QuadReal plucks Lopez from European asset manager

QuadReal plucks Lopez from European asset manager

Dennis Lopez will take over as CEO of the real estate investment arm of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) on June 5. Lopez will leave his position as global chief investment officer of AXA Investment Managers–Real Assets in London to head QuadReal Property Group in Vancouver, which manages bcIMC’s $18-billion portfolio.

IPE Real Estate – Property Magazine International – Canada Newswire

Ivanhoe, Callahan Capital acquire Chicago office tower

Ivanhoé Cambridge and its partner Callahan Capital Properties announced they have closed on the acquisition of 125 South Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago, for approximately US$145 million. 125 South Wacker Drive is a 576,000-square foot, 31-storey office tower ideally situated at the corner of South Wacker Drive and West Adams Street in Chicago’s West Loop submarket.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Reseau Selection building Canada’s tallest seniors tower

Construction is underway on a Quebec project that has attracted interest from China and will be the tallest seniors housing tower in Canada. The 30-storey Sélection Panorama is being built at a cost of $94 million by Réseau Selection in the Sainte-Dorothée neighbourhood of Laval.

Property Biz Canada

Avison Young report highlights tight GTA CRE market

A lack of available product is to account for a slowdown in transactions in the GTA, according to Avison Young’s first quarter 2017 CRE Investment Review. The analysis of sales activity notes a 14% quarter-over-quarter decline in sales to $2.4 billion through the first three months of 2017.

Property Biz Canada

Chinese developer gains foothold for delayed Squamish project

A Chinese development company that paid $30.5 million for 480 acres near Squamish, B.C., five years ago is now proceeding with its first development on part of the site. Taicheng Development Corp. bought the land through a court-ordered, cash sale in 2012. Last month, Taicheng was given a permit to set up an office, following approval from the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District.

Western Investor

PSP Investments launches European hub

Ottawa-headquartered Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) has launched a “European hub” to oversee its private-markets investments in the region. The $126 billion Cdn institutional investor has moved 28 professionals to a recently built London office it co-owns with Tishman Speyer.

IPE Real Estate

Mass PRIM reallocates REITs to Brookfield

Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (Mass PRIM) is planning to drop Invesco Realty Advisors from a roster of managers that run a $1.5 billion US portfolio of REITs. The pension fund will transfer a $288 million REIT portfolio from Invesco to Brookfield Investment Management, according to a board meeting document.

IPE Real Estate

Ottawa urged to become centre for high-tech building

When he was invited to sit on the “How do we Growth Hack Ottawa?” panel, William MacGowan did some serious thinking about what the city can do to become an international tech leader. As Director of Smart Building Digitization at Cisco, his mind naturally drifted to what he knows best.

Property Biz Canada

NCC releases 50-year plan for Ottawa

The National Capital Commission Tuesday released The Plan for Canada’s Capital, 2017-2067, calling for a new national botanical gardens on the west side of the Rideau Canal, a new Sir John A. Macdonald riverfront park, a public park overlooking Chaudière Falls, a renewal of Nepean Point and streetscape enhancements along downtown roads.

Ottawa Business Journal

Foreign skiers could be boon to Canadian resorts

Another wretched year of poor snow cover and declining visitors and the Alpine ski industry is looking nervously into the future. European resort operators are frantically targeting the Chinese ski yuan. Meanwhile, American and Canadian resorts could enjoy a boost from foreign skiers, especially the British, fed up with poor snow conditions in Europe and high prices.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Metro Vancouver industrial strength shifts to Delta

Only two per cent of Metro Vancouver’s nearly 200 million square feet of industrial space is vacant, representing Canada’s tightest industrial market and one marked by soaring land prices and rapid take-up of new developments. “Without question, the current industrial market is the strongest Beedie has experienced in its 63-year history,” said Beedie Development Corp. president Ryan Beedie.

Business In Vancouver

Home Capital board says no rush to sell business

Board members at Home Capital Group Inc. (HCG-T) said the troubled company is combing through a range of restructuring options, but will not pursue a rapid sale of its business. Home Capital’s directors and interim management said Friday on a call with analysts they would consider a wide-range of potential funding sources and reassess how the business is run. 

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Toronto Star – Vancouver Sun

NYRT’s planned sale to fetch $1.55B

New York REIT (NYRT-N) estimates the planned sale of all its buildings will net shareholders $1.55 billion it said in a statement Thursday. NYRT last year announced it would liquidate itself and appointed former Vornado Realty Trust executive Wendy Silverstein to oversee the process. Activist investors Steve Witkoff and Michael Ashner had pushed for the move, clashing with former management. 

The Real Deal

Dream Global REIT upgraded as catalysts loom

Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN-T) was upgraded to buy from hold at Desjardins Capital Markets, as analyst Michael Markidis thinks the overhang created by a recent $115-million equity issuance has passed. Raising his price target on the stock to $11 from $10, Markidis expects Dream Global to break out of its four-year trading range of $8 to $10.

Financial Post

Canadian Tire to try home delivery

Canadian Tire Corp Ltd (CTC.A-T) is getting back into home delivery of online goods. The country’s biggest seller of sporting goods and housewares famously scrapped its sales website in 2009 after nine years, and relaunched it in 2013 as a click-and-collect model, allowing customers to pick up goods bought online at their local stores.

Financial Post – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail – Reuters

Market Trends and Research

Moody’s takes Canadian banks down a notch

For the second time in five years, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the debt ratings of a group of Canada’s largest banks over concerns about their exposure to increasingly indebted consumers and high housing prices. There was no major news event behind the ratings agency’s one-notch downgrade late Wednesday to the Big Six banks.

Financial Post – Financial Post – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Global News

Single-digit vacancy rates define N.A. industrial: AY

The industrial property sector continues to be characterized by sound fundamentals, irrespective of geography and geopolitical and economic conditions, noted Avison Young’s Spring 2017 North America and U.K. Industrial Market Report. Record-low or near-record-low vacancy rates, owing to robust demand, are placing upward pressure on rental rates. Development costs are also on the rise.

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Companies

Avison Young to manage Oklahoma City outlet

Avison Young announced it has been retained as property manager of The Outlet Shoppes at Oklahoma City by The Outlet Resource Group and Singerman Real Estate. The two companies purchased the retail asset earlier this month for $103 million US. Developed by Horizon Group Properties and CBL & Associates Properties Inc. in 2011, the 400,000 square-foot mall continued to expand through 2014.

CP Executive

Trump Taj Mahal sold for fraction of cost

Donald Trump wrote “The Art Of The Deal,” but it was Florida’s Seminole Indians who made a truly amazing deal to buy the opulent casino. The Trump Taj Mahal, the Atlantic City casino the real estate mogul built for $1.2 billion in 1990, went for four cents on the dollar when it was sold in March. 

Vancouver Province

REOC Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Brookfield Asset Management Inc., (BAM.A-T), Marketwired    

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

* Holloway Lodging Corporation, (HLC-T), Canada Newswire  

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

REIT Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* AHIP REIT, (HOT.UN-T), Marketwired  

* Automotive Properties REIT, (APR.UN-T), Canada Newswire 

* Boardwalk REIT, (BEI.UN-T), Canada Newswire 

* Cominar REIT, (CUF.UN-T), Cominar Website 

* Crombie REIT, (CRR.UN-T), Canada Newswire 

* Northwest Healthcare Properties REIT, (NWH.UN-T), Canada Newswire  

* Plaza Retail REIT, (PLZ.UN-T), Canada Newswire 

* Pure Multi-Family REIT, (RUF.U-X), Marketwired 

* SmartREIT, (SRU.UN-T), Marketwired 

* True North Commercial REIT, (TNT.UN-T), Canada Newswire  

* WPT Industrial REIT, (WIR.U-T), Marketwired    

Real Estate Investment Trusts

EC-REIT announces closing on German property

European Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (ERE.UN-X) announced it has closed its acquisition of an office property located in Landshut, Germany, part of the greater Munich metropolitan region, for approximately $45 million Cdn. The acquisition property is an approximately 172,900-square-foot office property that is wholly leased to a subsidiary of E.ON SE. 

Marketwired

Granite announces renewal of normal course issuer bid

Granite REIT  (GRT.UN-T) announced the acceptance by the TSX of Granite’s Notice of Intention to Make a Normal Course Issuer Bid.  Granite REIT and Granite GP propose to purchase over the next 12 months up to an aggregate of 4,118,757 of Granite`s issued and outstanding stapled units, being approximately 10% of Granite’s public float of stapled units as of April 30.

Canada Newswire

Partners announces mortgage at Ontario property

Partners Real Estate Investment Trust (PAR.UN-T) announced it has finalized a $13.0 million mortgage at the REIT’s Cornwall Square property in Cornwall, Ont. This mortgage was financed by First National Financial LP and the loan has a three-year term, a 25 year amortization period and an interest rate of prime plus 2.25%, with an interest rate floor of 4.95 per cent. 

Marketwired

Retail

HBC shares drop on disappointing sales data

Shares of Hudson’s Bay Co (HBC-T) slumped more than six per cent Friday after the retailer reported disappointing quarterly same-store sales figures. After markets closed Thursday, the Toronto-based retailer said comparable store sales fell 2.9 per cent during Q1, hurt by fewer customers shopping in its stores, particularly in the U.S. 

Reuters – Reuters

Vancouver’s six-store Ingledew’s to liquidate

The 102-year-old, Vancouver-based shoe retailer Ingledew’s is liquidating its inventory and plans to close all six B.C. stores by mid-summer, CEO Bill Ingledew said.  “It is a bankruptcy,” Ingledew said. Three of the six Ingledew’s locations have an Ecco shoes store attached, which will also close. The news comes as the ultra-competitive, shoe retail sector undergoes dramatic change. 

Business In Vancouver

Whole Foods overhaul fails to satisfy activist: Source

The board overhaul announced by Whole Foods Markets Inc (WFM-Q) Wednesday failed to satisfy Jana Partners, according to a source, signalling the month-long battle between the organic grocer and activist hedge fund is no nearer to a conclusion. Jana, which owns 8.3 per cent of the company, is worried about the lack of grocery experience among the five new directors. 

Reuters – Reuters

Latest financial results:

* Leon’s Furniture Limited, (LNF-T), Canada Newswire 

Restaurants and Eateries

Latest financial results:

* Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund, (BPF.UN-T), Marketwired     

* The Second Cup Ltd., (SCU-T), Canada Newswire 

Sports Venues

Most Calgarians want new Flames arena

Most Calgarians are in favour of a new hockey rink and event centre to replace the Scotiabank Saddledome. Fifty per cent say Calgary needs a new arena, according to the poll by Mainstreet Research. Backing rises to fully 60 per cent if the city supports the rink with a deal involving land or savings with no tax increase.

Calgary Herald – CBC

Infrastructure

Hydro One stock sale hits a wall

Ontario’s move to unload a $2.8-billion stake in Hydro One Ltd. (H-T) has hit a standstill after investors balked at the stock sale, leaving underwriters with as much as half of the shares unsold. The province’s cash-strapped Liberal government announced the huge offering Monday, selling 120 million shares at $23.25 apiece to a syndicate of investment banks on a bought-deal basis.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Other

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