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Mainstreet’s multires strategy reaps top returns

5 years ago

Calgary real estate investor Bob Dhillon has a simple plan to grow his rental apartment business; provide homes for growing numbers of millennials and international students. Investment firm  Raymond James says it’s working, with 49 per cent total return in 2019.

The amount of available sublet space increased in the Greater Toronto Area office market, and downtown vacancy rose slightly during Q3 2019, according to Avison Young. The increase in sublet space is unusual, jumping 371,000 square feet between quarters.

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Most investors dread the prospect of a recession. Morguard Corporation (MRC-T) chief executive Rai Sahi, on the other hand, is setting up his company to take advantage of an inevitable downturn in real estate markets.

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Strategic Storage Growth Trust II, Inc., a private real estate investment trust sponsored by an indirect subsidiary of SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc., announced today its acquisition of a newly constructed approximately 735-unit self storage facility in Toronto.

Marcus & Millichap

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Japanese investment firm SoftBank could take control of WeWork as part of a financial package to address the company’s cash crunch since its botched effort to sell the public its stock, according to The Wall Street Journal.

IMAGE: John Clark of Ottawa's Regional Group of Companies.

Vice President , The Regional Group of Companies Inc

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The city is looking to sell an undeveloped 19.7-acre plot of land in South Edmonton for more than $5 million. The city already has a buyer for the land but since the highest bid exceeded more than $5 million, administration needs approval.

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A massive Mayfield Toyota dealership is planned for West Edmonton Mall and there will be some new parking along with it. The dealership, among the first of its kind, will be about 118,000 square feet — larger than two football fields.

Matrix360

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Edmonton developers are asking the city for financial support in renovating two historic buildings. Beljan Development is refitting the Strathcona Hotel on Whyte Avenue into commercial retail space while Primavera Development Group is rehabilitating the Brighton Block on Jasper Avenue.

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Along Toronto’s waterfront’s inner harbour, excavators are creating a new mouth for the Don River, lined with parks planned to open in 2024. Elsewhere, architects and planners are designing thousands of new homes, and millions of square feet of office space.

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On the list of Montreal’s notable neighbourhoods, Bridge-Bonaventure ranks near the bottom. Last week, dozens of groups, individuals and business leaders shared their ideas about what should happen to the 2.3-square-kilometre area over four days of hearings.

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Angus Development Corporation is preparing a project worth nearly $35 million to build a signature address of approximately 100,000 square feet in Montréal-Nord. Angus plans a luminous building with a public square, shops and organizations.

Ottawa Real Estate Forums

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An evacuation order for residents and businesses near the site of a toppled construction crane in downtown Halifax was partially lifted on Monday as work to remove the crane continued.

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Where in the pantheon of American commercial titans does Jeffrey Bezos belong? Andrew Carnegie’s hearths forged the steel that became the skeleton of the railroad and the city. John D. Rockefeller refined 90 per cent of American oil.

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British music and film retailer HMV Group Plc will relaunch its online store on Nov. 1, as part of a turnaround plan under new Canadian owner Doug Putman.

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Some 200 million square feet of office space traded for a total of $53.4 billion year-to-date through August, at an average price of $263.90 per square foot, according to Yardi Matrix data. More than 40 per cent — $22.1 billion — was concentrated in five metros.

CBRE Land Services

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Home sales recorded via Canadian MLS Systems advanced for the seventh consecutive month, raising them 18 per cent above the six-year low reached in February 2019 but leaving them about eight per cent below highs reached in 2016 and 2017.

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One of Calgary’s nicest commercial offices is a 5,400-square-foot, four-storey home to Section 23 Developments, but it is now up for lease as the company is planning a move into more spacious offices in Quarry Park.

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Calgary’s real estate market is stabilizing with a continuation of rising sales and falling inventories. However, the market is nowhere  near the picture of health it was a half decade ago, says Calgary Real Estate Board‘s Ann-Marie Lurie.

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After the 2016 Horse River wildfire that burned down more than 2,400 structures in Fort McMurray, residents of the 40-unit Winchester Greens condominium building considered themselves lucky. Three years later, the condo board is struggling to find insurance coverage.

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