Ivanhoé, Cogir, Pomerleau kick off $200M Haleco project

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Office, Retail, Apartments  •  Greater Montreal

Ivanhoé Cambridge, Cogir Real Estate and Pomerleau will invest about $200 million to build Haleco, a mixed-use residential, office and commercial project on a site linking Old Montreal and Griffintown that won the C40 Reinventing Cities competition in 2019.

Can residential and industrial land uses co-exist?

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Apartments, Condominiums, Homes  •  Ontario, Toronto / GTA

The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area’s residential construction boom is increasingly pushing into historic industrial and employment lands, and an Urban Land Institute Toronto panel looked at some of the issues and strategies which have arisen from the situation.

Summit buys GTA logistics/flex portfolio for $59.3M

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU-UN-T) says it has waived conditions and will acquire a 174,790-square-foot class-A logistics and flex office portfolio in Mississauga. Summit will pay $59.3 million for the portfolio, below replacement cost.

Huge potential for retrofits, but labour crunch looms

Residential, Commercial  •  Sustainable Biz Canada

An acceleration in green building retrofits could result in two million direct job years of employment to upgrade 730 million square metres of floor space between now and 2050 according to a Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and Delphi Group study.

T.O. office worker numbers well below pre-COVID era

Commercial  •  Financial Post

More workers are going back to their offices in Toronto’s financial district than at any point since the COVID-19 crisis began — though occupancy is about 25 per cent of pre-COVID times, according to data from the Strategic Regional Research Alliance.

Snowflake to open downtown Toronto HQ

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Bozeman, Mont.-based cloud computing giant Snowflake Inc. (SNOW-N) is opening a 50,000-square-foot Canadian headquarters in the east tower of Brookfield Properties’ Bay Adelaide Centre in Toronto’s financial district and plans to hire hundreds of engineers.

Canon, HSHG bringing diagnostic centres to Ontario

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

The Harley Street Healthcare Group Canada and Canon Medical Systems Canada plan to launch five “innovative” community diagnostic centres to Ontario within the next two years. The first “Centre of Excellence” is to be located in Ottawa.

Quebec ports discuss strategic alliance

Commercial  •  La Presse

At a time when global supply chains are being restructured due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ports of Montreal, Quebec and Trois-Rivières are creating a task force to target initiatives on which they could join forces.

UBC pushes for 46-storey Kelowna tower

Commercial  •  Western Investor

The University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) is seeking to amend the height of its downtown Kelowna campus and residential tower from 34 storeys to 46. It would become the tallest building in the city, surpassing the 42-storey Eli building.

Devron bringing 10 storeys, 64 units to Yonge

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Devron Developments and Constantine Enterprises have come to a settlement with the City of Toronto to bring a 10-storey condo with 64 units to 1140 Yonge St., the site of a historic Pierce-Arrow automobile showroom. The building will be designed by AUDAX.

The Apartment Building Expert › Lights Out! Landlords face a larger challenge today

Derek Lobo: Founder and CEO , SVN Rock Advisors Inc.

St. John’s basilica sells for $3 million-plus

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

A committee intent on preserving 167-year-old Basilica of St. John’s the Baptist announced it was chosen as its new owners. The cathedral was sold as part of a parcel of properties that included St. Bonaventure’s College for more than $3 million.

U.S. CRE insulated from inflation impact: C&W

Residential, Commercial  •  Commercial Observer

While rapid inflation is plaguing many parts of the economy, the impact is relatively muted for U.S. CRE tenants and landlords, both of which should be more focused on real estate market conditions, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

Hotel-to-industrial shows demand for warehouses

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Rexford Industrial spent $45 million to buy the Hotel Fullerton, a 1960s-era L.A. property on seven acres just off the 91 Freeway, yet another sign of developers getting creative to find opportunities to build more industrial space in the tight infill market.

IKEA selling Russian factories, closing offices

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen

IKEA said on Wednesday it would sell factories, close offices and reduce its nearly 28,000-strong workforce in Russia, the latest move by the world’s biggest furniture brand to cut its operations there following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Probe begins in Gordie Howe Bridge concrete collapse

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

Bridging North America, the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority is investigating the cause of a collapse of a segment of roadway in the vicinity of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project on the Detroit side.

Ontario condo reserve funds ‘a train wreck’

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Condominium maintenance expert/engineer Sally Thompson, managing partner at Synergy Partners Consulting Inc., is warning that chronic low-balling of future building repair costs is leaving new owners unprepared for potentially major fee hikes in the coming years.

May home sales down 22% year-over-year: CREA

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Canada Newswire  •  Financial Post

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says the country’s housing market continued to cool last month with home sales dropping by nearly 22 per cent since last year and almost nine per cent between April and May.

Canadian housing starts trend lower in May

Residential  •  Canada Newswire  •  Toronto Star

The trend in housing starts was 254,727 units in May, down from 257,833 units in April, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts.

Vancouver permitting delays continue despite efforts

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

Vancouver has been working for a year to reduce its wait times for permits. However, although it is processing more applications, the volume of permits being requested has spiked and so waiting times are as long as ever – or longer.