Oxford ready to build The HUB on spec

Oxford ready to build The HUB on spec

His company has 1.4 million square feet of office space to fill, but the chief executive of Oxford Properties, which just announced plans to proceed with a 60-storey tower in downtown Toronto, doesn’t seem too concerned about leasing the property. “We are prepared too, but we don’t think it will come to that,” Blake Hutcheson said of the possibility of building The HUB on speculation. 

CoStar Group – Property Biz Canada

Quayside could turn Toronto into innovation hub

A high-tech neighbourhood by Google’s sibling company is seen as a way for Toronto to become a hub in the burgeoning field of urban innovation. “From a very practical perspective on an economic development basis, the smart cities or urban innovation area is a booming area that some would say is a $25-trillion dollar opportunity worldwide,” said Kristina Verner, vice-president of innovation, sustainability and prosperity at Waterfront Toronto.

Toronto Star

RioCan Living: REIT’s new brand keeps it ‘ahead of the curve’

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust’s (REI-UN-T) plan to turn 43 of its retail properties into mixed-use developments through its new RioCan Living brand is intended to keep the company “ahead of the curve” and increase asset value says the trust’s senior vice president. The developments could create 20,000 residences in Canada’s six major markets.

Property Biz Canada

RioCan Living launches as REIT’s residential developer

RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) has taken the next step in its program to redevelop dozens of its retail properties across Canada, announcing Monday its new residential brand, RioCan Living. RioCan Living will drive the trust’s efforts to turn selected existing retail shopping centres into mixed-use communities. In a release announcing the move, RioCan says this marks its “official, and permanent, entry into the residential market.”

Property Biz Canada

QuadReal appointments complete global leadership team

The real estate arm of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) has completed the build-up of its global team with the appointment of two senior members. QuadReal Property Group said it had appointed Jay Kwan as managing director for Europe and Jameson Weber as global head of special situations to complete its international leadership team.

IPE Real Assets – Canada Newswire

Ivanhoé appoints real estate veteran president

Ivanhoé Cambridge has appointed 25-year finance and real estate industry veteran Nathalie Palladitcheff president, making her one of the highest-ranking women in Canadian commercial real estate.  The subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has more than $60 billion in assets, and Palladitcheff will be responsible ensuring the real estate company’s global investment strategy matches its growth and performance targets. 

CoStar Group – Canada Newswire

Bruce Riggins appointed COO of Skyline America

Skyline Investments Inc. (TV: SKLN) announced Bruce A. Riggins has joined Skyline as chief operating officer for Skyline America, the senior U.S. investment subsidiary of Skyline Investments. Prior to this appointment, Riggins was the chief financial officer for LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO-N), a leading public hotel REIT with a current Market CAP of US$2.8 billion and which owns 41 upscale hotels in 11 markets in the U.S. 

MenaFN

Artis appoints Steven Joyce to Board of Trustees

Artis REIT (AX-UN-T) has appointed Steven Joyce to the Board of Trustees. Joyce is the president of Jetport Inc, whose holdings include a private jet charter company and multiple privately held real estate companies. Since 2004, Joyce has also served as CEO of Fox Harb’r Golf Resort & Spa, a world-renowned golf course, resort and private real estate developer envisioned and created by his family.

Canada Newswire

Simons opens its doors to outside investors

La Maison Simons is in talks to bring in outside investors for the first time in its 178-year history as the Quebec City-based department store chain reshapes its strategy. The clothing retailer is in advanced discussions with a group of real estate and private equity investors to help finance a new national distribution centre, said Peter Simons, the company’s chief executive.

Globe and Mail

Nordstroms will have to pay up to go private

It’s a challenging time for the traditional retail sector, and that’s partly what’s behind a shake-up at Nordstrom (JWN-N), where the company’s founding family is now pitted against its board of directors. A much-anticipated attempt to take the 117-year-old retailer private arrived on Monday, with the family indicating it is willing to pay about US$50 per share in cash. The deal values the company at approximately US$8.4 billion.

Financial Post – Bloomberg

Industrial vacancy rates plummet in Victoria and Kelowna

It is becoming just as tough for companies in Victoria and Kelowna to find industrial space as it is in Metro Vancouver, according to a new report from Colliers International. The industrial vacancy rate in the Greater Victoria region fell from 4.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent by the end of 2017, according to the firm’s national assessment of urban centres with populations of less than one million.

Vancouver Sun

Commercial strata only realistic option for Mount Pleasant

Sky-high land values in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood mean developers getting into that market today will likely have no choice but to build commercial strata, further tightening the commercial leasing market, said a panel of local stakeholders. Developing purpose-built commercial rental space won’t make sense for land bought today, said Matthew MacLean, a vice-president with Cushman and Wakefield in Vancouver.

Vancouver Sun

Ruling offers lesson for Edmonton LRT expropriation: Lawyer

A new ruling should give a heads-up to anyone facing expropriation along Edmonton’s future west LRT line, a lawyer says. The Alberta Land Compensation Board this month found in favour of Can-West Corporate Air Charters, a company forced to move from the City Centre Airport when the city expropriated leases there to develop a residential neighbourhood. 

Edmonton Journal

What’s new with Airbnb in 2018?

While Airbnb started as a casual hotel alternative for frugal millennials wanting unique travel experiences, it has morphed into one of the largest travel brands ever and has transformed the hotel industry in the process. Before Airbnb was founded, you either stayed at a hotel or rented a vacation home from a site like VRBO or HomeAway with stiff rules and regulations.

Forbes

RAIC, ACEC hail federal QBS initiative

Engineers and architects are thrilled with the announcement the federal government, through Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), is taking steps towards introducing qualifications-based selection (QBS) for the procurement of architectural and engineering services on federal projects. On Feb. 2, PSPC issued a request for information (RFI) to seek comments on the possible introduction of QBS. The closing date is March 13.

Daily Commercial News

Featured Column

Local library renaissance an opportunity for landlords

Board any public transit vehicle and have a quick look at your fellow passengers, you’ll be hard pressed to find any one of them reading a book. Why read when technology allows you to watch a video or socialize with friends? These and other trends in our personal interactions should be bad news for our libraries. But recently, we’ve seen an upsurge in library usage.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Bank of Canada holds rate at 1.25%

If not for Donald Trump, the Bank of Canada probably would be raising interest rates. The U.S. president’s assault on the norms of global trade is so severe the central bank has little choice but to leave borrowing costs unchanged, lest it add to the chaos. “Trade policy developments are an important and growing source of uncertainty for the global and Canadian outlooks,” the Bank of Canada said.

Financial Post – Toronto Star

Real Estate Companies

Van. Trump Tower developer claims no FBI contact

The Malaysian owner of the Trump Tower in Vancouver has not been questioned by the FBI and has not dealt with the U.S. President’s son-in-law, his lawyers said in a media statement released Monday. The Holborn Group, owned by Joo Kim Tiah, was responding to a U.S. media report Ivanka Trump was being investigated in the building of Trump International Hotel and Tower Vancouver.

Vancouver Sun – Global News

Giants woo office tenants with worker perks

Find your Zo is the  invitation Tishman Speyer Properties LP has extended to workers at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, welcoming them to an app-driven world of health, education and pampering — and fighting off rival landlords in a battle to woo corporate tenants by appealing to their employees. By next month, workers in eight of the 10 New York commercial properties Tishman manages will be able to download the Zo app. 

Bloomberg

REIT Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Agellan Commercial REIT, (ACR-UN-T), Business Wire

* Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust (PIRET), (AAR-UN-T), Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Getting inside the strategy of a new gaming REIT

In early February, VICI Properties Inc. took a gamble on the stock market and hit the jackpot. The gaming REIT’s IPO raised about $1.4 billion, making it one of the largest IPOs thus far in 2018 and one of the largest REIT IPOs ever. The IPO for the Las Vegas-based company happened just four months after its spin-off from Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., a subsidiary of gaming giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. that emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2017.

National Real Estate Investor

U.S. REITs rethink strategies due to falling stock prices, rising rates

Recent volatility in the stock market is adding insult to injury where REITs are concerned. REITs that generally lagged the broader market in 2017 have been pummeled in 2018. Year-to-date returns dropped to negative 9.5 per cent as of Feb. 22 in what has been a turbulent start to the year for the stock market. Yet many REITs have been posting lacklustre returns for the past three years, according to Nareit.

National Real Estate Investor

Retail

JPMorgan offers Amex deal to Canadian retailers

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has struck a deal with payment processing firm Chase Merchant Services that will see CFIB members — as long as they use Chase’s network — pay much lower fees whenever customers pay for their purchase with an American Express credit card. The industry is currently dominated by Visa and MasterCard.

CBC – Globe and Mail

Reitmans to close all of its Hyba activewear stores

Women’s fashion retailer Reitmans Ltd. (RET-T) says it is closing all of its Hyba stores. The Montreal-based company says the 17 locations will shutter by next February as it moves the brand into its existing 270 Reitmans stores and online. The stores were converted from Smart Set locations when the chain closed its 107 locations in 2015 and rebranded dozens to other store names.

Montreal Gazette

New Development

York U approves $50M build for Keele campus

York University has announced it will add a new School of Continuing Studies building to its Keele campus with Perkins + Will slated to serve as the project designer. The university’s board of governors approved a total project budget of $50.5 million for the design and construction of the new building. York plans to break ground on the project in 2019 with classes expected to start in the new building in 2021.

Daily Commercial News

Calgary community groups clash over connecting road plan

A group, which has unknown membership, wants to reject connecting roads between Lakeview and the proposed Taza development on the Tsuut’ina First Nation. That development is planned to include entertainment, hospitality, retail and mixed-use developments. Existing community association representatives have resigned over ‘caustic’ communication.

CBC

Other

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