Colwood Corners project set to roll in fall

Colwood Corners project set to roll in fall

Victoria’s long-delayed Colwood Corners development is expected to get underway in the fall, with 10 buildings in the offing. Onni Group of Vancouver will build the core of a new downtown Colwood that combines commercial space with hundreds of apartment units. The 10 buildings will range from one to five storeys.

Victoria Times Colonist

SkyCity developers given extra year to finalize plans

The Toronto developers who plan to build a new parkade/retail complex in Winnipeg have been given another year to finalize their plans and move forward with the project. CentreVenture Development Corporation president and CEO Angela Mathieson confirmed the downtown development agency has given Fortress Real Developments Inc. and Edenshaw Developments Ltd. until April 30, 2018, to begin constructing the new complex.

Winnipeg Free Press – Property Biz Canada

BTB aims to make more noise selling, acquiring

Look to see more announcements from BTB REIT in 2017. The Montreal-based trust (BTB.UN-T) had a quiet 2016, focusing on internal housekeeping such as reducing its debt level and shaving its borrowing costs. Its biggest deal of the year didn’t even involve buying or selling assets, coming in the form of a $33-million share offering in June.

Property Biz Canada

Surrey’s vision for the future slow in coming

It’s almost the end of the work day and people are heading home across the plaza in front of what is meant to be Surrey’s epicentre, the glamorous Bing Thom tower that houses Simon Fraser University and a mall. But they’re not all streaming to the nearby SkyTrain station to beat it out of the suburbs.

Globe and Mail

Niagara Parks sets sights high for marina development

The Niagara Parks Commission has issued a request for proposals to develop its Niagara Parks Marina property at Miller’s Creek, 22 kilometres south of Horseshoe Falls in Fort Erie, Ont. “The development property is 26 hectares in total and includes the Niagara Parks Marina site and additional shoreline along the upper Niagara River,” said Niagara Parks Commission COO David Adames.

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver Port CEO warns against privatization

The year 2016 proved to be a very busy one for North Vancouver’s waterfront terminals, according to annual statistics released by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. The solid trade year comes as the federal government is preparing a report on possible privatization, something Robin Silvester, the port’s president and CEO, is cautioning against.

Business In Vancouver

Opinion: Will Ottawa go for an airport sale?

The federal Liberals have a credibility problem when it comes to their promise to renew Canada’s infrastructure: Much talk, no action. Finance Minister Bill Morneau has a chance to fix that perception and put as much as $16 billion into government coffers if he moves forward aggressively with the sale of the country’s eight largest airports. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe and Mail

Winnipeg developer came to Canada with nothing

Martin Bergen, a former prisoner of war who arrived in Canada with nothing and rose to become a Winnipeg apartment-building magnate known for his philanthropy, has died at 89. Likely Bergen’s most well-known project was his final one and the largest by far: Fort Garry Place, a three-tower development that features 900-plus suites, retail and office space, banquet facilities and a revolving restaurant.

Winnipeg Free Press

Are ‘dementia villages’ the future?

The future of Alzheimer’s care might soon look less like a sterile hospital environment, and more like a cozy little neighbourhood. The dementia village concept is being tested in Holland. There, patients with varying stages of dementia live in homes of five or six. There’s a grocery store, gardens and community gathering spaces.

CBC – National Real Estate Investor

Fronsac REIT names Parravano president/CEO

Fronsac Real Estate Investment Trust (GAZ.UN-X) announced the Board of Trustees have appointed Jason Parravano as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Parravano, currently chief financial officer, has been with Fronsac since the beginning 2015. Jacques Beaudry, a member of the Board of Trustees, will assume he role of interim chief financial officer.

Marketwired

Holloway sells Belleville Travelodge hotel

Holloway Lodging Corporation (HLC-T) announced it has sold the Travelodge hotel located in Belleville, Ont. The sale price for the hotel was $7.0 million representing a cap rate of approximately 4.2% (after adding back to net operating income certain one-time severance and restructuring expenses incurred in 2016).

Canada Newswire

Quebec investing in e-commerce

The Quebec government is investing close to $5 million to help retailers continue their digital shift. In a telephone interview, Dominique Anglade, minister responsible for the Digital Agenda, stressed it is “fundamental” for the government to get involved so retailers can take advantage of commercial web opportunities.

Montreal Gazette

MDA keeping HQ in B.C

A scant quarter-century ago, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA-T) was a seed investor in DigitalGlobe (DGI-N), a Colorado-based satellite imaging company known for providing Google Maps with its high-resolution pictures of Earth. Flash forward to 2017 and the Canadarm-maker’s $4.7 billion acquisition of DigitalGlobe.

Business In Vancouver

European projects sweep MIPIM Awards

Winnowing 200-plus entries down to 44 finalists and, ultimately, 11 winners proved an especially tall order this year, Cushman & Wakefield’s John Forrester said in a video introducing the 27th annual MIPIM Awards. “The quality is rising every year,” said Forrester, chair of the jury for this year’s awards. The results were announced Thursday.

GlobeSt.com

How Trump may affect CRE investment in Mexico

As the United States’ neighbour and second-largest trading partner, no country has followed President Trump’s rhetoric quite like Mexico. While few can predict what the president will say or do next, below we summarize several themes that may impact the CRE markets, Mexican REITs (FIBRAs) and cross-border CRE investment from the U.S. to Mexico.

Lexology

Market Trends and Research

Ottawa conference centre’s so-called NYC cousin

The Government Conference Centre in downtown Ottawa, a former train station repurposed in the 1960s, used to have a so-called cousin south of the border. The main waiting room at New York City’s Penn Station, although destroyed to make way for the Madison Square Garden venue in the 1960s, was also inspired by Rome’s Baths of Caracalla.

Ottawa Citizen

Chinese fuel downtown L.A.’s development boom

A development boom in Downtown Los Angeles continues to reshape the city’s skyline, and a new report from real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield shows much of the growth has been shaped by Chinese investment. Los Angeles trails only New York and San Francisco in terms of popularity with Chinese real estate groups looking for U.S. investment.

Curbed Los Angeles

Investment forecast for office sector still optimistic

As expected, the Federal Reserve Bank raised its benchmark short-term rate by 25 basis points last week to a range of 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent. But the higher interest rate will have little impact on office building values, mainly because of dramatically low new office construction over the last seven years, notes a Marcus & Millichap 2017 US Office Investment Forecast.

National Real Estate Investor – The Real Deal

Real Estate Companies

Merseyside finances Canary Wharf development

The Merseyside Pension Fund has backed a $20 million Cdn loan secured against a development in Canary Wharf. The $11.2 billion public sector scheme has partnered with LendInvest on the deal. The loan will help finance a planned development in London’s Docklands, which will include a 320-bedroom hotel and 199 residential units. The developer was not named.

IPE Real Estate

Ontario manufacturers eye greener pastures stateside

Jocelyn Bamford has her hands on her hips. On the shop floor in the bustling Automatic Coating Inc. plant owned by her family, she has to shout to be heard above the squirt of compressed air nozzles, honks from forklifts, the clang of steel as it’s dipped in baths, and the hum of exhaust fans.

Financial Post

AutoCanada making progress landing new auto makers

Dealer group AutoCanada Inc. (ACQ-T) says it is making progress in persuading some auto makers to permit ownership of their dealers by the publicly traded company. The dealership group, the largest publicly traded dealer group in Canada, is prohibited from owning dealers of several key brands because the auto makers that own those brands permit only private ownership. 

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Some rough numbers behind Morgan Properties’ target

Prussia, Pa.-based Morgan Properties landed more class-B assets to add to its growing empire: the six-property Rolling Road portfolio from Harbor Group International for $247 million. This portfolio, like others it has acquired over the past two years or so, are class-B, infill apartments in Maryland that, with a few tweaks, can deliver additional value to Morgan Properties.

GlobeSt.com

REIT Financial Reports

The latest reports:

* Fronsac REIT, (GAZ.UN-X), Marketwired 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Rake in passive income with CAPREIT, Choice Properties

Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAR.UN-T) and Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CHP.UN-T) are two great REITs that will allow you to enjoy the feast of rental payments without the indigestion of having to become a landlord. Canadian Apartment Properties investors have enjoyed capital gains as well as a generous dividend payout.    

Motley Fool – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Retail

Shopify sites offering much more than Breitbart

While Ottawa-based Shopify has been under a microscope because of its ties to controversial right-wing website Breitbart, there are other questionable items being sold using the company’s technology. Guns, drugs and escort services are some of things that can be purchased through Shopify’s stores. 

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Citizen

Inside Amazon’s battle to break into grocery market

“Very wasteful” isn’t a phrase usually associated with Amazon.com Inc., (AMZN-Q) which is so cost-conscious it once removed the light bulbs from its cafeteria’s vending machines. But after spending several months analyzing the online retailer’s grocery-shipping hubs back in 2014, Amazon Fresh threw away about a third of the bananas it purchased. 

Bloomberg – Bloomberg

Tiffany’s profit beats expectations

Tiffany & Co‘s (TIF-N) higher-than-expected quarterly results suggest the luxury retailer’s push in to higher-margin fashion jewelry and affordable products was helping it win back customers. Shares of the luxury retailer, whose sales also beat estimates, rose to a 19-month high in afternoon trading on Friday.  

Reuters

Foreign retailers want an even bigger tax break

At $532 billion in annual retail sales and with a workforce of two million, retail is a vital part of Canada’s economic makeup, regularly outpacing Canada’s economic performance overall. But two policy issues that involve e-commerce — expected to total nearly $40 billion by 2018 — threaten our industry by giving foreign online retailers tax advantages unavailable to retailers operating in Canada.

Financial Post

Restaurants and Eateries

Johnny Rockets lands in Victoria

Johnny Rockets has plans to open two fast-food franchise restaurants in Victoria this May. The new restaurants, located at the Bay Centre and Hillside Shopping Centre, will feature the modern “Johnny 2.0” look. Johnny Rockets signed a 40-restaurant master franchise agreement with Lewis Gelmon, a Canadian restaurateur, in 2015.

Western Investor

New Development

Waterfront Toronto takes first step in building Quayside

Waterfront Toronto has launched a process to create a new precedent-setting waterfront community called Quayside. The aim is to establish Quayside as a testbed for emerging technologies, materials and processes that will address these challenges and advance solutions that can be replicated in cities worldwide.

Canada Newswire

History meets modernity in P3Architecture design

James Youck rode his bike around the College Avenue Campus as a kid. “It felt like you were next to old castles,” said Youck, principal architect of P3Architecture. In helping design the first new building of the University of Regina’s College Avenue Campus renewal project, it was important to him to preserve the site.

Regina Leader-Post

N.S.’ first six-storey all-wood complex in works

A Halifax architect is helping to “revolutionize the potential” for development in a low-density central Dartmouth neighbourhood by erecting Nova Scotia’s first six-storey all-wood residential complex. The GardenView will feature 69 rental units, a mixed-use podium and an underground parkade for 58 vehicles. The objective is to provide affordable rental housing, said TEAL Architects+Planners‘ Tom Emodi.

Daily Commercial News

Renovation and Restoration

Timeline of Ottawa’s Somerset House non-development

The City of Ottawa received a new design application earlier this month for the derelict Somerset House, opening the latest chapter in a decade-long saga surrounding the redevelopment of a century-old building. The latest designs by Chmiel Architects seek to bring the structure into the 21st century.

Ottawa Business Journal

Human Resources

Invest Ottawa ups efforts to recruit U.S. tech talent

Ottawa’s main economic development agency is joining forces with the city’s largest BIA in an effort to lure tech workers from other North American hot spots such as Silicon Valley. Invest Ottawa and the Kanata North BIA both launched promotional campaigns last week aimed at encouraging U.S.-based web developers, software engineers and other technology workers.

Ottawa Business Journal

SNC-Lavalin CEO leads with diversified portfolio

Neil Bruce is president and CEO of SNC-Lavalin (SNC-T), an engineering and construction company with close to $10 billion in revenue and operating in 50 countries. Bruce has more than 30 years of experience in oil and gas, mining, energy and infrastructure. Before being appointed to the top job in October 2015, Bruce was chief operating officer at SNC-Lavalin. 

Financial Post

Technology

HBC exposes Saks Fifth Avenue customer info online

Hudson’s Bay Co.,, the Canadian owner of luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, exposed the personal information of 10s of thousands of customers through the company’s websites. No credit, payment or password information was ever exposed, a Hudson’s Bay spokeswoman said in an emailed statement Sunday.

Bloomberg

AI’s two-edged sword: Better lives, but fewer jobs

Artificial intelligence (AI) has promised to relieve us of our dullest tasks and improve almost every aspect of our lives, from transportation to health care. But, by their very nature, the best tech ideas lead to incredible efficiencies, and if those efficiencies touch on people’s jobs, it will take those jobs away. The Industrial Revolution replaced entire job descriptions.

Financial Post – Winnipeg Free Press – Huffington Post Canada – Financial Post

What tech gurus want from ‘innovation’ budget

Innovation is set to be a key theme of Canada’s budget this week as Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government tries to spur the world’s 11th-largest economy away from its commodity roots toward technology and higher-value services. Last year’s budget set aside $800 million over four years for innovation. This budget will begin to identify where that money’s going to be spent.

Bloomberg

Tech tenants seeking shorter leases

At this point in the cycle, office tenants who may be seeking shorter-than-traditional lease terms may find themselves in difficult negotiations with landlords, who themselves are facing close lender scrutiny. In certain markets, however, tenants have been successful in negotiating shorter lease options that assuaged landlord’s financial concerns.

National Real Estate Investor

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