Artis REIT to sell Alberta retail, industrial assets

Artis REIT to sell Alberta retail, industrial assets

Canada’s Artis REIT (AX.UN-T) is looking to sell retail and industrial assets in Alberta worth about C$300 million to diversify away from the oil-producing province. The move comes after Artis earlier this year put on the block about 50 percent of its Calgary office assets and hired BMO Capital Markets to run the process, sources said.

Reuters – Artis REIT future is more America, less Alberta

Who owns the air that Rail Deck park would be built on?

A group of developers is laying claim to the rights over a large stretch of the rail corridor downtown, complicating the city’s intention to build a 21-acre park in that space. The recently announced proposal to build a rail-deck park between Bathurst St. and Blue Jays Way  city staff now say could cost more than $1 billion.

Toronto Star

Financing paves way for One Vanderbilt skyscraper

SL Green Realty Trust (SLG-N), New York City’s most prolific commercial property owner, has secured a $1.5 billion in construction financing for its proposed One Vanderbilt office tower.  With financing in place, construction can move forward on the 1,401-foot-tall super skyscraper.

CoStar Group – Business Wire

Calgary office vacancy rate nears 25%, Re/Max says

Calgary’s beleaguered office sector continues to struggle, with vacancy rates nearing 25 per cent as of the end of July, according to a major real estate company’s analysis. The 2016 Re/Max Commercial Investor Report, released Wednesday, highlights the impacts of the oil downturn on various types of properties in the city.

CBC – Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Edmonton landlords repurpose downtown office buildings

As the office vacancy rate in downtown Edmonton nudges close to 12 per cent, a glut of aging commercial real estate is forcing landlords to consider ways to repurpose their slowly emptying buildings. An estimated 1.8 million square feet of office space is expected to enter the market in the next year as the Stantec Tower and Edmonton Tower wrap up.

Edmonton Journal

Vancouver CRE seen as lure after housing tax

Wealthy foreign investors are likely to shift their money to the commercial side of Vancouver’s real estate market to avoid a housing tax, just as deals for office, retail and industrial properties reach an all-time high, Re/Max Holdings Inc. said. Commercial real estate transactions in the city climbed to C$7.14 billion in the first half of 2016.

Bloomberg

Four Seasons returns to Montreal with hotel project

Four Seasons Hotels Inc. is returning to Montreal after a 20-year absence as it follows through on an ambitious global expansion strategy. The Toronto-based five-star chain has joined with Quebec property developer and manager Carbonleo Real Estate Inc. on a $250-millon downtown luxury hotel-residence project.

Globe and Mail

Vancouver tops list of ‘bubble’ cities on global ranking

Canada’s priciest city to buy residential real estate also has the biggest risk of being in a bubble, according to a new international study of real estate markets. The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2016 listed 18 cities around the globe and their risk and found Vancouver with the greatest probability of a bubble.

Financial Post – CBC

Vancouver tower proposed with 200-plus rental suites

The developers behind a new apartment tower in Vancouver’s West End plan to add more than 200 market rental units to the neighbourhood. Residents of the 66 rental apartments at Brockton House have been informed the 47-year-old, 14-storey apartment building owned by Hollyburn Properties will eventually be emptied for redevelopment.

Vancouver Sun

Mississauga to host 10-tower condo project

A parcel of land bought in the 1960s by Ted Rogers at the western edge of what is now downtown Mississauga is to be transformed into a 10-tower condo development. Rogers Real Estate Development Limited unveiled a $1.5-billion, 15-acre, 4.3-million-square-foot project that promises more than two acres of public parkland downtown.

Toronto Star – Globe and Mail – Bloomberg – Canada Newswire

Brampton biased on bids for $500 million development deal

Brampton’s former commissioner of planning and development has testified that the city’s former top bureaucrat was biased in favour of former mayor Susan Fennell’s “preferred” bidder in a half-billion-dollar deal, now the subject of a $28.5-million lawsuit against the city.

Toronto Star

Amazon launches same-day delivery in Toronto, Vancouver

Amazon Canada has upped the competitive stakes in the lead-up to the busiest shopping period of the year by offering free same-day delivery in Toronto and Vancouver for members of its Amazon Prime program.  Prime subscribers, who pay $79 per year for free delivery on items with no minimum order, will be entitled to free same-day delivery on orders above $25 on orders placed in the two cities.

Financial Post

Canada’s largest Saks Fifth Avenue opens in Montreal

Hudson’s Bay Co. says it plans to open Canada’s largest Saks Fifth Avenue store in downtown Montreal by fall 2018. The 200,000 square-foot luxury fashion retailer will be in the same building as Hudson’s Bay department store, which is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation.

Financial Post

Goodlife Fitness planning two new Ottawa locations

Goodlife Fitness says it will hire up to 100 additional Ottawa-based employees to staff its new locations in Stittsville and Herongate Square. The Stittsville club is located on Carp Road and will open this fall. The Heron Road club will open in the summer of 2017, the company says.

Ottawa Business Journal

JLL announces 37 International directors for 2016

Jones Lang LaSalle announced the promotions of 17 U.S.-based staff members to International Director, the firm’s most senior leadership level.  Promotions reflect the individuals’ established record of client work, contributions to JLL’s growth, exceptional teamwork with colleagues, development of individuals and teams, and consistently high ethical values and behavior.

CoStar Group – Marketwired

Featured Column

Would you like a $1.7M property taxes refund?

If your MPAC assessment doesn’t have you seeing red, maybe it should. You may recall a few posts back I coined the phrase “red building.” This label applies to any building that, due to its age, operational inefficiency or lack of amenities common to newer real estate, just doesn’t have the market appeal it once did.

Read more

Is there room for public art in industrial buildings?

Vancouver’s PC Urban has voluntarily commissioned two public installations for their upcoming industrial buildings and in doing so, have shaken the complacent development industry and called into question the difference between having to create the art and wanting to.

Read more

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REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their second-quarter 2016 results. Have we missed any?  Canadian REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report

 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

OneREIT announces appointment of chairman

OneREIT (ONR.UN-T) has announced the appointment of Hani Joseph Zayadi as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of OneREIT. Mr. Zayadi has been a trustee of OneREIT since 2006. Mr. Zayadi has held a number of senior executive positions with leading retailers including as CEO of Zellers and Woodwards in Canada.

Marketwired

CAPREIT sells Montreal property

Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAR.UN-T) has completed the sale of 412 suites located in the Domaine Choisy neighbourhood in St. Leonard, Quebec for a sale price of approximately $31.4 million. Two mortgages will be repaid with the proceeds of the sale totalling approximately $14.3 million with a combined weighted average interest rate of 3.56%.

Marketwired

Pure Multi-Family REIT LP has agreed to sell Livingston Apartments

Pure Multi-Family REIT LP (RUF.U-X) has entered into an agreement to sell Livingston Apartments located in Plano, Texas, for gross proceeds of US$34.3 million.  Livingston is comprised of 180 residential units, situated on 11.8 acres of land and was built in 1998. Pure Multi-Family acquired Livingston in August 2013 for US$25.5 million.

Marketwired

Retail

Sears betting big on new discount pricing strategy

A lot is riding on a $49.97 packable, ultra-lightweight down-filled jacket at Sears Canada Inc. It’s one of 100 top items that Brandon Stranzl, executive chairman of Sears since last year, is betting on with what he’s touting as low prices to help turn around the struggling retailer.

Globe and Mail

New Development

Saskatoon gallery a community-building masterpiece

What could the Remai Modern, Saskatoon’s new multimillion-dollar art gallery and home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of Picasso linocuts, possibly have in common with the folksy Saskatoon Farmers’ Market? Quite a bit, as it happens.

The Globe and Mail

Luxury apartments planned for heritage Ottawa property

One of Hintonburg’s oldest buildings could soon expand into condos, according to the architect who owns it. Preliminary drawings show Ovidio Sbrissa’s plans to add five or six storeys of luxury condos to 1119 Wellington St. W, a heritage-designated stone house between Carruthers and Stirling avenues.

Ottawa Business Journal

Sports Venues

Take a tour of the Rogers Place premium rental spaces

Rogers Place, the shiniest new plaything in Edmonton, has been touted as having something for everyone — from the nosebleed section to plush suites, but it also includes several premium rental options. Stew MacDonald, chief commercial officer for Oilers Entertainment Group, took reporter Juris Graney on a tour of the arena to highlight some of those options.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

Is the Third Crossing over the Cataraqui River needed?

Building a new bridge over the Cataraqui River has been a topic of debate in the Kingston community over many years and continues to this day. Whether the bridge is needed has been settled based on the findings of numerous studies including an environmental assessment.

The Whig Standard

International

Risks of property bubble growing in China with policy options running out

Risks of a property bubble are growing in mainland China’s major cities, observers say. New home prices have risen more than 30 per cent year on year among first-tier and a few second-tier cities. In August, Xiamen, a coastal city on the mainland side of the Taiwan Strait, saw prices rise 44 per cent.

Business in Vancouver

Technology

TTC to explore new ride-sharing service proposed

Uber could soon be facing a new but familiar competitor in the ride-sharing industry. The TTC board is set to discuss the creation of an “on-demand ride-sharing service” at its Wednesday meeting. It’s part of a larger report on the implications of “microtransit” on the TTC.

CBC

Other

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