Larco Investments buys TO’s Dominion Public Building

Larco Investments buys TO’s Dominion Public Building

The company behind the controversial expansion of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa has bought one of Toronto’s heritage landmarks. The Dominion Public Building at 1 Front St. W., was purchased by Larco Investments, a Vancouver-based developer for $275.1 million, Canada Lands Company confirmed on Thursday.

Toronto Star

Calgary’s CF Chinook Centre set for further expansion

The owners of CF Chinook Centre are planning what could be its largest expansion yet. “This is a very big one and it is very much at the next stage, which is how do we take a sea of parking and turn it into something that is productive?” said Coun. Brian Pincott, who has been in discussions with Cadillac Fairview.

CBC – Calgary Herald

GWL’s longstanding love for apartments continues

A self-professed “office guy,” Paul Finkbeiner has learned to love apartments. “A lot of my competitors are only waking up to it the last five years saying, ‘Oh these apartments are really good.’ We have known it for the last 20,” said the president of GWL Realty Advisors Inc.

Property Biz Canada

Cushman & Wakefield acquires Ashlar Urban Realty

Cushman & Wakefield has acquired Toronto commercial real estate firm Ashlar Urban Realty, which represents more than 150 urban assets, for an undisclosed price. Ashlar was founded in 1999. It has specialized in investment sales, office, retail and land development and is cited as a pioneer in recognizing the potential of downtown Toronto’s east and west corridors.

Property Biz Canada

Winnipeg bar repurposed as apartment/retail space

Plans to redevelop the vacant Osborne Village Inn as a boutique hotel have been scrapped in favour of converting it into a combination apartment/retail complex. A senior official with Cushman Wakefield Winnipeg confirmed the top two floors of the three-storey building will be converted into apartments and the main and lower levels will be developed as retail space.

Winnipeg Free Press – CBC

Consolidated HCI sells interest in Vaughan properties

Consolidated HCI Holdings Corporation (CXA.B-T) announced t it has accepted an offer to sell its 50 per cent interest in the real Vaughan properties located at 7700 Keele Street and the adjacent property at 2267 Highway 7, from Keele Seven Holdings Inc. The purchase price for the 50% interest is $14,250,000. 

Canada Newswire

Marriott CEO on Airbnb and hotel expansion

Arne Sorenson is chief executive officer of Marriott International Inc., (MAR-Q), the world’s largest hotel chain. Marriott was able to claim that title when it closed its $13-billion US acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. last fall. Six months later, Sorenson finds himself atop an industry navigating a charged political backdrop. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Tim Hortons owner completes purchase of Popeyes

Oakville’s Restaurant Brands International Inc., (QSP.UN-T) has received a sufficient number of shares of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. to complete its US$1.8-billion friendly takeover of the fast food chain. Popeyes currently has more than 2,600 restaurants, with 621 international locations. RBI has said it plans to accelerate Popeyes’ growth in the U.S. and beyond, using an approach used by Burger King. 

News1130 – Financial Post – Motley Fool – Canada Newswire

Welcome to your new office

Claire Brynteson had a house, a job and a dining table that was empty once she got her three children out the door every morning. When she received a flyer telling her she could make money by renting seats at the table to people looking for short-term office space, she jumped at the chance to list its virtues on the Spacehop website — where Airbnb meets the laptop entrepreneur.

Financial Post

Walmart adjusts its strategy

Walmart is getting into aspirational retail — and it says a lot about the American economy. In recent months, Walmart (WMT-N) has purchased several trendy, online retailers, including the hip fashion brand ModCloth, outdoor gear retailer Moosejaw, and shoe store ShoeBuy. 

Business Insider – Forbes – Canada Newswire

Amazon reviews by buyers worth billions: Experts

Chances are, a week or two after you buy something online you’ll get an email asking, “How’d we do?” and a link to review the product. Your response and those of other customers are worth a lot: $400 billion US, according to  Alice Kim, owner of online cosmetic brand Elizabeth Mott. Even a single comment can make a huge difference.

Toronto Star

Besieged retail space could drag down Canadian REITs

Stories of department stores struggling with sinking revenues have been taking up column inches in news publications in recent months. While U.S. retailers are bearing the brunt of it, REITs may very well end up as collateral damage as traders are betting the securities’ prices will drop because mall operators won’t be able to pay the loans underlying them.

Wealth Professional

Fashion failures do not signal the death of malls

Each spring the Canadian retail landscape recalibrates to account for the mall spaces orphaned by sector bankruptcies and restructurings. And industry watchers are working the worry beads even more feverishly this year given the titanic threat of Amazon (AMZN-Q), which continues to gobble up retail market share and infiltrate categories pundits never expected.

Financial Post – GlobeSt.com

Trying to get REIT investors to rethink strategy

Joshua Varghese, a real estate portfolio manager at CI Investments, has taken a more than passing interest in the going-private transaction at Milestone Apartments REIT (MST.UN-T). For starters, funds he manages used to own the units before turning seller because of concerns about the REIT’s on-going needs for capital expenditure.

Financial Post

Eight of the most expensive developments in U.S. history

With an estimated cost of $20 billion, New York City’s Hudson Yards neighborhood is set to become the most expensive private real estate development in American history. When construction is complete in 2024, it will include all types of buildings, from luxury condos to boutiques to offices.

Business Insider

Featured Column

Advisors obliged to provide innovative options

Be it in technology, processes, or simply mindset, consumers are frequently ahead of business in the adoption of new best practices and techniques.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Lethbridge among Canada’s fastest-growing cities

Confidence is growing in Lethbridge’s commercial real estate market, as the city was ranked by Avison Young as Alberta’s strongest municipal economy for 2017. Expansion projects in the city are capitalizing on Lethbridge’s enduring stability. Lethbridge is less susceptible to boom-and-bust cycles linked to oil prices.

Western Investor

Suburban U.S. office markets gain in popularity

While urban office markets continue to be popular with Millennials, employers, including technology companies, are luring young talent to the suburbs with creative office campuses that provide plenty of amenities, along with the greater housing affordability, industry insiders such as Colliers International‘s Stephen Newbold say.

National Real Estate Investor

U.S. CRE values inch up, led by apartments

Commercial property values have increased since last fall’s surprise election of Donald Trump, but have done so more slowly. Ten-X says its latest Commercial Real Estate Nowcast shows valuations increased just 0.1% over the course of the previous month. They’re up just over 0.5% since November, according to Ten-X’s monthly pricing index.

GlobeSt.com – National Real Estate Investor

Saudis set to apply ‘white lands’ taxes

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has often struggled with a huge gap between the supply and demand within its real estate market. According to analysts, uninhabited “white lands” amount to between 40% to 50% of the kingdom’s total space, which has always hampered the progress of the market.

Forbes

Real Estate Companies

Moncton trades cash, parking lot for Castle Manor lawn

The City of Moncton is the new owner of the Castle Manor lawn that one assessment valued at $1.1 million. It traded a large section of the Robinson court parking lot plus $222,990 to buy the lawn that buffers Mountain Road and Castle Manor’s still-in-development high-end condos. The lawn was owned by Galco Atlantic Investments, run by Stephen Gallant

CBC

Saskatoon struggles to find developer for parking lot

A large downtown parking lot is destined to remain a parking lot for longer than expected after the City of Saskatoon failed to find a developer willing to pay full price for the $4.135-million expanse of asphalt. The city listed the 130-stall lot in early January with the hope of enticing a private company to erect a large multi-use building.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Blackstone exits SeaWorld stake with sale to Zhonghong

The Blackstone Group (BX-N) is selling its remaining 21 per cent equity interest in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., (SEAS-N) the theme-park operator it acquired in 2009, to China’s Zhonghong Zhuoye Group. At $23 per share, or approximately $429 million US, the sale represents a premium of nearly 33% over Thursday’s closing price on SeaWorld shares.  

GlobeSt.com – IPE Real Estate

REIT Financial Reports

The latest reports:

* Partners REIT, (PAR.UN-T), Marketwired 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Automotive Properties a unanimous ‘buy’ call

Featured today is a REIT with an unanimous ‘buy’ call from five analysts, double-digit earnings growth expected, and an attractive seven per cent yield. Automotive Properties REIT (APR.UN-T), just shy of appearing on the positive breakouts list, holds a portfolio of more than 30 properties located in major cities across the country. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Retail

Wesfarmers told to sell Kmart to save Target

They’ve been an Australian institution since 1969 but the iconic Kmart could be sold in order to save the struggling Target. Wesfarmers, the owners of the discount giant, have been told by retail analysts Credit Suisse selling thriving Kmart could ‘fix’ the problems facing Target. Analyst Grant Saligari argues Kmart’s tremendous success makes it ripe to sell.

DailyMail

Target spooks long-term believers

Is Target Corp. (TGT-N) getting desperate? When CEO Brian Cornell took the stage at Shoptalk, a Las Vegas industry gathering to showcase the future of retail, he proclaimed the retailer’s retrenchment. In front of thousands of innovators, Cornell talked about his plans to shut down parts of its Silicon Valley operations and shutter its so-called “store of the future.”   

Bloomberg

Renovation and Restoration

Converting Exchange District building was bold move

During the past decade, redevelopment in the Exchange District has become a common sight. Not a year has gone by without at least a few large projects on the go. Thirty years ago, though, when the Gault Brothers’ Warehouse was converted into what is now Artspace, it was a bold and risky venture.

Winnipeg Free Press

Infrastructure

Infrastructure spending is about the evidence

In the 2015 federal election, the Liberal Party of Canada differentiated itself by pledging to run modest deficits for three years before returning to balance in 2019-20. The rationale is that historic low interest rates afforded a unique opportunity to invest in infrastructure to spur job creation in the short term and economic growth in the medium to long term for the benefit of all Canadians.

Maclean’s

Technology

Time for Canada to invest in developing AI

Today, the most transformative technology may be artificial intelligence, in particular the branches of deep learning and reinforcement learning, that are not only positioned to change the way we work and live; they’re a made-in-Canada success. Like all disruptive technologies, AI is creating entirely new ways of doing things, from diagnosing disease to driving cars.

Globe and Mail – Lexology

High-tech takes root in smaller urban centres

Silicon Valley … Waterloo … Whitby? Some urban areas have earned a reputation as high-tech hubs, but smaller centres such as Whitby and Prince Edward County, both east of Toronto, are proving they have the right stuff for high-tech startups, too. 360insights, located in Whitby, is a good example.

Financial Post – Financial Post – Ottawa Business Journal

Chatbots move into the real estate sector

Chatbots are artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants (VAs), found within messaging apps or websites, that automatically respond to consumers’ requests and provide information via chat or text. But unlike Siri, Alexa, and other VAs that can typically only field simple one-at-a-time queries, chatbots are designed to conduct more extensive and human-like two-way conversations.

NewsFactor Network

Other

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