Berkshire Axis, Fiera JV on GTA industrial condos

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Toronto / GTA

Industrial condominiums don’t have the prominence in the Greater Toronto Area as in Vancouver, but that may be changing. Berkshire Axis Development and Fiera Real Estate have collaborated on two such projects and will be launching a third.

CAPREIT expands in Ottawa, buys two rental properties

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments  •  Ottawa

CAPREIT (CAR-UN-T) is spending $95.5 million to acquire two Ottawa residential properties; a downtown 50-unit apartment building and a community of 330 townhomes in Gloucester in the eastern section of the city.

Coquitlam Centre’s HBC store forced to close

Commercial  •  Victoria Times Colonist  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Toronto Star

The HBC store at Morguard’s Coquitlam Centre closed Saturday as the company’s financial disputes with landlords continue to grow across Canada and in the U.S. A notice posted at the entrance to the Bay states it defaulted on rent payments.

Caleres to close 133 Naturalizer stores in U.S., Canada

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Burnaby Now

More than 130 Naturalizer stores in the U.S. and Canada will be closed by early 2021 as Caleres Inc. adopts a digital sales strategy for the shoe chain.

TWC increases ownership in Automotive Properties REIT

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire

TWC Enterprises Ltd., under CEO K. Rai Sahi, announced it has acquired beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over 1,891,900 trust units of Automotive Properties REIT (APR-UN-T), increasing its ownership from 14.01% to 16.10% of the REIT’s issued and outstanding units.

FC tells Melcor to take full ownership of Melcor REIT

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire

Melcor REIT trust units owner FC Private Equity Realty Management Corp., has called on Melcor Developments Ltd., (MRD-T), a 55 per cent owner of Melcor REIT (MR-UN-T), to repurchase the 45 per cent minority interest in the REIT and regain full ownership.

The Title Page › Navigating a property purchase: Getting ahead of unexpected costs and risks

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Subleasing could become office’s Achilles heel

Commercial  •  Kingston Whig-Standard

OPINION: If subprime lending defined the Great Recession in 2008, the current recession is likely to be known for subleasing, a tell-tale sign of weakening office real estate. Office tenants globally are attempting to determine their future use of space.

Downtown Montreal seeks to reinvent itself

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Montreal Gazette

For three decades, Ghyslain Anctil has been repairing shoes and leatherwear at his Moneysworth & Best franchise at Montreal’s Place Ville Marie, the cross-shaped tower housing law firms, tech enterprises and other companies making up the pulse of Quebec’s business community.

Loblaw tests driverless technology in delivery network

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

Loblaw Companies Ltd. (L-T) is launching a driverless-technology test for delivery trucks that carry products to its stores, as it works to speed up its supply chain to keep up with growing e-commerce demand.

Ottawa’s new rent-relief program underway

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Entrepreneurs across the country were able to apply to the Canada Revenue Agency for pandemic rent relief on Monday, nearly two months after Ottawa’s previous rent program was wound down following low uptake.

PROREIT collects 99.8% of November rent

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

PROREIT (PRV-UN-T) collected nearly all of its November rent, it announced Thursday. “Our positive monthly rent collection trend continues in November, with 99.8% of rent collected across our portfolio and approved rent deferrals repaid on schedule,” said president/CEO James Beckerleg.

Zurich Insurance reportedly near $4B deal for MetLife unit

Commercial  •  Reuters

Switzerland’s Zurich Insurance Group AG is in advanced talks to acquire MetLife Inc,’s (MET-N) U.S. property and casualty (P&C) car and home insurance unit for close to $4 billion, according to sources.

Morgan Stanley sees K-shaped recovery for U.S. CRE

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Morgan Stanley says U.S. commercial real estate will see a so-called K-shaped recovery from the pandemic, leading to stark winners and losers among holders of commercial mortgage-backed securities. “A bond picker’s market has emerged,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

CoStar to acquire software platform Homesnap

Residential  •  Business Wire

CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP-Q) announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Homesnap, Inc., an online and mobile software platform providing user-friendly applications to optimize residential real estate agent workflow and reinforce the agent-client relationship, for $250 million in cash.

U.K.’s Cineworld buys time to survive theatre closures

Commercial  •  Reuters

Britain’s Cineworld sealed another deal with creditors on Monday, including $450 million in financing that the owner of the Regal theatre chain hopes will tide it over until Hollywood studios return to more regular film release schedules.

Equiton fund acquires two T.O. apartment buildings

Residential  •  Equiton media release

The Equiton Residential Income Fund has completed the purchase of two Toronto apartment buildings: The 38-unit Beach Suites at 650 Woodbine Ave. and the 38-unit Gertrude Suites at 787 Vaughan Rd.

Condo developers target Toronto suburbs

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Toronto suburbs are experiencing a boom in condo project launches and preconstruction sales, as the pandemic’s work-from-home trend entices homebuyers to look outside the city. Suburban condo projects accounted for 65 per cent of all Q3 GTA launches, according to Urbanation.

Seven provinces join feds’ housing rent assistance program

Residential  •  Global News  •  Canada Newswire  •  Canada Newswire

Seven provinces have signed on to a federal rent assistance program created as part of the national housing strategy, newly released documents show. So far, the Liberals have only announced deals with four provinces to deliver the Canada Housing Benefit.

Three new developments rising on Winnipeg’s River Avenue

Residential  •  Winnipeg Free Press

A 12-unit apartment block at 290 River in Winnipeg, designed by 2 Architecture, is about 60 per cent complete. At 281 River, Towers Realty Group is developing a 100-suite building. Just up the road is a four-storey rental project developed by Paragon Design-Build.