Lifetime nears finish line at Liberty Village project

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Condominiums, Office, Retail  •  Toronto / GTA

Liberty Market Tower, the third-and-final phase of Lifetime Developments’ 16-year redevelopment project in Toronto’s Liberty Village, is about a year away from completion. The tower follows Liberty Market Building and Liberty Market Lofts on Lifetime’s six-acre site.

Major expansions for Port of Hamilton

Commercial  •  Chamber of Marine Commerce media release

Fluke Transportation is nearing completion of a 56,000-square-foot expansion of its existing 275,000-square-foot Pier 15 warehouse facility at the Port of Hamilton. As well, Federal Marine Terminals‘ Piers 12-14 expansion includes a new, 40,000-square-foot warehouse and a new rail connection to Pier 15.

Ottawa primed to become e-commerce hub: Broccolini

Commercial  •  Ottawa Business Journal  •  RENX

Montreal-based Broccolini chief operating officer Anthony Broccolini told a virtual audience Thursday night the National Capital Region is poised to become a major retail distribution hub as online shopping surges and e-commerce giants such as Amazon zero in on sites.

Great Gulf sweeps top BILD GTA builder honours

RENX  Residential  •  Condominiums, Apartments, Homes  •  Toronto / GTA

Great Gulf is no stranger to the awards table, but it accomplished an industry first at the 40th Annual GTA Building Industry and Land Development Association Awards, sweeping the Mid/High Rise and Low Rise Builder of the Year honours.

Westbank, Crombie boost rental plans

Residential  •  urbanYVR  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Westbank and Crombie REIT (CRR-UN-T) have revised ambitious redevelopment plans for Broadway & Commercial,  boosting the number of rental units 452 versus 160 in a previous proposal and touting a new public plaza. The number of condo units has been slashed, from 520 to 236.

Jericho Lands planning proceeds slowly

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun

The directive went out long ago that the deadline for military personnel to move out of the sprawling Jericho Lands would be January 2017 to make way for a potentially massive First Nations-led housing development.

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B.C. CRE endures worst half since 2015: AY

Commercial  •  BC Business

Investment in B.C. commercial property suffered its worst first half since 2015, according to a midyear report by Avison Young. For the first time since AY began following B.C. CRE in 1998, industrial investment led the pack by dollar volume with $644 million.

Tech firm signs lease in Calgary’s Millennium Tower

Commercial  •  Calgary Herald  •  RENX

Calgary-based tech firm Helcim, which officially outgrew its cramped office space in the Blackfoot Industrial Park last year, has signed a lease for 20,000 square feet in Oxford’s Millennium Tower on 2nd Avenue S.W., in downtown Calgary.

Burying Eglinton West LRT will cost extra $1.8B

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Critics charge  the Ontario government’s proposal to bury the planned $4.7-billion Eglinton West LRT in mid-Etobicoke underground will waste hundreds of millions and deliver insufficient transit benefits as part of the $28.5-billion transit expansion the PC government introduced last year.

Drimmer invests over $13M in Northview

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  RENX

Between Sept. 11-15, Daniel Drimmer, who sits on the board of trustees, invested over $13 million in units of Northview Apartment REIT (NVU-UN-T). He purchased a total of 400,000 units at an average price per unit of approximately $33.83 for Starlight Group Property Holdings.

Couche-Tard founders to lose special voting rights

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD-B-T) executive chairman Alain Bouchard says that he and the three other men who built the Canadian convenience-store empire will let their 25-year-old special stock rights, which give them control over the company, expire next year as scheduled.

NexPoint Hospitality REIT, Condor merger off

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

NexPoint Hospitality Trust (NHT-U-X) announced Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc. (CDOR-A) has delivered notice of termination of the merger agreement with NHT Operating Partnership, LLC, effective Sept. 18, 2020. NexPoint was to acquire Condor for a total consideration of $318 million US.

ERES acquires Dutch multires portfolio for $41M

Residential  •  Globe Newswire

ERES REIT (ERE-UN-X) announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire a multiresidential portfolio of five properties located in the Netherlands for $41.0 million. The portfolio is comprised of 113 residential suites and 98 parking units.

Oxford promotes duo to lead Europe, APAC

Commercial  •  IPE Real Assets

Oxford Properties Group has promoted both Joanne McNamara and David Matheson to head its European and Asia Pacific business. Oxford said the role, held by executive vice-president Paul Brundage, is being replaced with the two new positions.

$700M Seattle office tower deal in works

Commercial  •  The Real Deal

A South Korean consortium has signed a preliminary agreement to buy a Seattle office tower for nearly $700 million. The group, led by Hana Alternative Asset Management, has been selected as the preferred buyer for Skanska USA’s newly-constructed Qualtrics Tower.

Housing market remains moderately vulnerable: CMHC

Residential  •  Canada Newswire  •  Financial Post  •  Montreal Gazette

Weakening fundamentals and an increase in average overvaluation estimates in the second quarter have led to Canada’s housing market retaining a moderate degree of vulnerability, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Housing Market Assessment (HMA) released today.

Airbnb suspends 40-plus Ontario ‘party house’ listings

Residential  •  Ottawa Citizen

Airbnb says a new crackdown on party houses includes the suspension of more than 40 listings across Ontario. The listings have received complaints or otherwise violated the short-term rental website’s policies on parties and events, Airbnb said Monday.

Toronto detached house prices still lower than 2017 peak

Residential  •  NOW Magazine  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Toronto house prices hit record-levels in July and August. However, the price for detached homes in the city’s hot real estate market are still tempered, according to a report from Zoocasa, drawn from Toronto Regional Real Estate Board data.

Prices of new homes jump the most in three years

Residential  •  Financial Post

Canadian new home prices recorded their sharpest one-month gain in three years with higher demand and rising costs for building materials. Prices rose 0.5 per cent in August, Statistics Canada said Monday, the largest increase since May 2017.