Vancouver Trump Tower scrambles to close sales

Vancouver Trump Tower scrambles to close sales

Holborn Properties scored a hit with Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, setting a record price when the building sold out. But now there’s a hitch in the process with the new 15-per-cent foreign-buyer tax, as the date fast approaches for a fall completion. 

Globe and Mail

Couche-Tard to buy Cracker Barrel stores in Baton Rouge

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has an agreement to buy 53 stores in Louisiana, primarily in the Baton Rouge market, for an undisclosed price. The stores currently operate under the Cracker Barrel banner. All but one of them sell fuel under the Shell, Chevron or Cracker Barrel brand names and 12 include quick-service restaurants.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

Artis REIT future is more America, less Alberta

Eight months into 2016, it is fair to characterize the year as tumultuous and transformational for Artis REIT. The Winnipeg-based diversified real estate asset holder has been busy buying, selling, keeping a wary eye on the Alberta wildfires and began what became a very public effort to sell a stake in its Calgary office portfolio.

Property Biz Canada

Lawsuit targets Ontario’s syndicated mortgage industry

Investors have launched a proposed class action against a high-profile Toronto-area condo development firm, with projects across Canada, that raises millions from mom-and-pop investors through risky pooled mortgage products—many of which are advertised as safe and “secure.”

MacLeans

Ivanhoé Cambridge to invest CAD72m in redevelopment of retail asset

Ivanhoé Cambridge is investing CAD72m in the redevelopment of a British Columbia shopping mall. The Mayfair Shopping Centre in Victoria will be redeveloped over the next two years by Ivanhoé Cambridge, a subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

IPE Real Estate

Conexus Credit Union hopes to build in Wascana Park in Regina

Officials from Regina Downtown are expressing concern about a proposed office development outside of the main downtown area. A financial institution hopes to build an office in Wascana Park, just south of downtown. The Regina Downtown Business Improvement District is among several delegations that will be presenting its views to city council Monday

CBC

Fronsac REIT puts new equity to work quickly

Fronsac Real Estate Investment Trust (GAZ.UN-X) continues to sail along smoothly, as it just reported solid second quarter results and recently raised $5 million in new equity from a private placement of units.  “That money got put to use as quickly as possible,” said chief financial officer Jason Parravano.

Property Biz Canada

Above-grade parking hobbles Edmonton’s tallest high-rise

Edmonton City Council’s green-lighting last month of the 45-storey Emerald condo tower slated for Jasper Avenue and 114 Street came amid controversy over both its height and the inclusion of above-grade parking. The Emerald will be at least twice as tall as its neighbours and will become the city’s tallest building.

Globe and Mail

From parking lot wasteland to urban paradise

City planners know that expanding low-density, car-oriented sprawl would only exacerbate traffic congestion and the public costs of emergency services, utilities and infrastructure. But if many Calgarians can’t bear the thought of their neighbour having a secondary suite, putting a new apartment building with shops on their block is a non-starter.

CBC.ca

Expect to see more purpose-built rental

Whether or not you are familiar with the term “purpose-built rental stock,” chances are that you will be hearing more about it soon. The Canadian real estate market is a major driving factor for the economy right now, and the rental market segment is a contributing force. Purpose-built rental units are making a comeback and in coming years they will play a larger role in the Canadian rental real estate market.

Huffington Post – Financial Post

Vancouver could lose one of its last two gas stations

Downtown Vancouver could be down to only one gas station in the near future. Chevron Canada has announced it has decided to “solicit market interest” in its property located at 1698 West Georgia Street at the corner of Bidwell, one of only two gas stations in the downtown core.

Global News

‘No Drone Zone’ signs posted in Victoria’s harbour

Concerns about unauthorized drones interfering with seaplanes have prompted Transport Canada to put up new “No Drone Zone” signs around Victoria’s Inner Harbour. Harbour Air, which operates the busy seaplane terminal in the harbour, says there haven’t been any close calls but pilots have spotted drones in the area.

CBC.ca

Economic patriotism and the Americanization of Canada

One of the wonderful things about a road trip across Canada used to be the myriad character of small towns and cities along the route. Mom and Pop burger stands, coffee shops and fruit sellers were once the best part of the journey. That aspect of Canada has been largely paved over with strip malls that contain a minor variation on a constant theme: Starbucks, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Arby’s, Home Depot, Walmart.

Financial Post

Blackstone gives pricey Canadian property thumbs down

Real estate, which is Blackstone’s biggest business, is also unattractive in Canada compared to the rest of the world, Mr. Tony James, president of Blackstone Group LP said. It has, however, invested alongside Canadian pension funds and money managers elsewhere, including the $5.3-billion purchase of New York City’s Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village with Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc.

Globe and Mail

Redemption requests build among core US property funds

Pension funds in the US are increasingly pulling capital out of the country’s large open-ended property funds as return prospects diminish.  A number of funds have each received redemption requests this year totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, according to sources tracking the activity.

IPE Real Estate

Featured Column

Hello, I am … accountable

Accountability is defined as the fact or condition of being accountable; therefore, responsible. I think it’s a word that is thrown around without much consideration for the consequence of the potential expectation created.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Winnipeg’s thirst for growth fees ignores planning

For the last 50 years, Winnipeg’s built-up geographic area has been increasing at a rate of more than twice the city’s population growth. There are 20 per cent fewer people living in River Heights today than in 1970. In Wolseley, the population is down 36 per cent, St. Boniface 23 per cent and even busy Osborne Village has seen a population decline of 11 per cent during that time.

Winnipeg Free Press

Bank’s withdrawal leaves big hole in little town: Wells

By many accounts the July encounter between the good citizens of Wilberforce and a Scotiabank vice-president did not go well. Shannon Hunter, who serves as chief administrative officer for the Municipality of Highlands East, says it was clear that the town hall meeting was merely “a process that they (Scotiabank) had to follow versus an opportunity for the bank to stay.”

Toronto Star

Real Estate Companies

PrimeWest MIC appoints Chief Executive Officer

PrimeWest Mortgage Investment Corporation announced today the appointment of Brad Penno as its new Chief Executive Officer, with duties to commence August 22, 2016. Tom Archibald and Doug Frondall, Co-Presidents and Co-Chief Executive Officers, have stepped down from their interim positions.

Montreal Gazette

Imperial Equities Inc. bids to purchase shares

Imperial Equities Inc. (IEI-V) today announced that it intends to make a normal course issuer bid through the facilities of and in accordance with the by-laws and rules of the Toronto Venture Exchange to be transacted through the facilities of the TSX and other Canadian marketplaces.

Edmonton Journal

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their second-quarter 2016 results. Have we missed any?

Canadian REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Nobel REIT continues to grow

According to the President and Chief Executive of Nobel REIT (NEL.UN-X) Jean Teasdale, “Despite the current situation in the stock markets, we made the acquisition at the beginning of the second quarter of 50% of businesses owning an investment property with a value of nearly $ 26 million; adding the Nobel REIT share in this building to our other investment properties, the value of our investment properties now reaches more than $ 120 million. 

Edmonton Journal

Edgefront REIT announces grant of options

Edgefront REIT (ED.UN-X) announced today the grant of options to officers and independent trustees of the REIT. The REIT’s Board of Trustees has granted an aggregate of 800,000 unit options to the President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, as well as an aggregate of 525,000 unit options to the independent trustees of the REIT.

Marketwired

Legal Corner

Recent developments of importance in property leasing

The common law remedy of distress has become an increasingly difficult remedy for landlords to exercise in response to a tenant default. Since Delane Industry Co. v. PCI Properties Corp., landlords have continued to exercise the act of distraining against a tenant’s goods and chattels without strictly observing various technical procedures.

Mondaq

Retail

Quebec hearings regarding sale of Rona Inc.

The former chief of staff to a cabinet minister, Pierre Ouellet told committee members that Jacques Daoust was informed about the intention of government agency Investissement Quebec to sell its Rona Inc. shares to Lowes in 2014.

Winnipeg Free Press

Is Couche-Tard getting to the end of its shopping list?

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ATD.B-T) president and chief executive Brian Hannasch chuckles a bit before brushing aside the suggestion.  On a conference call after the Laval, Que.-based convenience-store giant announced its biggest acquisition yet – an all-cash $3.8-billion (U.S.) deal for Texas-based CST Brands Inc.

Globe and Mail

New Development

Montreal’s once bustling St-Denis muted by the din

Of all the streets to move to in Montreal in the summer of 2016, Arlene Baco chose one of the worst. With her one-year-old son in tow, Baco and her partner drove in from Ottawa in June and pulled up to their new apartment, a three-storey walk-up on St-Denis St., smack in the middle of one of the busiest construction sites in the city.

Montreal Gazette

Infrastructure

Australian fund to target property near infrastructure

EG Funds Management has raised AUD400m (€271m) for an Australian real estate fund, with backing for the first time from a European investor.  The fund is targeting real estate assets close to new infrastructure developments in Australia.

IPE Real Estate

Champlain Bridge builders inspired by Confederation Bridge

Q: After travelling to Prince Edward Island this summer, I was wondering if the builders of the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to P.E.I. were consulted for the new Champlain Bridge? A: The builders and architects of the new Champlain Bridge consulted many experts in coming up with the design, said Daniel Genest, the director of co-ordination for Signature on the Saint Lawrence Group — the consortium building the bridge.

Montreal Gazette

There’s nothing left to buy, so let’s start building

Where do you invest the money? Stocks are risky or just overpriced; Canadian real estate is in a scary boom but expect a bust when you want to sell in 10 years time. The biggest headache is government bonds: so expensive that yields are close to nil and in some markets already negative. With no income, how does a pension fund meet its liabilities? The solution is to do what governments are not doing: invest in things that we all use, such as roads, railways, ports and airports.

Globe and Mail

Other

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