Tough road ahead for downtown Calgary office sector: AY

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Calgary

The road to recovery for Calgary’s downtown office market will be long as it continues to experience historically high vacancy in the central business district. Just how difficult it could be is reflected in Avison Young’s latest quarterly report.

Old Oak buys 160 acres of London property for $17M

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Government of Ontario News

The Province of Ontario has sold the former London Psychiatric Hospital to London’s Old Oak Properties for $17 million, paving the way for development of the 160-acre property, which includes two large parcels of land, separated by CN rail tracks.

InterRent acquires Montreal multi-family portfolio

Residential, Commercial  •  Stockhouse  •  RENX

InterRent REIT (IIP-UN-T) announced it has entered into an unconditional agreement to acquire a portfolio of five properties in Montreal totaling 253 suites for $59 million. It has also sold its seven-property portfolio in Sault Ste Marie, Ont., for $35.3 million.

‘Housing bubble’ won’t burst in 2019: B.C. developers

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun

They had no crystal balls or tarot cards, but B.C. developers still predicted at Thursday’s Urban Development Institute’s 2019 real-estate forecast luncheon people hoping for “the housing bubble to burst” in 2019 will be disappointed.

TOBY Award honours Preservation Centre building in Gatineau

RENX  Commercial  •  Office, Infrastructure  •  Quebec, Ottawa

Upgrades to the 20-year-old Library and Archives Canada Preservation Centre in Gatineau, Que., have earned it designation as a BOMA Canada Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) — one of the most prestigious achievements in Canadian commercial real estate.

Carbonleo promises electric shuttle for Royalmount mega-mall

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette

On the final day of hearings on Montreal’s controversial Royalmount project, developer Carbonleo promised to create a free shuttle service to the future mega-mall at the intersection of Highways 15 and 40.

Mixed high-density development needed around REM stations

Residential  •  Montreal Gazette

Montreal’s underrated underground city

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette

Montrealers, it’s time to revert to coureurs-de-malls, snaking your way through this maze of 33 kilometres of connecting subterranean tunnels — one of the largest such network in the world — which pass under and through some of the city’s grandest edifices.

Raymond Block set to make a mark on Edmonton

Residential, Commercial  •  Edmonton Journal  •  RENX

What long sat as an empty lot with populating weeds along Edmonton’s famed Whyte Avenue, the Raymond Block is now set to swing open its doors to the public as a six-storey mixed-use development.

Montreal money could fix Ottawa LeBreton Flats JV

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen

When the National Capital Commission signed a term sheet with RendezVous LeBreton 12 months ago, it was understood there was room for a third partner — and members of the runner-up bid from Devcore Canderel DLS team are a logical fit.

Colliers Canada seeking potential successor to CEO

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Colliers International Group Inc. is looking to hire a potential successor for CEO David Bowden. The real estate services firm is searching for a chief operating officer for Canada, according to a statement provided to Bloomberg by email.

TTC subway relief line could be open by 2029

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  CBC  •  Globe and Mail

Mayor John Tory says city and TTC staff have found a way to speed up construction of the relief line subway by at least two years, opening by 2029. However, the expedited work would require an additional $162 million.

Brookfield to redevelop Houston Center

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Brookfield Properties revealed it will submit Houston Center, a 4.2 million-square-foot office complex, to a major redevelopment process. The news comes one year after the company acquired Houston Center for $875 million in one of the city’s largest-ever office transactions.

LaSalle buys Munich office portfolio for $194M

Commercial  •  CP Executive

LaSalle Investment Management just enhanced its holdings with 430,500 square feet of space in one of Germany’s tightest office markets. The real estate investment manager purchased ElseBella, a two-building portfolio in Munich, from AXA Investment Managers for approximately US$193.8 million.

Facebook leases 800,000-square-foot office project

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Kylli Inc., developer of the Burlingame Point office campus in the San Francisco suburb of Burlingame, Calif., has landed a tenant for the 803,000-square-foot project. Facebook preleased the property in its entirety.

Sears creditors challenge chairman’s winning bid

Commercial  •  Winnipeg Free Press

A group of Sears creditors are challenging chairman Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund’s winning bid to buy the business in a bankruptcy auction and wants to sue the billionaire and his hedge fund.

Ontario wants to boost housing in Golden Horseshoe

Residential  •  CBC  •  Newinhomes.com  •  Government of Ontario News

Ontario is proposing changes to the Greater Golden Horseshoe’s growth plan that the government says would make it easier and faster to build housing. The government says the changes would come while maintaining protections for the Greenbelt.

Hamilton-Burlington sales dip 17.5% in 2018

Residential  •  CBC

Property sales and listings dipped last year as the market cooled down and people sought out more affordable homes, said the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington. The association had 17.5 per cent fewer sales in its region overall compared to 2017.

Three ways to improve the mortgage stress test

Residential  •  Newinhomes.com  •  Business In Vancouver

At the end of 2018, I wrote about the idea of reducing or repealing the mortgage stress test. Now, I want to suggest some possible amendments that would make the stress test more fair now that interest rates are rising.

Victoria to ask B.C. for power to levy empty homes surtax

Residential  •  Victoria Times Colonist

Victoria councillors have endorsed a motion introduced by Coun. Ben Isitt calling on the province to give local governments the authority to levy a surtax on vacant residential properties.