Lululemon founder loads up on Vancouver properties

Lululemon founder loads up on Vancouver properties

Lululemon Athletica (LULU-Q) founder Chip Wilson’s family real estate company has been rapidly buying up property, primarily in East Vancouver, and plans to have a portfolio worth $1.5 billion within 10 years. Five-year-old Low Tide Properties (LTP) already owns about $300 million worth of property, about 90 per cent of that in Vancouver, said CEO Andrew Chang.

Business In Vancouver

B.C. to buy buildings, Westbank to build tower

The B.C. government plans to buy two Vancouver buildings  for $2.7 million and then allow developer Westbank Corp.to integrate the two to build a tower with 214 rental units as well as street-level retail space. The new structure, expected to cost $52.8 million, is slated to include three storeys with 80 social housing units with the remainder market rental suites.

Business In Vancouver

SilverBirch Hotels launches strategic review

SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts has retained JLL to complete a strategic review that could result in the sale of its hospitality portfolio. SilverBirch is a hotel operating and asset management company with a portfolio encompassing 26 hotels in major and secondary markets across Canada.

Property Biz Canada

CF Shops at Don Mills test lab for Buttonville

CF Shops at Don Mills, rising on the site of the demolished Don Mills Centre mall in Toronto, is Cadillac Fairview’s first European-style open-air shopping centre. It also marks a seven-year experiment of integrating residential onto a shopping centre property that keeps on growing as condo buildings continue to sprout up on the 40-acre site. 

Property Biz Canada

Urbancorp collapse exposes flaws in laws

The sudden downfall of Urbancorp, one of Toronto’s most active developers, has exposed what many say are serious shortcomings in consumer-protection laws governing new home construction in Ontario. Since paying a $75,000 deposit toward an Urbancorp townhouse more than two years ago, Alex Oren is still wondering if he will ever get his home – or his money.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe and Mail

Nowhere to go but up at LeBreton: Firestone

With the National Capital Commission recently choosing the bid backed by Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk as its preferred plan for LeBreton Flats, here is a key question: how can the Sens pay for a new arena at the site without public funding? 

Ottawa Business Journal

Vancouver CRE realtors caught up in crackdown

New B.C. legislation aimed at curtailing real estate flipping through assignments will add “unnecessary paperwork” in B.C.’s $8 billion commercial real estate sector, where assignments are a standard practice, realtors say. An assignment allows a buyer to assign the rights in a contract to someone else before the original sale completes.

Business In Vancouver

Winnipeg ready for its close-up

Winnipeg is viewed by some as the new Canadian hot spot for CRE investment and hundreds of industry officials are gathering in the city this week to see how they can get in on the action. “I’ve heard investors from Toronto say Winnipeg is the new Calgary,” said Arni Thorsteinson, president of Winnipeg-based Shelter Canadian Properties Ltd.

Winnipeg Free Press

Windsor ‘red tape’ stifling new investment: Critics

It was a multimillion-dollar Windsor development proposal that was different and unique in a downtown struggling to attract private investment. Designed to cater to a high-end crowd, the multi-storey restaurant-bar-nightclub would boast a rooftop lounge, jutting patios overlooking Ouellette Avenue and a catwalk accessing the city-owned parking garage at Pelissier and Park.

Windsor Star

IPE names Ivanhoe best global investor

Ivanhoé Cambridge won Best Global Real Estate Investor at the IPE Real Estate Global Awards 2016 in Amsterdam. The real estate arm of the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) also won awards for Indirect Strategy and Investment in Latin America.

IPE Real Estate

Ivanhoe, Bouwinvest, Allianz bullish on Asia

At IPE Real Estate Conference & Awards in Amsterdam, Rita-Rose Gagné, executive vice-president for growth markets at Ivanhoé Cambridge, said of Asia-Pacific: “It’s going to be very volatile, but capital is coming back in, because there are too many long-term trends there and you have to enter these long-term markets long before those trends really materialise.”

IPE Real Estate – IPE Real Estate – IPE Real Estate – IPE Real Estate

Regina’s industrial market has ‘plateaued’: AY

Regina’s industrial real estate market has plateaued along with the provincial economy, as evidenced by rising vacancy rates, slower leasing activity and a large surplus of industrial land outside city limits, according to Avison Young Commercial Real Estate’s spring industrial market report. The only things that haven’t changed that much are lease rates, which remain stubbornly high.

Regina Leader-Post

Manufacturers set to spin off U.S. office assets

Canada’s Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. filed final paperwork in Singapore for an initial public offer of a REIT  backed by three U.S. office properties. The REIT could begin trading by the end of this week. Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust is the first pure-play U.S. office REIT to be listed in Asia. Manufacturers Life is sponsor of the REIT.

CoStar Group

Fixing Sears akin to closing Guantanamo: CEO

Getting long-struggling Sears (SCC-T) to stop bleeding cash has been about as easy as closing the U.S. military prison in Cuba, according to CEO Edward Lampert. It’s “not so easy,” said Lampert, who is also the retailer’s biggest investor. “Our focus right now is to show people that we can get this company back to profitability.”

Bloomberg – Bloomberg

Whole Foods’ 365 store has robots

There’s a lot riding on a robot — the teaBot, to be exact — but not for the Canadian start-up behind the machine. Rather, it is 365, the much anticipated new grocery concept from Whole Foods Market (WFM-Q), that is banking on the robotic kiosk and a host of other bells and whistles to reverse the company’s waning fortunes.

New York Times

	Fort McMurray wildfire news
	RENX will be summarizing news regarding the Fort McMurray wildfire and its consequences for the real estate industry in the following section of the newsletter.

 

Long and costly rebuild for Fort Mac

The first Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo council meeting since the fire that incinerated parts of Fort McMurray, and Canada’s oil sands was as emotional as you might expect: some councillors hugged each other, others teared up while describing the devastation they left behind, and some got frustrated with their inability to kick-start the rebuilding effort. 

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

Edmonton EXPO Centre ‘back to business as usual’

After being pressed into service as a makeshift home for hundreds of wildfire evacuees, some semblance of normal routine is returning to the Edmonton EXPO Centre. The 522,000-square-foot trade-show and conference facility opened its doors on the night of May 3 to people fleeing Fort McMurray as fire ravaged much of the community/

Edmonton Journal

Firms come to aid of wildfire victims:

* Dollarama Inc., (DOL-T), Canada Newswire

* Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Canada Newswire

* Ford Motor Company of Canada, (F-N), Windsor Star 

* Qualico, Canada Newswire

Featured Column

Fort Mac: The real work is about to begin

The fires are out in Fort McMurray. The real work is just beginning. Thanks to the heroic efforts of firefighters, residents and area businesses, about 85 per cent of the northern Alberta community has survived Canada’s most devastating wildfire. Still, more than 2,400 structures have been destroyed and most of those are homes.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Chinese largest foreign buyers of U.S. property

Chinese nationals have become the largest foreign buyers of U.S. property after pouring billions into the market in search of safe offshore assets, according to a Asia Society and Rosen Consulting Group study.  A huge surge in Chinese buying of both residential and CRE last year took their five-year investment total to more than $110 billion US.

The Guardian

U.S. CRE investors remain upbeat

Despite the recent volatility in the global economy and an equal measure of uncertainty domestically over the presidential race, investors remain confident in the strength of U.S. commercial real estate fundamentals, the Real Estate Roundtable said Friday. However, the latest quarterly Sentiment Index from the Roundtable is down slightly from the previous quarter.

Globest.com

U.S. demand for shopping centres holds steady

The U.S. retail real estate market recorded 11 million square feet of net absorption in the first quarter of 2016, causing the nation’s average vacancy rate to tick down to six per cent, the lowest quarterly level since the Great Recession. Solid U.S. job growth and wage gains suggest that retail demand should rebound over the remainder of 2016.

CoStar Group

REOC Financial Reports

Latest first-quarter reports:

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

* Chartwell Retirement Residences, (CSH.UN-T), Marketwired

* Dundee Corp., (DC.A-T), Marketwired   

* Extendicare Inc., (EXE-T), Marketwired   

* Sienna Senior Living Inc., (SIA-T), Marketwired   

* Timbercreek Mortgage Investment Corp., (TMC-T), Marketwired

	REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. First-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 report

 

REIT Financial Reports

Latest first-quarter results:

* Inovalis REIT, (INO.UN-T), Canada Newswire                    

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

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Slate Retail purchases Abbott’s Village in Atlanta

Slate Retail REIT (SRT.U-T), an owner and operator of U.S. grocery-anchored real estate, announced today it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Abbott’s Village, a 93 per cent occupied Publix-anchored centre, in the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area. The property will be acquired for US $15.2 million (US $139 per square foot).

Marketwired

Inovalis REIT appoints new CFO

Inovalis REIT (INO.UN-T) today reported Antoine Tronquoy has advised he will be leaving effective June 30 to pursue other opportunities. Tronquoy joined the REIT in 2013 and played a significant role in its growth and development. The REIT also announced Anne Smolen has been appointed the new CFO effective July 1 and will be based in Paris.

Canada Newswire

Killam announces public offering of trust units

Killam Apartment REIT (KMP.UN-T) announced it has reached an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets to issue to the public, subject to regulatory approval, on a bought deal basis, 7,100,000 trust units for $12.00 per unit for gross proceeds of $85.2 million.

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada

CAP REIT great, but too pricey

There’s no denying Canadian Apartment Properties REIT’s (CAR.UN-T) high quality. The REIT owns apartments, townhouses, and land-lease communities in or near major urban centres in Canada and is growth-oriented. However, it is just too expensive as an investment today. If the shares fell to $26.80 or lower, the REIT would be a buy at a yield of 4.5% or higher.

Motley Fool

Retail

Failure great learning experience: DavidsTea founder

“What’s it like building a successful company? It’s really a great feeling,” DavidsTea (DTEA-Q) founder David Segal said at the Legacy Conference in Ottawa. “But I actually think that when you fail it’s not so bad. . . . You come back better, smarter. The most difficult thing in business is to be in purgatory, to be between success and failure.”

Ottawa Business Journal

The future of retail is fast, free delivery

Here’s a spoiler alert for all retailers: The future is fast, free shipping. Whether through special seasonal offers or reaching threshold spend levels or an annual membership, shoppers are being trained that items purchased online should magically arrive at their door at the same price they would have paid in-store.

Forbes

Sports Venues

Downtown Winnipeg arena proves a good neighbour

When the national anthem singer at Winnipeg Jets home games gets to the line, “the true north strong and free,” fans shout out in unison “true north.” It’s a grassroots tribute to True North Sports and Entertainment, the company credited for bringing the Jets back to the Manitoba capital and which owns and operates the MTS Centre.

Edmonton Journal – Edmonton Journal

Technology

Online retailers grappling with new forms of digital deception

The customer is always right — except, of course, for those occasions when the customer is actually wrong, deliberately. Retailers have long dealt with theft-related fraud at their stores, but newer forms of digital deception have proliferated in recent years amid higher online sales and improved security techniques at bricks-and-mortar stores.

Financial Post – Toronto Star

Can this RE gimmick save the world?

In April, Steve Wynn announced plans to tear up the golf course that lies behind two of his Las Vegas hotels and replace it with a 38-acre man-made lake. Rising from the middle of the lagoon will be a 10-storey mountain, accessible by zip line and electric ferry, that will serve as a launching point for nightly fireworks. 

Bloomberg

Other

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