Montreal’s Jesta Group sells distinctive Berlin property

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Hotels and Resorts, Office, Retail  •  International, Greater Montreal

Montreal-based Jesta Group sold a majority interest in distinctive Nhow Hotel Berlin in Germany, to Swiss-based Eastern Property Holdings in a transaction touching the investment sectors of a half-dozen countries. The deal closed in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

Gov’t should help CRE industry ‘bridge the gap’

RENX  Commercial  •  Investment, Human Resources, Infrastructure  •  National, British Columbia

A Vancouver commercial property tax consultant is asking government to help the commercial real estate and development industry “bridge the gap” during the COVID-19 pandemic. That gap is the growing absence of revenues as businesses slow down or stop operating.

C&W announces Recovery Readiness Task Force

Commercial  •  Business Wire

Cushman & Wakefield (CWK-N) announced it has formed the Recovery Readiness Task Force (RRTF) to prepare clients for post-COVID-19 recovery. Additionally, Cushman & Wakefield has launched a new office design concept on its SixFeetOffice.com website, showcasing a new social distancing program.

9,500 TD call centre agents may remain remote

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Toronto-Dominion Bank is moving almost all of its 9,500 call centre employees from 15 different U.S. and Canadian cities to their homes in response to COVID-19. It’s working so well Toronto-Dominion may continue to offer it as an option in the future.

Canada Goose to reopen all Canadian facilities

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Over the next two weeks, Canada Goose Holdings Inc., (GOOS-T) will begin to reopen all of its eight Canadian facilities to ramp up domestic production of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers across Canada.

Value of Canadian building permits plunges 23%

Residential, Commercial  •  Reuters

The value of Canadian building permits likely fell 23.2 per cent year-over-year in March as officials took action to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Statistics Canada said in a preliminary flash estimate published on Wednesday. In Ontario, the value fell by 50.5% year-over-year.

Airbnb rolls out features aimed at longer-term stays

Residential  •  TechCrunch

Airbnb  is tweaking its landing page and introducing new features all aimed at longer-term stays, as the online rental marketplace looks to capitalize on a growing segment of its business.

StorageVault acquiring 3 Manitoba stores for $11.5M

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

StorageVault Canada (SVI-X) announced the acquisition of one store in Brandon and an agreement to purchase two other stores in Winnipeg for $11,545,000 in two separate transactions.

Canadian CRE ‘in the crosshairs’: BMO

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

BMO economist Robert Kavcic warned things are really difficult for the CRE sector. “The rest of the year is shaping up to be an enormous challenge for the sector given the unprecedented broad-based shutting of economic activity,” he said.

Federal small business loan program set to launch

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

A $25-billion federal loan program for small business is ready to launch but the government and opposition parties are at odds over legislative plans to pass separate wage subsidies for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada loses million jobs in March: StatCan

Commercial  •  Reuters  •  Toronto Star

Canada lost a record-breaking one million jobs in March while the unemployment rate soared to 7.8 per cent, Statistics Canada data showed on Thursday, as the coronavirus outbreak forced the closure of non-essential businesses.

REIT/REOC COVID-19 business updates

Commercial  • 

American Hotel Income Properties REIT, (HOT-UN-T), Canada Newswire

Firm Capital American Realty Partners Trust, (FCA-UN-X), Globe Newswire

Firm Capital Property Trust, (FCD-UN-X), Globe Newswire

U.S. data centre boom sets record

Commercial  •  PR Newswire  •  Forbes  •  PR Newswire

Demand for the United States’ data centre facilities hit record levels in 2019, according to BBG, a leading due-diligence CRE firm. Data-centre absorption rates in U.S. major markets reached 396.4 megawatts in 2019, a 33 per cent gain over the 2018 record.

Blackstone closes $10.7B European fund

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Blackstone has closed on its sixth European opportunistic real estate fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe VI, with a total capital commitment of $10.7 billion US. It is the largest dedicated European real estate fund.

Prologis sees outflows from open-ended funds

Commercial  •  IPE Real Assets

Institutional investors have sought to withdraw $880 million US from open-ended real estate funds managed by Prologis in the U.S., Europe and China. The world’s largest logistics owner said the redemption requests had been offset by $625 million of new commmitments.

McDonald’s pulls forecast due to COVID-19

Commercial  •  Reuters

McDonald’s Corp.’s (MCD-N) global comparable sales tumbled 22.2 per cent in March and the burger chain pulled its full-year forecast as coronavirus-related lockdowns forced it to shutter stores and stick to delivery or take-out.

Way cleared for Mimico-Judson multi-tower developments

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Multiple development proposals in the Mimico-Judson Secondary Plan area of South Etobicoke have been settled at Ontario’s Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. Freed Developments’ Grand Park Village outlined a vision for multiple towers designed by architectsAlliance.

Que. set to reopen residential construction sites in May

Residential  •  Les Affaires

Quebec Premier François Legault confirmed Wednesday a reopening of residential sites before May 4 was within the plans. The president of CSN Construction suggested the main problem on many construction sites will be respecting the social distance of two metres.

Canada real estate markets hit hard by pandemic

Residential  •  CBC  •  CBC

Vancouver real estate agent David Hutchinson pulls out some bright blue medical gloves and tugs them onto his hands before entering a condo that’s coming onto the market. Welcome to selling real estate during a pandemic.

More than half of Canadian household incomes drop

Residential  •  Globe Newswire  •  Financial Post

Fifty-seven per cent of Canadians said their household income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. The newly released research from TransUnion (TRU-N) found an additional 10% of Canadian adults said they expect their household income will suffer in the future.