The struggle to finance Toronto’s tallest condo tower

The struggle to finance Toronto’s tallest condo tower

It is perhaps the most desirable development site in Canada: the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor streets, a gateway to Toronto’s so-called Mink Mile shopping strip. It is supposed to become the home of the tallest residential building in the country, a glimmering tower of luxury condos that will soar 82 storeys above a high-end retail complex.

Globe and Mail

Brookfield would consider buying Home Capital

Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.A-T), Canada’s largest alternative asset manager, wouldn’t shy away from buying Home Capital Group (HCG-T) if the terms were right. “Everything that is in the market we look at. If there’s a transaction that made sense on a risk/reward that we could get involved in, we’d be pleased to be involved,” CEO Bruce Flatt said Friday. 

Bloomberg

SmartCentres Place ‘truly exceptional’: SmartREIT CEO

It took less than 10 days to sell all but 10 of the 1,110 residential units at the Transit City Condos development as part of SmartCentres Place in Vaughan. “The site itself, with access to multi-faceted transit, major highways and a nine-acre park, is truly exceptional and represents the culmination of many years of hard work . . .” said SmartREIT (SRU.UN-T) CEO Huw Thomas.

Property Biz Canada

Miller Thomson Vancouver office breaks law firm model

Canadian law firm Miller Thomson has relocated its Vancouver branch to an open-concept office space in the redeveloped Pacific Centre. The space features interior office pavilions with modular workstations with options for raised desks, customizable meeting rooms, a café, balcony and a large, landscaped atrium.

Property Biz Canada

Prairie industrial: From stable to struggling markets

Canada’s two-billion-square-foot industrial real estate environment is in the midst of a moderate boom, with a national vacancy rate of 3.7 per cent and many regions – such as Vancouver and Toronto – nearing full occupancy But the optics change in Alberta, according to Avison Young, where both Calgary and Edmonton still feel fallout from the collapse of oil prices.

Western Investor – Western Investor

Edmonton landlords repurpose office buildings as residential

Anticipating an office exodus in Edmonton, Strategic Group has applied for a permit to convert a long-held commercial property into a rental apartment building. The Calgary-based developer – one of the largest privately held real estate companies in Canada – hopes to repurpose Harley Court, a 1970s office building in the downtown neighbourhood of Oliver, into apartments this fall.

Globe and Mail

Vancouver office earns CBRE its fourth WELL certification

CBRE’s Vancouver office has become the first space of its size to receive gold certification from the International WELL Building Institute in Canada for new and existing interiors. The office occupies 28,000 square feet of Oxford Properties’ 35-storey, LEED certified MNP Tower. It is the first space in Vancouver to be certified by WELL.

Property Biz Canada

U.S. activist investor seeks shakeup at HBC

An activist investor wants a shakeup at Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) Land and Buildings Investment Management of Stamford, Conn., said Monday it now holds a stake of almost 4.5 per cent in the retailer and wants the company to unlock its “substantial untapped real estate value.” Land and Buildings called for either “monetization or repurposing” of HBC real estate assets.

Globe and Mail – Reuters – Winnipeg Free Press – Business Wire

Amazon forcing Canadian grocers to change

Galen Weston might have to change his mind when it comes to home delivery of groceries. The chief executive of Loblaw (L-T) has been skeptical about delivering online groceries to Canadian customers, but that could change with Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods. The implications are massive for Canada’s online grocery market.

Financial Post – Bloomberg – TechCrunch – TechCrunch

Walmart needs to watch its flank: Ex-CEO

Amazon‘s (AMZN-Q) bid to acquire Whole Foods Market is “typical (Jeff) Bezos,” according to the former CEO of Walmart U.S. (WMT-N) “I think it really demonstrates his commitment to get into brick-and-mortar retail and to get into food, in particular, and that can’t be good for anyone selling food right now,” Bill Simon told CNBC’s “Closing Bell”.

CNBC – TechCrunch – Markets Insider – Globe and Mail

Sobeys gains robots, productivity

In 2009, Sobeys  (EMP.A-T) found itself at a crossroads. Labour costs were rising, employee productivity was waning and the grocer knew it had to keep building bigger distribution centres to accommodate the growing number of items being sold. So instead of building out and hiring more workers, the national grocery chain built up and replaced many employees with robots.  

Halifax ChronicleHerald – Global News

Merchant House Capital buys Times Colonist building

Vancouver-based Merchant House Capital recently purchased the Victoria Times Colonist building from Glacier Media Group. The real estate investment company website shows renderings of a proposal for the site, which include multiple townhomes and parking, and the printing building being retained. No financial details were disclosed. A union rep said the building will be leased back to the newspaper.

Victoria News – CHEK News

RE tycoon Robert Campeau dead at 93

Canadian real estate tycoon Robert Campeau, whose contributions to Toronto development include the Westin Harbour Castle hotel, has died at 93. Described as an exuberant visionary, who was willing to invest big in Toronto’s waterfront when it was little more than an industrial park, Campeau passed peacefully in his home in Ottawa on Monday.

Toronto Star – Globe and Mail – Ottawa Citizen – Victoria Times Colonist

Trump Hotel Toronto may soon rebrand as St. Regis

The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Toronto may soon have a new name on the door, with Marriott International Inc.’s (MAR-Q) St. Regis brand seen as the front-runner to manage the property, according to sources. JCF Capital ULC, the closely held U.S. firm that owns the building, is also in talks with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT-N) 

Bloomberg – Bloomberg – Vancouver Sun

Chinese tech giant establishes first Canadian office

China’s biggest network of incubators is set to open its first Canadian office in Edmonton, a move that will open up one of the world’s largest markets to Alberta technology innovators. The University of Alberta’s relationship with Chinese education powerhouse Tsinghua University helped attract the company, TusStar, to the provincial capital city and the downtown headquarters of TEC Edmonton.

Edmonton Journal

Market Trends and Research

Self-storage business booming in U.S.

A day hardly passes without the U.S. retail industry sustaining fresh wounds as malls and outlets shut their doors. Americans are still shopping, though — online, in their pyjamas — and physics dictates their new stuff, and old stuff, go somewhere. The mini-warehouse industry has set records for construction spending in each of the last six months.

Bloomberg

ProCura unveils European approach to residential parking

Edmonton City Council approved a massive new re-design for the Century Park area Monday, piloting what developer ProCura calls a new European approach to residential parking. “We need to get up to date with the times. Having apartments with 24-7 stalls is from the ’70s,” said developer George Schluessel, describing a model where residents can share stalls.

Edmonton Journal

Open-concept office not for everyone

Distracting, unwanted noise is an increasing problem for employees in modern open-concept offices. The design trend is to remove acoustic tiles from ceilings and rip out carpeting and dividing walls that traditionally dampened the sound. About 70 per cent of U.S. offices now have low or no partitions between work spaces, according to the International Facility Management Association. 

Globe and Mail

Real Estate Companies

Calgary’s Walton International applies for creditor protection

Calgary-based Walton International Group Inc., one of Alberta’s largest property developers, has sought creditor protection after losing a reported $6.7 million in the past three years. Ernst & Young has been appointed monitor. Walton controls about 106,000 acres of land in North America, including 15 land development projects in Alberta and Ontario, and six in the U.S., according to court filings.

Western Investor

Real Estate Investment Trusts

How the dissidents got their way at Granite REIT

The bruising proxy battle at Granite REIT (GRT.UN-T) ended rather meekly Wednesday with a release indicating three incumbent trustees and directors would not be standing for re-election. Instead, those three are being replaced by nominees of the dissidents, FrontFour Capital and Vancouver-based Sandpiper Group. Getting to that stage represented shareholder democracy in action. 

Financial Post

Buy Dream Office at a discount

Dream Office REIT (D.UN-T) received a fair amount of coverage last year over difficulties it has with several Albertan holdings. With a slowdown in the Alberta economy, vacancies increased, and the company was ultimately forced to slash the distribution and sell some non-core assets to shore up the balance sheet. 

Motley Fool

Dream Global files final base shelf prospectus

Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN-T) has filed and obtained receipts for a final base shelf prospectus dated June 15. The final base shelf prospectus is valid for a 25-month period, during which time Dream Global REIT may offer and issue, from time to time, units and debt securities, or any combination thereof, having an aggregate offering price of up to $1 billion. 

Marketwired

U.S. REITs hit hard by Amazon’s Whole Foods buy

U.S. retail REITs took another beating in the equities market Friday following news Amazon has plans to acquire Whole Foods. Regency Centers (REG-N), which operates a portfolio of strip centres  anchored by Kroger saw its stock falling more than five per cent at one point. Shares of Kimco Realty (KIM-N) were falling around five per cent.  

CNBC

Infrastructure

Ottawa looks to break ground on second LRT phase in 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau re-committed federal funding for the second stage of Ottawa’s LRT system Friday, making available up to $1.09 billion to complete the massive project. The second stage of the system will extend the Confederation Line LRT east and west. It will also include connections to Algonquin College and extend the current O-Train out to the airport.

Ottawa Business Journal

Penn Station: Glimpse of a brighter future

New York City’s Penn Station, long denigrated as ugly, congested and confusing, has a flashy new addition that could provide a glimpse of its future. Officials on Thursday opened a new, $300-million concourse across the street from the aging rail station that will give passengers easier access to 17 of the 21 train platforms.

Winnipeg Free Press

Other

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