Tax firm relocates HQ to Calgary’s downtown

Tax firm relocates HQ to Calgary’s downtown

H&R Block Canada has moved its Canadian corporate headquarters from the suburbs to downtown Calgary, taking advantage of the core’s record high vacancy rate and falling rental prices. The tax preparation giant — which has 1,300 retail locations nationwide — moved its head office into the Scotia Centre office tower

Calgary Herald – CBC – Canada Newswire

Mississauga’s municipal makeover in next 15 years

Mississauga is undergoing a $45-billion makeover in the next 15 years, trading in its subdivisions for high-speed transit, tech firms and a world-class waterfront.  At an international conference in Philadelphia, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie heard that a Brazilian multinational was looking to set up an operation in New Jersey.

Toronto Star

Algoma Central Properties has begun its selloff

While Algoma Central Properties president Tom Siklos would prefer if its parent company wasn’t getting out of the real estate business, he’s trying to make the most of it.  “We want to accomplish what the board has asked and when we walk away from here we want to have raised as much capital as possible,” said Siklos.

Property Biz Canada

MNP Tower wins Top Office Development award

Oxford Properties has been named recipient of the Project of the Year award by NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, for their MNP Tower in Vancouver as part of Oxford Place. The mission of the project was to create a landmark, sustainable ‘AAA’ boutique office building.

Canada Newswire

City of Vancouver joins chorus of opposition to YVR sale

The City of Vancouver has lined up as an ally to the Vancouver Airport Authority’s lobby against a feared federal sell off of Canada’s biggest airports to private interests, including the not-for-profit YVR. That fear was sparked by a recommendation to move Canada’s biggest airports “to a share-capital structure.

Vancouver Sun

B.C.’s retail soaks up most spaces vacated by Target

Twelve of 19 former Target stores across B.C. have been filled since the U.S. retailer’s retreat from Canada last year, outpacing the national rate at which landlords have been able to fill their empty Target spaces, experts say. In B.C., four of those vacated were taken up by Lowe’s; four by Canadian Tire; and four by Walmart.

Vancouver Sun

Tsawwassen Mills won’t accept First Nations status cards

First Nations people with status cards entitling them to tax exemptions while shopping on reserve lands won’t enjoy that benefit at the new Tsawwassen Mills mall. A member of the Peguis First Nations in Manitoba, is used to not paying GST and PST when shopping on native land across Canada.

Vancouver Sun

Feds, Ontario sign historic land deal with Algonquins

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and her Ontario counterpart have signed a historic agreement with the Algonquins of Ontario that will eventually see wide swaths of eastern Ontario signed over to the Indigenous people as part of a modern treaty.

CBC – CBC

Clean50 awards highlight Canada’s best sustainable builders

Besides working in development, what do EllisDon Corporation, Sun Life Financial, Cadillac Fairview and Reid’s Heritage Homes all have in common? They’ve all landed on the 2017 Clean50 list.

Sustainable Biz Canada

East Ottawa landlords await LRT completion

Office vacancy rates east of the Rideau River could drop as the completion date of Ottawa’s Confederation LRT Line draws closer. The Ottawa East submarket contains slightly less than 10 per cent of the city’s supply of office space and has historically posted some of the area’s highest vacancy rates.

Ottawa Business Journal

Listening devices at DND’s Nortel Campus?

In 2013 the Citizen reported that workers preparing the former Nortel complex as the new home for the DND had discovered electronic eavesdropping devices. It shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. The year before it had been revealed that Nortel was the target of industrial espionage for almost a decade.

Ottawa Citizen

IBM moving into Hamilton but not the Stelco Tower

IBM is not moving into the building formerly known as the Stelco Tower in stead into a space to be determined.  The 26-storey Stelco Tower carries particular symbolism as corporate headquarters built at a time when the hometown steel industry was flush and employing thousands of Hamiltonians.

CBC

Dalhousie’s downtown campus transformed with a single IDEA

Construction is set to begin on Dalhousie University’s Innovation and Design in Engineering and Architecture (IDEA) project — a $64-million investment to the school’s engineering and architecture campus in Halifax’s emerging innovation district.

Daily Commercial News

Edmonton seeks feedback on proposed 80-storey skyscraper

A public open house on Monday focused on the proposal for an 80-storey skyscraper in downtown Edmonton that would become the tallest point of the city skyline if developed. The Quarters Hotel and Residences would be a mixed-use tower including restaurants, hotel rooms, residences and a retail space.

Edmonton Journal

Billy Bishop named a top international airport

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has ranked fourth worldwide in the Condé Nast Traveler 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards, the premier international travel industry awards voted on by more than 300,000 travellers around the world. Ranking only behind Singapore (SIN), Seoul, South Korea (ICN), and Doha, Qatar (DOH).

Canada Newswire

Featured Column

A frank discussion about the open office concept

There has been much written about the benefits of the “new” open office concept. On the other hand it’s not difficult to find articles which state the open office concept has been proven to not be effective.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Savage’s vision for Halifax

Mayor Mike Savage is ready to go all out and transform Halifax into a cultural and business hub after winning a landslide second term victory in last week’s municipal election.  Savage is determined to slash red tape, build more sustainable transit, fight poverty and homelessness, and oversee the continued revival of downtown Halifax.

The Chronicle Herald

Buoyant times for B.C. lodging operators and developers

Vancouver outshone much of Western Canada as a destination for travellers from the U.S. and elsewhere over the past year. With strong demand from guests and little new supply from developers, downtown Vancouver hotels are exceeding expectations for revenue growth.

Business in Vancouver

Real Estate Companies

University of Calgary assumes management of Mac Hall

University of Calgary administrators assumed management of the MacEwan Student Centre this week, ending a bitter two-year dispute in which the Students’ Union fought to retain control of the facility. The Students’ Union and U of C management had been wrestling over a new lease and operating agreement for the facility.

Calgary Herald

Real Estate Investment Trusts

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Retail

Sporting Life opens at Richmond Hill’s Hillcrest Mall

Sporting Life co-founder Patti Russell got her first pair of skis when she was 11 years old, but it wasn’t until a Grade 10 trip to Mount St. Louis, near Barrie, that they changed her life. She tore a ligament in her knee on her first run down the mountain and help arrived in the form of David Russell.

Toronto Star

Staples Canada shifting to services: President

During her 19 years in senior leadership at Staples Canada Inc. (SPLS-Q) Mary Sagat has witnessed the dramatic changes brought on by the rise of e-commerce. Sagat is optimistic the company can survive the digital onslaught despite the closure of 25 Canadian stores in the past two years.

Financial Post

New Development

Angry developers fail to prevent Winnipeg’s growth fees

Mayor Brian Bowman’s inner circle approved Winnipeg growth fees against the vehement protests of developers who accused the mayor of rushing recklessly toward arbitrary charges that are bound to be challenged in court.

CBC

Infrastructure

SNC-Lavalin fined for generating electricity without a licence

SNC-Lavalin has been fined $75,000 for operating a gas-fired electrical generating plant at Toronto Pearson International Airport for the past 10 years without a licence.  The provincial agency has not said how it finally learned about an electrical generation facility that had been in operation for a decade.

Montreal Gazette

Sustainability

Calgary flood mitigation workshops hope to engage residents

Flood mitigation projects were introduced to about 60 residents at a citizen workshop at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association Tuesday evening with an eye towards reducing the risk of damage, like that seen in the devastating 2013 flood.

CBC

Other

Canadian retailers make giving back part of the bottom line

Derek Woodgate didn’t know it at the time, but seeing a documentary about childhood malnutrition would change his life. He watched the film last year and knows it was the catalyst that helped push him and his wife Jen to start Cuddle+Kind, a company that donates 10 meals for every hand-knit doll sold.

Montreal Gazette

Public washrooms touted for Edmonton’s downtown

Calls are growing to build more permanent public washrooms in Edmonton to serve both tourists and the homeless.  Coun. Scott McKeen said he will raise the issue by asking city administration to report on the need for year-round toilet facilities in central Edmonton.

Edmonton Journal

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