with sales of residential development land worth more than $1.1 billion. CRE land, primarily industrial, tallied another $530 million.

Western Investor

Real Estate Companies

LaSalle acquires Houston trophy tower

LaSalle Investment Management has acquired a 28-storey, 510,000 square-foot, class A+ medical office building in the Texas Medical Center district in Houston for a record-setting $405 million, reportedly the highest amount ever paid for a medical office property in the United States. The sale of Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza establishes Houston as a top health-care real estate market in the U.S. and also continues the sector’s strength among commercial real estate investments.

CP Executive

Gazit Globe divests remaining investment in Regency Centers

Gazit Globe (GZT-T), a leading global real estate company focused on the ownership, management and development of retail and mixed-use properties in urban markets, announced a wholly owned subsidiaries of the company sold 5.6 million shares of common stock of Regency Centers Corporation (REG-N), for approximately $61.95 per share and total gross consideration of approximately $347 million.

Globe Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

U.S. mall REIT CEO compensation drops

While last year’s troubles in the U.S. REIT sector resulted in more modest pay increases for CEOs of publicly traded REITs overall, it appears mall REIT CEOs got hit particularly hard. A new report from S&P Global Market Intelligence found CEOs of Simon Property Group, Macerich Co., GGP, Taubman Centers, Washington Prime Group, CBL & Associates Properties and PREIT all experienced total compensation declines in 2017

National Real Estate Investor

Retail

Waymo launching self-driving program with Walmart

Google spinoff Waymo is launching a pilot program with Walmart this week that will allow customers to use its self-driving car service to pick up groceries at Walmart stores. Waymo said in a blog post on Wednesday the program, which will be tested in Phoenix starting later this week, will help make shopping more convenient.

Windsor Star

Amazon’s new businesses push profit to a record

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN-Q) reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter and forecast more of the same in the current period, igniting investor optimism about cloud computing, advertising and other businesses that are more profitable than its main online retail operation. The world’s largest e-commerce company said third-quarter operating income will surge to as much as $2.4 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $1.28 billion.

Bloomberg

Restaurants and Eateries

Chick-fil-A expanding to Canada

American restaurant chain Chick-fil-A says it plans to open more than a dozen restaurants in Canada over the next few years. The company announced Wednesday it will open a location in Toronto in 2019 and plans to open 15 restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area over the next five years. According to the company, each restaurant will have 50 to 75 employees.

CTV – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Renovation and Restoration

Vancouver approves plan to save historic Hollywood Theatre

Vancouver city council has approved a plan to preserve the decades-old Hollywood Theatre. The plan is to reopen the theatre as part of a new six-storey development that will provide a performance space for live music, among other events. The space will also be used to support local community producers, non-profit arts and cultural organizations and special interest groups.

CBC – Vancouver Sun

International

Britain to tighten foreign takeover rules

Britain is planning the biggest change to takeover rules in almost two decades, giving the government new powers to block deals in all sectors of the economy to prevent U.K. companies in sensitive industries from falling into foreign hands. Chinese foreign direct investment into Britain reached a record level last year with firms acquiring a slew of energy, technology and property assets. 

Reuters

Other

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