TGA Group’s GALA Developments has ambitious plans

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Industrial, Retail, Apartments, Condominiums  •  Ontario, Toronto / GTA

TGA Group has launched GALA Developments, which has a condominium building under construction and plans for several residential and industrial projects over the next few years in the Greater Toronto Area and Central Ontario.

WWC buys Texas, Arizona apts., tops $4B in transactions

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments  •  International

Western Wealth Capital is continuing to execute on its pipeline of U.S. multifamily acquisitions, buying apartment communities in Texas and Arizona this month to push the value of its transactions since its 2014 inception past the $4 billion mark.

Hamilton nixes massive expansion to urban boundary

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC  •  Hamilton Spectator  •  Global News

Hamilton city councillors voted down a controversial plan to expand the city’s urban boundary by 1,310 hectares. An “ambitious density” scenario would have expanded the city limits to so-called “whitebelt” land between the existing boundary and the greenbelt.

Aquilini, F.N. plan 5,000 homes, film studio in Burnaby

Residential, Commercial  •  Burnaby Now

The Musqueam Indian Band, Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Aquilini Development‘s proposed master plan for the redevelopment of Burnaby’s 40-acre Willingdon Lands includes 5,000 housing units and a 450,000-square-foot film studio. Housing types include market rental, affordable rental and live-work units.

10 buildings planned near St. Clair-Old Weston GO Stn.

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Benny Stark Limited has proposed TACT Architecture-designed 46-, 38-, 24-, 22-, 10-, eight- and eight-storey residential buildings with ground-floor retail and commercial space near the St. Clair-Old Weston GO Station. Starklands would also include 29 three-storey townhouses, for a total of 1,818 residential units.

Laurier Homes proposes seven-building mixed-use

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Laurier Homes has proposed to redevelop a 10-acre site currently occupied by low-rise light industrial buildings in Scarborough Junction area with a mixed-use development of buildings of 48, 48, 39, 37, 14, 8, and eight storeys with 2,345 residential units, retail and new public roads.

The Saskatchewan Edge › Don’t let tenant insurance fall through the cracks

Kelly Macsymic: Business Manager, Stuart Commercial Inc., Sales Associate, ICR Commercial Real Estate

F.N. files suit against MZO for Innisfil project

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Ontario is telling municipalities to consult with Indigenous groups before requesting a minister’s zoning order after a First Nations group launched legal action to stop an Innisfil housing development over what it called a violation of the province’s constitutional obligation.

Canadian developer behind Fla. condo faced lawsuits

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

A Globe investigation behind Surfside, Fla.’s deadly condo collapse has discovered Nathan Reiber – one of several Canadian developers behind the project – had a career littered with allegations of deception and unethical practices, including accusations of fraud and misleading sales tactics.

Pace cancels Barrie condo sales deal from 2020

Residential  •  CBC

Pace Developments recently informed Soraya Palma it’s cancelling their agreement from March 7, 2020, and returning her $40,000 deposit even as construction on the Barrie walk-up condo development continues . . . unless she agrees to pay an additional $100,000 on top of the original $512,000 purchase price.

Dream releases social procurement strategy

Residential, Commercial  •  Sustainable Biz Canada

Dream — comprised of Dream Unlimited Corp., Dream Office REIT and Dream Impact Trust — released a social procurement strategy to make its supply chain more diverse and inclusive by 2025. Dream’s strategy will showcase diversity and equity in the real estate sector.

B.C. highway recovery won’t take place until next year

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

With the weather bomb of 2021, B.C.’s fabled road engineers face a new challenge: how to rebuild the province’s paralyzed highway network quickly to reanimate an immobilized province. A full recovery won’t take place until next year.

Manulife to reopen Canadian, U.S. offices Jan. 24

Commercial  •  Bloomberg  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Reuters

Manulife Financial Corp. plans to reopen its Canadian and U.S. offices on Jan. 24, with some employees on hybrid models that will bring them into the workplace three days a week.

U.S. CRE prices spike, led by industrial jump

Commercial  •  Bisnow

U.S. CRE prices rose 15.9% year-over-year and 1.7% month-over-month in October, Real Capital Analytics found in its latest RCA CPPI: US report. Industrial property prices led the way, rising 18.9% in October year-over-year and 1.9% month-over-month.

Slate invests $128M in Austrian, Slovakian retail

Commercial  •  Business Wire  •  RENX  •  RENX

Slate Asset Management announced the acquisition of real estate assets in Austria and Slovakia for approximately $128 million. The portfolio comprises approximately 710,000 square feet across nine single-tenanted assets on long-term leases to OBI, one of Europe’s largest DIY operators.

China moguls use billions of own cash on rescues

Residential, Commercial  •  Bloomberg  •  livemint  •  CNBC

Billionaire owners of Chinese developers have dipped into their own pockets for at least $3.8 billion to save their troubled companies from default, as a cash crunch engulfs the industry. Founding chairmen of at least seven companies have tapped their wealth.

Co-ownership gains traction as house prices keep rising

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Pooling resources and purchasing a home with others may not be new, but as prices continue to grow out of reach and people seek community over siloed apartment dwellings, realtors say it is becoming more popular.

Grown-up dorm life might be the answer for T.O. millennials

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Where one-bedroom apartments are averaging north of $2,000 a month, more companies are betting on co-living — a grown-up version of dorm life — to take off in Toronto the way it has in other expensive locales like San Francisco and New York.

Edmonton office recovery good news for res

Residential, Commercial  •  Edmonton Journal

Edmonton’s office real estate market is leading the nation in its recovery and that’s good news for its apartment rental and condominium markets, according to Avison Young’s Amit Grover, who says more foot traffic will increase interest in downtown living.

Cities with highest home prices have lowest birth rates

Residential  •  Victoria Times Colonist

The three census areas with the lowest birth rates in the country — Victoria, Kelowna and Vancouver — are also three of its most expensive real estate markets, according to Statistics Canada data for 2020.