Timing ripe for Eau Claire Market redevelopment

Timing ripe for Eau Claire Market redevelopment

Calgary’s core has always struggled to support an urban community. But a $1-billion redevelopment of the city’s historic Eau Claire Market Mall and the development of surface parking lots immediately to the west of the mall – both slated for mixed-use urban villages and both hoping to break soil this year – could change that.

Globe and Mail

B.C. FN buy prime Vancouver real estate

Three B.C. First Nations have paid the province $480 million for a prime piece of real estate on the west side of Vancouver. However, it’s unclear what plans are in store for one of the largest undeveloped parcels of land on the city’s pricey west side. The Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations nations purchased the 15.7-hectare parcel.

CBC News – Globe and Mail – Vancouver Province – Business In Vancouver

Temple Hotels takeover first step for Morguard

Last week, Morguard Corp. (MRC-T) announced the effective takeover of Temple Hotels Inc. (TPH-T) with the resignation of Temple’s top executives and their replacement by top Morguard executives. The takeover ends more than six months of maneuvering which saw the diversified real estate giant take an ever-increasing ownership stake in Winnipeg-based Temple.

Property Biz Canada

Strategic Storage eyes 100 GTA locations

Just how much storage space do people living in and around the Toronto area really need? A heck of a lot, based on the growth plans of Strategic Storage Trust II, Inc. (SST II). Strategic Storage, a U.S.-backed, public non-traded REIT, wants to create a portfolio of more than 100 properties in the GTA over the next five years.

Property Biz Canada

Shopify to anchor Allied, RioCan project

Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN-T) and RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) today announced plans to proceed with the development of 602-620 King Street West, Toronto. Shopify Inc. (SH-T) has signed a commitment to lease approximately 112,000 square feet of GLA (approximately 44% of the total office GLA) as the anchor tenant of King-Portland Centre.

Marketwired – Ottawa Business Journal

CPPIB sells South Florida portfolio to Kimco

Kimco Realty Corp. (KIM-N) has relieved its joint-venture partner, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, of the remaining 45 per cent ownership interest in two South Florida shopping centres for a gross purchase price of $299.2 million, including the assumption of $100 million in existing mortgage debt.

CoStar Group

Edmonton’s Kingsway Mall to embrace LRT

Kingsway Mall has rewritten its master plan to embrace LRT and could soon add high-density residential space, offices or more retail if Edmonton picks that transit line for new investment, Susan Denney, tthe mall’s general manager says. And it could mark a major shift in Edmonton’s treatment of transit.

Edmonton Journal

Winnipeg Main Street makeover ideas abound

Winnipeg’s downtown development agency has some big ideas for how south Main Street can be redeveloped and revitalized. In a new 16-page document posted on its website, CentreVenture Development Corp. outlines through a series of conceptual drawings its vision for how the section of Main Street between Portage Avenue and the Assiniboine River might be redeveloped.

Winnipeg Free Press

Holloway acquires Whitehorse’s Westmark hotel

Holloway Lodging Corporation (HLC-T) announced it has acquired the Westmark hotel located in Whitehorse, Yukon for a purchase price of $9.8 million. The property has 180 rooms, a restaurant and lounge and 7,000 square feet of function space.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Competition brewing on coffee scene

Another player is entering the highly competitive coffee-retailing market in Winnipeg. Good Earth Coffeehouse, a Calgary-based chain with 45 locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, hopes to open as many as four coffeehouses in Winnipeg over the next two to three years, company co-founder and CEO Michael Going said.

Winnipeg Free Press

Property boom spreads to farmland

The average price of farmland across Canada increased 10.1 per cent last year as low interest rates and strong crop income helped maintain demand. A report released Monday by Farm Credit Canada says last year’s gains are part of a continuous upward trend that started in 1993.

CBC News – Ottawa Citizen

A peak at TTC’s new high-tech garage

The giant wall around the TTC’s new Leslie Barns streetcar storage and maintenance garage has been compared by critics to a prisoner-of-war camp. But designers promise landscaping work still to come will make the exterior look as good as the state-of-the-art streetcar facility behind the wall.

Toronto Star

Ottawa bans asbestos at federal sites

CBC News has learned a federal government department has banned asbestos use in new construction and renovation projects at buildings it operates — a new policy that was supposed to take effect on April 1. In February, CBC revealed building products containing the toxic material were still being used in new construction of federal buildings in Canada.

CBC News

MGM Resorts has big plans for REIT

MGM Resorts‘ (MGM-N) stock was climbing in early-afternoon trading on Friday, as the company’s real estate investment trust MGM Growth Properties anncounced it will offer 50 million class-A shares to the public at a price between $18 and $21 per share. This could generate up to $1.2 billion US for the REIT.

The Street – Wall Street Journal

U.S. REITs outgain broader market in March

In Quick Study, Brad Case, NAREIT’s senior vice-president for research and industry information, said confidence in the state of the economy and capital markets boosted the broader market, and REITs in particular, during March. “It was the kind of month where equity investors in general did well in essentially all categories of the stock market,” Case said.

REIT.com – Globest.Com

Featured Column

WeLive something new that’s really very old

The idea of shared living space is nothing new. But on the other hand, it’s entirely new in the hands of the recent entrants to the market.

Read more

Industrial land remains hot commodity in Saskatoon

While building inventory in the industrial sector may be high, demand for industrial zoned lots continues. According to the ICR first quarter report for 2016, the industrial market is stabilizing but vacant inventory has risen slightly since the final months of 2015.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Boutique fitness muscles in on Manhattan

It’s hard to tell which is more powerful — the beat from 8 a.m. high-intensity circuit training class at the Fhitting Room on Manhattan’s West 19th Street, or the pounding of the sledgehammers six blocks north in what will be the new penthouse corporate headquarters of Peloton, a live-streaming, indoor cycling start-up.

CNBC

Real Estate Companies

India’s pain spells opportunity for developer

For Pirojsha Godrej, who leads India’s third-largest developer, the pain in the real estate market is spelling opportunities. The son of billionaire Adi Godrej and chief executive officer of Godrej Properties Ltd. expects the firm’s best year ever for new project acquisitions as sluggish sales and a newly passed regulatory bill forces smaller developers out of business.

Bloomberg

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Fourth-quarter 2015 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. Fourth-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – Fourth-quarter 2015 report

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Leverage lessons learned: REIT specialist

Adam Emmerich, partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, participated on a panel at REITWise that looked at privatizations in the REIT industry and the lessons learned from the last privatization wave. Emmerich noted one of the lessons the investing world has learned more broadly is that leverage can be “very, very serious.”

Reit.com

H&R REIT has potential 10 per cent upside

Today, we discuss security with a six per cent yield that was under pressure throughout most of 2015 but this year is trying to stage a recovery – H&R REIT (HR.UN-T). From the beginning of 2015 until Jan. 18 (when the price of oil was below $30), the REIT price was under pressure with the unit price falling 16 per cent.

Globe and Mail (Subscription Required)

Rallying Dream Global demands caution

Discussed today is a security that has been an underperformer, trading below its initial public offering price of $10 in 2011 – Dream Global Real Estate Investment Trust (DRG.UN-T). While Dream Global has near-term momentum, there are reasons to be cautious as this REIT has risks from its European exposure. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription Required)

Retail

Saskatoon’s Kit and Ace set to close

A high-end clothing store in Saskatoon’s downtown core is closing its doors. Kit and Ace, which specializes in high-end cashmere clothes, is expected to close its Saskatoon location for good on Saturday. Kit and Ace was founded in 2014 by JJ Wilson and his mother Shannon Wilson, who is married to Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU-Q) founder Chip Wilson.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Cascade Investment gives Sears a loan

Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD-Q), the department-store operator run by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, obtained a new short-term loan partially funded by an investment firm that manages billionaire Bill Gates’ fortune. Cascade Investment has funded $125 million of a $500 million loan Sears raised by using about 20 of its mortgaged properties as collateral, the retailer said Friday.

Detroit News – Motley Fool

Bankruptcy court approves sale of 29 Haggen stores

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross has signed a $106.1 million asset purchase agreement for the sale of 29 remaining Haggen stores in Washington and Oregon to Albertsons. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware’s action last week also permits the separate liquidation of three Haggen stores in Puyallup and Port Angeles, Wash.; and Oregon City, Ore.

Costar Group

Restaurants and Eateries

McDonald’s rally gets no respect from Wall Street

McDonald’s (MCD-N) is having a moment. Actually, it’s been having one for a while. Analysts may find no shortage of things to fret about – from rising labour costs to lousy consumer feedback on the quality of the food – but investors love McDonald’s Corp. Overall the stock has climbed 267 per cent in the past decade.

Bloomberg

New Development

Breaking ground where echoes of Edison linger

The facade of Thomas Edison’s last factory in West Orange, N.J., crumbles behind a chain-link fence on Main Street. In the last few weeks, workers have begun restoring the 400,000-square-foot Edison Storage Battery factory, the first step in a $230-million redevelopment project. Edison Village is intended to transform 21 acres into shops, parking and housing.

New York Times

Renovation and Restoration

Paris unveils revamp of metro, shopping complex

Amid great fanfare, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has unveiled the long-awaited $1 billion revamp of the city’s dilapidated main shopping and metro complex, often the first port of call for tourists visiting the City of Light. The near-decade-long project came after pressure from Parisians who viewed the rusty 1970s structure as one of the biggest eyesores.

Vancouver Province

Infrastructure

Panama Canal expansion plagued by water shortage

The $6.9-billion expansion of the Panama Canal might have overcome leaks, labour disputes and financial hurdles, but appears to have run into a mightier foe: Mother Nature. El Nino has caused a drought in the region and reduced water levels in the lake that makes up about half the 77-kilometre water route, forcing the canal’s operators to limit the draft of a ship.

Globe and Mail

Human Resources

Architect aims to repair relations between police, Chicagoans

Designing a building, or a block: This is an architect’s job. But what about repairing the relationship between police departments and urban residents? Chicago architect Jeanne Gang is hoping by altering police stations from fortresses to community hubs, he can help change the mindset of officers and of the community around them.

Globe and Mail

Other

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