Wesgroup builds first 2-storey large- and small-bay ind.

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Metro Vancouver

Wesgroup Properties is building what’s believed to be Canada’s first industrial design utilizing a ramp to connect a standard distribution centre at ground level with several small-bay tenants on a second level.

Harden to manage RioCan REIT’s Quebec portfolio

RENX  Commercial  •  Retail, Apartments  •  Quebec, Greater Montreal

Harden will take over property management and leasing responsibilities for 18 RioCan REIT (REI-UN-T) Quebec retail properties on July 1. The 18 properties comprising the REIT’s entire Quebec portfolio, outside of Gatineau, and have until now been managed by RioCan.

REM proving huge boost to Montreal CRE

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News  •  RENX  •  RENX

Montrealers serving on a March 21 Urban Land Institute panel offered multiple reasons for their city’s commercial real estate renaissance, but their enthusiasm was greatest when talking about the transformative nature of the REM light rail project.

More of Vancouver’s retail spaces sit empty

Commercial  •  Vancouver Sun

Commercial retail vacancies in half of Vancouver’s 22 business improvement areas are higher than what is considered healthy, a troubling trend akin to the widespread unaffordability seen in the housing market.

Industrial land demand heats up in Waterloo Region

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  RENX  •  RENX

This fall, Angstrom Engineering Inc., of Kitchener, Ont., will move into a 53,000-square-foot building in a new tech-oriented business park 10 kilometres away, ending a prolonged effort by the fast-growing company to buy industrial property.

Nespresso to lease 325K-sq.-ft. Mtl. warehouse

Commercial  •  TVA Nouvelles  •  RENX

Coffee capsule giant Nespresso will soon take possession of a new warehouse and distribution centre in Pointe-Claire, in the West Island of Montreal. The 325,000-square-foot building is owned by RoseFellow and its partners Skyline Commercial REIT and F.I.T. Ventures.

Sponsored by First National Financial LP A First National progress report

First National published their financial results earlier this week and Jeremy Wedgbury, Senior Vice President, Commercial Mortgages shares the highlights.

Reliance/Hines Vancouver office tower underway

Commercial  •  Business In Vancouver  •  Hines media release  •  RENX

Construction and leasing has started on Reliance Properties‘ and Hines‘ 32-storey, 344,000-square-foot 1166 West Pender, the first office building in the downtown Vancouver core since the onset of the global pandemic and the first designed for a post-COVID work environment.

Low Tide proposes eight-storey Van. office/lab building

Commercial  •  Daily Hive  •  urbanYVR

Low Tide Properties, the real estate arm of Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, has proposed an eight-storey commercial building in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats. The proposal includes 105,000 square feet of office space, 102,000 square feet of laboratory and 5,000 square feet of retail.

SmartLiving proposes 22-storey Jane-Finch rental

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

SmartLiving (SRU-UN-T) has proposed a 22-storey rental building steps from the future Jane-Finch LRT station. The 294-unit Petroff Partnership Architects-designed Yorkgate would be the first significant new rental building in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood in nearly four decades.

Kayra Holdings plans 7-storey Scarborough mixed-use

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Kayra Holdings proposes a seven-storey apartment building at 3089 Danforth Ave. in Scarborough. The CariCari Lee Architects-designed building would include 30 residential units – 13 one-bedrooms, four one-bedroom-plus-den, eight two-bedrooms, four two-bedrooms-plus-den and one three-bedrooms – plus 1,345 square feet of commercial space.

Caisse sells Couche-Tard shares for $300 million

Commercial  •  La Presse  •  PR Newswire

The Caisse de depot et placement du Québec has sold $300 million worth of shares in Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD-T). The transactions were carried out at a unit price of $54.77, made under an over-the-counter contract with Couche-Tard.

Inside Brookfield’s $7B office takeover spree

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Very early in the pandemic, Brookfield Asset Management executives including CEO Bruce Flatt were preaching the gospel that fears for the future of the office had been overblown and that good office real estate would remain valuable and in demand.

Padlock Partners sells U.K. self-storage property

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Padlock Partners UK Fund I has completed the sale of a newly developed self-storage property approximately 50 miles northeast of London, to a subsidiary of Padlock Partners UK Fund II for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $10.9 million Cdn.

Pandemic spurs investors’ interest in data centres

Commercial  •  Bisnow  •  RENX

The coronavirus helped catapult data centres from a niche alternative asset class to a growing focus for the world’s largest real estate investors as previously reliable asset classes like hotel and office faltered and suddenly faced uncertain futures.

Embattled Oceanwide aims to finish L.A. project

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Beleaguered Chinese developer Oceanwide Holdings hasn’t made any forward movement on its billion-dollar downtown L.A. project in nearly a year and a half, but it is still planning to complete and largely hold on to Oceanwide Plaza, it told investors.

Low take-up of shared mortgage programs from 2019

Residential  •  Globe and Mail  •  Vancouver Province

Three years after the Liberal government’s 2019 federal budget promised to help first-time homebuyers with a major push in support of shared-equity mortgages, records show the take-up to date is far below expectations.

Vancouver’s home sales up 27% month-over-month

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  CTV  •  Western Investor

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says March home sales totalled 4,344, a 27 per cent increase from 3,424 homes sold in February 2022 and a 24 per cent decrease from the 5,708 sales recorded in March 2021.

Governments face rising pressure to tame Van. rents

Residential  •  Business In Vancouver

With asking prices for Vancouver rental apartments soaring 23 per cent in the past year, an increasing number of workers can’t afford to live in the city, but the provincial government has ruled out implementing rent control.

GTA home prices fall 2.6 per cent month-over-month

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

In the first sign of real estate relief since spring 2020, average GTA home prices took a small month-over-month hit in March, bucking the usual upward spring price trajectory and falling by 2.6 per cent, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said.