$850-million Edmonton Galleria Project suspended

$850-million Edmonton Galleria Project suspended

The Edmonton Galleria Project, a sprawling arts district proposed for downtown Edmonton, has been suspended by its board of directors. The Edmonton Galleria Foundation released a statement Wednesday night confirming the $850-million project is no longer considered viable. “Bringing Edmonton Galleria Foundation’s vision to life required us to be able to bring several different components together,” reads the statement.

CBC – Edmonton Journal

All systems go for Morguard’s Calgary bridge

Construction has begun on what will be Calgary’s longest, privately owned Plus-15 walkway, without crossing a city street. Located along 9th Avenue S.W., it will connect the two imposing towers of 11 and 20 storeys that hold 635,000 square feet of office space plus main floor retail, commonly known as Penn West Plaza, with Gulf Canada Square. It is being completed by Morguard REIT (MRT-DB-T), which purchased the property in 2012.

Calgary Herald

Toronto’s Woodbine Districts moves closer to reality

Construction appears to be drawing closer for a multi-phase redevelopment of the sprawling 684-acre Woodbine Racetrack property in northwest Toronto now known as Woodbine Districts. The property is actually larger than Toronto’s downtown Central Business District. Rezoning and site plan approval submissions have now been filed with the City of Toronto, after its Design Review Panel was able to review and comment on proposals for the site in November.

Property Biz Canada

Health care property owner Invesque ‘just getting started’

Fresh off its acquisitions of Care Investment Trust and Mohawk Medical Properties REIT, health care properties owner Invesque (HLP-U-T, IVQ-U-T) expects to continue to expand its holdings of medical office space, seniors housing and “skilled nursing” facilities. “Q4 and the beginning of 2018 have been a very active few months and we’re just getting started,” Invesque chief investment officer Adlai Chester said during the company’s fourth-quarter and year-end 2017 conference call.

Property Biz Canada

True North expands Alberta Infrastructure portfolio

True North Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (TNT-UN-T) announced it has executed a lease renewal with Alberta Infrastructure at 855 8^thAvenue SW, Calgary, totalling 48,046 square feet; and effective Feb. 1, 2019, a new lease with Alberta Infrastructure at 13140 St. Albert Trail, Edmonton, totalling 60,000 square feet. With the addition of these leases, the weighted average remaining lease term for government tenants in the REIT’s Alberta portfolio is 5.2 years. 

Canada Newswire

GTH debt $11M more than forecast

The Global Transportation Hub (GTH) has failed to sell enough land to meet its revenue targets for the sixth time in eight years. “A slower industrial development market is impacting the Global Transportation Hub. This is not exclusive to the GTH but prevalent across the prairie provinces,” spokesperson Kelly Brossart wrote. “As a result, our anticipated land sale revenue has not been realized this fiscal year.”

CBC – Regina Leader-Post – Regina Leader-Post – Regina Leader-Post

Conflux Canada promotes sustainability, green buildings

Getting Conflux Canada off the ground was a bit nerve-wracking. But as founder James McNeil prepares for Year Two, he’s already looking for ways to grow the event, which focuses on sustainability, clean tech and green buildings. “The main reason for getting it started was a very deep desire to make a difference and try to push this any way I know how,” McNeil said.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Sidewalk Labs aims to address privacy concerns

Sidewalk Labs, the unit of Google-parent Alphabet Inc. set to turn a chunk of Toronto’s waterfront into a test bed for “smart city” technologies, took pains at a public meeting Tuesday night to address fears its plans would see citizens spied upon or their governments’ authority usurped. Hundreds attended “public round table” sessions put on by Sidewalk and Waterfront Toronto.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – Winnipeg Free Press

Envisioning Vancouver’s waterfront in 30 years

When groups representing everything from industrial development to the protection of birds began discussions six years ago on the future of Vancouver’s waterfront, the strangest thing happened — they found some common ground. The 200-plus stakeholders involved in the talks now want to hatch a plan that will determine what the city’s shoreline should look like 20 to 30 years from now.

CBC – Vancouver Sun

Hamilton plan proposes new height rules

A new downtown development strategy sees the core being built up with more high-rise buildings but uses the escarpment as a test of when high is too high. Earlier this week, the city released the final version of its Downtown Hamilton Secondary Plan — which contains the goals, actions, policies and implementation of the direction for downtown Hamilton. It goes to the planning committee next month.

CBC

Rising oil prices shrink Couche-Tard’s fuel margins

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc (ATD-B-T) said on Tuesday rising crude prices pressured margins from gasoline sales for the gas retail and convenient store operator in the third quarter, setting its stock on course for its biggest drop since 2008. Couche-Tard said gross margins in its road transportation fuel business in its biggest market, the United States, fell 14.6 per cent.

Reuters – Bloomberg – Toronto Star – Canada Newswire

U.S. data centre investment still soaring

Amid record investment volume last year, early investors in U.S. data centre properties are moving to cash out as institutional investors, developers, REITs and foreign funds look to get into the space projected to see rising demand for the most modern and efficient cloud-based data storage facilities.

CoStar Group

Cracking the co-working code in CRE

Real estate brokers scoff that just a fraction of U.S. office space is occupied by co-working and other flexible workspace options, yet data shows more than one-quarter of new leases signed in the past two years came from this burgeoning business. A double-digit growth rate, driven in large part by the upstart WeWork, indicates co-working is more than a fad.

Reuters – Property Biz Canada

Blackstone buying FRP Holdings’ warehouse portfolio

FRP Holdings, Inc. (FRPH-Q) today announced it has entered into a contract to sell its 41 industrial warehouses and two adjacent lots to an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII, L.P (BX-N), for a total purchase price of $358.9 million US. The sale is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the Company’s shareholders. The transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2018.

Globe Newswire – CBC

Equity Commonwealth pays $115M for Re/Max world HQ

In the biggest office sale so far in 2018, the property that houses Re/Max LLC’s global headquarters has traded for $115 million US, according to Denver County public records. Equity Commonwealth (EQC-N), a REIT that is part of Sam Zell’s Chicago-based Equity Group Investments, sold the property to KORE Investments, a Centennial, Colo.-based real estate company.

CoStar Group

Featured Column

Downtown Saskatoon arena to replace SaskTel Centre?

I didn’t live in Saskatoon when the SaskTel Centre was built in 1988, but from what I’ve read the location was as controversial a point then as it is now. These days, Saskatoon council’s decision to commission a report on a possible downtown arena development is also stirring lots of debate.

Read more

Real Estate Companies

AutoCanada acquires Illinois-based Grossinger Auto Group

AutoCanada (ACQ-T) Thursday announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Grossinger Auto Group, a successful family business that has been retailing new and used vehicles in Illinois for 90 years. Grossinger generated revenue of $513 million Cdn in 2017 from dealerships representing 11 different manufacturers. The acquisition includes eight metro dealerships in Chicagoland. A purchase price was not disclosed.

Canada Newswire

Mercedes-Benz picks Atlanta for global innovation hub

During last week’s opening ceremonies for the Mercedes-Benz USA headquarters in Sandy Springs, Ga., the German automaker said it selected Atlanta for its first Lab1886 global innovation hub in the U.S. The other three are located in Germany (Stuttgart and Berlin) and China (Beijing).  Lab1886 provides parent Daimler AG with its own incubator and serves as the innovation nerve centre for the company.

CoStar Group

REOC Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Firm Capital Property Trust, (FCD-UN-X), Globe Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

H&R announces unwinding of H&R Finance Trust

H&R Real Estate Investment Trust and H&R Finance Trust (HR-UN-T) have announced they have received a final order from the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta approving the previously announced amended internal reorganization of the trusts. The original proposed reorganization of the trusts was described in the joint management information circular of the trusts dated Oct. 31, 2017.

Canada Newswire

Retail

Investors hope to save some Toys ‘R’ Us stores

Toy company executive Isaac Larian and other investors have pledged a total of $200 million and hope to raise four times that amount in crowdfunding in a bid to save potentially more than half of the 735 Toys “R” Us stores that will go dark in bankruptcy proceedings. The unsolicited bid faces a number of hurdles like finding other deep-pocketed investors.

Toronto Star – Toronto Star – Bloomberg – Bloomberg

Target, Kroger discussing possible merger: Report

Department store operator Target Corp (TGT-N) and grocery chain Kroger Co (KR-N) are in talks about a possible merger, tech-focused magazine Fast Company reported Friday, citing sources. Neither company was immediately available for comment. The companies first started talks last summer about a partnership that could improve Target’s grocery business and give Kroger customers more access to merchandise and e-commerce, the report said.

Reuters

Cannabis industry news

Pot creating budding demand for retail space

Alberta is shaping up to be an exciting power play for cannabis retailers when the psychoactive herb becomes legal this year. “If you want to talk about the Wild, Wild West of cannabis, it’s Alberta,” says Ben Volorney, a retail broker in the Edmonton office of Avison Young. “It’s nuts over here, nuts.”

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail

Sundial Growers to open first B.C. facility in Kamloops

An Alberta-based cannabis production company is looking to set up shop in B.C., specifically in the province’s transportation hub of Kamloops. Sundial Growers Inc., a licensed medicinal marijuana company, recently agreed to supply up to 20 million grams of cannabis products each year to the Alliance of Beverage Licensees, or ABLE BC, an advocacy group for B.C.’s private liquor industry.

CBC – CBC

Infrastructure

Calgary’s Glenmore Trail widening, interchange upgrade underway

City crews will start work in a couple of months on a major project that will see Glenmore Trail widened and the interchange at Crowchild Trail upgraded. The project is designed to accommodate new traffic volumes and patterns that will be created when the southwest ring road is completed in 2021, the city says. Glenmore Trail will be widened to six lanes between Crowchild Trail and 37th Street S.W.

CBC

Manitoba to build first-ever highway roundabout

A highway intersection southwest of Winnipeg that sees about 10,000 vehicles a day — and has seen many collisions in recent years — is about to get its stop signs replaced by a roundabout. The first-ever roundabout on a Manitoba highway will be located where highways 2 and 3 meet near Oak Bluff, just outside Winnipeg’s southwest perimeter.

CBC – Winnipeg Free Press

Other

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