Halifax bucks Atlantic Canada office trend; ind. strong

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Office  •  Atlantic Canada

Halifax was the only market of Atlantic Canada’s six largest urban areas to experience increased office demand over the past year, but four of the markets registered increased demand for warehouse space.

Montreal to build affordable housing on racetrack site

Residential  •  Global News  •  Montreal Gazette

The City of Montreal announced Monday a call for proposals to build hundreds of affordable housing units on Hippodrome raceway, the former racetrack also known as Blue Bonnets. It has been closed since 2009.

Investors step up in Vancouver development

Residential, Commercial  •  STOREYS

The B.C. real estate landscape is changing as major investors who answer to shareholders either partner with local developers or increasingly, do the development work themselves. Seeking greater returns, they have upped their game.

Design, Policy and Canadian Cities › Urban Design Panel: What you should know before attending

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

New hotel reflects Calgary’s transformation as tech hub

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Calgary’s newest luxury hotel The Dorian features more than 300 rooms and three restaurants in a 27-storey tower. The $110-million Marriott property is the first hotel to be built in the city’s downtown in more than a decade.

$170M campus to change Sydney, N.S. waterfront

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

Billed as a grand effort to aid downtown revitalization in a city of 31,000, the new $170-million Marconi campus on Sydney, N.S.’s waterfront will, when finished, be a spectacular splash in a town that has seen little major urban renewal.

Sponsored by Austin Birch Austin Birch assesses uneasy market in latest report

Taking a much-needed look into the realities of today’s pre-construction market, the GTA’s leading pre-construction advisors share their insights in the latest Austin Birch Report. Illuminating hard truths and fears in the industry, this report is not to be missed.

Recent GTA construction starts and openings

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

New developments are constantly going under construction in the Greater Toronto Area, while other projects wrap up. With this article, we’re summarizing which projects crossed either of those thresholds in the last several weeks.

Never Collide bird-safe buildings take off in Toronto

Residential, Commercial  •  Sustainable Biz Canada

Pearl Shore was leaving the subway near Finch Avenue and Yonge Street in Toronto when she noticed two dead crown kinglet birds at the foot of a nearby high-rise. Now, she heads up the volunteer organization Never Collide.

Shippers, consumers feel effects of overflowing ports

Commercial  •  Ottawa Business Journal

Bob Ballantyne broke a cord on his blinds in early July, and his Ottawa repairman hasn’t been able to replace the part. “He says, ‘You know, supply chain issues. I can’t get the string that I need to fix it.’ ”

VPorts seeks $350M to fund Quebec flying taxis

Commercial  •  La Presse

Will flying taxis be able to take off and land if they are commercialized on a large scale? VPorts, which dreams of a network of vertiports, hopes to convince Quebec to finance it up to $350 million.

Airports falling behind on infrastructure improvements

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

OPINION: When all is normal, infrastructure goes unnoticed. However, when something goes awry everyone sees the consequences of infrastructure underinvestment. That’s when the red lights come on. In recent months, those lights have been flashing for Canada’s largest airports.

U.S. CRE asset sales expected to remain strong

Commercial  •  Globest.com

Sales of commercial real estate assets are likely to continue at a robust clip, despite decreasing valuations, led by the multifamily, industrial, and retail sectors, according to the latest Q2 research from Crexi.

Cineworld’s woes put cinema industry under spotlight

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

With Cineworld, the world’s No. 2 cinema operator, staring at a possible bankruptcy as it struggles to cut debt, the spotlight is on the challenges the industry faces as a whole to compete with the popularity of streaming movies at home.

London’s office availability at highest level in 15 years

Commercial  •  Wealth Management

Office availability in Central London is at its highest level in 15 years, the latest sign of how the pandemic-driven shift to remote working is upending commercial property demand. Availability was close to 31 million square feet in August, CoStar reports.

U.S. home sales at lowest level since mid-2020

Residential  •  Business Wire

Home sales dropped 19.3% year-over-year in July to their lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic, when the housing market was at a near standstill, according to a new report from Redfin.

Capital Park breathes new life into Victoria

Residential, Commercial  •  REMI Network

Capital Park is a $250-million, master-planned mixed-use community located in the surging rental market of Victoria. The land was acquired by Concert Properties and Jawl Properties in 2014 and construction has been steadily underway since.

Housing market to recover soon: Soper

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper expects to see a housing market uptick in the spring of 2023, as people adjust to new interest rates. The market will recover soon, Soper said, because there is pent-up demand from early in the pandemic.

To build better rentals, rethink the corridors

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Jonathan Diamond, a Toronto builder whose family owns Well Grounded Real Estate, and architect Pooya Baktash, co-founder of Partisans, are looking to reboot, and elevate, the unloved apartment corridor to become a defining feature of a proposed Scarborough rental project.

Sunshine Coast, Squamish buck trend of lower prices

Residential  •  Western Investor

While three-quarters of Metro Vancouver markets saw home price declines, detached house prices on the Sunshine Coast and Squamish held steady from the first quarter to the second quarter, a new RE/MAX Canada report says.