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Minto buys Montreal apt. tower, to start Ottawa building

3 years ago

Minto Apartment REIT (MI-UN-T) will acquire a 20-storey Montreal apartment building for $80 million and is moving ahead with construction of a nine-storey development which will contain 229 apartment units in Ottawa.

A two-building infill industrial development on a 15.45-acre site owned by H&R REIT and Tribal Partners in the Meadowvale area of Mississauga is expected to attract a lot of interest. The Meadowvale Commerce Park is being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield.

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The suburbs made a remarkable comeback during COVID-19, as residential prices, rents and sales escalated faster than those in the urban core, while CRE data depict a similar picture of strength and resilience in the areas outside the downtown areas.

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Shares of WeWork (WE) closed up 13.49 per cent on Thursday after the company went public through a special purpose acquisition company more than two years after its failed IPO. The office-leasing company scrapped plans for an IPO in 2019.

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Calgary-based MasterBUILT Hotels, a decade old, has committed to opening 75 hotels by 2036, and with the explosive growth of the brand and its reputation for developing partnerships and direct corporate investment, they are well on their way to fulfilling that mandate.

IMAGE: Chad Griffiths, partner with NAI Commercial.

Partner, NAI Commercial

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The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled a new company formed by PortLiving CEO Tobi Reyes can proceed with Terrace House, a stalled downtown Vancouver luxury condo project that had been highly touted for its Coal Harbour location.

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More than a year later, Oxford Properties Group‘s proposed mixed-use development at 25 Borough Dr. in Scarborough is still under review. The BDP Quadrangle-designed proposal includes towers of 32, 41 and 50 storeys, respectively, with 1,342 purpose-built rental units and ground-floor retail.

Fengate Properties

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Jimmy Chan has spent the last three years and $100,000 to make the heartfelt documentary Saving Chinatown: The Rise of the Dragons. The doc reflects Chan’s resolve and that of Chinatown’s residents/merchants to keep the Montreal community alive and vibrant.

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Major Canadian retailers are ramping up their use of air freight to bypass clogged shipping routes this holiday season, a move adding substantially more to their transportation costs, but also bolstering their inventory heading into a crucial time for sales.

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More retail businesses are opening in brick-and-mortar locations in Edmonton, but growth is favouring shops with smaller floor spaces. Overall retail leasing activity in the city increased by 21 per cent in the first half of 2021 year-over-year, says Jones Lang LaSalle.

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With a gradual reopening of communities and economies across the country and a return of foot traffic to physical brick-and-mortar retail locations, the outlook on a near-term recovery for the industry seems optimistic, according to Colliers executive Roelof van Dijk.

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Amazon (AMZN-Q) announced the opening of a first-of-its-kind robotics manufacturing facility in Westborough, Mass. The facility will expand Amazon Robotics manufacturing capability in the U.S. and Amazon’s growth in the region — and has created over 200 manufacturing jobs.

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Walmart is building its largest grocery distribution centre to date in Spartanburg County, S.C. Set to open in 2024, the new 720,000-plus-square-foot  facility will rely on a combination of human associates, automation technology, robotics, and machine learning to process grocery perishables.

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Industrial and logistics experts say the supply chain snafus didn’t begin overnight and due to lagging pandemic-related problems around the globe and labour shortages and other issues in the U.S., could last well into 2022 and possibly early 2023.

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China Evergrande Group appeared to have averted default with a last-minute bond coupon payment, a source said on Friday, buying it another week to deal with a debt crisis looming over the world’s second-biggest economy.

Vancouver Real Estate Strategy & Leasing Conference

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Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart called Wednesday for the city to allow up to six homes on single-family lots, a year after a similar proposal was rejected by city council. The program would be designed to limit speculation, Stewart said.

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An application by Haven Developments to convert two single-family homes in Toronto’s Deer Park neighbourhood into a 12-unit condo building highlights all the legal and political forces waging war over building even a single new apartment in Canada’s largest city.

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Fractional real estate investing on platforms such as BuyProperly and Addy allows young adults to own a small slice of equity in residential or commercial properties. However, it also results in homes being treated as commodities and investments.

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Young Montrealers’ dreams of homeownership might be slipping further and further beyond reach. Montreal-area third-quarter home prices jumped 17 per cent year-over-year, according to the latest report from the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB).

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