66- and 46-storey towers highlight 2150 Lake Shore dev.

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

First Capital and Pemberton Group are planning 66- and 46-storey multiresidential towers as part of phase one of the ambitious, master-planned 2150 Lake Shore development in Toronto.

Slate leases Bantrel 61,000 sq. ft. in Calgary office

Commercial  •  Calgary Herald

Bantrel, an engineering, procurement and construction services firm, is leasing four floors totalling 61,000 square feet, in Slate Asset Management-owned Stephen Avenue Place. Bantrel has 640 working across the country, 250 in Calgary will move to the new downtown office.

CRE landlords see growing demand for retail space

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  La Presse  •  Toronto Star

Lease signs still hang from many storefront windows, but some commercial landlords such as RioCan, First Capital and Oxford Properties are seeing growing demand for retail space as COVID-19 subsides, a move that is supported by recent financial reports.

The Long View › The smart buildings market is worth billions

Richard Crenian: President, ReDev Properties

Sleep Country has best quarter in 28-year history

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Stewart Schaefer, Sleep Country Canada’s chief executive, discusses the company’s Q1 results following its teaming up with Walmart, the surge of in-store visits, and challenges facing the retail industry.

Shopify, Square proposes lending money to merchants

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Tech companies that provide online sales and transaction services to retailers and small businesses are offering loans and cash advances to those customers to keep them on their platforms. They do so for a fee and share of future sales.

Sponsored by Triovest Making ESG goals a reality

CRE industry will need to embrace innovation, new business models to achieve net zero emissions.

Jennings Real Estate buys industrial property in Halifax

Commercial  •  Ottawa Business Journal  •  Ottawa Business Journal

Ottawa-based property management firm Jennings Real Estate – which made headlines last summer when it bought the 12-storey Gillin Building at 141 Laurier Ave. W. – closed the purchase of a 12,000-square-foot industrial complex in the Halifax suburb of Dartmouth last month.

RTO plans unravel as workers rebel in tight job market

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe and Mail

Even inflexible bosses are softening their return-to-office (RTO) expectations, wary of punitive action against those who aren’t following their plans. JPMorgan Chase recently announced cutting back from three days in the office per week to two, citing internal feedback.

Hang Eleven, Life House to build hotel in Squamish B.C.

Commercial  •  Businesswire

Local entrepreneur and developer Hang Eleven Properties will soon break ground on Beldi, a 48-key boutique hotel in Squamish, B.C. where independent hotel management company Life House will oversee operations.

West Kootenay, B.C. ski resort plan stirs resentment

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

A proposal for an all-seasons resort near New Denver, B.C. by David Harley, the founder of regional outdoor sports chain Valhalla Pure Outfitters, has some reluctant support but is attracting opposition from Indigenous groups, environmentalists and the ski community.

REIT Q1 Financial Results

Commercial  • 

Crombie REIT (CRR.UN-T), PR Newswire

Marwest Apartment REIT (MAR.UN-X), PR Newswire

PROREIT (PRV.UN-T), Globe Newswire

Slate Office REIT (SOT.UN-T), Businesswire

SmartCentres REIT (SRU.UN-T), Globe Newswire

Granite REIT (GRT.UN-T), Businesswire

SNC-Lavalin gets first deferred prosecution agreement

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Quebec prosecutors have received court approval for a deferred prosecution agreement with engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., the first since the legal mechanism became law in 2018. The agreement is to resolve charges laid last fall against two company entities.

Federated Hermes, CPP Investments JV for Silverstone

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Federated Hermes and CPP Investments formed a JV to own and develop Silverstone Park, a 676,000-sq.-ft. income-producing technology business park in the Oxford Cambridge area of the U.K. CPP Investments will commit $228M for a 50% interest.

Boston Properties signs AstraZeneca for new building

Commercial  •  Bisnow

AstraZeneca plans a 570,000 sq. ft. bio lab project in the epicentre of the life sciences industry at Kendall Square in Boston. The U.K.-based biopharmaceutical company plans to close Waltham and the Seaport facilities when the new one opens in 2026.

Crypto currency firms lease up N.Y. office space

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Companies born out of blockchain technology, like those involved in cryptocurrency and NFTs, as well as web3 operations, are increasingly looking to lock up office space in New York as a way of luring talent and indicating to investors they have stability for future growth.

B.C. home sales plummet 35% in April

Residential  •  BIV

In the wake of interest rate increases, B.C. posted 8,934 residential unit sales last month – down a whopping 34.9 per cent compared with the record sales seen in April 2021, according to Multiple Listing Services data provided by the BCREA on Thursday.

Kingston has fastest-rising house prices in Canada

Residential  •  Blog TO  •  Blog TO

By the end of 2021, Kingston — about a three-hour drive from Toronto on the way to Ottawa — had experienced the fastest-rising prices in the country. Home prices overall spiked nearly 40 per cent compared to 2020.

OSFI may tweak mortgage stress test by year end

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

Canada’s banking regulator, the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) is leaving the door open to tweak its mortgage stress test before the end of this year, as borrowing costs soar and the housing market starts to cool.

Reverse mortgages take off due to ‘age in place’

Commercial  •  Financial Post

More Canadian seniors have been tapping into their home equity for cash to fund their retirements. Equitable Bank Inc. reported a 262 per cent year-over-year surge in its reverse mortgage product in first-quarter 2022 earnings announced this week.