Vancouver considers ban on new Chinatown towers

Vancouver considers ban on new Chinatown towers

The newest debate in Vancouver’s never-ending affordability crisis isn’t whether to approve a tower, but whether to ban them altogether in a neighbourhood. City council voted to put amendments to rezoning policies in the southern half of Chinatown to a public hearing. The new rules would cap any future building at 90 feet in height, and will be voted on by council after the hearing, which is yet to be scheduled.

CBC

Montreal’s longest-running real estate fiasco

The Rivière-des-Prairies district’s vast uninhabited land has stoked many imaginations. It has also fattened many wallets. But within this real estate Klondike, one property owner has managed to lose millions of dollars multiple times on a single piece of land over the last four decades: the City of Montreal.

Montreal Gazette: Part I – Montreal Gazette: Part II – Montreal Gazette: Part III – Montreal Gazette: Part IV

Time Out Market coming to Canada

Add Montreal to the list of major North American cities which will soon host a Time Out Market. However, unlike the original foodie haunt in Lisbon, this one will be housed in a downtown shopping centre, Ivanhoé Cambridge’s Eaton Centre Montreal. Ivanhoé Cambridge made the announcement Wednesday, noting the 36,000-square-foot  facility will open in late 2019.

Property Biz Canada

Major facelift for Burlington Mall’s 50th anniversary

Burlington Mall has reached the half-century mark and is undergoing renovations to set it up for another 50 years of serving the community. The 726,000-square-foot Burlington Mall sits on 18 acres that also include more than 4,600 parking spaces at Guelph Line and Fairview Street in Burlington. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI-UN-T) purchased it from Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2011, and KingSett Capital has since come on as a 50 per cent partner.

Property Biz Canada

Zibi to receive financial breaks to defray cleanup costs

The developers behind the ambitious plan to turn a 37-acre industrial site on the Ottawa River into a mixed-use community is poised to receive a discount of up to $60.9 million on municipal fees and taxes to help it offset to cost of remediating the contaminated land. On Tuesday, the city’s finance and economic development committee endorsed the brownfield grant application submitted by Zibi’s proponents.

Ottawa Business Journal – CBC

Big data needs big storage buildings

Urbacon Data Centre Solutions Inc. is building an entire industrial park in suburban Toronto dedicated to data storage. The Barker Business Park Digital Campus in Richmond Hill, Ont., (near the intersection of Major Mackenzie Drive and Highway 404) will have a cluster of warehouse-like buildings ranging from 100,000 to 150,000 square feet. The only tenants will be servers and the tech staff to maintain them.

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada

CaGBC event examines Canadian green building issues

Recent Canadian experiences in advanced green building projects were discussed at a May 17 Canada Green Building Council breakfast event at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York hotel. Luka Matutinovic, WSP’s director of national performance, analysis, sustainability and energy, talked about strategies for delivering proven performance through energy modeling, measurement and verification (M&V) and commissioning.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Legal pot will be a $7B business in Canada: Deloitte

Once legal, Canada’s marijuana industry is expected to generate more than $7 billion in sales annually, according to a new report by Deloitte. The report finds $4.3 billion will come from recreational sales, $1.7 billion from medicinal sales, and about $1 billion from the black market. Small businesses have long argued customers will likely stick with what they know.

Global News – CBC – Business In Vancouver – Toronto Star

Aphria to build Extraction Centre of Excellence

Aphria Inc. (APH-T) today announced the Board of Directors approved a $55 million capital project to build a state-of-the-art Extraction Centre of Excellence in Leamington, Ont. The facility will be equipped to conduct a wide range of cannabis extractions, including C02, butane and ethanol, and produce world-class cannabis concentrates, including fractionated distillates.

Canada Newswire

Coca-Cola building dairy plant in Peterborough

Beverage giant Coca-Cola Canada (KO-N) is building an $85-million production facility in Peterborough, expanding its existing Minute Maid plant. The company says the facility will provide new production capabilities starting with Fairlife ultrafiltered milk, a lactose-free milk.

Global News – Financial Post

Podium plans mixed-use building for Kingston

Kingston’s midtown landscape is poised for another large-scale, student-style apartment building. After years of refinements by Toronto-based Podium Developments, city planning staff are recommending approval of a 10-storey mixed commercial and residential building, not far from the Kingston Memorial Centre. It would be one of the largest apartment buildings in the city.

Global News

Plaza completes redevelopment of N.B.’s Northumberland Square

Plaza Retail REIT (PLZ-UN-T) Monday announced it has successfully completed the redevelopment of Northumberland Square in Miramichi, N.B., from an enclosed mall to a 102,000-square-foot community strip centre. Plaza has purchased from its joint venture partner the remaining 50% interest in the property it did not already own.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Fiera Capital forecasts ‘mild’ recession

Fiera Capital Corporation (FSZ-T), a leading independent asset management firm with more than $136 billion under management, today released its updated Global Financial Forecast 2018-2025. The forecast includes a “mild” recession for late 2020 or early 2021. It also indicates central banks are expected to adopt a “timid” approach to interest rate rises.

Canada Newswire

HBC to shutter up to 10 Lord & Taylor stores

Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) said Tuesday it will close up to 10 of its Lord & Taylor stores through next year, as the company reported higher sales with a wider loss in its fiscal first quarter. The announcement comes a day after HBC revealed it was selling its online banner Gilt Groupe to Rue La La. The retailer said its year-over-year same-store sales declined 0.7 per cent.

CBC – BNNBloomberg – Financial Post – The Real Deal

Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz stepping down

Starbucks Corp. (SBUX-Q) says Howard Schultz is stepping down as executive chairman this month of the coffee chain he joined more than 30 years ago. Schultz, who oversaw the transformation of Starbucks into a global chain with more than 28,000 locations, had left the CEO job at the company last year to focus on innovation and social impact projects.

CBC – Toronto Star – Business Insider – Bloomberg

Market Trends and Research

Saskatoon wants to tighten rules for agents selling city land

Saskatoon real estate agents who help sell city land but have connections to the buyers shouldn’t be allowed to collect commissions on those sales. That’s the most notable change the City of Saskatoon wants to make to its policy on real estate commissions from sold-off city land.

CBC

Building permits sink to five-month low

The value of Canadian building permits fell by 4.6 percent in April from March, the biggest decline in five months, on weakness in both the residential and non-residential sectors, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.  Statscan revised March’s figures to show a gain of just 1.3 per cent compared to an initial 3.1 per cent rise, in part to reflect late-arriving data.

Reuters

GTA CRE leased rate plummets year-over-year

Toronto Real Estate Board Commercial members reported 210,579 square feet of combined industrial, commercial/retail and office space leased through the TREB MLS System, on a per square foot net basis with pricing disclosed, in May 2018. This result was down from 389,671 square feet of leased space reported in May 2017.

Globe Newswire

Real Estate Companies

How do five CRE giants on TSX stack up?

Only five REITs on the TSX have market capitalizations above $5 billion: First Capital Realty Inc. (FCR-T), H&R Real Estate Investment Trust (HR-UN-T), Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAR-UN-T), Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (BPY-UN-T), and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust’s (REI-UN-T). Let’s examine the five biggest REITs on the TSX to see which one is the best buy today.

Motley Fool

Starlight to acquire additional interest in Atlanta apartment complex

Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No.1) Value-Add Fund (SUVA-A-X) announced Monday it has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional interest of approximately 41.5% in Landmark at Coventry Pointe, a 250-suite, garden style, value-add multi-family property completed in 2002, that is located in Atlanta.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Real Estate Investment Trusts

BTB acquires 25% interest in Complexe Lebourgneuf Phase II

BTB REIT (BTB.UN-T) today announced it has proceeded with the acquisition of the 25% equity balance in Complexe Lebourgneuf Phase II situated at 815 Lebourgneuf Boulevard in Québec City, which it did not own for $7.5 million, including assumed indebtedness, which represents an implied capitalization rate of 6.75 per cent.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Should you buy RioCan for the six per cent yield?

Canadian pensioners are searching for reliable Canadian income stocks and REITs to add to their TFSA portfolios. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust’s (REI-UN-T) owns shopping centres across Canada. This might not sound like an appealing investment, given all the news about big-name department stores closing and the continued growth of online shopping, but the REIT is undergoing an important strategy shift and is actually doing quite well.

Motley Fool – Property Biz Canada

Retail

UNIQLO Canada to open four few stores in fall

UNIQLO, the global casual apparel retailer, today announced the opening of four new Canadian stores in fall 2018, including three new stores in the Greater Toronto Area at Vaughan Mills, CF Markville and Square One Shopping Centre and one new store in the Greater Vancouver Area at Coquitlam Centre.

Canada Newswire

New Development

Ex-Calgary mayor wants to transform lot into food hall

A triangle-shaped parcel of land in the East Village could become the home of an unusual new food hall. Framed by a flyover bridge, roads and the Calgary Drop-In Centre, it’s a quirky property that will need something unique. Enter: the city’s former mayor Dave Bronconnier. During his time in the mayor’s office, Bronconnier had a hand in jump-starting the revitalization of the area.

CBC

Renovation and Restoration

Heritage Ottawa pans latest Château Laurier addition plan

Heritage Ottawa has come out swinging against the latest plans for an addition to the venerated Fairmont Château Laurier, calling the proposal “the most disgraceful act of heritage vandalism of our generation.” “The revised design fails to resolve — or even address — the underlying flaw that impaired all of the previous attempts,” the organization said in a statement released Sunday.

Ottawa Citizen – CBC

Other

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