CHC Student Housing to merge with Dundee Acquisition

CHC Student Housing to merge with Dundee Acquisition

Struggling CHC Student Housing Corp. (CHC-X) found a lifeline Thursday by agreeing to a merger with Dundee Acquisition Ltd. that brings in $113-million, cash earmarked for the purchase of 12 off-campus university residences and the launch of a national niche real estate company. CHC, a publicly traded company that owns four residences.

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Financial Post

Office tower construction delayed in Calgary

Construction crews have boarded up the skeleton of a partially built office tower in the middle of Calgary as real-estate developers slow or stop projects amid a glut of available commercial space. Rising vacancy rates are pressuring landlords to offer big incentives to keep a shrinking number of tenants in downtown towers.

Financial Post

Avison Young continues to broaden research

Avison Young has established itself as a leader in the real estate research field since Bill Argeropoulos arrived in 2009 to coincide with the beginning of the company’s rapid national and international growth.  Avison Young has grown from 500 employees to 2,400 and from 11 offices to 78 in five countries. Its global research affinity team has increased in size by 60 members to 71 since 2009, while Canada now has 15 researchers.

Property Biz Canada

Edmonton business touts refurbishing office towers

Edmonton’s vacant office towers could be turned into residential space, hotels or even multi-floor gardens, a new report suggests. “Instead of breaking buildings down and doing major renovations, it’s easier to have temporary, environmentally friendly, low-cost conversions that you can always change a few years down the line,” said Satish Narayanan.

Edmonton Journal

Major investement needed to fix Ontario schools

Ontario’s schools need $15.4 billion in repairs, newly released data from the Ministry of Education shows. Out of the province’s 4,658 school buildings, 1,666 — over a third — are in poor condition. Another 278 are in critical condition, with the large majority of those, around 200, in the Toronto District School Board.

Toronto Star

TDSB joins city in fight against 38-storey tower

The Toronto District School Board is fighting a proposed condo development in the downtown core that threatens to leave a local elementary school in the shadows.  The 38-storey mixed-use building  would cast a shadow on the nearby Church Street Junior Public School, prompting the TDSB to join those battle.

Toronto Star

Smart REIT eyes retail project in Ottawa suburb

A developer is asking the City of Ottawa for permission to build a commercial project at the corner of Innes Road and Mer Bleue Road in Orleans. The plan, proposed by Vaughan-based Smart Real Estate Investment Trust (SRU.UN-T) on a 82,192-square-metre site is one of the last undeveloped pieces of land in that area.

Ottawa Business Journal

Northlands disputes city’s take on Vision 2020

The president and CEO of Northlands, Tim Reid is brushing off the conclusions of a City of Edmonton report skeptical of the site’s redevelopment plan. In a report heading to council next Wednesday, senior officials say Northlands has lowballed the cost by as much as 40 per cent for refurbishing Rexall Place

Edmonton Journal – Edmonton Journal

Allied Properties REIT leasing update

Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN-T) provided an update on several recently completed lease transactions. “These leases are particularly important in terms of their impact on two of Allied’s higher-profile properties, Le Nordelec and QRC West,” said Michael Emory, President & CEO.

Marketwired

Massive bank exposure to residential real estate loans

Once upon a time, loans made by the big Canadian banks were split evenly between personal and commercial ones.  As residential markets grew, the banks have tilted heavily toward a mix of loans that is now as much 75 per cent to households versus institutions and businesses.

Vancouver Sun

J.C. Penney aims to be king of the mall

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is in a surprising position more than four years after it was almost run aground by a former CEO. It could be the last department store standing at many U.S. malls. As rivals retrench, J.C. Penney is adding new merchandise, exclusive partnerships and services to draw shoppers to its more than 1,000 stores.

Globe and Mail

Tim Hortons names another new president, second since 2014

Tim Hortons Canada has named a new president for the second time since being acquired by Restaurant Brands International in late 2014. Replacing David Clanachan as president is Sami Siddiqui, who was head of finance for Tim Hortons. RBI said Clanachan has been elevated to chairman of RBI Canada.

Toronto Star

New Commerce Place elevators use smart technology

We’ve all been there: you board an elevator headed for the 20th floor and then, one after another, passengers get on and start pressing: 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 17, or maybe some snot-nosed kid runs their hand down all of the keys. That already annoying short trip to the office turns into your week’s saddest sightseeing tour.

Edmonton Journal

Singapore startup launches self-driving taxi service

The world’s first self-driving taxis began picking up passengers in Singapore starting Thursday. Select members of the public can hail a free ride through their smartphones in taxis operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup. nuTonomy says it’s the first to offer rides to the public.

Toronto Star

Is the driverless car bringing a shakeup to real estate?

Self-driving, driverless, autonomous – call it what you will, but a car on the road without a driver behind the wheel has long left the realm of science fiction.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Vancouver industrial land shortage stretches up the Fraser Valley

Metro Vancouver’s industrial land shortage is well known, and the Fraser Valley is often seen as a place of greener pastures for development.  But there’s a shortage of industrial land there, too, according to Abbotsford city staff.

Business in Vancouver

Franchises would not benefit from employment law changes

There are many reasons to franchise your business. By granting a franchisee the right and license to operate an outlet under a brand, a franchise network can disseminate its goods and services at a pace and across territories that corporate development alone may not be able to achieve.

Financial Post

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report
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Canadian REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report

Retail

Brave Aritzia’s bold move in weak retail environment

Right off that cliff. That’s one way of looking at the brave, or possibly foolhardy, leap being taken by Aritzia Inc., the Canadian fashion retailer that in the course of a mere decade has created such recognizable lines as Tna and Wilfred.

Toronto Star

Sears to borrow as losses continue to mount

Eddie Lampert, the hedge fund manager who runs Sears Holdings, is once again lining up financing for the money-losing retail chain. Lampert’s ESL Investments offered to lend Sears $300 million (U.S.) this month and Sears (SCC-T) accepted.

Toronto Star

Sears Canada’s new logo ‘bold, confident’ and not blue-and-white

Sears Canada Inc., the once mighty retail giant, announced it was rebranding Wednesday with a “clean and contemporary logo.” The new look, which evenly spaces the five obvious letters, S-E-A-R-S, before a punctuating red stencil of a maple leaf is, at first glance, perhaps a bit nondescript.

Financial Post

Canadians beginning to click to shopping for furniture online

Imagine paying hundreds of dollars for a couch you’ve never sat on or a bed you’ve never tested out. A growing number of online retailers say more customers are willing to do just that when it comes to furniture shopping.

Toronto Star – Montreal Gazette

Infrastructure

Add-on work for Ottawa LRT cost millions more

The federal government announced this week $156 million for 57 transportation projects in the City of Ottawa. The projects include a bus loop at Tunney’s Pasture, a bike track on the Booth Street bridge, a crew room at Bayview station, and customer waiting areas at stations. They are collectively eligible for $4.25 million in federal funding.

Ottawa Citizen

New Champlain Bridge work a game of millimetres

To say building the new Champlain Bridge is a game of inches would be oversimplifying the work; it’s actually a game of millimetres. Workers have to be so precise, that some parts have to be placed within three millimetres of the new bridge’s blueprints.

Montreal Gazette

Manitoba mega-project stopped in its tracks

One of the province’s most ambitious and costly mega-projects is in limbo after federal regulators found more than 100 flaws in its environmental impact statement. Concerns about the $3-billion, 30-year East Side Road project’s environmental effects have been echoed by the provincial and Manitoba Metis Federation reports.

Winnipeg Free Press

Other

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