Summit buys Vaughan warehouse, sells Edm. property

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Toronto / GTA, Edmonton

Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU-UN-T) has waived all conditions and will acquire a quarter-million-square-foot, single-tenant warehouse in the Greater Toronto Area city of Vaughan. The trust says it will pay $47.3 million for the facility.

Lane acquires tenant engagement provider eServus

RENX  Commercial  •  Technology  •  National, International, Toronto / GTA

Workplace experience platform provider Lane has acquired longtime tenant engagement services provider eServus, adding 25 clients, 300 properties and 70 million-square-feet of floorspace to its own growing business. “They are veterans of the industry,” Lane founder Clinton Robinson told RENX.

Office vacancies spike in Toronto, Vancouver: CBRE

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Business In Vancouver

Vacancy rates in Canada’s tightest office markets are spiking, as employees continue to work from home and more businesses try to get rid of space amid the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to new data from CBRE.

SAMM Developments remains optimistic about future

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  RENX

In a year of challenges, Regal Plaza developer SAMM Developments believes it’s also a strategic opportunity to think ahead. “We estimate that when this project opens in March 2023, COVID will be a distant memory . . . ,” predicts president Ali Akman.

Falling development cash forces $254M Van. budget cut

Residential, Commercial  •  Daily Hive

Pre-COVID-19, the City of Vancouver was planning to spend $2.889 billion on its 2019-’22 capital plan supporting the construction of new facilities and infrastructure. The majority of the budget, $1.63 billion, depended on payments from developers and their real estate projects.

Second lockdown would be catastrophic: BCC

Commercial  •  Financial Post  •  Financial Post  •  Toronto Star

VIDEO: Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of Business Council of Canada, speaks with the Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn about the damage a second wave of COVID could inflict on Canadian businesses.

Sponsored by Janterra Real Estate Advisors Inc. Canadian multi-res market survives Covid round-1: Where is the pandemic panic and what is next?

Heading into 2020, asset viability and investor confidence within the multi-res market was riding high. Six months in how has this market been impacted by the global pandemic? Not as expected, so where is this market heading?

‘There’s opportunity for us’: Giant Tiger’s new CEO

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Giant Tiger is smaller than competitors such as Montreal-based Dollarama, but is looking to continue expanding its store footprint in Canada, said Paul Wood, who was appointed as CEO last week when company founder Gordon Reid stepped down after 59 years.

Ontario casinos reopen while COVID-19 numbers rise

Commercial  •  CityNews

Ontarians hit the casino floor Monday for the first time in six months. As of 10 a.m., all major casinos in Ontario reopened, with screening at the door, sanitizer stations throughout and only 50 players allowed in at a time.

M3 at M City underway in Mississauga

Residential  •  Urban Toronto  •  RENX

Rogers Real Estate Development Ltd. and Urban Capital last week celebrated the ground-breaking of what will be Mississauga’s tallest building: M3 at M City, whose mechanical penthouse peak is set to rise 81 storeys.

Fitzrovia to provide virtual care to residents

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc. announced Cleveland Clinic will provide all residents virtual access to world-class health care through its Express Care Online service. All residents over the age of two may be assessed for medical concerns including screening for COVID-19.

Flagship Communities REIT files final IPO prospectus

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Flagship Communities REIT announced it has filed, and obtained a receipt for, a final long-form prospectus for its initial public offering of trust units. The units will be issued at US$15 per unit for gross proceeds of US$93,750,000.

Value of U.S. CRE slashed by 27%: Report

Commercial  •  Reuters

The economic effects of the coronavirus are battering the U.S. commercial-backed securities market, raising the question of the value of hotels, malls, and other buildings that act as collateral for mortgages, according to a report in the Financial Times.

DUER announces expansion into the U.S. retail market

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Vancouver-based retailer DUER – a  company that specializes in the design of technical performance wear – announced the opening of its first-ever U.S. retail location in Denver. The RiNo district space will span over 1,600 square feet and feature top-sellers across all collections.

Court clears way for sale of Brooks Brothers Canada assets

Commercial  •  CBC

An Ontario Superior Court judge has granted an order adding Brooks Brothers Canada Ltd. to its parent company’s U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, paving the way for the sale of the luxury clothing retailer’s Canadian assets.

An 80-year overview of L.A. development

Residential, Commercial  •  PropertyShark

The concept of urban resilience — the capacity of a city’s communities, businesses and systems to adapt to complex challenges and grow — has received increased attention as of late. This is especially true in the case of a city like L.A.

Are there cracks in B.C.’s condo market?

Residential  •  CBC  •  Vancouver Sun  •  Vancouver Sun

OPINION: Greater Vancouver condo prices peaked in January 2018 at an average price of $751,632 which is approximately eight per cent higher than today’s average. There are now more than 6,000 active listings, thousands more than we saw in March or April.

Record mortgage rates can still go lower: Analysts

Residential  •  Financial Post

Canadian mortgages rates are at already a record low, but they will still go lower, according to several analysts citing the Bank of Canada’s policy, competition among lenders, seasonal factors and the pandemic’s impact on the economy.

GTA new home market sets August record: BILD

Residential  •  Globe Newswire  •  Toronto Star

A total of 4,539 new homes was sold in August, the highest number of new home sales for August since Altus Group started tracking in 2000, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) announced today.

RE going through ‘recalibration’ of supply, demand: Chestnut

Residential  •  Toronto Sun

OPINION: Real estate is a funny business. Unlike a lot of other fields, it’s entirely possible for one to operate as a silo, building a business and adopting one’s own rhythms entirely independent of colleagues and coworkers.