Keltic to redevelop $300M Metro Vancouver property

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Homes  •  Metro Vancouver

Keltic Canada Development, a relative newcomer to the Metro Vancouver market, paid more than $300 million for 27 acres of light industrial land adjacent to the Olympic Oval in Richmond where it proposes its first master-planned community.

Looking into the future: Where will CRE be in 10 years?

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Office, Retail, Homes  •  National

The expanded role of governments, the expectations of investors, lenders and building occupiers, and the need for tougher ESG commitments were key topics when three senior executives recently pondered the state of commercial real estate 10 years from now.

SmartCentres sells Maple Ridge’s Haney Place Mall

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

SmartCentres REIT (SRU-UN-T) announced the disposition of its non-core enclosed Haney Place Mall in Maple Ridge, B.C. The property was sold at a sub-five per cent capitalization rate, representing a premium in excess of 30% over IFRS value.

City Office REIT buys Dallas, Phoenix office towers

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  International

UPDATE: Vancouver’s City Office REIT (CIO-N) has acquired two premier U.S. office properties as it recycles over $500 million from the sale of a California life science portfolio: The Terraces in Dallas for $133.5M and Block 23 in Phoenix for $150M.

Ex-T.O. mayor/city builder Mel Lastman dead at 88

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe and Mail  •  CBC

Mel Lastman, who has died at 88, was a small showman with a big personality. He helped turn North York into an office-tower boomtown, and had a reputation for fiscal conservatism and relentless salesmanship honed at his Bad Boy furniture chain.

CRE Matters › Canada’s buildings are becoming bigger, bolder ‘placemakers’

Daniel Holmes and Darrell Hurst: Colliers Canada

Primaris plans to convert T.O.’s CP Building to condos

Residential, Commercial  •  blogTO

Primaris REIT (HR-UN-T) has proposed replacing Canadian Pacific Building’s current office space with 67 Partisans-designed condominium units. When it completed construction in 1913, the Edwardian-style building at 69 Yonge St. in Toronto was the tallest structure in the British Empire.

Federal government to hold supply-chain summit

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  Globe Newswire

In the aftermath of disastrous floods last month that cut off Canada’s main port, Ottawa will convene a summit of industry figures and shippers to discuss strengthening supply chains, a government source said on Sunday.

Calgary’s $1.4B cancer centre to open in 2023

Commercial  •  CBC

The Alberta government says construction of the $1.4-billion Calgary Cancer Centre is 90 per cent complete and expected to open in 2023. The new cancer centre replacing the Tom Baker Cancer Centre spans more than two million square feet.

Calgary’s Olympic facilities left to rot

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

The ski jumping centre shut down in 2018. The sliding track was “suspended” a year later. The Olympic Oval was closed due to mechanical failure. The cost of maintaining the facilities built for Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympics is too high to bear.

Quebec construction sector reaches record level in 2021

Residential, Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Activity in Quebec’s construction industry will reach a record level in 2021. A total of 194.5 million hours worked is expected this year, a 20% increase over last year, according to Perspectives 2022 published by the Commission de la construction du Québec.

Cape Breton land developer charged with extortion

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Land developer Frank Eckhardt, 56, was arrested last week and charged with extortion, after a falling out with a pair of German nationals who moved to Cape Breton on temporary work visas in December 2020. The RCMP became involved following a rental dispute.

AIMCo acquires two logistics warehouses in U.K.

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), on behalf of certain of its clients, has acquired 267,000- and 143,000-square-foot logistics warehouses in Dunstable, U.K., from a fund managed by AXA IM Alts and which have been developed by Baytree Logistics Properties.

Brookfield opens two more data centres in Brazil

Commercial  •  Data Centre Dynamics

Latin American firm Ascenty, owned by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Digital Realty, has opened new data centres in Rio de Janeiro and Hortolândia, Brazil. The company’s second Rio facility comprises 32,300 square feet, while its fourth in Hortolândia comprises 21,500 square feet.

Canadians help condo collapse survivors rebuild lives

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Six months after Champlain Towers South in South Florida collapsed, two Canadians — one a survivor, Oren Cytrynbaum, and one a humanitarian worker, Kimberley Bentley — are trying to help survivors in lawsuit mediation processes, insurance and daily life issues.

U.S. inflation at near 40-year high

Commercial  •  Financial Post

U.S. consumer prices rose last month at the fastest annual pace in nearly 40 years, underscoring how rapid and persistent inflation is eroding paychecks and increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy.

Marlin Spring acquires 21.7-acre site in Clarington, Ont.

Residential  •  Globe Newswire

Marlin Spring announced the acquisition of a 21.7-acre property located in the Courtice community of Clarington, 60 kilometres east of Toronto. The site will be developed into a community with sprawling greenspace, townhomes, semi- and fully detached homes.

$205K income required to buy GTA home

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Financial Post  •  Toronto Star

With the average price of a home in the GTA now well over $1 million, mortgage broker James Laird says lenders require a household income of $205,400 to buy the average home if you have $231,000 for a 20 per cent down payment.

Gentle density helps first-time buyers enter Van. market

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

An infill project on a quiet Vancouver street in which the developers saved a handsome heritage house and turned it into eight strata homes with potential for two rental suites illustrates the potential for densifying the city’s single-family lots.

Ontario should ban single-family zoning: OREA CEO

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Financial Post

Ontario’s zoning rules give priority to mansions for millionaires over affordable homes for aspiring middle-class families. That needs to change. Rolling back exclusionary zoning will restrain the runaway politics that stonewall any effort to bring affordable homes to the market.