Real Estate News Exchange (RENX)
c/o Squall Inc.
P.O. Box 1484, Stn. B
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5P6

thankyou@renx.ca
Canada: 1-855-569-6300

TMX pipeline OK no panacea for Calgary office woes

5 years ago

Approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was celebrated in some quarters of Alberta last week, but the commercial real estate industry isn’t breaking open the champagne. Turning around the downtown Calgary office market requires more than an announcement.

 •   •   • 

Montreal’s expensive new Samuel De Champlain Bridge opened to traffic for the first time this morning, about six months behind schedule. Various delays pushed back the opening and added another $235 million to the original $4.2-billion price tag.

 •   •   • 

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has sold a major stake in Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) to other investors, two sources said. Teachers sold the shares for $9.45 apiece, the price HBC executive chairman Richard Baker offered to take it private.

 •   • 

Canada’s national housing agency looks nothing like it did when Evan Siddall was appointed five years ago. The chief executive of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has overseen a transformation of the Crown corporation since 2014.

Yardi Systems

UPDATED: Ottawa’s Zibi development has its first major commercial tenant, the Federal Government of Canada. It will also be home to a 24-storey apartment tower being built with U.S.-based housing provider Common, containing “co-living” and traditional rentals.

Derek Lobo

Founder and CEO , SVN Rock Advisors Inc.

 • 

In the very appropriate venue of Ottawa’s Horticulture Building, first erected a century ago to house the central exhibition, a hodgepodge of business leaders, government officials, developers and politicians gathered in mid-June to ponder the awesome task of city-building.

 • 

Ottawa taxpayers won’t be on the hook for an estimated $34.4 million in costs related to the delayed opening of Phase 1 LRT – assuming the city can get the light-rail builder to pay, according to a memo sent by city staff.

NAI Commercial

 •   •   • 

A proposed master concept plan for the development of LeBreton Flats will be in front of the NCC board in early 2020. Board members lauded the agency’s“Building LeBreton” process to plot future development of the 59 acres in downtown Ottawa.

 • 

On June 20, five months after closing its doors to prepare for a $44.7-million renovation, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal reopened a building that hasn’t changed in the least little bit.

 •   • 

When it comes to Toronto’s Quayside, a neighbourhood project proposed by Sidewalk Labs (a subsidiary, like Google, of Alphabet), the most prevalent sense from critics has been one of doubt and fear.

 • 

Although B.C. has arguably been the biggest beneficiary of the most recent housing boom, a tidal wave of cheap money has flooded into the hands of real estate developers desperately trying to keep up with a home-buying frenzy.

DC & Associates

 • 

The scenic village of Canal Flats at the base of the Canadian Rockies is undergoing a “brave experiment,” transitioning from a forestry-dependent economy to tech and trades with the launch of the Columbia Lake Technology Center.

 • 

Pacific FC is building the largest indoor field house in B.C. The $5-million facility, under construction on West Shore Parkway, is being paid for by the Canadian Premier League professional soccer club on land leased from Langford.

 •   • 

Strategic Storage Growth Trust II, Inc., a private REIT sponsored by SmartStop Asset Management, LLC, announced its acquisition of a 637-unit self storage facility in Houston. This is the third acquisition completed by SSGT II.

 •   • 

Eldorado Resorts Inc. (ERI-Q) will buy Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CZR-Q) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $17.3 billion US. The acquisition puts about 60 casinos and resorts under a single name, one of the biggest gambling and entertainment ventures in the U.S.

Real Trends - 2019

 • 

When Toronto approved the rules for building homes on its more-than-300 kilometres of laneways one year ago, the new housing was frequently described as secondary suites, suggesting the homes would be the above-ground equivalent of a basement apartment.

 • 

In early June, a Building and Land Development Association (BILD) delegation visited Tokyo and came away with quite a few impressions.

 • 

Media headlines proclaimed recent findings of an estimated $7.4 billion in dirty money laundered in B.C. in 2018, with approximately $5.3 billion of that going through real estate. In reality, these figures are looser even than an estimate.

 • 

Cricket Property Management has expanded its property management franchise into Alberta. This will enable the company to directly service landlord and tenant clients, and support property management franchisees across the province.

Industry Events