Oak Street finds $2.1B niche in Canadian office sector

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Toronto / GTA, Calgary

Chicago-based private equity firm Oak Street Capital Real Estate looks for very specific types of real estate in which to invest. It found three such opportunities in Canada during 2021, spending about $2.1 billion on major office properties.

Morguard proposes to redevelop Centerpoint Mall

Residential, Commercial  •  blogTO

Morguard has proposed to redevelop North York’s Centerpoint Mall as a mixed-use community that would capitalize on the upcoming Yonge North Subway extension. The 6464 Yonge project would include buildings ranging from four to 50 storeys with 6.8 million square feet of residential.

Dash Developments proposes 31-storey mixed-use

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Dash Developments has proposed a 31-storey mixed-use condominium building of 340 units at 225 Queen St. E. in Toronto’s Old Town. The IBI Group-designed building would include 23 studios, 150 one-bedrooms, 132 two-bedrooms and 35 three-bedrooms in addition to 5,500 square feet of retail space.

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Lenders hot for Vancouver industrial, residential

Commercial  •  Western Investor

When lenders at top financial firms were asked where they wished to place money this year, three cities – including Vancouver – and two sectors dominated every list. The sectors were residential and industrial. 2022 promises much of the same for red-hot Vancouver.

Parking minimums gone, but parking bans live on

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Urban thinkers have hailed recent moves by the City of Toronto to eliminate bylaw requirements that forced developers to provide a parking space for most new homes. However, residents can also be banned from applying for monthly on-street parking permits.

What will the supply chain look like in 2022?

Commercial  •  Canadian Grocer

Globally, retailers are struggling to secure inventory amid shipping delays, product shortages and rising costs, paired with pent-up consumer demand. Manufacturers face labour shortages and a lack of raw materials. The struggles are hitting home for Canada’s grocery sector.

Essential stores fight to stay open amid staff shortages

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe and Mail

Canadian businesses in a variety of sectors say they are starting to feel the staffing pinch from the highly contagious Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, putting further pressure on employers that were already short of workers.

Bespoke to project manage Alberta seniors development

Residential  •  Bespoke media release

Bespoke Real Estate Advisors has been announced as project manager for development of a new senior living facility on behalf of St. Michael’s Health Group. The Spruce Grove, Alta., development will comprise 170 individual resident suites with a valuation of $50.6 million.

GEC chooses Liverpool, N.S., for Canadian call centre

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Edmonton-based Global Empire Corporation (GEC) is making Liverpool, N.S., the site of its only Canadian call centre. The doors of the new Liverpool Business Centre building are expected to open Jan. 11, when work on recruiting 100 to 120 service agents will begin.

‘Cathedral of power’ aims to boost Niagara Falls tourism

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

For a century, Niagara Parks Power Station produced electricity; then the building lay abandoned. Now, the monumental stone building has been reimagined and restored as a museum and event space to tell the story of how it helped power Ontario.

Trusscore hopes plastic walls disrupt drywall industry

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

As the team at Trusscore tells the story, an anti-drywall revolution has begun at a plastics extrusion facility an hour northwest of Waterloo where Dave Caputo is living out his lifelong fantasy of ending the reign of drywall in construction.

Evergrande told to demolish 39-building resort complex

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Bloomberg

Chinese developer Evergrande Group, struggling with $310 billion in debt, announced it has been ordered to demolish a 39-building resort complex. News reports said the government of Danzhou found it was improperly built and violated urban planning law.

Building energy mgmt. to be worth nearly $15B by 2026

Commercial  •  Environmental Leader

Driven by CRE opportunities, the market for building energy management will more than double what it brings in from 2021 through 2026, growing to an estimated $14.9 billion with an annual growth rate of 15.5%, according to a Research and Markets report.

Adam Neumann landlord of $1B worth of apartments

Residential  •  Bisnow

Adam Neumann is now a major landlord. The Wall Street Journal reported the WeWork founder has acquired a majority stake in more than 4,400 apartments that have a combined value of $1 billion.

Walmart expanding grocery delivery inside homes

Residential, Commercial  •  Chain Store Age  •  Business Wire

Walmart is scaling up its InHome delivery service that allows it to enter a customer’s home or garage to deliver groceries and other purchases or pick up returns, planning to expand the service from six million to 30 million U.S. households.

T.O., Van. end year with record high sales, prices

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe and Mail

Toronto and Vancouver housing markets closed out the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic with record sales and record-high home prices, as the race to buy properties accelerated in the country’s two most expensive areas.

B.C. homeowner grant threshold leaps to $1.975M

Residential  •  CTV

Homeowners in British Columbia whose property is valued at just under $2 million will still be eligible for the annual homeowner grant. The provincial government announced Wednesday it has raised the grant threshold to $1.975 million for this year.

CMHC-funded group proposes surtax on $1M-plus homes

Residential  •  Financial Post  •  Toronto Star

A think-tank funded in part by the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation and National Housing Strategy is proposing that homes valued at more than $1 million be subjected to an annual deferrable surtax as part of a plan to tackle housing inequality.

Next wave of immigration to add fuel to housing market

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

After a frenetic 18 months when Canadians pushed up home prices in a quest to ride out the pandemic in comfort, the federal government’s increased annual immigration targets are set to provide more fuel to the overheated real estate market.