Chinese billionaire eyes HBC’s Vancouver property

Chinese billionaire eyes HBC’s Vancouver property

Zheng Jianjiang, the chairman of Chinese manufacturing firm Ningbo Sanxing Electric, has emerged as the buyer for Hudson’s Bay Co.’s key retail property in downtown Vancouver. The six-storey building is majority-owned by HBC (HBC-T) through its real estate partnership with RioCan REIT (REI-UN-T). 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

RioCan hires RBC to shop London, Ont., retail centres

RioCan REIT (REI-UN-T)  has formally listed its 10 shopping centres for sale in London, in a move that will mark its exit from the Ontario city. RioCan’s 10 retail properties together total more than a million square feet of gross leasable area.  The move has been expected since the REIT’s decision to focus on Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

CoStar Group – Property Biz Canada

PBA to build two Marriott-branded hotels in Calgary

PBA Land and Development Thursday will unveil plans to build a major new luxury hotel in downtown Calgary. The Dorian will be the first new luxury hotel in the city in 20 years and will actually be two hotels in one, a Courtyard by Marriott and an exclusive Marriott Autograph Collection hotel. 

Property Biz Canada

Spire Developments building a niche in Vancouver

The people behind Spire Development have large ambitions. The Delta B.C.-headquartered developer has been carving out a niche in the Lower Mainland with projects such as an exclusive condo building in the south Granville neighbourhood and Vancouver’s largest, multi-unit, Passive House apartment building.

Property Biz Canada

Simons seeks to build $215M distribution centre

Department store operator Simons is taking on outside investors for the first time as it looks to build a new $215-million distribution centre in Quebec City to better compete in the retail market. The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec is investing $27 million.

CBC – Globe and Mail – Montreal Gazette – CTV

Aviva creates $63.4 billion real assets platform

Aviva Investors has created a $63.4 billion Cdn real assets platform and sold parts of its real estate business to LaSalle Investment Management (JLL-N). The investment manager is combining its real estate, infrastructure and private debt activities under one umbrella to be led by Mark Versey.

IPE Real Assets – CoStar Group – PR Newswire

Canada to buy Trans Mountain pipeline, terminal for $4.5B

The federal Liberal government plans to spend $4.5 billion to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and all of Kinder Morgan Canada’s core assets. Finance Minister Bill Morneau says that in return, Kinder Morgan will go ahead with its original plan to twin the pipeline this summer.

CBC – Daily Commercial News – CBC – Business In Vancouver

Montreal’s new LRT to upend market

The Réseau express métropolitain (REM) – billed as the fourth largest LRT in the world, after Singapore, Dubai and Vancouver – will likely have a major impact on Montreal land use and real estate development.

Globe and Mail

Calgary council votes to restart arena talks with Flames

City council wants to restart talks on a new arena with the owners of the Calgary Flames. Talks between the two sides ended last summer with the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) walking away from the table.

CBC

Food companies gobbling up B.C. industrial space

While industrial developers eagerly eye farmland for new opportunities, food processors and distributors have spent the past year cutting some of the biggest deals for industrial space. CBRE Ltd. reports 31.3% of Metro Vancouver’s top 10 lease transactions last year were to food and beverage companies.

Business In Vancouver – Property Biz Canada

Life is short; high land costs are forever

If you thought being six feet under might free you from Metro Vancouver’s stratospheric real estate market costs, you would be mistaken. The business of the dead is booming, and Metro Vancouver is home to a number of memorial companies subject to the same pressures of rising prices and disappearing space,

Business In Vancouver

Canada attracts record number of international retailers

Canada attracted a record 40 new international retailers in 2017, and Vancouver lured 11 of those brands as the first Canadian port of call, according to the CBRE’s How Global is the Business of Retail. Toronto attracted all 40 of the brands that chose to expand to Canada

Business In Vancouver

Who will bankroll $4B American Dream Miami?

Now that American Dream Miami has the blessing of county commissioners, the question becomes: How will the developer pay for the $4-billion behemoth? Triple Five Worldwide officials are revealing little about financing for the five million-square-foot planned mega mall and entertainment centre.

CoStar Group

Blackstone sells N.Y.C. office tower for $640M

Savanna is the new owner of 5 Bryant Park, a 683,000-square-foot office property in Midtown Manhattan. The real estate investment manager purchased the class-A tower from Blackstone (BX-N) in a $640-million deal. 5 Bryant Park last changed hands for $180 million in 2006.

CP Executive – Property Biz Canada

HNA Group sells San Francisco tower for $300M US

The latest property to change hands in HNA Group’s fire sale of its global assets is a San Francisco office tower at 123 Mission Street. The building, which was the Chinese conglomerate’s first property on the West Coast, was sold to Northwood Investors for about $300 million.

The Real Deal – Bloomberg

Market Trends and Research

Bank of Canada leaves key interest rate steady at 1.25%

The Bank of Canada left a key interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, saying global economic activity is living up to its forecasts, but added that uncertainty persists in the area of trade. ​The overnight rate has been at 1.25 per cent since mid-January.

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

‘Amazon tax’ could slow Seattle’s construction boom

Seattle’s booming economy has worsened an acute housing shortage. In response, the city council recently passed the “Amazon tax” that will impose a levy on companies with annual revenues of $20 million of about $275 per full-time employee every year.

Building Design & Construction

MARTA’s recent impact on Atlanta is staggering

As Atlanta development observers are fully aware, MARTA is succeeding in harvesting a built-in customer base at stations from Chamblee to Decatur, where seven hubs are in various phases of seeing parking lots transformed into transit-oriented communities.

Curbed Atlanta

Real Estate Companies

Toys R Us preparing to sell N.J. headquarters

The worldwide headquarters of failed retailer Toys R Us is nestled at a bucolic site, nearly 200 acres, adjacent to a lake-like reservoir in Wayne, N.J. The HQ is likely to be sold as part of the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

CoStar Group

Colliers to acquire Frankfurt multi-family leader

Leading global commercial real estate services firm Colliers International Group Inc. (CIGI-T) Tuesday announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Engel & Völkers Main -Taunus GmbH the leading multi-family investment experts in the Frankfurt region. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Globe Newswire

REOC Financial Reports

Latest financial results:

* Gulf & Pacific Equities Corp., (GUF-X), Globe Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Shopping mall REITs: The deal-breakers

In just a few days in April, the headline-grabbing shopping centre mergers that were announced at the end of 2017 unwound in spectacular style. First, French mall giant Klepierre stepped away from its tentative and clearly unwanted interest in Franco-UK REIT Hammerson.

IPE Real Assets

BTB a high-yield monthly income play

BTB REIT (BTB.UN-T)  is a relatively small, solidly stable, and growing REIT that holds 71 high-quality retail, office, and industrial properties situated in Quebec and Eastern Ontario. The trust commenced operations in 2006 and has offered investors high-quality monthly distributions that appear very dependable.

Motley Fool – Property Biz Canada

Restaurants and Eateries

JAB adds Pret a Manger to restaurant portfolio

With its acquisition of Pret a Manger, JAB Holding Co. is taking a quintessentially British institution — the sandwich — on a global expansion drive, adding the brand to its stable of restaurant chains that include Panera Bread Co. and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

Toronto Star

Infrastructure

UWF could be key for Infrastructure projects

An Urban Wealth Fund (UWF) can act as an investor in and manager of commercially viable new projects, including investments in commercially viable infrastructure, without taxpayer funding. This would truly be a new way to deliver upgraded transportation, power, water, flood defenses and communications.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Technology

New drone rules coming to Canada

Many companies, like real estate agencies, are using drones commercially. With the sudden rise in popularity in drone usage both by recreational flyers and for commercial use, new Transport Canada rules are being proposed which are expected to come later this year.

rcinet.ca/en

Other

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