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Winnipeg CRE could be a Western leader post-COVID

4 years ago

Winnipeg’s economy emerged from the 2008-’09 recession in very good shape, and it looks poised to repeat that success following the COVID-19 crisis. “There’s been more and more attention on this market,” CBRE Winnipeg‘s Ryan Behie told RENX.

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Lifetime Developments and Diamond Corp. have submitted an application for a two-tower complex of 41 and 71 storeys at 200 Queens Quay West. The complex would include 1,372 condominium units, 110 units of affordable housing space and 5,200 square feet of ground-floor institutional space.

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Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate subsidiary of Caisse de depot et placement, has laid off 57 employees, including 12 vice-presidents responsible for the management of shopping centres. Ivanhoé Cambridge said this “business decision is necessary in the repositioning of (the) portfolio.”

Anyone who’s visited downtown cores in Canada’s major cities knows they’ve been largely devoid of people during the COVID-19 pandemic – in part due to government-imposed restrictions. Heat maps created by CBRE’s Geographic Information Systems data illustrate the dramatic change.

Romspen Commercial Lender

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Like other real estate powerhouses, Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAM-A-T) is bracing for the prospect of a severe downturn in commercial real estate as the global pandemic leaves businesses, offices and hotels around the world mostly empty.

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Cinema City Northgate, a pre-pandemic hub for international film at Winnipeg’s Northgate Shopping Centre, is fighting to reopen as mall property manager Marwest Management Canada moves to cancel its lease for non-payment of rent.

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The parent company of Sobeys, Safeway and other grocery stores is the latest to report a boost in business due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Empire Company Ltd. (EMP-A-T) reported on Thursday same-store sales grew 18 per cent in its fourth quarter.

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OPINION: Galen G. Weston (L-T), one of the world’s richest people, thinks workers should be paid more. It was a weak declaration of support for the working poor, since few would be better-placed than Weston to lead a higher-wages charge.

ICS Facilities Services

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Paradise Developments has proposed a 39-storey rental building at 1 Heron’s Hill Way. The plan would redevelop the vacant east portion of the site for the Graziani + Corazza Architects-designed building with 350 purpose-built rental units and ground-level office space.

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Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT) (CAR-UN-T), one of Canada’s largest landlords, is offering one-month free rent for selected Vancouver apartments, joining scores of other such offerings in the city.

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Queen’s Park has decided “Major Transit Station Areas” are where the city should grow the most, setting specific targets for how many people and jobs they should have. This policy could reshape buildings in a dramatic and largely positive way.

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The City of Calgary is embarking on a study to improve 14th Street N.W., kick-started by the SOLA in Kensington, a mixed-use condominium block by developer Harish Consul, president of Ocgrow Group of Companies.

Trez Capital

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Canadian retail sales posted a historic drop in April from a full month of non-essential business closures and strict physical distancing measures, though sales rebounded in May based on preliminary data, Statistics Canada said Friday.

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U.S. retail sales jumped by a record 17.7% from April to May, with spending partially rebounding after the coronavirus had shut down businesses, flattened the economy and paralyzed consumers during the previous two months.

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JLL has re-opened more than 75 offices in the United States, a little more than half of its total portfolio, including its flagship headquarters at the Aon Center in Chicago.

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The hyperscale data centre market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over two per cent from 2019-’25. The pandemic might affect new hyperscale projects that are likely to get underway in the Q2 2020, resulting a declining market scenario for 2020.

Real Estate Forum Webinar - June 24, 2020

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The residential construction industry was granted essential workplace status under Ontario’s emergency orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, overall development and building projects across the GTA were delayed. The delays will have far-reaching impacts on housing supply.

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Urbanation‘s Shaun Hildebrand said Toronto’s current rent decline is unprecedented since Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) began publishing rental data in 1990. A growing supply of apartments — mostly in the condo sector — is hitting the market due to COVID-19.

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Seventy-eight per cent of British Columbians support having legislation similar to the one currently in place in New Zealand, while 15 per cent are opposed and seven per cent are undecided, Research Co.’s survey of a representative provincial sample found.

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A growing trend in home use is rising from a tradition that was once just the way we lived: multi-generational housing. Even before COVID-19, 20 per cent of Canadians were living in multi-generational housing, according to a Pew Research Center study.

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