Kelowna has one of Canada’s worst ind. space shortages

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Condominiums  •  British Columbia

Industrial space shortages in Canada’s largest cities are well documented, but the problem isn’t restricted just to the biggest centres. The central B.C. City of Kelowna is also booming, and industrial vacancy has dropped below one per cent.

4 major Canadian CRE investors discuss their strategies

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Investment  •  National

The issue of distress was a central focus for four prominent Canadian equity investors who participated in a virtual discussion about their companies and trends they are seeing in the commercial real estate market.

Beedie takes Vancouver to court over development

Residential, Commercial  •  Vancouver Sun

Beedie (Keefer Street) Holdings v. Vancouver (City) made its way into the B.C. Court of Appeal, more than five years after a vacant corner lot in Chinatown became a flashpoint in heated debates about one of Vancouver’s most historic neighbourhoods.

Onni’s Fremont Village struggling to attract businesses

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC

Struggles to find commercial tenants have pushed Onni to apply to have Port Coquitlam’s mixed-use Fremont Village rezoned to allow for smaller retail outlets, but realtors say it’s a challenge for businesses to break even in the growing residential area.

Calgary 2020 CRE sales skid to a 10-year low: Altus

Commercial  •  Western Investor

Calgary’s CRE market posted the lowest numbers since 2010 as total 2020 transactions were down 32 per cent year-over-year and fell to a value of $1.9 billion, according to an Altus Group report. It also marked the third consecutive year of annual declines.

Van. saw late 2020 surge seen in retail property sales

Commercial  •  Business In Vancouver  •  RENX

A surprising surge in sales of shopping centres and other retail assets late last year helped drive total commercial sales volume in Metro Vancouver to $7.9 billion in 2020, according to a new study by Altus Group.

Real World of Real Estate › PODCAST: Landlords, how to collect a civil court judgment

Gerald Tostowaryk:

New office supply poses backfill challenges: CBRE

Commercial  •  REMI Network  •  RENX

A year of pandemic-related upheaval, which saw the class-A vacancy rate climb to 5.5 per cent, has commercial landlords nervously contemplating demand trends as many tenants look to reassess or retrench their future space needs, according to CBRE.

Canadian airports face bleak choices, dim prospects

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

OPINION: When the Trudeau government considered privatizing Canada’s then-booming airports to free up capital to invest in public transit and green-energy projects, no one seemed more bullish than Michael Sabia, then head of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

AbCellera Biologics opening second Vancouver office

Commercial  •  Business In Vancouver  •  RENX  •  RENX

AbCellera Biologics Inc.’s (ABCL-Q) physical footprint in Mount Pleasant is spreading beyond its headquarters following Vancouver city council’s approval of another facility blocks away. The life sciences company also plans to open an antibody manufacturing facility in Metro Vancouver.

Le Chateau brand for sale

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

A U.S. advisory firm is hoping Canadian clothing retailer Le Chateau will rise from the ashes of insolvency. Hilco Streambank says Le Chateau’s e-commerce platform, brand assets and some locations are available for purchase through Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings.

Value of agricultural properties rose 5.4% in 2020

Residential  •  La Presse

A report from Farm Credit Canada indicates the average value of farm properties in 2020 in Canada increased 5.4 per cent. In 2019, the increase was 5.2 per cent. The largest increases were in B.C. and Quebec, at eight and 7.3 per cent respectively.

AMC’s biggest shareholder downsizes after $4.6B loss

Commercial  •  Business Insider  •  Forbes  •  Mingtiandi

AMC‘s (AMC-N) largest investor – private Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group – reduced its holdings from 30 per cent-plus in December to 9.8 per cent this month after the movie theatre company reported a $4.6-billion loss last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

C&W sets $250M target for CRE SPAC

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Brokerage Cushman & Wakefield is the latest in real estate to form a special-purpose acquisition company. Cushman is looking to raise $250 million for the SPAC, also known as a blank cheque company, to eventually acquire a company to take public.

CoStar to look at new sectors for acquisitions

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Failures to acquire RentPath and CoreLogic cost CoStar the time and money it spent working on the deals and also exposed potential risks in its plan to grow, for which it has set aside billions to make new acquisitions.

Strategic Storage Trust VI acquires Phoenix facility

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

Strategic Storage Trust IV Inc., a private REIT sponsored by an affiliate of SmartStop Self Storage REIT, announced the acquisition of an 810-unit self-storage facility in Phoenix. The acquisition marks the fifth property owned or managed by Smartstop in Phoenix.

Windmill proposes eight-storey mixed-used building

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Windmill Development Group has proposed an eight-storey mixed-use building at 1161 Kingston Rd. in Scarborough. The RAW Design building would be home to 56 new condo units. On the ground level, commercial retail would occupy 2,390 square feet along Kingston Road.

Prices up in all major markets for first time since 2018

Residential  •  Reuters  •  Reuters  •  Toronto Star

Canadian home prices accelerated in February, rising 0.5 per cent from January with all 11 major markets rising on the year for the first time since 2018, the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed on Wednesday.

Nova Scotia sees surge in out-of-province buyers

Residential  •  CBC  •  National Post  •  CBC

Bruce and Tanya Cameron left Toronto in their moving truck on a Tuesday. Friday, they were quarantining in their newly bought oceanfront home and their Mushaboom, N.S., neighbours were leaving notes offering to pick them up supplies at the store.

N.B. campaign pitches people on ditching big cities

Residential  •  CBC

Economic development agencies for Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton, and the province have jointly launched the Live for the Moment NB marketing campaign aimed at capitalizing on the wave of Canadians working from home to boost the province’s population.