Converted office now The Westley, Calgary’s newest boutique hotel

RENX  Commercial  •  Hotels and Resorts  •  Calgary

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic which has gutted Canada’s hospitality sector, Silver Hotels Calgary Ltd. has forged ahead with the conversion of an under-utilized downtown Calgary office space into the city’s newest boutique hotel.

Downtown Calgary retail remains in peril

Commercial  •  Retail Insider  •  Financial Post

Calgary’s downtown retail sector has been hit with a double whammy of COVID-19 and low oil prices. With downtown office vacancy rates hovering in the historic 30 per cent level, the economic recovery for the downtown retail industry will take time.

Artis REIT to sell GTA industrial portfolio for $750M

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Toronto / GTA, Winnipeg

UPDATED with Samir Manji interview: Artis REIT (AX-UN-T) has announced a “milestone” transaction, an unconditional agreement to sell its 28-property, 2.5-million square-foot Greater Toronto Area industrial portfolio for $750 million.

Teachers’ seeks to double investment in infrastructure

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan aims to double its infrastructure investments within the next five years – to $40 billion from the currently $17.8 billion or around eight per cent of its portfolio, senior managing director for infrastructure and natural resources Dale Burgess said.

Summit proposes nine-storey North York condo building

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Summit View Homes proposes a nine-storey condominium development at 4700 Bathurst St. in North York. The Daniel Johnson Architect-designed building would feature 142 condominium units with a mix of  four studios, 101 one-bedrooms, 16 two-bedrooms, 20 three-bedroom maisonettes and one four-bedroom maisonette.

Morrison proposes 11-storey condo in Scarborough

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Morrison Groups is seeking a zoning by-law amendment and site plan approval to build an 11-storey, Turner Fleischer Architects-designed condominium development at 3310 Kingston Rd. in Scarborough. It would include 323 condo units in a mix of 30 studios, 134 one-bedrooms, 128 two-bedrooms and 31 three-bedrooms.

Real Estate Wealth Insights › The pros and cons of investing in commercial real estate

Cliff Fraser: Chief Business Development Officer, Equiton Capital

Proposed two-building Saanich project clears hurdle

Residential  •  Victoria Times Colonist  •  Saanich News

Mike Geric Construction Ltd.’s proposed two buildings, starting at 11 storeys and “terracing down” to a five-storey structure beside neighbouring apartments and townhouse developments has received the support of Saanich council. The project would contain a total of 242 condos, including 43 “affordable.”

Wpg. bowling alley converted to mixed-use

Residential, Commercial  •  Winnipeg Free Press

Over the past two years, Globe Capital Management has redeveloped Winnipeg’s former Academy Uptown Lanes into high-end loft rental apartments along with several thousand feet of commercial space, overseeing an $11-million renovation that gutted the interior while maintaining the exterior.

Can Granville Street be reimagined?

Residential, Commercial  •  Vancouver Sun

VIDEO: Granville Street was “supposed to reflect Vancouver’s unique identity, character and sense of place,” according to Heritage Vancouver. The street, unfortunately, is a mishmash of planning over the decades that don’t always work as well as hoped for.

Montreal announces plan to protect Chinatown

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC  •  Global News

The City of Montreal has announced concrete measures it will take to protect the Chinatown district, following calls from stakeholders the area is being threatened by development. The actions include supporting business owners with the creation of a merchants’ association.

Van. ranked N.A.’s top large city of the future

Residential, Commercial  •  Daily Hive  •  Daily Hive  •  Surrey Now-Leader

Financial Times’ fDi Magazine’s latest list of the best North and South American cities for foreign direct investment ranks Vancouver as one of the world’s most promising economic and investment locations of the future and No. 1 in North America.

CPP, QuadReal raise stake in GLP European fund

Commercial  •  Mingtiandi

GLP is upsizing its European logistics development venture with CPP Investments and QuadReal, aiming to boost assets under management to $5.9 billion Cdn from the original target of $3 billion. CPP Investments and QuadReal will add $1.3 and $1.2, billion, respectively.

BGO acquires two Oxford warehouse assets

Commercial  •  Property Funds World

BentallGreenOak has acquired two retail warehouse assets in Oxford, U.K., in conjunction with BGO’s new joint venture partner, Mission Street. The two firms will redevelop the spaces to meet the growing demand from life sciences companies in Central Oxford.

Dream Industrial just hit a record high

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

Dream Industrial REIT‘s (DIR-UN-T) unit price closed at a record high on Friday. It is anticipated to deliver a 9-per-cent total return (including the yield) over the next 12 months. The REIT offers its unitholders an attractive 4.7 per cent yield.

Dream Impact compels for income, sustainable investing

Commercial  •  SmallCapPower  •  RENX

Dream Impact Trust (MPCT-UN-T) describes itself as Canada’s first publicly traded impact investment vehicle – making real-estate investments that both generate positive financial returns (targeted development yields of 15-20 per cent) and aim to have a positive social and/or environmental impact.

T.O. inclusionary zoning approach is flawed: BILD

Residential  •  Daily Commercial News

A new BILD report indicates the City of Toronto’s proposed inclusionary zoning approach, which will require a certain percentage of affordable housing units in new developments to create mixed-income housing, is flawed and could have unintended consequences.

Canadians owe almost $2T in mortgage, line of credit debt

Residential  •  CBC  •  Financial Post

Canadians took out almost $18 billion worth of new mortgage debt in April, the fastest monthly increase on record and enough to bring total housing debt to almost $2 trillion, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

Home prices accelerate again in May: Teranet

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Canadian home prices accelerated again in May from the previous month, posting the largest monthly rise in the history of the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, data showed on Thursday.

Housing ‘first casualty’ of higher interest rates: Economist

Residential  •  Financial Post

“The housing market will probably be the first casualty of higher rates,” Alberta Central chief economist Charles St-Arnaud, who previously worked at the Bank of Canada, said. “When rates go up, that affordability will disappear very, very quickly.”