Vancouver real estate council investigates realtor’s ad

Vancouver real estate council investigates realtor’s ad

The Real Estate Council of B.C. is investigating a marketing video which advertises “future redevelopment opportunities” that aren’t possible under current city zoning and policies. However, Mark and David Goodman, the real estate agents behind the ad maintain they’ve done their due diligence, noting that the concern at City Hall is just a distraction from the issues surrounding the city’s rental stock.

Vancouver Sun

Foreign capital drives Vancouver CRE buying boom

Canada’s reputation as a haven for capital continues to stoke foreign and domestic investments in commercial real estate, according to recent reports and commentary by Vancouver experts. The average national cap rate, a measure of real estate value to owners, has been declining steadily since 2009. The most significant diminishing factor of a cap rate is usually high real estate prices.

The Province

Toronto DT has lowest office vacancy rate in N.A.

Commercial real estate firm CBRE says Toronto has the lowest downtown office vacancy rate in North America. A new report says the vacancy rate in Toronto’s office real estate market dropped to 4.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year.

CTV News – BNN

Pomerleau grows Canadian footprint with Giffels Westpro

Pomerleau Inc., a construction company based in Montreal has been slowly expanding its national footprint over the years. Its latest move is an asset purchase agreement to acquire most of the assets and projects of Giffels Westpro in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Journal of Commerce

MEC opening two new Calgary stores

While retailers across Alberta suffer from declines in consumer spending, Mountain Equipment Co-op continues to increase sales in the province and will expand its reach with two new stores in Calgary over the next three years. The outdoor gear retailer announced its move into the city’s suburbs with new stores in the southeast community of Seton and in Medicine Hill, a new west side neighbourhood.

Calgary Herald – Vancouver Sun

Brookfield plans investment in Indian distressed assets

Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM.A-T) plans to invest about $1-billion in Indian distressed assets through a joint venture with the largest lender in the South Asian nation where banks are battling a record $120-billion of sour debt. Brookfield and State Bank of India have signed a preliminary agreement to set up a joint venture for the investments.

Globe and Mail

Vancouver’s Little Mountain re-zoning application gets underway

The application by Holborn Properties seeks rezone the Little Mountain site at 155 East 37th Ave. in Vancouver from multi-family dwellings to a comprehensive development district. If approved, it would allow for the construction of 14 residential buildings with 1,573 residential units and three mixed-use buildings.

The Province

Vancouver’s Commercial Drive tower battle rages on

The latest incarnation of the Grandview-Woodland community plan calls for a mixed-use development that would rise between four to nine storeys at Commercial and Venables, Vancouver. That is three storeys fewer than the Kettle Friendship Society and Boffo Developments have proposed for the tower on the site.

Vancouver Sun – An anti-anti-development rant

New developments on the rise for McRae Avenue

The corner of Scott Street and McRae Avenue in Westboro Village could soon be looking very different. Ottawa-based developer, Colonnade BridgePort is proposing a 22-storey mixed-used tower at 1960 Scott Street, which is currently the site of the Trailhead Paddle Shack.

Ottawa Business Journal

Employer’s dilemma: new workplace, no public transit

Aercoustics Engineering Ltd.’s office in Toronto is buzzing. Change is in the air at the 40-year-old company, which has grown into the largest acoustical engineering firm in Canada. Its 35 employees are preparing for a big move in the fall, the culmination of nearly three years spent revamping the company.

Globe and Mail

Shinola and the price of doing business on Toronto’s Ossington

A dozen or so 30ish professionals waltz around the Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue shop, phones in hand, making sure everything’s perfect. A man in his early 20s wipes down the glass encasements covering Shinola’s many wares: watches, wallets, leather-bound notebooks, all carefully crafted, all ostensibly – as the brand’s slowly disappearing slogan goes – built in Detroit.

The Globe and Mail

Officials spar over Massey Tunnel project

Officials at Metro Vancouver are not impressed with plans to replace the Massey Tunnel with a new bridge. “History has demonstrated the world over, you can’t reduce congestion by simply building more roads,” said Greg Moore, Metro Vancouver chair. Metro Vancouver acknowledged the congestion issues facing Highway 99 and the George Massey tunnel but stated that it is unable to support the project.

Journal of Commerce

Data centers and the cloud are going green

In a water- and electricity-intensive business, data center owners are actively implementing energy-efficient features and practices to resource consumption. A typical office space is designed to use three to five watts of power per square foot, while a data center is designed to use 100 to 300 watts per square foot, according to Brian Warren, senior vice president of engineering and product at CoreSite.

REIT.com

The growth of green investment strategies

Once a niche space within the world of financial products, green investment strategies have grown in terms of sophistication and diversity.  Investment management firm Wellington Management goes so far as to incorporate analysis of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors into its investment processes across the entire company.

REIT.com

Total impact of Panama Canal may be delayed

It may be a while before the full effect of the Panama Canal’s widening, which was completed in late June, is felt by both coasts’ ports, the business world and the industrial real estate sector, said Colliers International’s head of national industrial services Dwight Hotchkiss. Two recently published articles by the firm’s director of national industrial research James Breeze posited on the possible effects of the Canal’s expansion.

Globe St.

Market Trends and Research

bcIMC reports fiscal 2016 annual returns

British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) announced an annual combined pension return, net of costs, of -0.2 per cent for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, versus a combined market benchmark of -0.3 per cent. During the year BcIMC committed $1.1 billion through its mortgage program to commercial real estate across Canada.

Canada Newswire

Canadian consumer spending up 5.53 per cent in the second quarter of 2016

Consumer spending in Canada grew by 5.53 per cent in the second quarter of 2016 on a year-over-year basis, according to the MonerisMetrics Quarterly Report released by Moneris Solutions Corporation (“Moneris”), one of North America’s largest processors of debit and credit payments. Moneris has recorded seven consecutive quarters of positive spending increases. The second quarter of 2015 posted an increase of 6.08 per cent.

Canada Newswire

Calgary councillor wants gender-neutral washrooms in city buildings

A city councillor believes relabelling single-stall washrooms across city buildings and facilities is a simple step that could make a big difference to Calgary’s LGBTQ community. Ward 11 Coun. Brian Pincott has put forward a notice of motion regarding gender-neutral washrooms that is scheduled to be discussed next week, at council’s last meeting before the summer break.

Calgary Herald

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Time to scale back your investments in real estate

It’s time to tamp down our eagerness to invest in real estate. You own a house? Then you probably don’t need much more exposure to real estate in your financial holdings than that. Think twice about putting money into syndicated mortgages, mortgage investment corporations (MICs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) with exposure to residential as opposed to commercial real estate.

Globe and Mail

Other

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