Prével plans office, retail, homes at Esplanade Cartier

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Condominiums, Office, Apartments, Retail  •  Greater Montreal

Prével has unveiled plans for its 400,000-square-foot Esplanade Cartier mixed-use development at the foot of the Jacques Cartier Bridge. The development includes office and residential towers, stores and parks on one of the largest development sites near downtown Montreal.

Surrey’s Centre Block includes 1.4M sq. ft. of CRE space

Commercial  •  urbanYVR  •  RENX

The first phase of Surrey’s Centre Block will consist of 1.4 million square feet of office and commercial space and an expanded SFU campus. The Surrey City Development Corporation is spearheading the redevelopment next to the Surrey Central SkyTrain Station.

Costco, other buildings coming to Mtl. golf course

Commercial  •  La Presse

The Di Lillo family, owners of the Anjou metropolitan golf course the City of Montreal hoped to transform into a park, has obtained municipal permits to construct three buildings, including a 160,000-square-foot Costco warehouse with 840 parking spaces.

Treasure Hill buys Beacon Hall Golf Club for $250M

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Low-profile builder Treasure Hill Homes is stepping into the spotlight with a $250-million offer to redevelop the lands of Ontario’s Beacon Hall Golf Club, a course that is ranked among the best in the country.

Castlepoint avoids liability after cancelling Museum FLTS

Residential  •  REMI Network

The recent Ontario court decision in Ritchie v Castlepoint Greybrook Sterling Inc. is good news for condo developers who must cancel their projects pre-construction. Justice Perell dismissed a proposed class action brought on behalf of purchasers of 179 Museum FLTS units.

Minto proposes 32- and 25-storey rentals

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Minto Coummunities, which has already received zoning approval, is proposing 32- and 25-storey rental towers, a five-storey podium, a two-storey amenity building, and one block of five three-storey townhomes amongst the existing “Tower-in-the-Park” buildings in Toronto’s High Park area.

Real Estate Wealth Insights › How COVID-19 affects the office space market

Greg Placidi: Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager, Equiton Capital

TD, BMO, CIBC push back office return dates

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Business In Vancouver

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM-T) and Bank of Montreal (BMO-T) said most remote employees should expect to continue to do so until at least April. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD-T) earlier predicted a return is “not likely until at least the spring.”

Jennifer Keesmaat launches Markee Developments

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Jennifer Keesmaat has a new plan: To build housing. Toronto’s high-profile former chief planner is launching a company called Markee Developments, partnering with veteran real-estate developer Jason Marks. They’re about to introduce their first project, in North York.

Great Canadian says casino costs may outpace revenues

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Great Canadian Gaming Corp. (GC-T) expects the cost of running its newly acquired casinos in Ontario to rise faster than potential revenues – a risk it says will be transferred to Apollo Global Management Inc. if shareholders approve its $2.1-billion bid.

Subversive REIT cancels qualifying transaction

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Subversive Real Estate Acquisition REIT (SVX-U-NE) today announced it has determined not to proceed with its previously announced qualifying transaction and it is exploring an alternative qualifying transaction. The qualifying transaction may be in a non-cannabis real estate industry.

Podcasts from the real estate world

Residential, Commercial  • 

Ed Sonshine, RioCan REIT: 30 years of strategy and adaptation, REALtalk: Episode 15
Zev Mandelbaum, Altree Developments, Marlin Spring: Development mindset, CRE Library: Episode 43
David Wan, British Columbia Institute of Technology: A career in sales and marketing, Highview Partners People Who Perform: Episode 27

Vacancy taxes added 11,000 rental condos to Van. market

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Business In Vancouver

The Canada Mortgage Housing Corp. says more than 11,000 condos were added to rental market in Metro Vancouver last year, spurred in part by taxes on empty homes.

New rental apartment program approved for Van.

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Vancouver city councillors approved a temporary new policy that will enable developers in a couple of zones in the city’s downtown West End switch to a different program for creating affordable housing: rental apartments, with some guaranteed below-market units included.

N.S. caps rent increases at 2%, bans COVID renovictions

Residential  •  CBC  •  Halifax ChronicleHerald  •  Global News

N.S. has instituted a cap on rent increases at two per cent and a ban on renovictions. The rent cap is retroactive to September and will remain in place until Feb. 1, 2022, or whenever the state of emergency is lifted.

Firm Capital launches mortgage lending platform

Residential  •  Globe Newswire

Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. (FC-T) announced the launching of its direct to consumer retail residential mortgage lending platform – FC Mortgage. FC Mortgage will focus on residential first & second mortgages and lines of credit in the GTA market.

India’s new office space leasing picking up: REIT

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Commercial office spaces in India have seen some improvement in new leasing over the preceding quarters, according to Embassy Office Parks REIT, as some occupiers slowly return to workplaces after the nation lifted the lockdown curbs.

Central London office construction falls 50% in six months

Commercial  •  Reuters

Construction of new office space in central London fell by 50% in the six months to the end of September as the impact of COVID-19 on major cities kept developers away, according to Deloitte Real Estate’s London Office Crane Survey.

IKEA in talks to acquire European retail properties

Commercial  •  Reuters

IKEA’s Ingka Investments is in talks to buy commercial property in prime locations in several big European cities after it finalized its first-ever such acquisition last month, managing director Krister Mattsson said.

Tishman Speyer JV raises $1B for life science projects

Commercial  •  CP Executive  •  IPE Real Assets

Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture between Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, has raised more than $1 billion in capital for its Breakthrough Life Science Property Fund and in co-investments. The fund’s aim is to develop and acquire state-of the-art facilities.