Davloor resigning from RioCan, Gitlin to become COO

Davloor resigning from RioCan, Gitlin to become COO

There will be a significant mid-summer change in the executive suite at RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI.UN). President and chief operating officer Raghunath (Rags) Davloor is stepping down to “pursue other opportunities” and will be replaced from within as COO by Jonathan Gitlin, the REIT announced Monday morning.

Property Biz Canada

Ivanhoé Cambridge to cash in on co-working

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is looking for a new way to cash in on the growth of the co-working business. Ivanhoé, which manages $60-billion in real estate assets around the world, already leases space to high-profile co-working firm WeWork Companies Inc. and other office-sharing firms such as Breather, Spaces and Convene.

Globe and Mail (subscription required)

Qualex-Landmark is Calgary’s ‘King of the Beltline’

Vancouver-based real estate developer Qualex-Landmark discovered Calgary’s inner-city Beltline neighbourhood just over a decade ago and it’s been a love affair ever since. The company launched its first residential condo high-rise in 2006 and it’s become a trendsetter as the unofficial King of the Beltline. Qualex-Landmark has been involved in numerous projects in the trendy, urban area which is situated just outside Calgary’s downtown core.

Property Biz Canada

Colonnade Bridgeport expands presence in Toronto

Ottawa-based real estate management company Colonnade Bridgeport is looking to grow its Ontario presence and has expanded its operations in the Greater Toronto Area. The company, which already manages 1.8 million square feet of property in the GTA, has opened a new office on Solar Drive in Mississauga. The office currently employs 14 in positions ranging from building operations, accounting and property management.

Property Biz Canada

Luxury retailer Holt Renfrew invests $400M in Canadian stores

Holt, Renfrew & Co., today announced the company is investing more than $400 million to renovate and expand stores across Canada as it builds the world’s leading curation of luxury apparel and beauty brands. The vision includes Holt Renfrew Ogilvy in Montreal, with a phased opening through 2020, as well as significant renovations to Toronto’s 50 Bloor Street West flagship store and a 10,000 squ. ft. expansion at Toronto Yorkdale.

Canada Newswire

Montreal job growth tops among largest cities in Canada, U.S.

Montreal had a higher rate of job creation in 2017 than any other large city in the United States or Canada, according to Montréal International.  In the Montreal region 74,900 jobs were created in 2017, according to the economic development agency, which used figures from the Conference Board of Canada and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Montreal Gazette

BOMA Quebec launches a Building Energy Challenge

BOMA Quebec has launched a friendly competition to motivate owners of commercial buildings in the province to reduce their energy consumption. The Défi Energie en Immobilier (Building Energy Challenge) is a Quebec version of Race to Reduce, the energy reduction challenge already launched by BOMA Toronto and Manitoba. “We have a role to play in reducing the environmental impact of our activities,” says BOMA Quebec president Bruno Turcotte. 

Sustainable Biz Canada

Don’t unfriend data centres

From all the negative coverage of Facebook – not least founder Mark Zuckerberg being grilled by the US Congress for two days about the effectiveness of the social media giant’s systems to protect the privacy of its users’ personal information – investors might conclude that it was time to ‘unfriend’ enterprises related to ‘big data’.

IPE Real Estate

Digital Realty opens data centre at former Toronto print plant

Digital Realty (DLR-N), a leading global provider of data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions, opened its third data centre in Toronto, further enhancing the company’s ability to support growing data centre and colocation requirements in North America’s fourth-largest city. The new facility is located on the site of the former Toronto Star printing plant at One Century Place in Vaughan.

PR Newswire

Data scrum in CRE industry is about to heat up

The big data scrum in the commercial real-estate industry is about to heat up with the launch of a new service by a startup whose investors include Blackstone Group LP. VTS provides a mobile-friendly dashboard to landlords and brokers that allows them to track prospective tenants from the time they inquire about a space until they move in.

Wall Street Journal

Real estate crowdfunding in Canada: portal insights for 2017/18

Real estate and fintech have been integrating in exciting new ways in recent years. Real estate online investment or crowdfunding has been a sector that has attracted significant interest in the U.S. over the last several years, with more than 100 portals launched to serve rapidly growing developer and investor interest. In fact, industry research hub crowdsourcing.org estimates that the industry will be worth more than $300 billion USD by 2025.

IT Business

Industrial strata reflects suburban demand

Surging prices for Burnaby light industrial strata space reflects plunging suburban office vacancies that have fallen to a 17-year low as lease rates continue to climb. “We expect the rising investor demand trend in the suburbs to continue as falling vacancy rates will result in lease rate growth,” said Tony Quattrin, vice-chairman of the national investment team at CBRE Vancouver.

BIV – Property Biz Canada

The Great Flood of 2013 and its lasting legacy

An unrelenting 18-hour-long deluge dumped a brutal 150 millimetres of rain on an already saturated land. A mind-boggling 1,800 cubic metres per second of  rushing water turned rivers deadly. More than 100,000 southern Albertans were displaced. The price tag surpassed $6 billion for property and infrastructure damage. And the most devastating number of all, five lives lost.

Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald

W.P. Carey, CPA:17 to merge in $6B deal

W.P. Carey Inc. (WPC.N) said on Monday it plans to buy commercial property owner Corporate Property Associates 17 – Global Inc., in a $6-billion deal.  The combined company will have a proforma enterprise value of $17.3 billion and a market capitalization of $11 billion, behind Realty Income Corp., the largest U.S. net lease REIT with $15-billion market value.

Reuters – Globe St.

Largest US passive house office project in Chicago

Mark Goodman & Associates Inc. is set to build 310 N. Sangamon, the largest office building in the United States to achieve Passive House certification. Located in Chicago’s West Loop around the corner from Google’s new Midwest headquarters, the 12-story building will offer 268,000 square feet of office space and 7,800 square feet of ground-floor retail.

CP Executive

Market Trends and Research

Toronto gets its first Industrial Heritage District

Toronto’s first-ever Industrial Heritage District is opening in Leslieville — an area now home to some of the city’s trendiest lofts. A neighbourhood-wide interpretative pathway on the industrial history of the Dundas & Carlaw district in the Leslieville neighbourhood is to open, part of ongoing efforts to promote an appreciation for the city’s rich architectural, natural, archaeological, and cultural heritage.

CBC

Storage wars move upscale with on-demand delivery

Whether you’re downsizing or have found your living space can no longer accommodate your growing hoard of gear, Canadians haven’t had much in the way of options for self-storage, until recently. Where once your only option was to schlep a couple of van-loads of boxes to a dingy warehouse in an industrial wasteland, the self-storage industry is experimenting with new on-demand and service-oriented ideas to destress your decluttering.

Globe and Mail

U.S. pension fund considers lowering real estate allocation

San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association  is considering lowering its real estate allocation as it struggles to find opportunities in the asset class. A board meeting report shows the pension fund could reduce its target allocation from nine per cent to seven per cent as part of a wider asset allocation review being conducted by investment consultant NEPC.

IPE Real Estate

Montreal retail industry facing ‘perfect storm,’ new report

There are roughly 7,700 retail stores on the island of Montreal employing 112,000 people, which account for nearly one-in-10 of all jobs in the agglomeration. With restaurant and bars factored in, the total number of employees is 189,000. A 30-page report, developed by a team of academics, retail experts and retailers and led by Guy Cormier, president and CEO of Mouvement Desjardins, outlines 23 recommendations to improve the vitality of local commerce.

Montreal Gazette

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Agellan Commercial REIT sells Charlotte, North Carolina office

 Agellan Commercial REIT (ACR.UN-T) has sold the REIT’s approximately 118,500 square foot, five-story multi-tenant office building located at 10130 Perimeter Parkway in Charlotte, North Carolina. The sale price for this non-core asset of the REIT is approximately US$22.65 million (before closing costs) and represents an in-place capitalization rate of approximately 7.46%.

Montreal Gazette

Single-family rentals primed for U.S. REITs

Ten years removed from the financial crisis, the U.S. single-family rental (SFR) market has seen explosive growth. REITs and other institutional investors first entered the SFR arena during the heart of the crisis. The business strategy at the onset was simple: Purchase distressed assets and wait for the prices to increase, converting properties into rentals to supply the newly ignited demand in the meantime.

CP Executive

Retail

Holt Renfrew resizes strategy to focus on core markets, brands

When Mario Grauso took the top job at Holt Renfrew & Co. in 2016, one of the first things he did was meet with dozens of its customers, one by one, to get their feedback. He got an earful. They told him they were overwhelmed with the choices on the store racks, and frustrated that Holts, the country’s dominant luxury fashion retailer, sold so little of its marquee merchandise online.

Globe and Mail

New Development

Developer taking City of Winnipeg to court

The developer behind the beleaguered Parker lands project faces off against the City of Winnipeg in court on Monday. “[The] City of Winnipeg, through its administrative officials, has abused its discretion by acting for an improper purpose, with malice, bad faith or by referring to irrelevant considerations,” says a court notice.

CBC

Renovation and Restoration

Tour the future temporary home of the House of Commons

The House of Commons will call the West Block home for years once Parliament Hill’s iconic Centre Block begins renovations, not slated to start until at least next year. Here is a peek at the West Block as it nears completion.

Globe and Mail

Infrastructure

Edmonton transit highlights history at 40th anniversary LRT bash

Public transit enthusiasts didn’t need a ticket to get a behind-the-scenes look at Edmonton’s light-rail-transit system on Saturday. Edmonton’s LRT turned 40 last month and ETS marked the occasion this weekend with a free event at the D.L. MacDonald Garage in northeast Edmonton.

CBC

International

Walgreens joins major corporations opening offices in Chicago

Walgreens is coming back to downtown Chicago. The Deerfield, IL-based pharmacy giant said Friday it will place some 1,800 workers in the redeveloped Old Post Office at 433 W. Van Buren. The 117-year-old company said it will take 200,000 square feet of office space at the site, a move that will expand the company’s Technology Center of Excellence for digital and IT operations.

CoStar Group

Technology

Curious minds drawn to opening of Sidewalk Toronto workshop

What could the street do for you? Produce electric or thermal energy using pressure and movement? Control traffic automatically? Provide space for gardens to grow the food we need? These ideas from visitors to the open house of Sidewalk Toronto over the weekend might sound futuristic, but some of them are not out of the realm of possibility.

Toronto Star

Other

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