Ivanhoe joins Blackstone on PIRET purchase

Ivanhoe joins Blackstone on PIRET purchase

Ivanhoe Cambridge is joining Blackstone Group LP (BX-N) on the planned acquisition of Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust (PIRET) (AAR-UN-T), according to two sources. The real estate arm of Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec has taken a roughly 40 per cent stake in the $2.48-billion cash deal to take the Vancouver-based REIT private. Blackstone’s planned takeover of Pure Industrial was announced last week. 

Bloomberg – Motley Fool – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Brookfield, Onex plan $3.7 billion offer for IWG: Sources

Brookfield Asset Management‘s (BAM-A-T) and Onex Corp. (ONEX-T) are preparing an offer for IWG Plc that will value the commercial real estate company at about $4.6 billion Cdn, sources said. Zug, Switzerland-based IWG, which owns office space and competes with New York-based WeWork Cos., said last month it had received an “indicative proposal” for a cash deal from the consortium. 

Bloomberg – Mondaq – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

KingSett shuffles executives as Joe Mazzocco leaves company

KingSett Capital announced several major changes to its leadership team on Wednesday, including the departure of executive managing director Joe Mazzocco. In a post on LinkedIn, KingSett CEO Jon Love this morning announced Mazzocco will be leaving the company. KingSett is Canada’s  leading private equity real estate business.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Bank of Canada hikes key interest rate to 1.25 per cent

The Bank of Canada raised its key lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.25 per cent Wednesday, the third time it has moved its benchmark rate from once-record lows last summer. The bank’s rate has an impact on rates Canadians get from retail banks for things like mortgages, savings accounts and GICs. The move means borrowers can expect to pay more.

CBC – Financial Post – Toronto Star – Financial Post

Property dispositions hot topic in REIT sector: RBC

As expected there are a lot of gems in the recently published 377-page report by RBC Capital Markets (RY-T) on the sector outlook for REITs, a group with a market capitalization of about $75 billion. One of the more interesting observations in bank’s 80th such quarterly outlook was that $5.4 billion of “intended or announced property dispositions” are expected to be completed in this year and beyond. 

Financial Post

Available industrial space in Toronto at historic low: NKFD

Strong demand in the warehousing and e-commerce sectors drove industrial space availability to a historic low of 2.7 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area late in 2017, according to a Newmark Knight Frank Devencore quarterly survey. That’s down from 3.4 per cent in 2016’s third-quarter report. The Q3 2017 survey, released Tuesday morning, also found the tight market is continuing to push rents higher.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

New industrial zoning reviving Vancouver’s Railtown

I-4 zoning (“historic industrial”) came into effect in Railtown in May, and since that time sales activity and development in the 15.5-acre district adjacent to the port has surged. While the city stripped software manufacturing from the list of approved uses, advocates for the local tech sector won city permission for “creative products manufacturing” alongside the more traditional “dairy products manufacturing” and “ice manufacturing.”

Business In Vancouver

Calgary builder returns to roots at Edmonton’s Raymond Block

From his office in Calgary, Kendal Harazny can watch a live time-lapse web feed of construction on his firm’s six-floor signature development on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. The Raymond Block, named after a hotel that stood on the site years ago in the historic Strathcona neighbourhood, has a special place in the heart of the Wexford Developments co-founder.

Property Biz Canada

Calgary LRT stations to feature ‘transit plazas’

Stations for the Green Line LRT will feature “transit plazas” that can be customized for the different communities they will serve, according to an architectural concept video posted Tuesday to the City of Calgary’s Youtube channel. “It was very important that they have the potential for a variety of uses. . . .,” said Lesley Beale of Sturgess Architecture during the 6½-minute video.

CBC

Short seller sues Home Capital, three former executives

Short seller Marc Cohodes, who waged a very public battle with Home Capital Group (HCG-T), is suing the mortgage lender and three former executives for $4 million, accusing them of “negligent and/or fraudulent misrepresentation.” Cohodes invested in Home Capital in 2014 after concluding the shares were “potentially overvalued,” according to a 19-page statement of claim.

Financial Post

Instacart buys Unata, gears up for Canadian expansion

American grocery delivery service Instacart is buying Toronto-based technology company Unata as part of its ambitious expansion efforts across Canada. Instacart’s chief business officer Nilam Ganenthiran said Tuesday the acquisition will give the company access to Unata’s digital flyer, loyalty, e-catering and list-building capabilities — and fits into its lofty goal of providing services to 80 per cent of Canadian consumers within the next 18 months.

Financial Post – Bloomberg

Inovalis REIT JVs on Germany office property

Inovalis REIT (INO-UN-T) announced today it successfully completed the purchase of a DGNB Gold certified office property in Neu-Isenburg, Germany, as part of a 50-50 joint-venture arrangement with a global institutional investor. The class-A office building was constructed in 2013 and has a gross leasable area of approximately 134,550 square feet. The REIT’s 50% interest in the joint-venture entity  totalled $14.1 million Cdn.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

CPPIB, Lendlease announce build-to-rent partnership

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and leading property and infrastructure group Lendlease Tuesday announced the launch of a major U.K. build-to-rent investment partnership, with an initial target to invest $2.57 billion Cdn in the sector. The partnership will begin with an investment of $772 million in the next phase of new homes. CPPIB will invest 80 per cent of that total and Lendlease will invest the balance.

Globe Newswire – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Manhattan office market sees accelerated flight to quality

According to JLL, office space users preferred Midtown’s class-A buildings by a wide margin, claiming 24 of the top 26 transactions in the submarket in 2017. Midtown recorded 21.6 million square feet of total leasing activity in 2017, surpassing the 21.2 million square feet in deal volume recorded in 2016. “Five of the top seven leases signed in Midtown in the fourth quarter took place at newly-constructed or renovated offices,” said Sean Coghlan.

World Property Journal

Is this the beginning of the end of Trump’s real estate empire?

It takes all of 30 seconds for the doorman at Trump Place to kick me out of the building. Tensions are high at Trump Place, 200 Riverside Boulevard. The luxury condominium complex on New York’s Upper West Side is currently embroiled in an increasingly contentious legal battle with the Trump family.

The Guardian – CTV – Mansion Global – CP Executive

Featured Column

Major real estate deals thanks to quantitative easing?

When Ottawa experienced the largest commercial real estate deal in its history last fall, one of the insiders noted in a media interview the strategy of many investors right now is to “own very core assets in core markets.” This is a trend that’s bound to continue in 2018 if the first couple of weeks of the new year are any indication.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

CRE construction spending in Alberta lowest since 2013

Non-residential construction spending in Alberta at the end of last year dropped to the lowest level since the third quarter of 2013, according to Statistics Canada. In Q4 2017, there was $2.42 billion on the books of non-residential construction investment across the province. By comparison, in seasonally-adjusted current dollars, investment in that segment hasn’t been this low since the third quarter of 2013, when it was $2.38 billion.

CBC

Avison Young Q1 2018 hospitality trends

VIDEO: Avison Young principal Keith Thompson, based in Atlanta, discusses Q1 2018 trends in the hospitality market.

Avison Young video

Real Estate Companies

Lowe snags 26-building industrial, office portfolio

Lowe Enterprises Investors has partnered with a joint venture client to acquire the NL Ventures IX Portfolio, a 26-building collection of industrial and office buildings, from AIC Ventures. The properties total 2.3 million square feet and are located in 16 states, spanning 24 major submarkets primarily in the Midwest and Eastern U.S., with the largest concentrations in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, and New Jersey. 

CP Executive

Hudson Pacific to sell four office assets for $255M

Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. (HPP-N) kicked off 2018 with the announcement of agreements to trade four office assets in California. The company will sell the 370,000-square-foot collection to separate buyers for an aggregate $254.8 million. Timing is everything. “We are taking advantage of very favorable market conditions to sell four non-core assets,” Victor Coleman, chairman & CEO of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., said in a prepared statement. 

CP Executive

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Retail

Indigo to open 21,000-square-foot bookstore on Robson Street

Almost three years since Chapters vacated its spot on Robson Street for a Sport Chek, Vancouver is regaining a sizeable chunk of retail space devoted to books in its downtown core. Indigo (IDG-T) announced Monday it will open a 21,000-square-foot bookstore at 1033 Robson Street, replacing a two-storey Forever 21 retail shop. 

Business In Vancouver

Retail’s rise through adaptive reuse

The closing of a large number of stores has left many wondering what the future of brick-and-mortar retail holds. However, retail commercial real estate attorney Adam Lustig of Bilzin Sumberg says this does not mean this type of retail is going away. In fact, it is just changing into something that can be defined as an experience now, having its own sense of community.

CP Executive – CP Executive – Winnipeg Free Press

Saskatoon’s first Marshalls store to open in fall

Construction is underway on Saskatoon’s first Marshalls department store, which is expected to open in the fall at a new shopping centre in the city’s Rosewood neighbourhood. The off-price department store is being built as part of the second phase of Arbutus Properties Ltd.’s Meadows Market retail development, the first stage of which was completed in 2016 and includes Costco.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Restaurants and Eateries

New menus might not be enough for family restaurants

Swiss Chalet’s newest restaurant model has a decidedly adult contemporary style, eschewing the chain’s decades-old family-style utility design for a modern/rustic dining room with roomy leather banquettes, wood accents and large built-in fireplaces. Situated on a busy Barrie thoroughfare, the first outlet to showcase the veteran chicken chain’s modern vision opened last month.

Financial Post

East Vancouver’s JJ Bean café takes on Toronto

On Vancouver’s east side, across the street from the city’s port and in the shade of two century-old elm trees, JJ Bean Inc. took root. It was here, in 1996, John Neate started his boutique coffee chain. Two decades later, Neate has made his biggest move – expansion eastward to Toronto, where he can see as many as 40 JJ Bean cafés eventually thriving.

Globe and Mail

Sports Venues

City of Toronto golf courses losing money

Janet Davis is a veteran city councillor with impeccable progressive credentials. When she speaks at Toronto council meetings, it is often to advocate more help for the disadvantaged. Now, she is campaigning for a fresh cause. Davis wants to save the city’s golf courses. Golf courses? Many citizens will not be aware their city government even has golf courses – seven of them, no less: five operated by the city and two leased out.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Other

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