Anthem United, Ronmor JV at Calgary’s Glacier Ridge

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Homes, Land  •  Calgary

Anthem United has announced it will partner with Calgary’s Ronmor Group to develop the huge 836-acre Glacier Ridge community in the Alberta city’s northwest quadrant.

Scotiabank targets $10B affordable housing commitment

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

Scotiabank (BNS-T) announced it is the first large financial institution in Canada to align with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to transform housing affordability across the country. Scotiabank plans to mobilize $10 billion over the next 10  years in support of CMHC.

BMO sells EMEA asset management business for $1.1B

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

Bank of Montreal (BMO-T) is selling its European asset management business for $1 billion to Ameriprise Financial to focus on North America. BMO will shed its Europe, Middle East and Africa business, which includes US$124B of assets under management in Europe.

HBC, RioCan to build 25-storey downtown Mtl. tower

RENX  Commercial  •  Office, Retail  •  Greater Montreal

HBC and RioCan (REI-UN-T) are about to expand their six-year-old partnership on several Canadian properties, announcing they will move ahead with the redevelopment of HBC’s downtown Montreal property into a 25-storey office tower.

Queen’s Park proposes ‘transit-oriented communities’

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  CP 24  •  Ontario Newsroom

Queen’s Park is proposing the first “transit-oriented communities” for the new Ontario Line subway be built in Corktown and at a “Union Station to the east” on the Unilever lands, eventually kickstarting a dozen such neighbourhoods along the line.

Office vacancies give growing firms chance to expand

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Toronto Star  •  Toronto Star

Businesses such as Toronto’s Broken Heart Love Affair are shifting to larger offices months or years early due to favourable market conditions. “There are a lot of companies right now that are accelerating through this challenge,” said CBRE’s Jon Ramscar.

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Cliff Fraser: Chief Business Development Officer, Equiton Capital

Beljan to convert 109-year-old Edmonton building

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC

Edmonton-based Beljan Development is in the process of transforming Edmonton’s 109-year-old Scona Garage building at 8020 105 St. into boutique short-term residential rentals with 8,500 square feet of ground-floor retail businesses which could include a restaurant, cafe or a micro-brewery.

Forget plans – downtown Calgary needs action

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC

OPINION: The city of Calgary’s planning department has authored yet another 100-plus page planning document, called “Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan.” While still a draft, it replaces the 2007 “Centre City Plan,” a 182-page document with hundreds of ideas.

Province pledges $25M to redevelop Winnipeg HBC

Commercial  •  CBC

It was an unexpected pledge in Manitoba’s 2021 budget: a $25-million commitment toward the redevelopment of the boarded-up Hudson’s Bay building in downtown Winnipeg. The six-storey 655,755-square-foot building has been a Portage Avenue fixture since 1926.

Busta proposes 7-storey mixed-use development

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Busta Ventures Inc. has proposed a seven-storey mixed-use building at 380 Donlands Ave. in Toronto’s East York area. The TACT Architecture-designed building would contains 73 units in a mix of 27 one-bedrooms, 39 two-bedrooms and seven three-bedrooms in addition to ground-floor retail

Is it last call for The Beer Store?

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Amidst dwindling market share, ballooning losses and increasing competition, some observers wonder whether The Beer Store, controlled by two of the biggest brewing conglomerates in the world, can survive — or even if it should.

Chairman selling up to 880,000 shares in MTY

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Canada Newswire  •  Toronto Star

MTY Food Group Inc. (MTY-T) says Stanley Ma, the company’s founder, president and chairman, is selling up to 880,000 of his shares in company. The restaurant franchisor and operator says the sale represents a 3.56 per cent stake in the company.

CPP invests $210M in India office JV

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  livemint  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

CPP Investments and RMZ Corp., one of the largest privately owned real estate developers in India, announced they have entered into a joint venture to develop and hold commercial office space in Chennai and Hyderabad. CPP has invested $210 million.

CoreLogic to sell $4 billion buyout loan

Residential  •  Bloomberg

CoreLogic (CLGX-N), known for home-price indexes, plans to sell a $4-billion offering to help finance its buyout by Stone Point Capital and Insight Capital. It’s the largest acquisition-related loan since Zayo Group Holdings Inc. issued a $4.75-billion deal in February 2020.

Industrial developers set sights on Chicago golf courses

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Golf courses in the Chicagoland suburbs are selling quicker than at any point over the last decade, further evidence of the sport’s long-term decline. However, buyers are lining up from a rather surprising sector of real estate: industrial.

MZOs threaten Ontario’s finite resource — farmland

Commercial  •  Hamilton Spectator

OPINION: Over the past 25 years, Ontario has lost productive farmland the size of the Golden Horseshoe — the swath of land from Toronto to the Niagara Peninsula around the western tip of Lake Ontario — to urban growth. This is not sustainable.

Experts dispute OSFI’s tougher stress test will cool prices

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Daily Commercial News  •  Financial Post

“The effects to the borrowers will be negligible,” said Matrix Mortgage Global‘s Laura Martin. “Buyers will still be able to qualify for mortgages at the same amounts as before by adding a co-signor or pursuing alternative lender options.”

B.C. regulators caution potential homebuyers

Residential  •  Canada Newswire  •  CBC

With real estate market activity continuing to increase, the Real Estate Council of BC  and Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate are encouraging British Columbians to be aware of the potential risks before making an offer on a home.

60% of homeowners planning renovations: Scotiabank

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

After a year of the pandemic, six in 10 Canadian homeowners are planning to renovate in the next two years, with backyards, kitchens and bathrooms topping the list, a Scotiabank poll revealed.