Studio Gang set to make mark on Toronto’s skyline

Studio Gang set to make mark on Toronto’s skyline

There are some things we’ve all heard about apartment towers. You can’t have a neighbourhood in a high-rise. Today’s tall buildings are flimsy energy hogs. They all look the same. Chicago architect Jeanne Gang is coming to Canada, and her firm Studio Gang has ambitions that undercut everything we think we know about tower living.

Globe and Mail – ArchDaily – Urban Toronto

Development appears central to Tory’s transit plans

In the most recent in a never-ending series of flare-ups at city hall about the Scarborough subway, we heard a lot about what the people of Scarbrough “deserve,” and about travel times, and about new riders at peak hour. But we didn’t hear too much debate about real estate development prospects, considering that boosting those prospects is the primary rationale behind the plan.

Toronto Star

Oxford sticking with U.S., U.K. despite ‘noise’

The secret to Oxford Properties Group’s success is patience. That reality was on display at the recent RealCapital conference closing executive panel in Toronto. It featured North American executives talking about their projects, prospects and political projections.

Property Biz Canada

Hutcheson has vision for Convention Centre building site

Oxford Properties Group‘s president and chief executive Blake Hutcheson sees great potential for the site on which the creaky Metro Toronto Convention Centre’s north building currently stands. The north building squats over much of the so-called “Oxford Mile” which runs between the Rogers Centre and Citibank Building.

Property Biz Canada

CPPIB, Caisse partner on Asian warehouses

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is committing $325 million towards warehouses and other logistics investments in Singapore and Indonesia, in partnership with the Logos Property Group and the Caisse de depot’s real estate arm. It’s the first time the Toronto-based CPPIB has invested alongside Logos, an Australian real estate investment manager.

CTV – Reuters – Marketwired – Financial Post

New Sobeys CEO to face earnings scrutiny

Michael Medline will face his first public scrutiny as CEO of troubled grocer Sobeys Inc. on Wednesday – and the results won’t be pretty. The former CEO of Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., will inevitably have to address more bad news when Empire Co. Ltd. (EMP.A-T) releases its third-quarter results. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Staples to close 70 North American stores

Staples Inc. (SPLS-Q) suffered its worst stock decline in almost seven months after the company posted disappointing results and announced plans to shutter 70 stores in North America. Same-store sales declined seven per cent during Q4, the Framingham, Mass.-based company said. Staples had 1,255 locations in the U.S. and 304 in Canada at the end of the last fiscal year. 

Bloomberg – Real Deal Magazine – Motley Fool

Bing Thom transformed communities around the world

Visionary artist, calm philosopher who meditated every day — even while juggling complex obligations that involved hundreds of millions of dollars — business wizard, respected by all as a kind, decent man, his stunning architecture marked the world. Bing Thom’s astonishing, emotionally engaging designs ranged from private homes to entire cities.

Vancouver Sun

Granville Island changed course of Vancouver urban design

For many Vancouverites, Granville Island has always been the unique shopping, arts and industrial hub that we know today, nestled under the Granville Street Bridge on False Creek. But 40 years ago, it was little more than a collection of corrugated tin shacks, surrounded on all sides by increasingly decrepit sawmills. 

CBC

Jim Pattison was born to sell

Born in Saskatchewan in 1928, Jim Pattison was learning to walk as 1929’s stock market collapsed into the Great Depression. His first business venture was selling vegetable seeds. Today, the Jim Pattison Group is Canada’s second-largest private company with $9.1 billion in annual sales. It holds assets in broadcast media, signage, supermarkets, fishing, forestry, entertainment, agriculture, equipment, manufacturing, recreation and marketing.

Regina Leader-Post

Outlet Collection Winnipeg to transform retail scene

The pending opening of Manitoba’s first factory outlet mall will reshape the local retail landscape, and mostly for the better, according to CBRE. In its 2017 Real Estate Market Outlook report, CBRE cited the May 3 opening of the 400,000-square-foot Outlet Collection Winnipeg mall as one of several major new developments that will have a big effect on the city.

Winnipeg Free Press – Property Biz Canada

Downtown Winnipeg must embrace winter

For many years, the North American response to winter has been to hide. In the 1960s, as downtowns started losing a battle to suburban shopping malls and office parks, civic leaders felt the only way to compete was to mimic this climate-controlled trend and consolidate interior spaces in the city centre. Montreal was the leader in this movement.

Winnipeg Free Press

Detroit’s tallest tower set to rise

J.L. Hudson’s Department Store was one of the premier locations in the heart of downtown Detroit before closing in 1983. The long-vacant downtown Detroit site is about to be vacant no longer, however, as a new design from SHoP Architects and Hamilton Anderson Associates calls for a 52-storey mixed-use building.

Building Design & Construction – Builder – Dezeen

Paris, Frankfurt vie for London’s financial companies

As Britain prepares to leave the EU, much of the financial district of London is expected to be hollowed out as companies flee to the continent. The biggest contenders, Paris and Frankfurt, have drawn up major campaigns as they wage war for the spoils.

Globe and Mail

Teen retailers at mercy of smartphone users

Mipri Haye, a high school junior, is on Instagram and Snapchat daily, showing off her latest outfits to her girlfriends. She also shares where she got those clothes: Forever 21, H&M and Charlotte Russe often top her list. “I take pictures of myself trying on new things, post them, and see what my friends think.”

Toronto Star

Featured Column

Understanding and investing in commercial real estate

Too often you hear a phrase that is commonly used and you have a rough idea what it means without fully grasping its proper definition. For many, Commercial Real Estate may be one that is widely talked about but not always understood.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Hotel overbuilding softens New York

“Record-breaking occupancy rates from last year will slightly decline in 2017 and 2018,” says Jan Freitag, senior vice president for STR Global, a firm that tracks hotel market data. “There are a ton of markets where occupancy rates have already declined.” The worst hotel markets, like the Oklahoma area, have been hurt by the collapse in oil prices.

National Real Estate Investor

Editorial: Seize shipping centre initiative now

Diversification being the new reality for B.C.’s economy, the work of the Vancouver International Maritime Centre (VIMC) needs long-term government commitment. The diversification in this case promises significant local and national returns. Deloitte’s EU Shipping Competitiveness Study considers the Port of Vancouver among a handful of rising stars posing a competitive threat to the European Union’s massive maritime industry,

Business In Vancouver

Real Estate Companies

Airbnb became profitable in 2016

Airbnb has closed on a more than $1 billion round of funding, a source close to the company told CNBC. The round was confirmed in an SEC filing. It is now worth approximately $31 billion US. The company raised roughly an additional $450 million as part of its Series F round, making the round nearly twice as much as it stood last fall.

CNBC

New owners for Kitchener’s Sportsworld Crossing

Sportsworld Crossing has sold for an undisclosed amount, according to Cushman & Wakefield Waterloo Region, the real estate brokers responsible for the sale. Senior vice-president David Anderson said the retail and business park in south Kitchener, previously owned by a pension fund, was bought by a private ownership group made up of investors from Waterloo region and Toronto.

CBC – Waterloo Record – Kitchener Post

Temple Hotels announces normal course issuer bid

Temple Hotels Inc. (TPH-T) announced the Toronto Stock Exchange has accepted its notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid through the facilities of the TSX and/or alternative Canadian trading systems. The notice provides Temple may, during the 12-month period commencing March 15 purchase for cancellation up to 7,580,983 common shares. 

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Buffett invests in Sears-focused REIT

I find it perplexing legendary investor Warren Buffett owns shares in a REIT that owns a large majority of buildings leased to Sears Holdings (SHLD-Q). In December 2015, Buffett disclosed an 8.02 per cent stake in Seritage Realty Group (SRG-N) – a stake of approximately two million shares valued at roughly $70.6 million at the time.  

Forbes – Motley Fool – Motley Fool

Legal Corner

Lawsuit divides commercial condo owners

A Vancouver lawsuit underlines the problems that can occur when mixing retail franchises into condominium buildings. Mengfa International Resources Inc., the owner of a commercial strata unit, is suing the owners of Strata Plan LMS 4025 for refusing to allow a Moby Dick fish-and-chips franchise to open in the building.

Western Investor

Retail

MUJOSH opens first Canadian store at WEM

Hong Kong-based upscale eyewear brand MUJOSH has added its first Canadian store to its portfolio of more than 700 boutiques across Asia and the South Pacific. MUJOSH opened in West Edmonton Mall at the end of February and the company is planning further expansion in Canada and the Philippines into 2017. The brand hopes to open 1,000 new outlets. 

Western Investor

J.Jill bucks U.S. apparel store trend

The owner of Quincy, Mass.-based J.Jill, a national women’s apparel brand, is raising up to $174 million US today in an initial public offering of its common stock with plans to expand its store base and ecommerce operations. J.Jill is owned by TowerBrook, a New York-based investment management firm.

CoStar Group

DXL Men’s Apparel aims for big splash in Canada

A U.S. retail chain is betting bigger is better as it stakes out Canadian territory, threatening to steal business from incumbents. Destination XL Group, Inc. (DXLG-Q), the leading U.S. retailer of big and tall men’s wear, is launching its first two stores in this country starting with one in Ajax, Ont., today and another in Mississauga next month.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Canada Newswire

Sunrise Records pulls back curtain on upcoming stores

Sunrise Records is revealing more of the locations where it plans to open stores. The Ontario-based company confirmed a batch of malls on Thursday where it will replace closing HMV retail spaces. Sunrise says some of them could begin operating within a few weeks.

Financial Post – CBC – Winnipeg Free Press

Renovation and Restoration

New lease on life for downtown Sydney store

The new owner of an iconic downtown Sydney, N.S., building is making plans to revitalize it as a retail anchor resulting in one fewer empty storefront on the main street. Smart Shop Place. which opened in 1904 as a clothing store, has more than 20,000 square feet of space. Parker Rudderham purchased the building in 2013 but it now stands empty.

CBC

Sparks Street building evacuated due to structural damage

A federal office building on Sparks Street in downtown Ottawa was evacuated after structural damage was discovered following blasting from a nearby construction site in January, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada. On Saturday, trucks lined up the Birks Building,as movers brought out several floors worth of furniture, the final stage in the building’s evacuation.

CBC

Infrastructure

LRT to YYC back on Calgary’s agenda

While the City of Calgary isn’t ready to go full steam ahead on an LRT link to the airport, the issue is at least back on the agenda. A report destined for Wednesday’s transportation and transit committee meeting specifically mentions plans to extend the city’s CTrain network to the Calgary International Airport.

Calgary Herald

Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel still a wonder

It wasn’t like Montreal didn’t have enough mega-projects on the go when the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel was added to the mix in 1963. The structure, which opened 50 years ago, was built during the same period that saw the construction of Montreal’s Metro system, Expo 67, the Turcot Interchange, along with the Décarie, Bonaventure and Ville-Marie expressways. 

CBC

Technology

Driver-optional cars coming to California

Cars with no steering wheel, no pedals and nobody at all inside could be driving themselves on California roads by the end of the year, under proposed state rules that would give a powerful boost to the fast-developing technology. For the past several years, tech companies and automakers have been testing self-driving car prototypes in neighbourhoods and on freeways.

Windsor Star – GlobeSt.com – Reuters

Is this the future of real estate marketing?

While traditional forms of marketing real estate fizzle out, a new era of digital marketing has dawned. Thanks to the global connectivity of the internet, people no longer have to turn to traditional media to market a home or condo or any other form of real estate. Gone are the days where consumers lack transparency.

Forbes

Other

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