Massive Toronto office project seeks funding

Massive Toronto office project seeks funding

First Gulf Development Corp. is considering everything from an initial public offering to bond financing to get Canada’s biggest office project off the ground — 12 million square feet of space in Toronto that will hold more than 50,000 workers and cost about $8 billion to build. The company expects to get planning approval by June to start development on the 60-acre site which the city officially pitched for Amazon’s HQ2.

Bloomberg

Aboriginals gatekeepers for Lower Mainland real estate

The three First Nation bands that now own 90 acres of prime real estate in Vancouver’s Point Grey – where an acre of land can costs north of $20 million – have not released plans for the site. The Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations (MST Development Corp.) paid a total of $717 million for the land, teaming with Canada Lands Co. to purchase the first 52 acres from the federal government in 2014.

Western Iinvestor – Property Biz Canada

Invesque to buy medical office building owner Mohawk REIT

UPDATE: Health properties owner Invesque Inc. (IVQ-U-T) continued its aggressive expansion on Friday morning, announcing it will acquire Canadian-owned Mohawk Medical Properties Real Estate Investment Trust for approximately $180 million. Mohawk REIT and its subsidiary, Mohawk Medical Operating Partnership LP which is also part of the transaction, own 14 multi-tenant medical office buildings in seven markets throughout Canada and the U.S.

Property Biz Canada

Hong Kong’s Aoyuan has big plans in Vancouver, Toronto

Hong Kong’s Aoyuan Property Group went international for the first time with a development in Sydney, Australia in 2015. Now it has projects planned for Vancouver and Toronto. “It seemed like a logical extension from the market in Sydney, that’s very similar in a lot of ways,” said Aoyuan Property Holdings (Canada) Ltd. Eastern Canada deputy general manager Fan Yang.

Property Biz Canada

BMO moving some staff to Eaton Centre

The Bank of Montreal is opening what it calls an “urban campus” at the Toronto Eaton Centre, leasing 350,000 square feet of space that will feature a four-storey atrium. As first reported by CoStar News, the bank is taking over four floors of space that was formerly the head office of Sears Canada at 290 Yonge St. The space was vacated after Sears went into restructuring in 2017. 

CoStar Group – Globe and Mail

Mission Group president a man with a mission

Randy Shier, president of Kelowna-based developer Mission Group Enterprises Ltd., recalls his first steps towards his future career. He was six years old, and his parents were building a new home in Vancouver’s popular Oakridge neighbourhood. Brought to open houses in the British Properties where his parents scouted the latest design trends, Shier came home and began drawing floor plans.

Business In Vancouver

Oxford reveals plan for 60-storey The HUB in Toronto

Oxford Properties has released the first details of its plans for its prime 30 Bay St. property in downtown Toronto. The HUB is proposed as a 1.4 million-square-foot office tower up to 60 storeys high. U.K.-based architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners was chosen by Oxford to design the striking new structure. It is named after the tower’s proximity to the Toronto Harbour, the Union Station transportation hub and Bay Street.

Property Biz Canada

Cannabis retailer moving HQ to Edmonton

Toronto cannabis retailer Fire & Flower is moving its headquarters to Edmonton, its CEO said Wednesday. Fire & Flower stores will open in Alberta with an educational component before cannabis product is actually stocked, Trevor Fencott told the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. In the first phase, it plans to open 30 stores in Alberta, most of them in Edmonton, he said.

Calgary Herald – CBC – Globe Newswire

Vancouver cannabis growers hungry for industrial space

B.C cannabis growers will turn to blue-collar towns and the Agricultural Land Reserve to find millions of square feet of industrial space needed to meet demand for recreational marijuana, studies suggest. “The legalization of marijuana is expected to drive up the cost of commercial real estate in all major provinces across the nation,” said Gaurav Mathur, Toronto-based research manager, capital markets, with JLL Canada.

Business In Vancouver – Property Biz Canada

Critics say new Vancouver policy will change skyline

Vancouver has so rigorously defended the views of the city’s mountain backdrop one prominent architect once had to slice off a section of the Shangri-La Hotel diagonally. So city council’s recent policy decision to allow three tall towers to be built in the huge new downtown district being created in Northeast False Creek has amounted to fighting words for prominent defenders of the “view cone” policy.

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada

Several new tenants slated for Granville Street

Chit Chat restaurant, Blaze Pizza and a co-working office-space venture Spaces are slated to fill the former Tom Lee Music building at 929 Granville Street. Regus-owned Spaces has agreed to lease 68,000 square feet of office space as well as a further 2,000 square feet, at street level, where it intends to build a cafeteria accessible to its office workers as well as the general public.

Business In Vancouver

Brookfield to convert seven Macy’s floors to office space

Macy’s (M-N) said Tuesday it will sell the top half of its State Street flagship store for $30 million, and the buyer plans to convert the space into offices. The announcement confirms a Tribune report in October Macy’s had struck a preliminary deal to sell Floors 8 through 14 to Toronto-based  Brookfield Asset Management (BAM-A-T).

Chicago Tribune – Building Design & Construction

Experts predict Atlanta or Northern Virginia will snag HQ2

Experts expect Amazon to choose either Northern Virginia or Atlanta for its new headquarters, according to the 2018 Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey. Austin and Denver were also commonly cited by experts as strong contenders. After receiving 238 bids, Amazon announced in January it narrowed its search for a second headquarters (“HQ2”) to 20 cities. Toronto is the only Canadian city among the finalists.

PR Newswire – Fortune

HNA’s speedy fall from grace

The guest list for the China General Chamber of Commerce USA’s annual gala is a who’s who of Chinese and American business royalty. In mid-January, Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, Brookfield’s Ric Clark, Bank of China’s Xu Chen and Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai — to name a few — rubbed shoulders at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown. But the real star of the show was HNA Group’s chairman/co-founder Chen Feng.

The Real Deal – South China Morning Post

China’s Anbang takeover could prompt national security review

Before Anbang Insurance Group bought the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for $1.95 billion in 2014, the Chinese insurer asked Washington to review the acquisition for potential national security implications. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. approved the sale, but the China Insurance Regulatory Commission’s decision to temporarily take control of Anbang and its assets for up to two years has the potential to prompt a new federal review.

The Real Deal

Featured Column

Only ‘non-traditional’ approaches will fix socio-economic woes

Ever hear that old line about insanity? It’s defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You could say it applies to how we have handled many of the socio-economic issues facing Canada.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Rate increases likely to have ‘adverse’ effect on U.S. CRE

Rising interest rates remain the top concern for CRE executives this year, with 80 per cent of respondents in a sentiment survey by law firm Seyfarth Shaw expecting multiple rate increases amid clear expectations the anticipated increases would begin to weigh on commercial property markets in 2018. For the second straight year, an overwhelming 98% of executives surveyed by the Chicago-based firm predicted at least one increase this year.

CoStar Group – GlobeSt.com

Manhattan CRE sales beating 2017’s sluggish pace

Sales of Manhattan investment properties are running ahead of last year’s pace, helping to validate the view of many commercial brokers that the snoozy market of 2017 wouldn’t be repeated. This year through Feb. 23, there were $3.67 billion in sales of commercial properties south of 96th Street in the borough, compared with $2.63 billion in the first two months of 2017, a 40 per cent jump, according to brokerage Eastern Consolidated. 

Bloomberg – National Real Estate Investor

REOC Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Tricon Capital Group Inc., (TCN-T), Canada Newswire

REIT Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Artis REIT, (AX-UN-T), Canada Newswire  

* City Office REIT, (CIO-N), PR Newswire

* Granite REIT, (GRT-UN-T), Canada Newswire  

* Melcor REIT,  (MR-UN-T), Globe Newswire

* Slate Office REIT, (SOT-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Retail

Reitmans to close Hyba retail stores

Reitmans (Canada) Limited (RET-T) announced Thursday it has initiated a plan to close all of its 17 Hyba store locations by the end of its current fiscal year, Feb. 2, 2019.  HYBA stores were converted from former Smart Set store locations during 2015. Management has determined the optimum strategy is to continue to offer HYBA-branded products through the company’s 270 Reitmans store locations, as well as e-commerce through the Reitmans website.

Canada Newswire – CTV

George Weston’s Q4 net profit plunges 66%

George Weston Ltd.’s (WN-T) profit in the fourth quarter was cut by two-thirds as a result of special items including the cost of a $25 Loblaw Card program launched in compensation for the company’s involvement in a price-fixing scheme. The Toronto-based food processing and grocery company says net income attributable to common shareholders of the company dropped to $28 million or 22 cents per share.

Financial Post

Up to six more Amazon Go stores coming this year

Amazon’s much-heralded convenience store of the future, Amazon Go (AMZN-Q), may seem like a crazy experiment. But the company plans to open as many as six more of these storefronts this year, multiple people familiar with the company’s plans have told Recode. Some of the new high-tech stores are likely to open in Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, where the first location is based, as well as Los Angeles.

Recode – TechCrunch

Restaurants and Eateries

Tim Hortons franchisees threaten to sue parent RBI

An association representing 70 per cent of Tim Hortons franchisees is threatening its parent company with legal action after a computer virus caused intermittent cash register outages. A letter  from a Great White North Franchise Association lawyer to Tim Hortons parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI) (QSR-T) said if RBI refuses to meet with franchisees by Friday to discuss “deficient IT practices” they will take the matter to court.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Cannabis industry news

Pot replaces peppers at world’s largest cannabis farm

A massive piece of farmland in Langley, B.C., has been converted from a produce greenhouse into Canada’s largest licensed cannabis facility. The country’s largest pot producer, Canopy Growth (WEED-T), has turned a bell-pepper farm in Aldergrove into a cannabis operation that will span 275,000 square meters. The company claims the site is now the biggest licensed facility in the world after receiving the go-ahead from Health Canada two weeks ago.

CBC

New Development

Concert Properties’ proposal passes first hurdle

Concert Properties’ Burquitlam redevelopment plan passed its first hurdle Monday night, providing a glimpse of what will be a neighbourhood of eight towers, a YMCA recreation centre, a community policing station, a park-and-ride facility and two upgraded parks. As many as 6,000 people could eventually move to the area on Coquitlam’s western border, if the two projects seeking rezoning — Burquitlam Park and Whitgift Gardens — are approved.

Business In Vancouver

Technology

Many U.S. CRE owners still using spreadsheets

Despite the trend of modernizing back office real estate processes, a surprisingly high percentage of real estate owners and operators are still using spreadsheets and paper to manage their properties. A new report outlines how large the divide is between what tenants expect and how the CRE industry actually operates. The report’s authors at MRI Software surveyed 219 U.S. real estate professionals from companies of various sizes.

Propmodo

Other

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