Fengate buys 95 acres of Hamilton, GTA industrial land

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Ontario, Toronto / GTA

Fengate Real Estate has closed on two recent industrial land acquisitions to add to three projects already at various stages of development across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

LPAT OK’s CRAFT’s multi-tower Toronto project

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star

The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal has ruled CRAFT Development Corporation can build a proposed multi-tower office and condo development over Toronto’s downtown rail corridor. City council earlier rejected CRAFT’s application to build six towers up to 46 storeys with 3,500 condo units.

Brookfield aims to raise US$100B for new flagship funds

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

CEO Bruce Flatt said Brookfield Asset Management (BAM-A-T) plans to raise $100 billion US for its next round of flagship funds after it delivered first-quarter earnings buoyed by share sales and asset divestitures.

Feds, Ontario to spend $3.4B on Hamilton LRT

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

Ottawa and Ontario say they will spend $3.4-billion to build a light-rail transit line in Hamilton. The federal and provincial governments announced they will each contribute $1.7 billion to the 14-kilometre line to advance the “shovel-ready” project.

Kansas City Southern endorses CN’s takeover bid

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Financial Post  •  Toronto Star

Kansas City Southern switched suitors late Thursday, endorsing a US$30-billion offer from Canadian National Railway Co. and spurning a US$25.2-billion bid from rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.

B.C. FN planning $1B, 40-acre industrial park

Commercial  •  Western Investor

Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, McLeod Lake Indian Band and Formula Capital Corporation are planning the Shas Ti-Dlezeh Industrial Park, 40 kilometres north of Prince George. The natural gas liquids processing complex projects could cost in excess of $1 billion.

Real World of Real Estate › Podcast: The new Real Estate Act in Alberta

Gerald Tostowaryk:

Nexus acquires 3 industrial properties for $44.8M

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

Nexus REIT (NXR-UN-T) has waived conditions to acquire three single-tenant industrial properties for $44.8 million. The properties are located in Windsor and St. Thomas, Ont., and Red Deer, Alta., and have gross leasable areas of approximately 120,000, 130,000 and 155,000 square feet, respectively.

Canada’s largest helium facility lifts off in Saskatchewan

Commercial  •  Western Investor

Saskatchewan is now home to Canada’s largest helium purification facility. The Battle Creek-area $32-million facility, owned and operated by North American Helium Inc., is expected to produce more than 50 million cubic feet per year of purified helium for commercial sale.

Five-storey office building coming to Vancouver

Commercial  •  urbanYVR

UnionAllied Capital Corporation is developing a five-storey, 55,000-square-foot office and light industrial building in East Vancouver. The new strata building will include a 5,000-square-foot patio area, as well as two levels of underground parking, bicycle parking and end-of-trip facilities.

Real estate podcasts

Residential, Commercial  • 

Andrew Hoffman, Bader Elkatib, CentreCourt: Smartest guys in the room, CRE Library: Episode 48
Dave Cairns, CBRE Forward: The importance of uniquely tailored tenant experience, Tenant Experience Network. Season 2, Episode 7
Shaun Stewart, New Lab: Quartz, an all-sensing company clock, Work/Place Episode 2

REIT first-quarter financial results

Residential, Commercial  • 

Boardwalk REIT, (BEI-UN-T), Canada Newswire
CAPREIT, (CAR-UN-T), Globe Newswire
Firm Capital Apartment REIT, (FCA-UN-X), Globe Newswire
H&R REIT, (HR-UN-T), Canada Newswire
Nexus REIT, (NXR-UN-X), Globe Newswire
NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT, (NWH-UN-T), Canada Newswire
WPT Industrial REIT, (WIR-U-T), Globe Newswire

Industrial slow to react to rising digital sales demand

Commercial  •  Business Wire  •  Logistics Management

Despite industrial customers’ increasing expectations for a digital purchasing experience, many industrial companies have been slow to deliver, with only seven per cent planning to transform their digital sales capabilities within the next two years, according to Accenture (ACN-N).

Bridge launches Abridge flex office space program

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Anticipating increased demand for flexible office spaces in suburban markets, Bridge Commercial Real Estate, the commercial brokerage subsidiary of Bridge Investment Group, has launched Abridge, a flex office program starting in Atlanta; Miami; Minneapolis; Irving, Texas; and Reston, Va.

Stakeholders bullish on built-to-rent market

Residential  •  Daily Commercial News

Real estate experts appearing on the first Canadian-centred episode of Common Knowledge are bullish on built-to-rent properties, a market that they say will be sorely needed as home prices in major cities continue to skyrocket and immigration ramps up.

Holborn fights Vancouver empty-homes tax

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

A company controlled by Joo Kim Tiah, the head of the Holborn Group, is challenging Vancouver’s decision to assess a $144,700 empty-homes tax on the dilapidated and vacant former hostel downtown that it bought in 2006.

Birds Nest Properties merges with ACD Realty

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

Birds Nest Properties, a leading rental property management company in Metro Vancouver, announced its merger with property management brokerage ACD Realty Corporation, adding the latter’s Lower Mainland portfolio. ACD Realty is based in New Westminster.

Airbnbs migrating to long-term rental market

Residential  •  Toronto Star

There are signs that the city’s new short-term rental bylaws are converting some Airbnbs back into stock in the long-term housing market even as Toronto city councillors continue monitoring the new enforcement system for unlicensed short-term rental operators.

Northern B.C.’s multifamily market cap rate dwarfs Van.’s

Residential  •  Western Investor

In Northern British Columbia, multifamily investors can find capitalization rates three to four times higher than in Metro Vancouver. In April, a 30-unit, 30-year-old multifamily rental complex sold in small-town Chetwynd for $6.6 million, nearly twice its assessed value.

Home Capital keeps tighter standards on loans

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Business Wire

Mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. (HCG-T) reported a large jump in first-quarter profit as fears about losses on loans in the pandemic eased, but it kept tighter lending standards in place to guard against risks with housing markets roaring.