Yorkville’s Hazelton Lanes gets a facelift

Yorkville’s Hazelton Lanes gets a facelift

$125 million later, Hazelton Lanes, once cramped and hidden, is preparing to launch a new look, new name and something it always needed but never had: A proper entrance. Renamed Yorkville Village, the complex is part of a $400-million investment by First Capital Realty Inc. (FCR-T), which also owns 10 of the buildings on the north side of Yorkville Avenue.

Toronto Star

Vancouver industrial hit 15-year high in 2015: C&W

Industrial real estate in Vancouver expanded at the fastest rate in the country in 2015, says a Cushman & Wakefield report released today. A total of 4.5 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed in the city last year, the biggest increase in 15 years. One of the biggest factors in this growth was the increase of e-commerce transactions.

Business In Vancouver – Globe and Mail – Westcoast News

Bayfield acquires properties, ponders growth strategy

After a quiet year for acquisitions, Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. has already made two major purchases in 2016. “We are always in the market looking for opportunities and sometimes they do not materialize for months at a time and sometimes more than one comes at the same time,” said president and chief executive officer Harold Spring.

Property Biz Canada

Hotel sector to stay hot in 2016: Colliers

Canada enjoyed its third-richest year for hotels deals in 2015 and Colliers International’s 2016 Canadian Hotel Investment Report predicts more of the same this year.

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver enjoying luxury hotel market boom

Upscale travellers arriving in Vancouver for their next vacation will enjoy a range of choices previously unheard of in B.C., catering to every luxury. A 3,781-square-feet Royal Suite (larger than many houses) featuring four bedrooms with an available personal butler or personal chef? The Rosewood Hotel Georgia has it covered.

Vancouver Sun

Major projects set to transform Squamish

Several major projects are poised to transform Squamish’s economy and fuel demand for homes in new developments slated for what was once a sleepy lumber town. Both the proposed ski resort Garibaldi at Squamish (GAS) and proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant Woodfibre LNG received federal and provincial environmental approvals earlier this year.

Business In Vancouver

Snowless ski resorts adapting to climate change

Roger McCarthy remembers the winter of 1977 in Whistler, B.C. It closed the lifts in mid-January, forcing McCarthy to become inventive. “We borrowed a big snow gun from Grouse Mountain and we put a case of explosives in a tiny little creek, blew a big hole in it and created a pond so we could suck water out,” he recalls.

Maclean’s

Nobel completes acquisition of interest in Montreal property

Nobel Real Estate Investment Trust (NEL.UN-X) announced it has completed the acquisition of 50 per cent of the units of Société en commandite 2045 Stanley, the limited partnership that owns the office building located at 2039-2047 Stanley in Downtown Montreal, as well as 50% of the shares of 9301-6897 Québec Inc., the general partner of 2045 Stanley LP. 

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Downtown Halifax undergoing a building boom

Anyone who has walked through downtown Halifax in recent years has seen giant cranes help build storey after storey. A CBC News analysis of a decade worth of development permits confirms the  building boom. On the peninsula alone, the estimated value of hotel, condominium and office tower projects, adjusted for inflation, almost tripled between 2006 and 2015.

CBC News

Inside Toronto’s Trump tower struggle

In a 29th-floor superior room at Toronto’s Trump International Hotel and Tower, you can eat Trump-branded chocolate wrapped in gold. Lounging on your king-sized bed in your Trump robe and Trump slippers, you can browse a sales advertisement for Trump Residences that invites you to “own Toronto’s most influential address.”

Toronto Star

Le Chateau to close 40 stores over three years

Montreal-based clothing retailer Le Château (CTU.A-T) will close 14 stores this year and about 40 over the next three years. The company said in a statement released on the heels of its fourth-quarter report the closings would come primarily from fashion outlet stories. In Q4, total retail sales decreased 3.7 per cent over the year-ago period, with 12 fewer stores in operation.

Montreal Gazette – CBC News

Brookfield raises cash for second opportunistic fund

Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.A-T) has raised $11.3 billion Cdn for its second opportunistic property fund. The investment manager’s second Strategic Real Estate Partners vehicle closed above its initial $9 billion target. More than 100 investors backed the fund, including sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions and public and private pension plans.

IPE Real Estate – Bloomberg – Globest.com – Marketwired

French expert assesses Montreal architecture

French architecture critic Emmanuel Caille, in Montreal to take part in a panel discussion organized by the Maison de l’architecture du Québec and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), gave a thumbs-up to the pricey new soccer stadium but expressed shocked incredulity over a new hotel annex to the Mount Stephen Club, a historic mansion.

Montreal Gazette

Roots finds surprising success in Asia

One wouldn’t expect Roots, often viewed as one of Canada’s quintessential apparel brands, to find a large market across the Pacific (and in a semi-tropical climate, no less). This year, the Toronto-based brand and its Taiwanese partner, Branded Lifestyle, will celebrate Roots’ 20th anniversary in a market where it has as many stores (105) as it has in Canada.

Windsor Star

Apple Hospitality to acquire Apple REIT Ten

Apple Hospitality REIT Inc. (APLE-N) has agreed to acquire Apple REIT Ten Inc. for $1.3 billion US in a merger creating one of the largest select-service hospitality REITs with a combined 234 hotels and 30,017 rooms across 33 states. Apple Hospitality REIT, with an enterprise value of $5.7 billion will keep its name in the transaction comprised of $94 million in cash.

CoStar Group – Commercial Property Executive

Featured Column

Markham, Ontario: Engine of growth

The City of Markham is the largest of nine communities in York Region, with a population of over 349,000 and a land area of 212 square kilometres. There are more than 400 Canadian head offices of the 10,200 companies in Markham, including over 1,000 technology and life sciences companies and there is a total workforce of 162,000.

Read more

MPAC’s new online system has a few bugs

Dear MPAC;

Kudos on catching up with the digital age by turning the annual Property Income and Expense Return from a pile of paper to a digital submission form.

If only your team had made this move with a little more field testing

Read more

Market Trends and Research

U.S. office tenants pull reins on Q1 growth

Office tenants mindful of uncertainty and turmoil expected in the year ahead exercised caution with expansion plans in the first quarter, resulting in a slight increase in office vacancy as new supply came on-line. Reports by real estate services firms JLL and CBRE show the overall U.S.vacancy rate rose to an average of 13.2 per cent.

National Real Estate Investor

Evaluating cell tower lease buyout deals

Lease buyout companies often contact landlords to purchase cell tower leases. Because cell tower lease buyouts are unique in many respects from other real estate transactions, analyzing the elements of the deal can often be confusing. These types of offers typically involve what first appears to be an attractive lump sum.

GlobeSt.com

REOC Financial Reports

	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

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

NorthWest completes acquisition of German MOB

NorthWest Healthcare Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (NWH.UN-T) announced today it has completed the previously disclosed acquisition of the Mehrower Allee Complex – a purpose-built two-building complex in a densely populated section of the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf. The purchase price was approximately $19.6 million.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Holloway announces opening of N.S. Travelodge

Holloway Lodging Corporation (HLC-T) announced it has opened the Travelodge hotel in Sydney, N.S. Holloway acquired non-performing first and second mortgages secured by the hotel in April 2015, completed foreclosure proceedings against the hotel in September 2015 and closed the hotel in October 2015 for extensive renovations and rebranding.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Vision Capital exec likes CAPREIT, InterRent, Chartwell

Many of Canada’s REITs continue to offer good value, says Andrew Moffs, senior vice-president at Vision Capital. “(Many millennials) want to walk to work, they want to walk to Starbucks, they don’t necessarily want to buy a house. That’s really good for the apartment REITS.”

BNN,ca – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Retail

Gap’s return to blunder

Art Peck is running out of time. The CEO of Gap (GPS-N)  has spent most of his 14-month tenure asking Wall Street for patience while he promised to overhaul the operator of struggling Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores. But since he took over last February, Gap’s stock has plunged 42 per cent.

Bloomberg

RYU to launch second Vancouver store

Upstart clothier RYU Apparel Inc. (RYU-X) plans to locate in space at 805 Thurlow Street, which was a Triple O’s burger restaurant until mid-2012. The 1,100-square-foot location will be adjacent to a Banana Republic store and the massive 13,027 flagship store for Aritzia. It will be branded RYU, the acronym for Respect Your Universe.

Business In Vancouver

New Development

New library enlivens Montreal neighbourhood

Montreal’s affluent Westmount neighbourhood is a stark contrast to the non-descript Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) borough that lies directly to the east, with its simple homes and understated strip of retail along Sherbrooke Street West. That is until you get to the new Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Cultural Centre.

Globe and Mail

Sports Venues

Navigating development of sporting facilities

Contrary to what the movie Field of Dreams proclaims, when it comes to developing sports arenas and stadiums, it’s not true that “if you build it, they will come,” and one size definitely does not fit all, Cox Castle & Nicholson LLC’s Ira Waldman tells GlobeSt.com.

GlobeSt.com – GlobeSt.com

Human Resources

Vancouver employers forced to pay more

With Vancouver property values soaring and reasonably priced rental accommodation scarce, Vancouver employers are being forced to get creative – and to loosen their wallets – to recruit staff. Companies resistant to sweetening the recruitment pot got a dressing down from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who last week urged them to raise wages, arguing that technology companies in Silicon Valley pay much more than those in Vancouver.

Business In Vancouver

Other

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