Skyline buys 1.1M sq. ft. of Calgary industrial bldgs.

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Calgary

Skyline Commercial REIT has acquired a four-property industrial real estate portfolio in Calgary, comprising over 1.1 million square feet of space, for $132 million. The properties consist of 11 buildings and total space of 1,177,202 square feet. They are 98 per cent occupied.

CRE investors wait for sellers to crack

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

The world’s biggest real estate investors are sitting on piles of cash, preparing for once-in-a-lifetime COVID-19 opportunities. With economies around the world sputtering, commercial real estate prices are expected to come down. How much they’ll fall is the key question.

Pandemic sparks interest in building parcel lockers

RENX  Residential  •  Condominiums, Apartments, Technology, Homes  •  National

Online ordering and home deliveries have exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Canadian parcel locker companies LocKourier and Snaile Lockers are well-positioned to benefit from the trend.

Landlords reluctant to participate in rent relief plan

Commercial  •  Global News  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Ottawa Citizen

Bill Pratt hasn’t paid $70,000 in rent for his restaurants in Atlantic Canada since April after having to shutter operations due to COVID-19. “There’s no way I can make it,” said the Chef Inspired Group of Restaurants and Food Trucks CEO.

Reitmans seeks creditor protection

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Globe and Mail  •  Financial Post

Canadian apparel retailer Reitmans (Canada) Ltd. (RET-T) is seeking protection from its creditors as the company continues to struggle with long-term business challenges and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walmart’s online sales surge 74 per cent

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Financial Post  •  Reuters

Walmart Inc. (WMT-N) beat Wall Street expectations with its quarterly revenue and earnings on Tuesday and reported record U.S. online sales as stockpiling drove consumers to its stores and website during COVID-19, sending its shares up three per cent.

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Apple to reopen 25 Canadian stores this week

Commercial  •  Financial Post  •  Forbes  •  Globe and Mail

Apple Inc. (AAPL-Q) said it’s reopening more than 25 stores across the U.S. and 12 stores in Canada this week, adding to nearly 100 global locations that have reopened. Some stores will offer only curbside or storefront service.

Malls need major rethink: Retail consultants

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Globe and Mail  •  Toronto Star

Malls — with their captive crowds of shoppers lingering over items, trying on everything in the store — are an example of what just doesn’t work in a pandemic, says Sally Seston, founder of Retail Category Consultants in Toronto.

How a fitness chain went virtual

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  Globe and Mail  •  CBC

Innovative Fitness was working on a way to make its boutique personal training and wellness services available online by the end of this year. Then COVID-19 hit. However, instead of waiting out the shutdown, Innovative Fitness went into brainstorming mode.

REOC first-quarter financial results

Commercial  • 

Firm Capital American Realty Partners Corp., (FCA-U-X), Globe Newswire

Skyline Investments Inc., (SKLN-TLV), Globe Newswire

REIT first-quarter financial results

Commercial  • 

CAPREIT, (CAR-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Calgary’s Green Line plan includes new station

Commercial  •  Calgary Herald

Updated plans for the Green Line’s path through central Calgary see the train stop at a new station at 9 Ave. N. along Centre Street and pass through future redevelopment in Eau Claire market.

Building owners turn to continuous disinfection technology

Commercial  •  Commercial Observer  •  Globe Newswire

Office buildings, hospitals, airports, schools and campuses, concert venues, sports arenas, hotels, casinos and other destinations are investing in health technologies to stay viable in a future where people are going to be more cautious about where they go.

IKEA’s Ingka Centres plans U.S. entry in major play

Commercial  •  Reuters

IKEA’s shopping malls business, one of the world’s biggest, is looking to enter the United States in the next couple of years and is in talks to snap up central properties in major cities, Ingka Centres boss Gerard Groener said.

J.C. Penney proposes to spin off real estate into a REIT

Commercial  •  Bloomberg  •  Globest.com  •  Reuters

After filing for Chapter 11 protection on Friday, J.C. Penney further outlined its plans Saturday in the US Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas. One of its proposals is a spin-off of its real estate division into a publicly traded REIT.

Cities won’t be able to dodge the virus bill

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  Globe and Mail  •  Globe and Mail

OPINION: Everyone is getting a bailout these days: workers, students, farmers, small businesses, big businesses. Canada’s biggest, richest city is hoping to join them. Mayor John Tory says Toronto has taken a hit that amounts to $65 million a week.

GTA home sales are down 69%

Residential  •  Toronto Star

With home prices set to soar at the start of this year, many would-be Greater Toronto Area buyers went into lockdown feeling priced out. Then COVID-19 sent  home sales tumbling 69 per cent year-over-year in April.

Humble bungalow shaped Canadian neighbourhoods

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

In 2015, when artist Dana Boettger was “renovicted” from the apartment in the midtown Toronto fourplex she’d rented for 23 years, she and her partner ended up leasing one of the thousands of very similar small houses lining so many streets.

U.S. home construction drops 30.2 per cent

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Reuters

The Commerce Department said Tuesday U.S. home building plummeted 30.2 per cent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 891,000. Construction of single-family homes dropped 25.4 per cent to an annual rate of 650,000.