Denciti, Nicola Wealth JV on new B.C. apartment builds

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments, Retail  •  British Columbia, Metro Vancouver

Two Vancouver Island cities – Nanaimo and Victoria – will get additions to their purpose-built rental apartment markets courtesy of a partnership between Vancouver’s Denciti Development Corp. and Nicola Wealth Real Estate (NWRE).

Prével unveils $750M plan for Esplanade Cartier

Residential, Commercial  •  La Presse  •  RENX

In the Esplanade Cartier project, Prével co-president Laurence Vincent plans to build 2,000 housing units, develop 100,000 square feet of retail and add 500,000 to 700,000 square feet of offices, or the equivalent of an office tower in Montreal’s city centre.

New owners converting Ott. hotels to long-term rentals

Residential, Commercial  •  Ottawa Business Journal

Ottawa’s Albert at Bay Suite Hotel at 435 Albert St. and the Best Western Plus at 377 O’Connor St., which shut their doors earlier this month after being sold to an unidentified new ownership group, are being converted into long-term rental complexes.

RioCan sells 50% stake in eCentral, ePlace, Rhythm

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Office, Apartments, Retail  •  Toronto / GTA, Ottawa

UPDATED: RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) is selling a 50 per cent non-managing interest in its residential rental and retail eCentral/ePlace properties in Toronto, and its Rhythm rental apartment development in Ottawa, to WoodBourne Capital Management for $156.2 million, the trust announced.

Barrie-area $1B resort enters new phase

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star

“In a small scale, this is the Walt Disney story,” builder Jim De Gasperis said at Friday Harbour, a 600-acre, $1-billion waterfront resort at Lake Simcoe’s Big Bay Point. So far, 1,000 housing units have been built at Friday Harbour.

Inovalis REIT initiates strategic review process

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Inovalis REIT (INO-UN-T) announced the formation of a special committee of independent members of the Board of Trustees to consider strategic alternatives. The committee expects to review and evaluate a wide range of strategic alternatives to enhance unitholder value.

The People Space › People Space: Hirings at Colliers, CMLS, Firm, Colonnade BridgePort …

Don Wilcox: Managing Editor

CRE confidence barometer resets from Q2

Commercial  •  REMI Network

Newly released third-quarter results from the REALPAC/FPL Canadian Real Estate Sentiment Survey reveal senior CRE executives typically looking forward more hopefully, while reflecting on last year. That is comparatively more upbeat signalling than found in the United States.

Empire CEO open to grocery industry regulation

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

Michael Medline, president/CEO of Sobeys and its parent company Empire Company Ltd. (EMP-A-T), is supporting a code of conduct for the grocery industry in Canada, calling recent moves by competitors to raise fees for suppliers “repugnant” and “terrible” for consumers.

CF collected 5 million images of shoppers: Probe

Commercial  •  CBC

Cadillac Fairview embedded cameras inside its digital information kiosks at 12 Canadian shopping centres to collect millions of images — and used facial recognition technology without customers’ knowledge or consent — according to an investigation by the federal, Alberta and B.C. privacy commissioners.

G2S2 increases interest in Cominar units to 10%

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

G2S2 Capital Inc.,  a privately held investment holding company, announced it has increased its ownership of trust units of Cominar REIT (CUF-UN-T) to over 10 per cent by acquiring 600,000 units at a price of $7.30 per unit.

REIT third-quarter financial results

Commercial  • 

Allied Properties REIT, (AP-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Morguard REIT, (MRT-UN-T), Canada Newswire

RioCan REIT, (REI-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Offices will fill again as cities revive: Brookfield

Commercial  •  Regina Leader-Post

For Bruce Flatt, chief executive officer of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., it’s his contrarian outlook on the pandemic that provides a rationale for why he’s ready to spend billions of dollars on real estate in the next 18 months.

CoStar acquires Emporis in bid to take data empire global

Commercial  •  Bisnow

CoStar Group has made its second acquisition of the pandemic, this time buying a European commercial real estate data firm. The D.C.-based CRE data giant announced Tuesday it acquired Emporis, a Hamburg-based firm with data on 700,000 buildings across 100 countries.

CoreLogic receives multiple potential bids: Sources

Commercial  •  CNBC

Property data and analytics firm CoreLogic (CLGX-N) has received multiple potential takeover bids that value the company at north of $80 a share, sources say. The multiple parties interested in pursuing a deal with CoreLogic reportedly include private equity firms.

Blackstone acquires Prologis U.K. logistics portfolio for $815M

Commercial  •  IPE Real Assets  •  CP Executive  •  The Real Deal

Blackstone-managed real estate funds have invested $815 million Cdn to buy a U.K. logistics portfolio of buildings and land from Prologis. Prologis said the majority of the assets sold were part of assets acquired from Liberty Property Trust.

Making sense of the complex COVID rental market

Residential  •  Financial Post

From Manhattan to Toronto, San Francisco to Vancouver, rental markets are transacting at a discount, which is what many of those priced out of centrally located communities need in order to live in choice neighbourhoods.

Condo design to focus on health and wellness

Residential  •  REMI Network

Modern condos weren’t designed to cope with life during a pandemic. However, taking cues from commercial facilities such as workplaces, hospitals and hotels, condo design is expected to take a greater turn toward health and wellness.

Alberta’s high rate of mortgage deferrals raises red flags

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

Economists and policy makers are concerned Alberta’s oil-focused economy was already weak before COVID-19 hit, and the province’s higher rate of mortgage deferrals this year could be a sign of both housing market and personal financial pain to come.

Residential buildings wrestle with influx of packages

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

When a package arrives at Tony Gioventu’s Metro Vancouver condo, the building’s front desk alerts residents that they have a delivery. He estimates they receive more than 200 parcels a day. “By 10 a.m., the lobbies are cluttered with packages . . .”