Toronto’s South Core office sector booming

Toronto’s South Core office sector booming

At least three million square feet of new office space in central Toronto could be announced by the end of this year. Stuart Barron, national research director at Cushman & Wakefield in Toronto, speculates two or three announcements for major new developments in the city, comprising between three and three-and-a-half million square feet of office space, are likely by year’s end.

Globe and Mail

Townline pitching 30-storey building for Victoria

It would be the tallest building on Vancouver Island — 30 storeys at the Hudson’s Bay site in downtown Victoria. Townline, developer of the Hudson District, is pitching the idea to the City of Victoria. Justin Filuk, Townline’s director of development, said talks with the city are preliminary for what will be called Hudson Place I and Hudson Place II.

Victoria Times Colonist

Starlight buys stake in Mississauga Executive Centre

Starlight Investments, which has been busy acquiring multi-residential properties of late, switched things up last week with the purchase of a 50 per cent interest in the Mississauga Executive Centre. The 1.15-million-square foot commercial facility is sited on 26 acres at the intersection of Hurontario Street and Burnhamthorpe Road East and is adjacent to the Square One Shopping Centre.

Property Biz Canada

Office sales a turning point for Montreal CRE

The recent sale of two downtown office buildings at a premium price marks a turning point for commercial real estate in Montreal, real estate insiders say. The buildings at 1350 and 1360 Rene Levesque Blvd. W. were purchased by GWL Realty Advisors for $429 million, at a capitalization rate of around five per cent, which signals they are premium assets.

Property Biz Canada

Montreal to rejuvenate Jacques Cartier Bridge access, create urban park

Work on a $120-million redevelopment project for the Jacques Cartier Bridge entrance and surrounding infrastructure is set to begin as early as 2018. Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre announced Sunday the project would help make the existing entrance more attractive and safer for pedestrians and cyclists. 

CBC – Montreal Gazette

Vancouver Champs-Elysees or lost public waterfront park?

The last piece of raw shoreline along False Creek is nearly set for a long-overdue facelift. In October 2015, Vancouver city councillors voted to tear down the viaducts that link downtown and the city’s east side. By June, a draft plan will map out what False Creek will look like after the overpasses are gone.

CBC

Calgary Flames will move without a new arena: King

Calgary Flames president and CEO Ken King says the team will move if it can’t strike a deal for a new arena. “There would be no threat to move, we would just move, and it would be over. And I’m trying my level best to make sure that day never comes, frankly,” King said Wednesday.

CBC – CBC – Calgary Herald – CBC

New project boosts booming Winnipeg neighbourhood

It’s about a year later than was planned, but construction is about to start on a new apartment and commercial complex in Winnipeg’s West Broadway. The four-storey, 50,000-square-foot project, by Chanden Homes Ltd. of Lorette, will include about 12,000 square feet of retail and office space and 44 one-, two- and three-bedroom rental apartments, including six suites that are wheelchair accessible.

Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg tech firm expanding space, workforce

Computer software developer iQmetrix is nearly doubling the size of its Winnipeg office and adding more than 100 new employees over the next year or so as it continues to expand its product line. The Vancouver-based firm will add another 8,274 square feet to the 10,000 square feet it was already leasing in the Centrepoint office/retail building at 311 Portage Ave.

Winnipeg Free Press

Reigniting an old Sparks in downtown Ottawa

It’s almost 2:30 p.m. on a recent Wednesday and Riviera on Sparks Street, the newest restaurant from two of Ottawa’s hottest chefs, Matthew Carmichael and Jordan Holley, is still fairly full with lunch-time diners. There are suit-and-tie folks, but there are also two men in T-shirts, one wearing his hat backward, sitting at the 18-metre-long bar.

Globe and Mail

Ottawa sets aside funding for GTA transit improvements

The federal government is earmarking $1.8 billion in idle infrastructure cash to a regional express rail project around Canada’s largest city and millions more for smaller transit projects around Ontario. Combined with provincial money, the federal and provincial governments are pitching in $4.4 billion to GO Transit‘s regional express project.

CBC – Toronto Star

Protectionism poses threat to investment returns: CPPIB

Mark Machin, chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, is expressing concerns about a growing wave of protectionism threatening investment returns. The debate over open borders has gained traction amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to reform the North American free-trade agreement. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Manulife launches core-plus U.S. real estate fund

Canada’s Manulife Asset Management has launched a US real estate fund, attracting capital from Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund. The open-ended, core-plus fund will be managed by Manulife Real Estate, a subsidiary operating under the name of John Hancock Real Estate in the U.S. Manulife launched its first real estate funds platform in 2011.

IPE Real Estate

London RE targeted by Lego fund manager

The $12 billion US fund that manages the wealth of the billionaire family behind Lego A/S wants to add more U.K. real estate to its portfolio, reflecting a bet Britain’s departure from the European Union might make the London property market more accessible. The fund has almost $1 billion US in its real estate portfolio.

Bloomberg

The death of the all-cash Chinese buyer

Late last year, Steven Ho saw alarm bells on social media: The Chinese government was gearing up for a major crackdown on foreign investment, and on messaging platforms such as WeChat and Line, Ho’s friends told him they were concerned money would be tighter. In January, those worries became reality.

The Real Deal

Market Trends and Research

How to lose money in real estate

As he prepared for retirement a decade ago, Michael Weintraub was unexpectedly blessed with a sizable inheritance he wanted to sock away. The investment he settled on was a real estate fund that seemed to be a sure bet, the CareVest family of mortgage investment corporations.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Real Estate Companies

SpruceLand expects to complete dissolution by 2018

SpruceLand Properties Inc. announced it continues to anticipate being in a position to complete its dissolution by mid to late 2018. Prior to the sale of the vast majority of its real estate assets, SpruceLand had a diversified portfolio of revenue-producing properties, including office, retail and industrial buildings and manufactured home parks, in Western Canada.

Canada Newswire

Bigfoot Industrial ensures roaster performs for baristas

Bigfoot Industrial Services was launched out of the back of a Chevy pickup truck. Today, the company leases an 8,000-square-foot, fully equipped shop that’s staffed by 12. One of Bigfoot’s first customers was FedEx, handling maintenance at its sorting depot. Bigfoot is busy on an expansion that will require new conveyors, platforms and the installation of an x-ray machine.

Calgary Herald

Online furniture seller finds unique Vancouver property

An East Vancouver e-commerce furniture seller is relocating its headquarters a short distance from Railtown to Strathcona amid a six-fold staff expansion that could eventually put it in the same conversation as other local hotshots such as Aritzia and lululemon. Article launched in 2014 and has been operating out of a space at 520 Alexander St. 

Vancouver Sun

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Automotive Properties completes acquisition of Barrie dealership

Automotive Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (APR.UN-T) announced it closed the previously announced acquisition of the Barrie Volkswagen dealership property  in Barrie. Barrie Volkswagen, owned by the Dilawri Group, will be the operating tenant of the property and has entered into a 17-year, triple-net lease with the REIT that includes a contractual 1.5% annual rent increase after year one. 

Canada Newswire

Retail

Canadian retailers, consumers shifting to cards, apps

Shoppers looking for the cash register to pay for their purchases at Vancouver’s Kit and Ace active apparel stores in Gastown and Kitsilano will find a complete absence of banknotes. The Vancouver-based brand — founded in 2014 by family members of Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson — is one of the most notable cases of retailers abandoning bills and coins.

Vancouver Sun

Third Urban Planet coming to Winnipeg

A fourth large-format retailer — Urban Planet — will open a store in the former Target space in Winnipeg’s Kildonan Place. The Regent Avenue shopping centre was to announce today a 18,250-square-foot Urban Planet outlet will open in its redeveloped east wing in early summer. It will be the chain’s third store in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Free Press

E-commerce is making stores relevant again

After a tough holiday season, many big-box retailers went on a cost-cutting binge. J.C. Penney, Macy’s, and Sears all announced that they would shutter dozens of stores each as shoppers increasingly shift online. But the carnage could have been much worse. Oddly enough, it was that very shift to e-commerce — the one bright spot for most retailers during the holidays — that spared even more stores from the reject rack.

Fortune – National Real Estate Investor

Traders looking to capitalize on Sears’ demise

As Sears (SHLD-Q) nears bankruptcy, some investors are looking for ways to profit from the retailer’s collapse. Traders who bet against the company by short-selling its stock have profited as it tumbled. According to financial analytics firm S3 Partners, almost all the shares that can be lent have already been taken. 

Business Insider – Windsor Star

Restaurants and Eateries

Schultz leaves Starbucks with cup half-empty: Opinion

As of Monday, Howard Schultz, a man of missionary zeal, will have formally retired as chief executive in favour of Starbucks‘ (SBUX-Q) chosen new leader, Kevin Johnson, who was nurtured in the tech world. After a health scare, Johnson said he was “finally learning to listen with my heart,” as if to distance himself from any preconceived stereotypes. 

Toronto Star

Tim Hortons bosses apologize, vow changes

Tim Hortons (QSR-T) president Elias Diaz Sese has apologized to his restaurant owners for not listening to them and pledged to improve their situation – underscoring strains at the fast-food chain as franchisees push back against the company’s tightfisted management style. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

New Development

Mixed-use development proposed for Vancouver’s west side

A new development proposal for Broadway and Alma could inject a dose of much-needed diversity and youth into Vancouver’s west side if a rezoning application is successful. The proposed six-storey, mixed-use building featuring 94 market-rental suites would require rezoning a tiny strip mall on the northwest corner of those streets.

Vancouver Province

Resorts

Vail Resorts’ business bolstered by Whistler Blackcomb buy

Vail Resorts Inc. (MTN-N) blew past analyst expectations for its quarterly earnings, thanks to business at Whistler Blackcomb that was far better than predicted. The Colorado resort operator closed a deal to buy Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. for $1.4 billion on Oct, 17, No. 2 on Business in Vancouver’s just-released list of biggest non-mining mergers and acquisitions of 2016. 

Business In Vancouver

Renovation and Restoration

Time for feds to help preserve heritage buildings?

Following the Second World War, many Canadians considered the old buildings in their cities to be symbols of decline, representing a lack of progress. Many cities, throughout the 1960s and ’70s, developed grand plans to replace historic downtown neighbourhoods with freeways, parking lots and mega-projects. In one generation, more than one-fifth of Canada’s historic buildings were demolished.

Winnipeg Free Press

Inside Blackstone’s Willis Tower makeover

Chicago’s iconic, 43-year-old Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), which at 110 stories is the tallest building in Chicago and the nation, is getting a $500-million facelift. The project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2019. Originally designed by architect Bruce Graham as a concrete fortress to shut out the world, the building is being reimagined to blend with the urban environment.

National Real Estate Investor

Infrastructure

Expert blasts B.C.’s short-sighted transit planning

Critics calling for a subway line extension to the UBC‘s Vancouver campus say a recent infusion of government cash for transit in B.C. ignores an overall lack of vision. “No subway was ever justified on the here and now,” said Mauro Chiesa, a transit development expert who has organized the financing of tunnel projects world-wide.

CBC

Etobicoke’s ‘spaghetti junction’ to be transformed

The intersection is known as Six Points, but the name hardly captures the dizzying number of off-ramps, overpasses, and intersections that make up central Etobicoke’s notorious “spaghetti junction.” The interchange where three major arterials converge has confused drivers and thwarted pedestrians for more than 50 years. Soon it will be a thing of the past.

Toronto Star – Daily Commercial News – Daily Commercial News

Higher downtown Ottawa parking rates would curb congestion: Report

Adding an extra $2 to current downtown parking rates could help alleviate road congestion, according to a report commissioned by four city councillors. In addition to the parking surcharge, the report looks at three other potential levies: a highway toll; a “cordon charge,” which would ding motorists when they enter the downtown during peak times; and a higher gas tax.

Metro

Hamilton’s LRT in 21 photos

Hamilton’s LRT project has produced thousands of pages of studies and plans over the past five years. Tucked amid the details and charts and maps have been many concept images of what the system will look like at various places. They include the tracks, the stops, the bridges, the platforms. Here is a pictorial ride along Hamilton’s LRT project:

CBC

Technology

Domino’s to use robots to deliver pizzas in Europe

Starship Technologies, the London-based company that has created six-wheeled self-driving delivery robots, will begin taking customers Domino’s (DPZ-N) pizzas in Germany and the Netherlands. Starship, launched in July 2014, will whisk pizzas to customers’ doors if they live within a one-mile radius of certain Dominos pizza shops in “select German and Dutch cities.” 

Bloomberg

Restaurant tables on which you can order, play games

At your favourite restaurant, you don’t have to wait for the waiter to read the specials; your table is a 50-inch computer screen, so you can call up virtual menus and order instantly by pressing hi-res images of your favourite food or beverage. While you wait, you can turn your electronic tabletop into a game.

Financial Post

Ivy League AI research prof looking to move to Canada

When a respected research professor from a top Ivy League university says he’s pulling up stakes to move to Canada, it says a lot about the shift in the artificial intelligence landscape. The conversations began about last June, when Trump’s campaign was doing well, says the professor, who didn’t want his name used. 

Financial Post – Bloomberg

Revestor exploits Zillow and Airbnb’s blind spots

Founded in 2011 by Bill Lyons, Revestor is a digital real estate search engine that uses proprietary data and live listings to help sync realtors and potential investors with desired residential properties. While other services allow users to search real estate based on specific property details, Revestor lets users search based on investment criteria. This approach works to ensure the most profitable use of available funds.

Forbes

Other