LaSalle, TAS in $120M JV: ‘Core real estate with a soul’

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Office  •  Toronto / GTA

A new forward-thinking joint venture between LaSalle Investment Management Canada’s LaSalle Canada Property Fund and TAS has purchased its first three properties in Toronto. They’re the first phase of the 50/50 partnership initially targeting the deployment of $120 million.

Calgary’s industrial vacancy slashed 54% in 15 months

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Calgary

Calgary’s industrial real estate market continues to be on fire, with Q3 data indicating demand for property is increasing while the market tries to keep up.  The JLL report reveals net absorption this year is almost six million square feet.

Cominar unit sale price raises questions: TD

Commercial  •  La Presse  •  RENX

Cominar REIT (CUF-UN-T) last week reached an agreement to sell to a  Canderel-led consortium at a unit price of $ 11.75 per share, a transaction valued at 5.7 billion. Cominar’s revelation Wednesday that the unit reached $14.72 in early October is raising questions.

Firm Capital acquires Pointe Claire multires for $55M

Residential  •  Globe Newswire

Firm Capital Property Trust (FCD-UN-X) announced the acquisition of a 135-unit multiresidential building in Pointe Claire on the Island of Montreal for approximately $55 million. The nine-storey building contains 11 one-bedroom units, 114 two-bedroom units and 10 three-bedroom units.

For T.O. developers, ‘the idea of a perfect site is gone’

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

“. . . What we’re looking at now is imperfect sites . . . an imperfect building that’s not going to be the imaginary thing that gets idealized in some of the documents,” Hariri Pontarini Architects‘ David Pontarini said recently of Toronto’s listing of heritage properties.

Design, Policy and Canadian Cities › What does inclusionary zoning really mean for Toronto?

Naama Blonder: Architect, Urban Designer, Urban Planner | B.Arch, OAA, RPP, MCIP

Ottawa businesses pivot as fed towers remain empty

Commercial  •  CTV

Local business owners in downtown Ottawa, who have relied for years on the traffic from federal government workers, are finding themselves planning for a future without them. Many offices remain empty because the city’s largest workforce is still working remotely.

Soaring prices, staff shortages hit restaurant owners

Commercial  •  CBC

Doreen McDonald, owner of Wild Horses Pub and Eatery in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, N.L., uses words like astronomical to describe the increasing cost of doing business as supply bottlenecks and global production issues push her and others to the brink.

Colliers strengthens flex space offering with SmartFlex

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire

Colliers has launched Colliers SmartFlex to strengthen its flex office space advisory offering. Colliers SmartFlex provides a comprehensive database of flex space options across 90 global markets with a transaction workflow manager for Colliers professionals to facilitate client requests quickly.

Top Western towns for investors 2021-’22

Residential, Commercial  •  Western Investor

Western Investor’s annual forecast of top investor towns looks at five centres that are riding out the pandemic and look solid for investors into 2022:

Sanderling applies for 32-storey, mixed-use

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Bousfields has proposed a 32-storey mixed-use building at 586 Eglinton Ave. E. in Toronto’s Sherwood Park neighbourhood. The architects—Alliance-designed development would include 249 residential units, 43,000 square feet of office space, 7,000 square feet of retail space and three levels of underground parking.

REIT third-quarter financial results

Residential, Commercial  • 

Artis REIT, (AX-UN-T), Canada Newswire
Choice Properties REIT, (CHP-UN-T), Business Wire
Granite REIT, (GRT-UN-T), Business Wire
Slate Office REIT, (SOT-UN-T), Business Wire
True North Commercial REIT, (TNT-UN-T), Canada Newswire

EQT Exeter to sell U.S. industrial portfolio for $6.8B

Commercial  •  Bisnow  •  CP Executive

EQT Exeter has culminated three years of portfolio aggregation with one of the largest sales of industrial property ever: a 328-property portfolio of distribution centres for $6.8 billion. The buyer of the 70.5-million-square-foot portfolio is an unidentified Asian sovereign wealth fund.

Summit Hotel acquires 27-hotel U.S. portfolio for $822M

Commercial  •  PR Newswire

Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. (INN-N) has entered into an agreement to acquire a 27-hotel portfolio totaling 3,709 guestrooms, two parking structures and various financial incentives through its existing joint venture with GIC for total consideration of $822 million from affiliates of NewcrestImage.

IWG reviews separating its digital and technology assets

Commercial  •  Reuters

Office rental company IWG (IWGFF) is considering whether to separate its digital and technology businesses from its real estate assets, the company said on Tuesday, breaking its silence over a media report in September about a possible break-up.

CPP invests $257M in India’s highways trust

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX  •  RENX

CPP Investments announced the acquisition of 25 per cent of the units in National Highways Infra Trust, an infrastructure investment trust sponsored by the National Highways Authority of India, for $257 million.

Banks hurt by decline of gov’t mortgage insurance

Residential  •  Calgary Herald

Canada’s big banks have become more vulnerable to losses from economic shocks after increasing exposure to red-hot real estate markets in Vancouver and Toronto at a time when the level of government-backed residential mortgage default insurance was declining, says Moody’s.

Rental surge could be factor in housing supply crunch: OREB

Residential  •  Ottawa Business Journal  •  Ottawa Citizen  •  CTV

Local housing prices kept rising last month amid an ongoing supply crunch – prompting the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB) to suggest the frothy rental market could be encouraging investors to hold on to income-generating properties rather than sell them.

Calgary sees record October for home sales: CREB

Residential  •  CBC

The Calgary Real Estate Board says the region experienced a record number of home sales for October and the pace appears on track to continue. The region saw 2,186 sales in October, up about 24 per cent year-over-year from 1,763.

Professionals advising clients to sell this winter

Residential  •  Daily Hive

An overwhelming majority of Canadian real estate professionals would advise their clients to sell their properties this winter rather than waiting until spring, according to a new report from Royal LePage.