RioCan being ‘bold’ with Calgary project: CEO

RioCan being ‘bold’ with Calgary project: CEO

RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T), Canada’s largest retail landlord, is starting construction this week on a project that will add 770,000 square feet of shopping and residential space in downtown Calgary, despite an oil crash that’s cut jobs and forced other companies to slow development. The slowdown is why RioCan CEO Ed Sonshine is moving ahead with the project.

Bloomberg – Property Biz Canada – Marketwired – Motley Fool

Loblaw ups its game in grocery wars

Loblaw has fired the latest volley in an escalating war between the country’s traditional supermarket chains and discount challengers such as Walmart and Costco. Toronto-based Loblaw (L-T), Canada’s largest grocery retailer, announced Tuesday it plans to spend $1.3 billion this year to build 50 new stores in Canada and renovate 150 existing ones.

Winnipeg Free Press – CTV News – Reuters

Concord Pacific faces battle over brewery vision

Concord Pacific could face a long battle over its plans to turn the Molson brewery in Vancouver into a “sustainable mixed-use” development. The residential development giant paid $185 million for the brewery and land — more than four times the appraised value of the industrial-zoned property.

Vancouver Sun – CBC News – Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

Allied REIT joins Toronto office surge

Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (AP.UN-T) is joining the office-construction boom in Canada’s biggest city, shifting its focus from remodeling historic buildings as the appetite for modern perks in new spaces intensifies. “The demand for space in downtown Toronto is incredibly strong and incredibly deep,” Allied’s founder/CEO Michael Emory said in an interview.

Bloomberg – Property Biz Canada

SAP unveils Vancouver office reno

SAP has invested $11 million to renovate its 200,000-square-foot Vancouver offices in recognition the city is a “hotbed for tech talent,” the company’s Kirsten Sutton said. The impetus for investing in Vancouver wasn’t sales, but the city’s ability to create and attract talent, said Sutton, managing director of SAP Labs Canada.

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver home to Canada’s highest hotel prices

B.C.’s hotel market is putting other provinces in the doghouse with a nation-leading 117 per cent increase in property sales last year. It also has the highest “per-key” prices in the country, with an average sale price of $269,400 for each room, more than twice as high as second-place Alberta.

Business In Vancouver

Vancouver developers set sights on Victoria

Land costs are lower in Greater Victoria than in Vancouver and developers predict more Vancouver residents — some armed with millions after cashing out of Lower Mainland real estate — will venture across the water. And, as Reliance Properties‘ president Jon Stovell noted, there “really aren’t any heritage buildings left in Vancouver that haven’t been redone.”

Victoria Times Colonist

Winnipeg committee votes to demolish PSB

The debate on the fate of Winnipeg’s Public Safety Building came down to a simple fact for civic officials: dollars trump heritage. Councillors on the property and development committee Tuesday endorsed an administrative recommendation that calls for the demolition of the PSB and the property to be redeveloped, most likely as public green space.

Winnipeg Free Press – CBC News

Expo 86 site developer named in Panama Papers

The year before Li Ka-shing began acquiring Husky Energy (HSE-T) and two years before he won the bid to develop the former Expo 86 site in Vancouver, a company headed by the Hong Kong tycoon was incorporated in Panama. The agent involved in the transaction was Mossack Fonseca.

Business In Vancouver

Energy industry, real-estate sector locked in battle

A no-trespassing sign collects dust next to an empty, chained-off parking lot for an equally empty work camp in the heart of North Dakota oil country. This camp on the northern edge of town was once filled with hundreds of oilfield workers during the shale boom, but, now, like others in the area, sits as empty as a ghost town as crude prices have collapsed.

Financial Post – Financial Post

SilverBirch project brings hotel, conference centre to Calgary

Calgary’s Beltline district is bustling with a number of construction projects just a few short blocks from the downtown core. The lastest to break ground is the SilverBirch Hotels and Resorts development, which will include a SilverBirch conference centre and a Residence Inn by Marriott Calgary Downtown.

Calgary Herald

Tower project essential to Whyte Avenue: Opinion

The proposal to build a 16-storey tower just south of Whyte Avenue is unusual, unsettling even. But the Mezzo project is also essential if Edmonton’s Old Strathcona isn’t going to start going downhill in the face of stiff competition from suburban malls and power centres and, most of all, from an improving 124th Street and downtown.

Edmonton Journal

Annaly to merge with Hatteras Financial

Continuing a push to diversify its platform, mortgage REIT Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NLY-N) said Monday it had agreed to acquire Hatteras Financial Corp. (HTS-N) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.5 billion US. The boards of both companies have approved the merger, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.

Globest.com – REIT.com – Bloomberg – Wall Street Journal

Massive Ford HQ lifts Page from Google, Tesla

In a sweeping project to rebuild its massive facilities in Dearborn, Mich., Ford Motor Co. (F-N) on Tuesday unveiled a decade-long plan to transform dozens of aging mid-20th century buildings totaling more than 7.5 million square feet into two modern office campuses housing more than 30,000 of the automaker’s employees.

CoStar Group

U.S. CRE prices continue to drop

Commercial property price indices continue to bear out the idea the price appreciation the industry has enjoyed since 2010 is over. The Moody’s/RCA’s all-property CPPI, for example, registered a 0.2-per cent decline in February, after a 0.3 per cent decrease in January — the first such drop in six years. The greatest decrease came in the office CBD sector.

National Real Estate Investor

Featured Column

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

How to invest in Canadian crowdfunded RE

Now that we have identified how to select a crowdfunding platform, we can discuss how to choose which real estate assets will result in a high return on your investment I have put together 5 tips to use as a guideline when investing in crowdfunded real estate assets.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Bank of Canada holds interest rate

The Bank of Canada says the federal government’s multibillion-dollar spending boost has uplifted what would have been a modest downgrade to its economic growth forecast this year. The central bank also kept its trend-setting interest rate locked at 0.5 per cent Wednesday.

Vancouver Province

Office vacancy down in most U.S. markets

Vacancy in the U.S. office market edged up by 10 basis points during the first quarter of 2016, according to the latest quarterly report by CBRE Group Inc., rising to 13.2 percent. Even with the increase, the national office vacancy rate remains at its lowest level since 2008. 

Multi-Housing News

GTA office market set to absorb residual vacancy

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) office leasing market started 2016 the way it ended 2015 – on a positive note. Renewals, expansions and relocations continue to characterize leasing activity in both existing and new product across the region with almost three million square feet of deals concluded Q1, according to Avison Young’s First Quarter 2016 Greater Toronto Area Office Market Report.

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Companies

Wynn makes play for massive Vegas resort

Steve Wynn, chairman & CEO of Wynn Resorts (WYNN-Q), is betting on non-casino and family-friendly entertainment for his company’s latest project in Las Vegas. Wynn wants to turn a 138-acre golf course behind two of his hotels into a $1.6 billion US mixed-use venue built around a 38-acre lagoon with the city’s first beach.

Commercial Property Executive

OAA Awards Design Excellence winners announced

The Ontario Association of Architects recently revealed the winners of the 2016 OAA Awards. The most prestigious of the awards is for Design Excellence. Listed below are the 10 Design Excellence winners and other 2016 OAA Awards winners:

Newinhomes.com – Ottawa Citizen

REOC Financial Reports

Latest fourth-quarter reports:

* Starlight U.S. Multi-Family Core Fund, (UMF.A-X), Canada Newswire

* Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 2) Core Fund, (SUD.A-X), Canada Newswire 

* Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 3) Core Fund, (SUS.A-X), Canada Newswire 

* Starlight U.S. Multi-Family (No. 4) Core Fund, (SUF.A-X), Canada Newswire

	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

Brixmor taps Taylor as CEO, president

Brixmor Property Group, Inc. (BRX-N) has selected industry veteran Jim Taylor as its chief executive officer and president, following an extensive search by the Brixmor board of directors’ search committee and consulting firm Korn Ferry. Effective May 20, Taylor will succeed Daniel B. Hurwitz, who has filled the position on an interim basis.

CoStar Group – Commercial Property Executive

Buy Boardwalk, H&R rather than physical real estate

Running an apartment building is hard work. Compare that to another option, such as buying shares of Boardwalk REIT (BEI.UN-T), one of Canada’s largest owner of apartments with some 33,000 units spread out over four provinces. Meanwhile, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust (HR.UN-T) owns office, retail, and industrial property across North America.

Motley Fool

SEC attuned to unique REIT disclosures: Official

Sonia Barros, assistant director at the Division of Corporation Finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission, emphasized SEC recognizes REITs are different from most operating companies and companies in other industries. As a result, there are specialized disclosure requirements and forms that only apply to REITs, Barros said.

REIT.com

Retail

U.S. retail sales fall on weak auto purchases

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in March as households cut back on purchases of automobiles and other items, further evidence economic growth stumbled in the first quarter. Other data Wednesday showed a surprise drop in producer prices last month as rising energy prices were offset by a decline in the cost of services.

Reuters – Bloomberg

Restaurants and Eateries

DavidsTea brewed strong fourth quarter

Specialty tea chain DavidsTea Inc. saw a 23 per cent jump in sales during the fourth quarter as the retailer opened more locations across Canada and the U.S. Montreal-based DavidsTea (DTEA-Q) said sales in the three-month period ended Jan. 30 rose to $75.8 million from $61.8 million in the fourth quarter a year ago.

Financial Post

New spin for Winnipeg’s Round Table

The nights of the Round Table are coming to an end. The Winnipeg steak house, which has been giving prime rib lovers their fix since 1973, will shut its doors for the last time May 14. Owner Kristjan Kristjansson said the building’s massive size (roughly 8,000 square feet with seating for about 300) was no longer conducive to a sit-down restaurant.

Winnipeg Free Press – CBC News

Other

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