Vancouver’s Nicola Wealth buying in B.C., Ontario

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Industrial, Apartments, Condominiums, Investment  •  Metro Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver’s Nicola Wealth continues to move into the Greater Victoria area with a recent rezoning application and proposal to develop 407 purpose-built rental units aimed at the university town’s young demographic.

‘GameStop’s landlord’ Macerich stops Teachers’ losses

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

GameStop’s wild Wall Street trading helped bail out the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan on one of its oldest real-estate investments – California-based shopping centre owner The Macerich Co. – although it still sold at more than US$1 billion below the peak value.

Can REITs survive the downtown downturn?

Commercial  •  Financial Post

There were plenty of ways to make money in 2020, but buying up CRE REIT shares was generally not one of them. Dream Office CEO Michael Cooper, which saw its unit price plummet from $36 to under $16 in March, acknowledges the uncertainty.

Banks hang onto branches despite shift to online

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Financial Post  •  PR Newswire

Surging use of digital banking tools spurred by the coronavirus pandemic has threatened to make many banks’ costly bricks-and-mortar branches obsolete, but so far Canada’s largest lenders are hanging on to their extensive networks of storefronts.

Five Ottawa buildings proposed for Iran’s former site

Residential  •  Ottawa Business Journal

Montreal’s Place Dor​ée Real Estate Holdings wants to build over 1,600 residential units as part of a five-tower development at the former site of the Ottawa Iranian Cultural Centre. The plan would see four 30-storey towers and a nine-storey building.

Crombie’s Halifax redevelopment moving forward

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC  •  RENX

One of the biggest development projects ever planned for Halifax is finally moving forward after the land negotiations were finalized between the Halifax Regional Municipality and Crombie REIT (CRR-UN-T). The project will include a transit hub.

The People Space › People Space: Senior exec moves at Canada ICI, Greenwin, GCG …

Don Wilcox: Managing Editor

Barclay Street pre-selling retail condos

Commercial  •  Calgary Herald

Barclay Street Real Estate is taking advantage of the hot retail condo market by pre-selling two Calgary developments – 27-unit Royal Vista Landing and Shoppes at Sunridge, which will offer 40,000 square feet of retail condo units in seven buildings.

Emergia JVs on Alliston, Ont., land for mixed-use project

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe Newswire

Emergia Inc. (EMER-CN) has entered into a binding agreement to purchase approximately 100 acres in Alliston, Ont., through a 50/50 joint venture with third parties for $15.7 million. Closing is expected in Q1 2021 and the site is intended for mixed-use development.

Ex-Ivanhoé exec predicts future of shopping centres

Commercial  •  La Presse  •  RENX

Consumption is slowing down, but it will eventually pick up again post-pandemic. Claude Sirois provides some predictions for retail in his first interview since his departure, a year ago, from Ivanhoé Cambridge, where he directed the destiny of shopping centres.

HBC permanently laying off more than 600 workers

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Hudson’s Bay Co. is permanently laying off more than 600 workers across Canada amid ongoing store closures due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Tiffany Bourre, a spokeswoman for the iconic retailer, says nearly half the company’s department stores remain temporarily closed.

Podcasts from the real estate world

Residential, Commercial  • 

Kay Sargent, HOK Group Inc: Tech-enabled environments & doing what you love, Tenant Experience Network. Episode 6
John Reid, Faber Connect: The ongoing skilled trades shortage, The Construction Record Podcast – Episode 104
Matt Knight, PropTech Angel Group: How tech will get us back to the workplace, Tenant Experience Network. Episode 7

Another REM extension on the horizon

Commercial  •  La Presse

The Caisse de dépôt et placement has sent the Legault government a “positive signal” in favour of another extension of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM), this time in Laval and Longueuil.

Oxford’s M7 acquisition another example of the race for scale

Commercial  •  Lexology

The recent announcement of the acquisition of M7 Real Estate by Oxford Properties is another significant marker for institutional investors’ appetite for the real estate market in general and the industrial and logistics sectors specifically.

U.S. industrial clear leader in Moody’s report

Commercial  •  CP Executive  •  CP Executive

The U.S. office and industrial sectors are headed on diverging paths in 2021 and into the post-pandemic era, according to the latest Moody’s Analytics REIS report. The numbers tell a rather grim story in the office sector.

Ex-WeWork exec aims to jumpstart China’s property market

Residential, Commercial  •  Forbes

Dominic Penaloza, former head of innovation and technology for WeWork China, has launched a “start-up studio model” in Asia that hopes to bring the SaaS model of doing business to the Asian commercial and residential real estate markets.

Nearly 1,000 T.O. renters received interest-free loans

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Emmanuel Ofori-Attah’s is one of nearly 1,000 Toronto households last year which took advantage of the city-funded “Rent Bank” program after COVID-19 hit. Critics say the loans were only a temporary fix and are urging more fundamental and long-term measures.

Halifax’s vacancy rate nearly doubled in 2020: CMHC

Residential  •  CBC

The average vacancy rate in Halifax increased in 2020 for the first time in five years, but remains one of the lowest in the country. The vacancy rate was a record low of one per cent in 2019. It jumped to 1.9% in 2020.

Pandemic housing craze fuelling reverse mortgage boom

Residential  •  Global News

With interest rates at rock bottom and home prices skyrocketing, reverse mortgages are losing their stigma. Once considered by many a last-ditch solution for cash-strapped seniors, reverse mortgages have been growing in popularity for years.

Despite ban, T.O. evictions continued

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Two postal codes that cover the Pinedale Properties apartment complex at 7, 9 and 11 Crescent Place were listed on more eviction filings for missed rent — L1s — than any other postal codes across Ontario during the first pandemic-era eviction moratorium last year.