Brivia, Olymbec to develop $104M Griffintown land plot

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments, Condominiums, Homes  •  Greater Montreal

Brivia Group is partnering with Olymbec to develop a major mixed-use project on a 300,000-square-foot site in Montreal’s Griffintown neighbourhood, just south of the downtown.

MDM builds in small Ont. cities, plans Belleville condos

RENX  Residential  •  Condominiums  •  Ontario

MDM Developments has established a niche by building residential projects in secondary and tertiary Ontario markets since 2005. Its next project, the 300-unit Porta Condominiums, will soon launch in Belleville.

Ontario Place redevelopment faces new hurdles

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Quebec-based adventure tourism provider Écorécréo, one of the three companies chosen to redevelop Ontario Place, has pulled out of the project, raising new questions about the future of the spot on Toronto’s waterfront.

iA Financial plans office demo, 62-storey mixed-use

Commercial  •  blogTO

iA Financial Group proposes to tear down a 15-storey office building at 522 University Ave. in Toronto and replace it with a 62-storey mixed-use skyscraper. The WZMH Architects-designed tower would include over 250,000 square feet of office space.

Consortium plans $12B N.L. hydrogen plant, wind farm

Commercial  •  Sustainable Biz Canada

World Energy GH2 heads a consortium planning to invest $12 billion to construct a green hydrogen production plant and a wind farm to power the energy-intensive facility near Stephenville, a coastal town in Western Newfoundland and Labrador.

Canada Post centre makes mark for sustainability

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

A soon-to-open $470-million, 585,000-square-foot Canada Post parcel sorting centre sets a high-water mark for sustainability: It’s the country’s largest industrial project so far to meet national design standards for a zero-carbon building.

Sponsored by MNP Commercial real estate and coping with high costs

Inflation, interest rate hikes, labour shortages, and a possible real estate downturn on the horizon — 2022 has not been an easy time for Canadian real estate.

Spaceport Nova Scotia gets green light

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Business Wire

Construction on Canada’s first spaceport for rocket launches can proceed in Canso, N.S., the provincial government announced. Spaceport Nova Scotia will be used to launch satellites into the Earth’s orbit for imaging, communications and experiments, says Maritime Launch Services.

H&R closes $167.8M office and retail sales

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX  •  RENX

H&R REIT (HR-UN-T) has completed the sale of four properties for proceeds of $167.8 million: a 444,898-square-foot office building in Toronto; a 69,793-square-foot office building in Calgary; a 89,438-square-foot retail building in Calgary; and a 129,181-square-foot retail building in Kingston.

Alliance REIT completes renovation of mixed-use

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

Alliance REIT has completed the renovation of Forest Hill Manor at 404 Spadina Rd. The heritage building offers Torontonians access to 31 modern loft style rental apartments and four retail stores in the heart of Forest Hill Village.

Dilawri ups investment in Automotive Properties REIT

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

893353 Alberta Inc. (Dilawri) today announced it has acquired beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over 1,004,200 trust units of Automotive Properties REIT (APR-UN-T) between Nov. 29, 2021 and Aug. 30, 2022 at a weighted average price of $13.38 per unit, increasing its ownership stake to 30.11%.

Pizza Pizza CEO plotting to keep the dough rolling in

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Pizza Pizza has been through enough recessions by now to have gotten a recipe for success, not just survival, down pat.  “Sometimes you have to make the bold moves when others are being a little conservative,” CEO Paul Goddard said.

Brookfield lends $272.5M for NYC office conversion

Residential, Commercial  •  Commercial Observer

Brookfield Real Estate Financial Partners has agreed to a $272.5 million construction loan to Vanbarton Group for its conversion of 160 Water St., constructed in 1972. Vanbarton plans to convert the 24-storey, 533,000-square-foot office tower to a 30-storey multifamily property with 588 units.

Thor acquires 13-asset industrial portfolio in Tampa

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire

Thor Equities, a global leader in urban real estate development, leasing and management, announced the acquisition of a 13-asset portfolio in the Tampa industrial market. Thor’s portfolio totals 402,000 square feet with assets ranging from 5,500 square feet to 78,700 square feet.

Industrial outdoor storage new hot CRE type

Commercial  •  Commercial Property Executive

U.S. industrial outdoor storage has gone from being a niche in the industrial sector, often owned by small private investors and mom-and-pop operators, to a market estimated at $200 billion. During the past three years, IOS has been growing dramatically.

Regulators weighing new rules for non-traded REITs

Residential, Commercial  •  The Real Deal

The North American Securities Administrators Association is looking into new rules that would limit how much an investor can buy into a non-traded REIT and prohibit such funds from paying out distributions from capital earned from selling shares.

GTA home prices, sales edge up in August: TRREB

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Toronto-area August home prices and sales have actually edged up from July. Prices remained above last August’s average but sales are down compared to a year ago, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB).

More GTA homebuyers turning to private lenders

Residential  •  CBC

The value of Greater Toronto Area mortgages by private and alternative lenders has increased from $13 billion in 2019 to $22.4 billion in 2021 and the number of mortgages rose from 30,435 in 2019 to 36,568 in 2021, according to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).

Variable-rate mortgages growing in popularity despite rate hikes

Residential  •  Financial Post

Many are still interested in variable-rate mortgages even though the central bank continues to hike interest rates in an effort to quell inflation, according to a new report by Ratesdotca.

Blackstone pausing U.S. single-family purchases

Residential  •  Bisnow

Blackstone’s single-family investment arm announced it was pausing all purchases in 38 U.S. cities, making it just the latest example of a huge buyer backing off acquisitions in what was one of the hottest asset classes in the last two years.