Recourse that matters

The high-risk world of syndicated mortgages

Hundreds of investors sank $16.9 million into a syndicated mortgage on a high-profile Barrie development that had been marketed as secure, high-interest paying and RRSP eligible. For ordinary consumers looking to boost their retirement savings, the sales pitch by the mortgage brokers who raise money for Fortress Real Development projects was compelling.

Toronto Star – Property Biz Canada

Calgary Target locations still sitting empty

An upcoming announcement will likely reveal new tenants have been found for two more vacated Target (TGT-N) locations in Calgary. That would still leave two former Target stores sitting empty more than a year after the U.S.-based retailer pulled out — and Fairfield Commercial Real Estate‘s Michael Kehoe says economic woes make filling those spaces a challenge.

Calgary Herald

Regent Park progress exceeding Daniels’ original vision

This summer’s opening of Wendy’s and Subway/Yogen Fruz fast food restaurants will be the latest steps in the dramatic revitalization of Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. “The new Regent Park is blending back into Toronto from where it was before,” said Martin Blake, vice-president of The Daniels Corporation.

Property Biz Canada

Hotel consolidation seen as key to battling Airbnb

Accommodation-sharing platforms such as Airbnb will likely lead to more hotel consolidation, said Robin McLuskie, Colliers International‘s vice-president of hotels. “I definitely think we will . . . . Just to fight back against these Airbnbs,” said McLuskie. “People are seeing that it is a commodity and they want to consolidate and try and control more” room inventory.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Ottawa considers investing in Montreal rail network

The Canadian government is eager to consider joining Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec in investing in a new public transport light rail network in Montreal, the third-largest of its kind in the world, PM Justin Trudeau said Saturday. Trudeau said he looks forward to talks with Caisse on how Canada can be a “strong financial partner” in the $5.5-billion project.

Reuters

Garden Inn takes root at Winnipeg’s Seasons

Another key piece has been added to one of Winnipeg’s most talked-about new commercial developments. Winnipeg’s SK Developments Inc. has confirmed it will build a $35-million, four-star Hilton Garden Inn on the northeast corner of the 117-acre Seasons retail/office/hotel/residential development in southwest Winnipeg. Work on the hotel project got underway Friday.

Winnipeg Free Press

Holborn Group planning Vancouver developments

The son of one of Malaysia’s wealthiest tycoons has finished selling the $360-million Trump Tower and is now preparing rezoning applications for the rest of his family’s Vancouver landholdings. After being chosen by his dad, Tony Tiah Thee Kian, to invest hundreds of millions in B.C. property, 36-year-old Joo Kim Tiah became head of the Holborn Group. 

Vancouver Sun

Burnaby seeks to make a downtown out of Metrotown

Metrotown’s sterility may be rooted in the fact the neighbourhood is literally named after a 1960s urban planning term. When regional planners prepared a study on Burnaby, they referred to it as the city’s “metro town” and it stuck. Four decades later,  Burnaby wants to evolve Metrotown into a downtown.

BCBusiness

Westland reapplies for Regina parking lot permit

The owner of a chunk of land in downtown Regina that has sat as a parking lot since affordable housing units were torn down wants to be allowed to keep it undeveloped for up to three more years. Westland Ventures has applied for a second permit for a 18,750-square-foot parcel, flying in the face of the Downtown Neighbourhood Plan.

Regina Leader-Post

Winnipeg dead set on building destruction

On Wednesday, city council handed a death sentence to downtown Winnipeg’s Public Safety Building. People who find it ugly could not care less. They ought to, however, if only because demolition is something Winnipeg does so well. When it comes to finding creative reasons to flatten interesting structures, few other Canadian cities can compete.

Winnipeg Free Press

Many federal buildings contain asbestos

CBC has produced a national inventory of federal buildings containing asbestos. The federal government itself does not have a central inventory of this type. However, for more than a decade, public health, political and labour groups have called for a national public registry of buildings that contain asbestos.

CBC News – Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Cap markets veteran Kevill Joins AY

John Kevill, a capital markets veteran who helped build Eastdil Secured into the D.C. metro area’s top performing brokerage, has joined Avison Young as managing director, U.S. capital markets. Along with expanding the company’s capital markets footprint across the country, particularly in the investment sales arena, Kevill will also work with the D.C. team on developing its regional presence.

Globest.com

Burger King looks to beef up in Canada

Burger King could be getting much bigger in Canada. Having kickstarted a more aggressive expansion of the Tim Hortons brand in the United States, Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR-T) is now gearing up to grow the coffee chain’s fast food sibling more substantially across this country, where it has only 300 restaurants.

Financial Post

NYU Langone leases entire Manhattan tower

NYU Langone Medical Center has signed a 30-year lease with Columbia Property Trust Inc., (CXP-N) to take the entire space of its 25-storey office tower at 222 E. 41st St., in Manhattan.

Commercial Property Executive

Camden Property Trust selling Vegas portfolio

“It’s been a great ride,” Richard J. Campo, CEO of Camden Property Trust (CPT-N), said of the multi-family REIT’s exit from the Las Vegas market during its first-quarter 2016 earnings conference call last week. Camden has parted with its last holdings in Sin City, selling 15 multi-family communities, a retail centre and 19.6 acres of undeveloped land for $630 million US.

Commercial Property Executive

Featured Column

Recourse that matters

Mortgages are secured against a property. When additional security beyond that is required, which is very common in Canada, a lender will look for recourse to the borrower or an additional guarantor.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

U.S. banks’ loss rates for CRE rise

Loss rates on banks’ CRE loans rose in Q4 2015 after being at multi-year lows the rest of the year, according to Sageworks. The Q4 increase in loss rates (annualized net charge-offs as a percentage of average loan balance) occurred as regulators warned they are beginning to pay special attention to institutions’ activity tied to CRE lending.

Forbes

Startups forcing change in U.S. CRE

Thousands of tech startups launch in the U.S. every year, which is great news for CRE brokers as companies needs office space. These emerging businesses have a lot of growth potential and the relationships brokers cultivate while they’re just starting out are critical to keeping their business as they grow.

Forbes – Bloomberg

REOC Financial Reports

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Northview to apply for normal course issuer bid

Northview Apartment REIT (NVU.UN-T) announced plans to submit a normal course issuer bid application for approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange for the ability to repurchase units in the capital of Northview. The REIT’s 2016 strategic initiatives include the disposition of non-core assets, with the proceeds used to reduce debt levels and repurchase units.

Marketwired

AHIP completes first phase of renovations

American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP (HOT.UN-T) announced the completion of the first phase of renovations at its 119-room Oak Tree Inn hotel located in Elko, Nev., to convert 30 guest rooms into extended-stay rooms. This renovation is part of AHIP’s strategic initiative to supplement its guaranteed rail crew revenue stream with additional commercial business.

Marketwired – Property Biz Canada

Boston Properties to develop Santa Clara office campus

Office rents increasing at a dizzying rate throughout the San Francisco Bay area and no market is hotter for developers than the Silicon Valley. Boston Properties (BXP-N) moved aggressively last week to meet what the REIT sees as strong demand from social media and other tech giants in Santa Clara County.

CoStar Group – Business Insider‎ – The Street

Ramco-Gershenson increasing anchors to boost values

As Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (RPT-N) nears its 20th anniversary as a publicly traded REIT, the shopping centre owner continues to grow value by densifying and upgrading its portfolio. The company has spent the last five years culling assets and making strategic acquisitions. It has cut its property holdings in the process from 90 centres in 2010 to 72 today.

REIT.com

Retail

Couche-Tard closes on Danish retail business

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ATD.A-T) announced it has closed the acquisition of A/S Dansk Shell’s downstream retail business in Denmark, as previously announced on March 23. Couche-Tard’s network in Denmark will include a total of 286 company operated-stores, 153 company-owned and dealer operated and 44 dealer owned and dealer operated. Included therein are 211 automated sites.

Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire

Forever 21 having troubles paying the bills: Sources

Don and Jin Sook Chang, the billionaire owners of Forever 21, seemed to have it all in recent years — a happy marriage and one of the hottest retail chains. Now both may be on the rocks. The fast-fashion retailer, which for years was busy opening ever-larger stores around the globe, is late paying its bills, industry sources say.

New York Post

Restaurants and Eateries

Starbucks brews grande success in South Africa

Eight days after the opening of the first Starbucks (SBUX-Q) in sub-Saharan Africa, the queue of customers is still as long as ever. The lineup snakes out of the store, across the pavement and around the corner. Even after opening more than 22,000 outlets in 71 countries worldwide, Starbucks CEO/chairman Howard Schultz said he was astonished by the scene.

Globe and Mail

McDonald’s probes copycat burger joint

McDonald’s Corp.(MCD-N) said its lawyers were investigating after entrepreneurs in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine started selling McDonald’s-style hamburgers out of a restaurant the company shut down two years ago. The company said it pulled out of the Ukrainian city of Luhansk in May 2014 for security reasons.

Reuters – Ottawa Citizen

New Development

Ontario Global Development Centre stalled: Councillor

Brightenview Development International Inc. is having trouble buying a property in southwest Ontario on which it plans to build a $45 million “Global Development Centre,” according to an Ontario politician. “It did, in fact, expire and as far as I’m concerned the deal is dead on the table,” said Trevor Thompson, Ward 2 Coun. in Chatham-Kent.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Ottawa waterpark finally moving ahead: Proslide

For the past eight years, the much-anticipated Alottawata Ottawa waterpark has been nothing more than a faded sign in an empty field, but that’s about to change, according to the park owner. Proslide Technologies Inc., a designer of waterpark attractions around the world, has been busy acquiring land around the 100 acres it already owns.

Ottawa Citizen

Resorts

Mountain resorts becoming year-round attractions

A roller-coaster that takes people over a 279-metre drop down a mountain in the Selkirks is a few weeks away from opening at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. The Pipe mountain coaster needs a few final touches before thrill seekers get their first taste on May 21.

CBC News – Calgary Herald‎

Infrastructure

Ontario commits funds for urban transit research

Premier Kathleen Wynne recently announced Ottawa’s plans to inject $10 million over the next four years to support the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC). Founded in 2014 with support from the Canadian Urban Transit Association, CUTRIC focuses on advanced public transportation systems which include low emissions electric, hydrogen fuel cell and transit planning solutions.

Daily Commercial News

Technology

Robotics will affect all sectors: Expert

The kickoff breakfast to the recent Partners in Prevention 2016 conference offered the delegates a glimpse into how the rise of automation will affect the health and safety sector and dramatically change Canada’s economy. Best-selling author Martin Ford presented a view of how automation will deliver long-term effects on jobs, earnings and demand for products.

Daily Commercial News – Regina Leader-Post

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