Couche-Tard to buy CST Brands

Couche-Tard to buy CST Brands

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ATD.A-T, ATD.B-T) has struck an all-cash $3.7-billion (U.S.) deal to acquire Texas-based convenience-store chain CST Brands Inc. The definitive merger agreement, valued at $4.4-billion including assumed debt, boosts Laval, Que.-based Couche-Tard’s status as a major convenience-store consolidator and top global player in the industry.

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Globe St.

Brookfield winds up original GGP consortium deals

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM.A-T) reached settlements regarding partnerships, including shares and warrants that comprised part of the original consortium formed by Brookfield in 2010 to recapitalize GGP, which has generated approximately $10 billion of aggregate gains for the consortium investors to date.

Marketwired

First Capital secures key Toronto retail locations

First Capital Realty Inc. enjoyed a positive second quarter and  made some major acquisitions in Toronto, both of which are contributing to the optimism that’s evident within the company. First Capital owns interests in 161 properties totaling approximately 25.2 million square feet of gross leasable area and some of its most recent acquisitions are in prized locations.

Property Biz Canada

Loblaw makes bid for B.C. medical records firm QHR

Loblaw Companies Ltd. (L-T) is planning another acquisition in the health-care industry Qhoffering $170-million to buy a B.C.-based company that provides secure medical records technology. The Canadian grocery and pharmacy giant says QHR is a “natural complement” to its Shoppers Drug Mart business – which operates Canada’s largest retail network of pharmacies.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star

Second Cup once king of upscale coffee, struggling

Second Cup was once king of upscale coffee in Canada, but giant rivals have reduced the company to a bit player in the market it pioneered. Now it’s pinning its hopes on a café makeover to win back customers – and reverse the tide of declining sales, recurring losses and disgruntled franchisees. How a once-mighty chain found itself in the fight of its life.

Globe and Mail

Cure for Canada’s slump? Architects and accountants

Jack Diamond is 83, and South African, making him an unlikely poster child for Canada’s new economy. But the founder of Diamond Schmitt Architects has built exactly the kind of business that the government sees as the wave of the future. The wider lesson for a country that’s left itself at mercy of the commodity cycle is to climb up the value chain and outside the border, Diamond said.

Bloomberg

Premier Suites fills gap in demand for accommodation

With more than 1500 furnished suites in 38 Canadian cities catering to executives looking for accommodations a step above a typical hotel room, Premier Suites has a pretty good handle on the present state of the country’s economy.

Property Biz Canada

Investors close to buying Sooke Harbour hotel

Internationally renowned Sooke Harbour House restaurant and hotel has gone on the market for $6.5-million under a court-ordered sale to pay off a $3-million mortgage. However, a B.C. investment group is hoping to take ownership before another buyer appears.

Vancouver Sun

Great Scott, conversion starts at last

The conversion of a century-old, vacant South Main Street office building into micro-apartments is finally underway. Winnipeg developers Mark and Shelley Buleziuk originally planned to redevelop the five-storey Scott Block at 272 Main St. into new office space, with some retail space on the main and mezzanine floors.

Winnipeg Free Press

Walmart’s out-of-control crime problem

Darrell Ross—Officer Walmart to his colleagues in the Tulsa Police Department—operates for up to 10 hours a day out of the security office of a Walmart Supercenter in the city’s northeast corner. Four Walmart employees watch the monitors, which toggle among the dozens of cameras covering the store and parking lot.

Bloomberg

Tim Hortons right fit for Philippines

Late at night on the Sheikh Khalifa Highway, in the desert around Abu Dhabi, endless columns of construction trucks crawl – signs of prosperity and growth. Inside a gas station along the way, a surprising Tim Hortons sits in bright lights. I made my way there one hot January evening, hoping for a sour cream glazed doughnut and a box of Timbits.

Globe and Mail

US goods distribution industry undergoing disruption

The market for industrial real estate has in many ways never been better. The on-going expansion of e-commerce has distributors overhauling their supply chains and developers breaking ground on new facilities across the US that can handle the flow of products. But some experts say that behind all of this activity a few problems have become apparent with the global supply chain.

Globe St.

Does decision cut legs out from prison REITs.

Last week, the US Justice Department delivered what undoubtedly was a blow to the three private-sector companies that operate prisons — two of which are REITs — when it announced that it would phase out or significantly limit its use of  these correctional facilities.

Globe St.

Why risk retention might not be so bad for CMBS

CP Executive

Robert De Niro gets green light for London boutique hotel

Robert De Niro has won planning permission for a luxury hotel in London’s Covent Garden area. Westminster Council approved plans Tuesday for the 83-room Wellington Hotel, backed by the actor and BD Hotels. The team already owns Manhattan’s Greenwich Hotel.

Montreal Gazette

Featured Column

Facts about Saskatoon and Regina DT parking rates

In both Saskatoon and Regina there are varied opinions about the pros and cons of bike lanes and their impact when parking stalls are eliminated to create those bike corridors.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Canada eyes relaxing rules to attract investment from China

Canada may consider relaxing its foreign investment rules, including steps to open up to state-owned enterprises in China, in a bid to attract more capital and spur economic growth, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said.  Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend a Group of 20 leaders’ summit in China in early September along with other senior Canadian officials.

Bloomberg

Has your facility transitioned from call center to contact center?

Creating a seamless, positive customer experience is the primary focus for customer service organizations. Delivering on that promise requires major organizational (and real estate) changes—including the evolution from call centers to multi-channel contact centers. Communication now spreads across telephone, email, live chat and social media interactions.

CP Executive

Long-struggling national securities regulator plows ahead

Canadian politicians and business leaders have taken numerous high-profile runs at replacing 10 provincial securities commissions with a single national securities regulator. Each grand effort failed. Retired insurance executive William Black plans to succeed where others have fallen short by launching what’s known as the Capital Markets Regulatory Authority (CMRA).

Globe and Mail

Canada’s economy may be underperforming, but investors are raking it in

One of Canada’s weakest economic expansions isn’t stopping the country’s assets from handing investors the best returns in seven years. Combined gains of the loonie and total returns for Canadian government bonds and stocks reached 26 per cent this year through Aug. 19, the best performance since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Financial Post

Real Estate Companies

Mitsubishi Hitachi could put Saskatoon plant up for sale

Less than a month after announcing about 150 layoffs in Saskatoon, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Canada Ltd. (MHSPCA) has hired a commercial real estate firm and could put its sprawling 58th Street East manufacturing facility up for sale. 

The Star Phoenix

With new growing techniques, small, urban facilities can replace acres of farmland

Racks upon racks of spinach, arugula and kale are stacked high, washed in purple light in an otherwise dimly lit indoor facility. It would take nearly 22 acres – almost a million square feet – of outdoor land to grow the 200,000 pounds of greens produced here at GoodLeaf Farms’ 10,000-square-foot Truro, N.S., facility.

Globe and Mail

Retail

The top reasons to like, and worry about, Aritzia’s IPO

The first rule for any initial public offering is to show some sort of growth. Ideally, it’s in the profit column. Investors need reason to get excited about a new stock. Vancouver’s Aritzia Inc., which filed for an IPO Thursday, checks that box.

Globe and Mail

Cineplex’s media division makes magic behind the scenes

Investment bankers are making the trip to Cineplex’s modest Toronto head office these days with the same high expectations that take hold of moviegoers as they line up for the latest instalment of the Star Wars saga. Bay Street financiers come by to pitch chief executive officer Ellis Jacob on a spinoff of his Cineplex Media division.

Globe and Mail

Value Village to open in New Glasgow as Sears closes

Thrift retailer Value Village will be opening up a store in New Glasgow next spring barely seven months after Sears Canada closes its outlet store in the same community. “It’s a great market for us,” said Scot Boss, Value Village’s district manager for Atlantic Canada, in an interview Thursday. “This is a community that’s into thrift shopping and could benefit from the employment.”

The Chronicle Herald

New Development

Heritage activists want to protect Côte-des-Neiges Rd.

A brown brick condo building now occupies the spot where Jean-François Corbeil’s father was born in a two-storey stone house on Côte-des-Neiges Rd. while his grandfather was superintendent of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery.  Cyrille Corbeil managed the cemetery from 1924 to 1935.

Montreal Gazette

Sports Venues

Rogers Place steps up enforcement, expecting crowds

If you park illegally at Rogers Place starting this fall, expect to get ticketed, city enforcement officials said Friday. Officials are expecting up to 18,000 fans for Oilers games and major concerts. Rogers Place holds an open house Sept. 10, potentially drawing 60,000 people over the course of the day.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

Calgary’s airport tunnel short on data

In the nearly three years it took crews to build Calgary’s controversial $295-million airport tunnel, citizens received regular and detailed updates on construction progress. From excavation to concrete pouring, key milestones and deadlines for the six-lane-wide, 620-metre-long tunnel were celebrated before thousands attended a party marking the opening of a project.

Calgary Herald

International

New U.S. mortgage-backed securities crisis for law firms?

Lawyers involved in commercial mortgage-backed securities deals are no stranger to tumult, and, since 2008, they’ve also had to adjust to increased regulation. But a new rule set to take effect Dec. 24 has some predicting new obstacles to a deal pipeline that still hasn’t fully recovered from the recession.

Globe St.

Human Resources

Rogers Place hires nearly employees through social agencies

More than 175 clients of inner-city social agencies will get part-time jobs serving food and drinks at Rogers Place. Seventeen others have been hired to help with giving directions and taking tickets. Six have been hired after getting training through NorQuest College’s new hospitality institute, a program running with support from the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation. 

Edmonton Journal

Technology

Ottawa entrepreneur sees suite growth in high-tech hotel tablets

The way Kevin Bidner sees it, the hotel industry has been stuck in the ’60s for far too long.  Aside from the odd change, such as the addition of free WiFi and larger, flatter TV screens, the amenities travellers find in today’s rooms aren’t much different than those their fathers and grandfathers were offered decades ago, the Ottawa entrepreneur says.

Ottawa Business Journal

Other

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