Four Season’s plan to double size of hotel chain

Four Season’s plan to double size of hotel chain

Four Seasons Hotels Ltd. founder and chairman Isadore (Issy) Sharp is pressing ahead with plans to double the size of the Toronto-based chain while maintaining its lofty service standards.   “We recently opened our 99th hotel … and we will become a company with 150, 200, 250 hotels,” Mr. Sharp.

Globe and Mail

Researchers propose cross-Canada corridor

Daily Commercial News

REALpac coalition takes on Toronto City Hall

REALpac and the real estate sector swiftly reacted to the news the City of Toronto faces a budget shortfall of nearly $500 million in 2017 by forming a coalition with a singular message: don’t expect the commercial real estate sector to pay the freight again. The message to be delivered to City Hall can be distilled to no new “knee-jerk”‘ taxes.

Property Biz Canada

The Weston family’s takeover of Canada’s retail appetites

It took George Weston Ltd. 134 years to transform from a small bakery into Canada’s biggest company. All told, the conglomerate that owns Loblaw Cos. Inc., Shoppers Drug Mart and Joe Fresh racked up revenues of $46.9 billion in 2015, up 6.8% from 2014, to trump all of Canada’s big banks, energy companies and manufacturers.

Financial Post

Altus Group drags real estate into the future

Altus Group Ltd., a Toronto-based company that started life in 2005 as an income trust providing consulting services for the commercial real estate industry in Canada, has been busy repositioning itself.  Its new goal is to be a technology company with a far reach.

Globe and Mail

Borden data centre expansion project receives financing

Financial close has been reached on the $322-million Enterprise Data Centre (EDC) Expansion Project build at the Canadian Forces Base in Borden, Ont.  The project consists of a 50,000-square-foot mission critical operating data centre and is expected begin receiving workloads from federal partner organizations in fall 2017.

Daily Commercial News

Huge Lachine housing development gets off the ground

Construction begins this month on a development in Lachine promoters are calling “a city within a city” and the largest real-estate project on the island of Montreal.  The promoter is Développement Lachine-Est, a company with ties to Construction Frank Catania & Associés Inc., which also faced fraud charges in the Contrecoeur case.

Montreal Gazette

Ashcroft proposes 25-storey tower for Ottawa convent land

Ashcroft Homes, the developer of the old Westboro convent property, is offering an alternative vision for the remainder of the five-acre site and it includes a 25-storey tower.  The company has the city’s blessing to develop the old Soeurs de la Visitation land on Richmond Road.

Ottawa Citizen

Parkbridge No. 1 owner of land lease communities

Overlooked in mainstream real estate circles, Parkbridge Lifestyle Communities continues to grow and solidify its position as Canada’s leading owner, operator and developer of land lease communities. “We’ve established a presence from the West Coast to the East Coast and there’s no particular geographic region that we’re focusing on,” said Nicolas Bouquet.

Property Biz Canada

Saks president seeks ‘new luxury’ in Starbucks model

Marc Metrick is looking to Starbucks as a “new luxury” model for his upscale Saks Fifth Avenue chain, which launched its first two stores in Canada this year.  When Mr. Metrick, president of Saks Inc., gets his usual large Starbucks coffee with two shots of espresso, he feels he’s not just buying a cup of java.

Globe and Mail – Calgary Herald

The best retailers combine bricks and clicks

Retail profits are plummeting. Stores are closing. Malls are emptying. The depressing stories just keep coming. Reading the Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Target earnings announcements is about as uplifting as a tour of an intensive care unit. The Internet is apparently taking down yet another industry.

Harvard Business Review

Dalfen America expands Ohio industrial portfolio

Dalfen America Corp. (DAC) has expanded its industrial portfolio in Ohio through its recent purchase of the Donn Eisele Building located at 6600 Donn Eisele Road in Columbus, Ohio. Acquisition of the 162,400-square-foot industrial facility takes place just a month after the company acquired a portfolio of 23 light industrial buildings located in Ohio’s three major metropolitan areas.

Marketwired

Hudson Yards opens first building

On a sunny morning last week, a few Forbes reporters donned hard hats and neon yellow vests to tour Hudson Yards, the massive 28-acre development being constructed in one of Manhattan’s last undeveloped areas, Midtown’s far western edge. It’s the brainchild of Related Company’s billionaire developer Stephen Ross, whose firm says it’s the largest private real estate project in the nation. 

Forbes

South Korea’s fund to push into US and Canada

South Korea state-run Korea Post Savings, which has recently sampled a taste of U.S. commercial real estate, is looking to take a bigger bite. The entity that oversees $90 billion in investments issued an RFP last searching for global real estate fund manager for North America.

CoStar Group

CPPIB buys bonds secured by Romanian real estate

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has committed $218-million for a round of bonds that are secured by Romanian real estate.  The properties are owned by Global worth Real Estate Investments Ltd. and located in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

Globe and Mail

Featured Column

Alberta: From state of emergency to back to business

Over the last few weeks, Alberta residents have been wondering what happens next. It’s been reported that insurance companies will be doling out $5-9 billion dollars – one of the most costly disasters in Canadian history. If you are a small business or property owner, here’s a few things to keep in mind when looking ahead at effective risk management.

Read more

The rush to build on spec in B.C.

Chris MacCauley has been a commercial real estate broker in Vancouver for over a decade. I sat down with him recently to chat with him about the big picture, market conditions and the future of CRE in Vancouver.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Edmonton group wants crackdown on problem properties

Edmonton’s residential compliance team needs to use a sledgehammer, not a screwdriver, to deal with nuisance properties, city council’s executive committee was told Tuesday. While the compliance team boasted of investigating more than 1,000 nuisance properties, community members called its efforts toothless.

Edmonton Journal

Real Estate Companies

Brookfield closes massive private equity fund

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (TSX:BAM.A) held the final close of Brookfield Capital Partners IV with an aggregate of US$4 billion of equity commitments. Brookfield has more than 30 years of private equity experience having invested across market cycles in approximately 100 businesses.

Marketwired

REOC Financial Reports

Urbanfund Corp. reports first quarter financial results

Marketwired

CHC Student Housing announces first quarter 2016 financial results

Marketwired

	REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 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. First-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 report

 

REIT Financial Reports

Crombie REIT closes public offering of subscription receipts

Crombie Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: CRR.UN) announced today that it has closed its previously announced offering to the public, on a bought deal basis, of 8,952,400 Subscription Receipts at a price of $14.70 per Subscription Receipt for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $131.6 million.

Canada Newswire

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Allied closes major acquisitions in downtown Montreal

Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:AP.UN) announced that it has closed the acquisition of properties in Montréal listed in a table in the news release.  The list includes Le Nordelec Development which has two additional neighbouring properties acquired from the vendor.

Marketwired

RioCan completes unsecured operating credit facility

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:REI.UN) announced that it has successfully closed on a new $1 billion unsecured operating credit facility, which replaces RioCan’s secured operating credit facilities. 

Marketwired

Top REITs survive the death of the shopping mall?

It’s tough to be a traditional retailer in 2016.  The big elephant in the room is the Internet, of course. As more and more people get comfortable with buying stuff online, retailers are starting to feel the pinch. Web-only sellers don’t have to pay for expensive mall space, cashiers, or merchandising specialists. It’s also much easier to scale up a business that only operates online.

Motley Fool

New Development

Falling debris from building closes Calgary street

Falling debris closed a downtown street for several hours on Monday.  Police said a piece of debris fell from a downtown building due to high winds.  No one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly before noon on Monday. 

Calgary Herald

Infrastructure

Hydro One CEO on infrastructure: ‘There’s no doubt the system is in decline’

Globe and Mail

International

Trump towers unprecedented grey area

In the center of downtown, an unfinished five-star hotel sits locked and empty, a ghostly shell completely dark at night except for the glowing white letters at its elegant, sail-shaped peak: TRUMP TOWER. Construction on the Trump International Hotel & Tower here in Azerbaijan’s capital stopped last year.

Washington Post

Other

Fort MacMurray hotline is a vital link for local business

Businesses in the Fort McMurray area were equally impacted by the fires and subsequent evacuation, and they now have a key resource to assist them with their return to the region.  The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo with the support of Economic Developers Alberta and the Canadian Red Cross has launched a hotline.

Edmonton Journal

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