Brookfield, Starwood seek Interhotel sale: Sources

Brookfield, Starwood seek Interhotel sale: Sources

Brookfield Property Partners LP (BPY.UN-T) and Starwood Capital Group (HOT-N) plan to sell German hotels valued at as much as $1.08 billion Cdn, according to two sources. The owners have hired JLL and Eastdil Secured LLC to advise on the sale of the 10 hotels, once part of the East German government’s Interhotel chain, said the sources.

Bloomberg

Morguard acquires Toronto hotel portfolio

Morguard Corporation (MRC-T) announced it has finalized an agreement to purchase a portfolio of three hotels for $33.5 million, excluding closing costs. The portfolio, located in Toronto and adjacent to Pearson International Airport, includes two hotels under the Marriott banner and an independently branded property, Hotel Carlingview Toronto Airport.

Canada Newswire

InnVest REIT’s Ottawa Marriott buy prompts selloff

The upgrade of InnVest REIT’s (INN.UN-T) hotel portfolio continued with the completion of its latest acquisition, the Ottawa Marriott, a $115-million deal that gives it an upscale downtown property and also prompts it to sell older properties. “We like Ottawa as a market, so we wanted to find the right hotel in the city centre of that market,” said Drew Coles, InnVest’s president and chief executive.

Property Biz Canada

Calgary office market recovery a waiting game

The depressed state of the Calgary office market evokes memories of the city’s situation seven years ago. “What is very similar in comparing January 2009 to January 2016 is the amount of inventory in the office market that was under construction,” said Dan Harmsen, vice-president and associate broker for Barclay Street Real Estate.

Property Biz Canada

Ivanhoe, Macquarie target logistics takeover

Ivanhoé Cambridge and Australia’s Macquarie Group are to jointly acquire Australian logistics development company Logos, giving them access to logistics assets valued at $2 billion Cdn across Australia and China. The acquisition price has not been disclosed. An Ivanhoé Cambridge spokesman  said: “We cannot confirm details of this ongoing transaction until it is complete and all conditions are met.”

IPE Real Estate

Canadian pension funds pull back on infrastructure

Canada’s biggest pension funds say they are walking away from more and more global infrastructure deals, citing concerns intense competition for assets has driven valuations too far. The shift could help cool global prices for tunnels, airports, toll roads, energy networks and other infrastructure as Canadian pension plans are among the world’s biggest and most active buyers.

Reuters

Saskatchewan to get fast-tracked infrastructure funding

The federal government will fast-track $300 million in spending for infrastructure in Saskatchewan, according to a spokesman for the federal government. The exact timing of the spending is not yet finalized, but it should happen within months, said Brook Simpson, spokesman for federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, on Thursday.

Regina Leader-Post – Daily Commercial News

Portage and Main ‘the hub of the wheel’

If the experience in Times Square is any indication, pedestrians and businesses alike would benefit from demolishing the barriers at Portage and Main in Winnipeg. But Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance in New York City said every urban situation that could change pedestrian and vehicular traffic is different and needs to be treated as such.

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press – Global News

Rona better fit now: Lowe’s exec

Sylvain Prud’homme downplays the importance of his francophone roots in making Lowe’s Cos. Inc., (LOW-N) a more attractive suitor to Quebec-based home improvement rival Rona Inc., (RON-T). “I think it’s giving way too much credit to one individual,” the president of Lowe’s Canada said with a chuckle Thursday, a day after the retailer announced a friendly takeover of Rona.

Financial Post – CTV News – Financial Post – Globe and Mail

Danier Leather begins insolvency proceedings

Canadian retailer Danier Leather (DL-T) has begun insolvency proceedings that could lead to a sale of all or part of the company and possibly bankruptcy. The chain has Canada 90 stores and hopes to find a buyer or complete the insolvency process by the end of March. The TSX is reviewing the status of Danier’s shares for possible delisting.

CBC News – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail

Inside the revival in Ontario’s rust belt

Dean Elkholy was all set to enter the Dentistry program at Western University when he changed his mind and joined with two others to create GoViral, which provides content for social media. GoViral spawned Diply –Sixteen trifle recipes that will fly off your table! This girl has the best comeback ever! – which in mid-December was the world’s 65th-most popular website.

Globe and Mail

Amish give up on pricey Ontario

Much like the past when pioneer families travelled west for farmland to call their own, two groups of Amish families from Ontario are heading east to till the fertile, red soil of P.E.I. and establish a new home. According to realtor Brad Oliver, it has simply gotten too expensive in Ontario for the Amish communities to expand, and young people to own their own farms.

Winnipeg Free Press

Hersha Hospitality sells seven Manhattan hotels

Hersha Hospitality Trust (HT-N) announced it will sell seven limited-service hotels totalling 1,087 rooms to a joint venture established with Chinese investment company Cindat Capital Management Ltd. for $571.4 million, or $526,000 per key. Cindat would hold a 70 per cent equity interest while Hersha would retain a 30% interest in the hotels.

CoStar Group

U.S. REITs outpace broader market in January

REITs lost ground in January as global macroeconomic concerns exerted downward pressure on the sector, but they still outperformed the broader equity market. The total returns of the FTSE/NAREIT All REIT Index fell 3.5 per cent in January, while the S&P 500 Index lost 5.0 per cent.

REIT.com – TheStreet.com – REIT.com – Lexology

2015 best year for U.S. office sales since 2007

U.S. office net absorption topped 100 million square feet for the first time since the Great Recession and the national office vacancy rate declined another half-percentage point in 2015 as broadening demand and constrained levels of construction contributed to tightening space availability in virtually every metro area.

CoStar Group

Featured Column

An economic disconnect between CRE and residential?

Whether there is a tangible disconnect between commercial and residential real estate is difficult to say. It can be common to see strength in one sector and not in the other.

Read more

The project sales team is your secret weapon

For years now, in the real world outside planning documents, timelines and spreadsheets, the disconnect between sales and marketing has been pronounced and dysfunctional. If you can fix this in your project, it will be your secret weapon.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Oil downturn effects to spread in 2016: Conference Board

Increasing global production and expanding inventories are expected to keep oil prices below $50 per barrel until at least the end of 2017, so Canadian extraction companies will continue to record losses while other sectors of the economy begin to feel the effects of slumping prices, according to The Conference Board’s Canadian Outlook: Winter 2016.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Canada Newswire

GTA CRE leased space falls in January

Toronto Real Estate Board president Mark McLean announced TREB Commercial Network Members reported a combined 240,606 square feet of industrial, commercial/retail and office space leased through TREB’s MLS System in January. This result was down from 349,270 square feet of leased space in January 2015.

Marketwired

Real Estate Companies

Interest charges waived for Winnipeg Convention Centre

Council’s senior committee endorsed an administrative proposal Wednesday to waive $1 million in overhead interest charges that would apply to the $51 million grant to the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg. Mayor Brian Bowman and members of his executive policy committee supported the plan without discussion or debate. It still must be approved by council.

Winnipeg Free Press

Tax dispute puts CMHR in the red

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights exceeded its own expectations in its first six months after opening but the still-unsettled tax dispute with the city of Winnipeg could put the museum more than $4 million in debt. In the 2014-15 annual report, tabled in the House of Commons Thursday, the museum shows an operating deficit of $200,000.

Winnipeg Free Press

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Fourth-quarter 2015 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. Fourth-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – Fourth-quarter 2015 report

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Should you buy H&R REIT?

Beaten-down REITs are great for getting a good income while you wait for their share prices to appreciate. Should investors buy H&R Real Estate Investment Trust (HR.UN-T) and get its 7.2 per cent yield? At the end of September, it was Canada’s biggest diversified REIT with assets of about $13.8 billion and No. 2 based on its market cap.

Motley Fool

Blackstone considering non-traded REIT market

Private equity giant The Blackstone Group (BX-N) is considering launching a non-traded REIT business that would both create and manage non-traded REITs for brokers and advisers to sell as well as market and wholesale those investments. Brendan Boyle, senior managing director,  and Joe Lohrer, managing director, are leading the effort.

Investment News

Retail

J.C. Penney looking at possible HQ sale

J.C. Penney (JCP-N) is considering selling and partially leasing back its headquarters to help lower debt and create long-term savings. The department store operator said Friday it has a surplus of square footage available in the Plano, Texas office building, with favourable market conditions making it a good time for a real estate transaction.

Winnipeg Free Press – Dallas Morning News

IKEA loses trademark in Indonesia

There is Samsung of South Korea, Sony of Japan, BMW of Germany and IKEA of Indonesia. Wait! The furniture giant, founded in Sweden in 1943, has lost a trademark dispute in Indonesia after the country’s highest court agreed the IKEA name was owned by a local company. Indonesian rattan furniture company PT Ratania Khatulistiwa registered its IKEA trademark in 2013.

Montreal Gazette

Restaurants and Eateries

McDonald’s edging out KFC, Pizza Hut in China

Yum Brands Inc, (YUM-N) the home of KFC and Pizza Hut, is falling behind rival McDonald’s Corp (MCD-N) as the pair battle to revive flagging sales in China – a headache for Yum as it looks to spin off operations in its biggest market. McDonald’s said last week fourth-quarter same-store sales in China rose four per cent.

Reuters

Infrastructure

Hydro-Quebec eyes foreign acquisitions

Hydro-Québec would consider foreign acquisitions and believes it would be a good opportunity for growth in the coming years, in the same way exporting electricity would be. The president of the provincial utility, Éric Martel, let the plans be known in front of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal on Thursday.

Montreal Gazette

Brookfield mulling loan to Invepar rather than OAS

Brookfield Asset Management Inc., (BAM.A-T) the largest independent asset manager in Canada, said it still may offer a loan to Brazilian company Investimentos e Participacoes em Infraestrutura SA (Invepar), after withdrawing an offer for a 24 per cent stake in the company this week.

Bloomberg

Other

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