‘One-two punch’ lifts downtown St. John’s office vacancy to 26%

RENX  Commercial  •  Office, Industrial  •  Atlantic Canada

Office vacancy in downtown St. John’s rose by 4.54 points to 26.69 per cent in 2018, pushing the Newfoundland and Labrador capital’s overall vacancy to 17.21 per cent in December. It marks the fifth straight year of increased vacancy in St. John’s.

Devencore Vancouver office relocates to Bentall II

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

Devencore, a leading, privately owned commercial real estate company with offices across Canada, today celebrated the relocation of its Vancouver office to Bentall II in the Financial District of Downtown Vancouver.

Amazon considering $1B investment in Quebec: Report

Commercial  •  CTV  •  Montreal Gazette

Tech giant Amazon is considering investing up to $1 billion in Quebec, according to a provincial government document obtained by La Presse. The investment would be through Amazon Web Services which opened its first data centre in the Montreal region in 2016.

Ramscar takes reins at CBRE’s Toronto downtown office

RENX  Commercial  •  Human Resources  •  Toronto / GTA

Jon Ramscar has worked in two countries, was employed twice by JLL  and has just returned to CBRE for a second time as its new executive vice-president and managing director of the company’s Toronto downtown office.

Head of Caisse subsidiary Otéra Capital to step down

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette

Alfonso Graceffa, the head of a Caisse de dépôt et placement subsidiary, will step down as an investigation of its activities continues, the provincial pension fund manager said Friday. Graceffa is president and CEO of Otéra Capital.

The People Space › People Space: Two moves at AHIP, new prez at Strategic Group…

Don Wilcox: Managing Editor

Onni Group proposes three Coquitlam towers

Residential  •  Tri-City News

Another three towers could be added to the Coquitlam City Centre skyline. Monday, council sent to public hearing a proposal by the Onni Group to build towers of 49, 45 and 25 storeys, comprising 891 units, including 186 rental units in the smallest tower.

Gold Wynn Residential bullish on Buffalo

Residential, Commercial  •  Buffalo News

Toronto’s Jeffrey Wynn is thrilled to be in Buffalo these days. This month, his family-owned company Gold Wynn Residential quickly became one of Buffalo Niagara’s major real estate investors with their purchase of 841 apartments and 85,000 square feet of CRE.

Feds get active with evolving workspaces

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen

When Stéphanie Poliquin started her public service career in 1988 at what was then known as Public Works Canada, she said “everything was orange. And dusty, and thick.” Over the past two years, the bureaucracy has rolled out GCworkplace.

Offices becoming more female-friendly

Commercial  •  Commercial Real Estate News

Those of us who recall working in beige offices, divided into soulless cubicles with a singular shared bathroom will keenly understand why female-friendly workplaces have merit. Research indicates women have greater sensitivity to their workplace environment.

REOC financial results:

Commercial  • 

Brookfield Business Partners, (BBU-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Amazon exploring potential alternatives to New York HQ

Commercial  •  Reuters  •  Bloomberg  •  CP Executive

Amazon.com Inc is exploring alternatives to locating part of its new headquarters in New York in case the plan should fail due to local opposition, a source said Friday. Toronto was the only Canadian city among the 20 finalists.

U.S. landlords turn to tenant experience apps

Commercial  •  Reuters

The firm that sold Chelsea Market to Google for $2.4 billion has joined three large brokerages, among others, to back software designed to meet the growing demands of a millennial workforce that is changing how office space is leased and managed.

PAG acquires Hong Kong office building; fund reaches $1.5B

Commercial  •  Mingtiandi

Private equity firm PAG has purchased Mapletree Bay Point, a prime office building in Hong Kong’s Kowloon East area which is home to both HSBC and WeWork, according to sources. The purchase price was approximately $1.45 billion Cdn.

Royal LePage CEO OK with mortgage stress test

Residential  •  Financial Post  •  Globe Newswire

VIDEO: Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper gives Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn a contrarian view for a realtor on why he thinks the stress test is needed for the longer-term health of the economy.

Menkes’ Sugar Wharf top-selling condo project

Residential  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

Menkes Developments Ltd.. announced that according to new data released by Altus Group, a leading provider in real estate data and advisory services, Sugar Wharf was the best-selling new condominium project in Canada for 2018.

Average GTA home will exceed $800,000 in 2019: TREB

Residential  •  Newinhomes.com

The Toronto Real Estate Board’s 2019 Market Year in Review and Outlook report  predicts more sales, higher prices, and tight supply. The average selling price in 2018 was $787,195. TREB predicts the average selling price to be $820,000 this year.

Vancouver market to ‘reset’ in 2019: UDI

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun

Housing industry leaders say Metro Vancouverites can expect to see single-family home prices continue to fall this year along with some softening in the prices of new multi-family homes.

What’s to blame for plummeting Vancouver prices?

Residential  •  CTV  •  Huffington Post  •  BC Business

January real estate numbers show further softening of the Metro Vancouver real estate market, and nowhere is that effect more dramatic than on Vancouver’s West Side. One realtor blames a lack of foreign buyers.