Could Molson site work as a tech hub?

Could Molson site work as a tech hub?

Beer on site. Bike lanes. Proximity to a chic neighbourhood. If the new owners were to leave Vancouver’s Molson brewery untouched at the foot of the Burrard Bridge, it might have all the trappings any millennial tech worker could ask for. And at least on paper, that’s part of the reason Concord Pacific is paying a hefty price.

Business In Vancouver – Vancouver Sun – Toronto Star

Technology tenants touchy: Office agents

They lease the most downtown office space of any industry sector in B.C., but high-technology companies are also among the most demanding tenants, according to office lease agents. Technology and digital firms, including giants such as Microsoft (MSFT-Q) and Amazon (AMZN-Q), are now the principal downtown office clients, leasing approximately 740,000 square feet of space.

Business In Vancouver

Lanesborough REIT selling assets to buy time

With a major exposure to the recessionary Alberta market and the oil sands epicentre of Fort McMurray in particular piling up losses, Lanesborough REIT‘s (LRT.UN-T) survival plan is simple: sell properties to keep afloat. The Winnipeg-based company recently unloaded a multi-residential property in Yellowknife for $23 million, turning a tidy profit.

Property Biz Canada – Canada Newswire

Hungerford raises cash for Canada-focused fund

Hungerford Properties has raised $100 million Cdn for a fund focused on Western Canada. The Vancouver-based company said it was aiming to raise $200 million for its second Hungerford Properties Western Canada (HPWC) vehicle. The fund will focus on the refurbishment and development of real estate in seven major cities in the region.

IPE Real Estate

Urbancorp CEO files for bankruptcy protection

The head of Toronto residential developer Urbancorp joined his companies in filing for bankruptcy protection. Chief executive officer Alan Saskin filed a proposal under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act claiming assets and liabilities of $0, according to documents submitted to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Israel, where the closely help company issued a bond last year.

Bloomberg

The hospital of the future

For those involved in planning the hospitals of tomorrow, the question is how to be forward thinking while best serving the needs of their patients. The new Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital has attempted to peer into the future of health care. At 1.6 million square feet, it is three times the size of the old one.

Globe and Mail

Metrolinx needs to buy at least 250 properties for LRT

Metrolinx will need to buy or expropriate about 250 properties to make way for Hamilton’s new LRT line, but it hopes most of them have willing sellers. Paul Johnson, the city’s LRT project lead presented design plans for the $1-billion line on Monday

CBC News – Hamilton Spectator

Edmonton LRT debate pushed far into future

Edmonton City Council confirmed Tuesday the west leg of the LRT will be its top construction priority, with an extension north from NAIT to Blatchford a close second. “There will be a tough debate when the decision comes whether to proceed south or northwest next, but we don’t need to have that debate right now,” Mayor Don Iveson said.

Edmonton Journal

Businesses, homes consumed by Fort Mac wildfire

The largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta’s history forced 10s of thousands of Fort McMurray residents to flee Tuesday as explosive fire conditions destroyed homes and businesses and caused a rapid succession of mandatory evacuations that forced people onto gridlocked highways under clouds of smoke.

Edmonton Journal – CBC News – Maclean’s

RendezVous group could add aquarium to Ottawa project

There could yet be an aquarium in LeBreton Flats‘ future. RendezVous LeBreton, whose redevelopment bid for the long-dormant lands just west of Ottawa’s downtown core was top-rated by an evaluation committee, is interested in holding talks with the runner-up Devcore Canderel DLS Group about potentially adding elements of its plan to the project.

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Business Journal

Arlington Street closes on Calgary property deal

Arlington Street Investments (ASI) has closed a five-property deal along the 800 block of 17th Avenue SW in Calgary, including the longstanding, family-owned restaurant Buon Giorno. The recent acquisitions are part of a larger strategy by ASI to acquire key properties along the southwest end of Red Mile over the past two years.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Buttonville Airport to continue operations into 2017

Cadillac Fairview (CF), Armadale Co. Limited and Torontair Limited today announced the Toronto Buttonville Municipal Airport will continue in operation until at least fall 2017. CF and Armadale submitted an application to rezone the site in the fall of 2011 to permit a world-class employment district and vibrant, mixed-use lifestyle destination.

Canada Newswire

Winnipeg development agency eyes ‘more focused approach’

As the new CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, Dayna Spiring believes she’s in the right place at the right time to put a charge into the economy. Spiring takes over at a time when a number of significant community assets have been completed, such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Winnipeg Free Press

Bypassing B.C. treaty process pays off: Editorial

The recent land-sale agreement between the province and three Lower Mainland First Nations again shows why some native bands are in no hurry to get mired in B.C.’s treaty process. They don’t really need to invest the time, money and resources in finalizing a treaty when they can negotiate business deals like the Jericho Lands purchase.

Business In Vancouver

Aeropostale closing all 41 Canadian stores

Teen retailer Aeropostale Inc. plans to close all 41 of its Canadian stores, along with 113 of its 739 U.S. stores, as the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York court on Wednesday.  Aéropostale said it intends to emerge from the Chapter 11 process within the next six months as a smaller company.

CBC News – Bloomberg – Reuters – Globest.com

Featured Column

Saskatoon’s commercial real estate shining star

We’ve already reported the rather dull current status of the Saskatoon office and industrial leasing markets. Where the story gets better, where we have a good balance between supply and demand and where we are still seeing new construction on spec is with retail.

Read more

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. real estate law firms have greater role in CRE

A number of trends are leading to the growth of legal practices, both in numbers and importance to the commercial real estate industry. Probably the biggest change is the increased number of regulations on capital sources implemented in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Commercial Property Executive

Top-performing U.S. industrial markets

PHOTO GALLERY: One of the trends to stem from a tightened industrial market is the rise of the class-B product, especially in light of heightened demand and limited construction of class-A properties this year. Following is a list of U.S. cities showing the strongest performance across all industrial property types.

National Real Estate Investor

Real Estate Companies

Cineplex sets attendance record

Canada’s largest chain of movie theatres set a record for attendance in the first quarter thanks in part to the continued interest in the Star Wars saga and a strong February opening for Deadpool. Cineplex Inc. (CGX-T) hosted 20.6 million patrons during the first three months of this year, a 17.4 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2015. 

Globe and Mail

REOC Financial Reports

Latest first-quarter reports:

* Brookfield Real Estate Services Inc., (BRE-T), Canada Newswire     

* Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corp., (FC-T), Canada Newswire     

* Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc., (RME-T), Canada Newswire

REIT Financial Reports

Latest first-quarter reports:

* Dream Industrial REIT, (DIR.UN-T). Marketwired   

* Morguard North American Residential REIT, (MRG.UN-T), Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Agellan completes disposition of Gatineau retail plaza

Agellan Commercial REIT (ACR.UN-T) announced it has completed its previously announced sale of a 45,000-square-foot multi-tenant retail plaza located at 195-215 Rue Bellehumeur in Gatineau, Que., to a third-party purchaser. The sale price for this non-core asset is approximately $9.2 million before closing costs and represents an in-place capitalization rate of approximately 7.2 per cent.

Stockhouse

JBG in talks to merge with New York REIT: Sources

The JBG Companies, a privately held U.S real estate investment company, is in negotiations to merge with Manhattan office and retail landlord New York REIT Inc (NYRT-N), sources said Monday. New York REIT declined to comment, while JBG did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters – Bloomberg

One-time event will give a boost to U.S. REITs

S&P Dow Jones Indices on Aug. 31 will begin tracking U.S. REITs separately from other financial stocks, increasing the number of sectors to 11 from 10. That could lead to purchases of REIT stocks by active mutual fund managers, who are “substantially underweight the sector,” according to Jefferies analysts Steven DeSanctis and Omotayo Okusanya.

MarketWatch

REITs shift strategies amid market uncertainty

Now is a good time to make sure your portfolio is well-positioned, advises Gerard Sweeney, CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust (BDN-N). “Every sector of real estate is under assault,” he warned. Indeed, current market volatility and economic uncertainty are major concerns for all types of industries, and real estate is no exception.

Commercial Property Executive

Retail

Sales soar at Ottawa’s Shopify

Sales continue to expand at a breakneck pace at Ottawa’s Shopify (SH-T). In a release Wednesday morning before markets opened, the company stated revenue for the period between January and March hit $72.7 million US, a 95 per cent increase over the same quarter last year. Shopify reports in U.S. dollars.

Ottawa Citizen – Reuters – Ottawa Business Journal

Loblaw’s first-quarter profit jumps

Loblaw Companies Ltd. (L-T) is reporting double-digit increases to its profit and adjusted earnings for the first quarter. The operator of Canada’s largest grocery and pharmacy business had $193 million of net income for the quarter, up $47-million or 32.2 per cent from a year earlier. Its adjusted net earnings were helped by increased cost savings.

Globe and Mail

Wal-Mart’s size may be obstacle to further growth: RBC

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT-N) was initiated at underperform at RBC Capital Markets on concerns the retailer’s massive size coupled with heightened competition and the broad shift to e-commerce are risks to both the top and bottom lines. After years of growing, “virtually everyone that was going to shop at Walmart, already shops at Walmart,” RBC analysts wrote Tuesday.

MarketWatch – Financial Post

Sports Venues

Winnipeg getting new soccer complex

Winnipeg’s new soccer complex will have 160,000 square feet of usable space housing the second FIFA regulation size indoor soccer pitch in the province. The complex will also be able to be used by a variety of sports such as ultimate disc, football, baseball and rugby in addition to school physical education programming.

Winnipeg Free Press

Resorts

Barrick Gold founder to sell Montenegro marina

Barrick Gold founder Peter Munk is selling his last significant investment, Porto Montenegro, the superyacht marina and resort he built as a Mediterranean rival to Cannes, to Investment Corp. of Dubai for what is expected to be at least $361 million Cdn.

Globe and Mail

Renovation and Restoration

Ottawa plaza a step closer to overhaul

Ottawa city councillors want to revamp the ByWard and Parkdale markets, starting with a $1-million overhaul of the George Street Plaza. If approved at council, the ByWard Market’s George Street hub would get new vendor stalls, a “mist feature,” horse fountain, public art and illuminated seating.

Ottawa Business Journal

Infrastructure

Dorval’s ‘ramps to nowhere’ to be completed

The two so-called ramps to nowhere off Highway 20 in Dorval will be completed by the fall of 2017. Work on the two ramps just east of Dorval Circle has been stalled for years while the provincial government, CN, CP and two hotels affected by the revamping of the roadways in the area worked out their differences.

Montreal Gazette – CBC News – CTV News

Human Resources

Perlmutter joins Avison Young in Toronto

Amy Erixon, Avison Young principal and managing director, Investments, announced highly regarded commercial real estate investment transaction specialist Ron Perlmutter has joined the firm in Toronto. Effective immediately, Perlmutter becomes a principal of Avison Young and senior vice-president of investment management (Toronto).

Canada Newswire

Technology

Sky Guys flying High at Realtor Quest

The Sky Guys, Canada’s leader in UAV-enabled services and aerial photography, are this year’s featured technology partner at the largest real estate conference in the country, Realtor Quest. Adam Sax, CEO is delivering a keynote address on how the technology is transforming the commercial, residential and resort real estate sector.

Canada Newswire

Other

Seventh-day Adventists worry about effects of heritage designation

Members of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Lowertown in Ottawa fear heritage designation of their building will hinder their ability to accommodate a larger congregation. The church was the Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, the city’s first purpose-built synagogue, and the Seventh-day Adventists have cared for the building since 1999.

CBC.ca