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Tech growth drives office leasing in Cdn. cities: CBRE

3 years ago

The tech industry has been responsible for a large chunk of office leasing during the pandemic, and Toronto leads the way in North America for tech job growth, according to CBRE’s annual Tech-30 2021 report.

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Letko, Brosseau & Associates Inc., one of Cominar REIT’s (CUF-UN-T) largest shareholders with control or direction over approximately 3.3 per cent of the outstanding shares, intends to vote against the $11.75 per unit offer for the trust by a Canderel-led consortium.

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Lakeview Community Partners Limited, the group developing Mississauga’s Lakeview Village, has received draft plan approval, official plan amendment approval and zoning by-law endorsement. Lakeview Village, on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant, is a 177-acre mixed-use waterfront development

Cadillac Fairview has announced DiamondCorp will be its development partner for its proposed multi-phase, master-plan community which will surround CF Sherway Gardens shopping centre in Toronto. Phase one will deliver four mixed-use multiresidential towers comprising 1.28-million square feet.

Flamingo Block

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Entrepreneur Jordan MacDonald, CEO of Vancouver-based Fabric Living, is an example of who and what is driving B.C. commercial real estate investments toward a record-smashing sales volume this year. MacDonald’s latest play is Assembly, a mixed-use joint-venture with Hudson Group.

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Lifting COVID-19 restrictions helped RioCan REIT (REI-UN-T) collect more rent in its most recent quarter than at any other point during the pandemic. RioCan collected 98.1 per cent of its billed gross cash rents in Q3, up from 90.8 per cent year-over-year.

IMAGE: Chad Griffiths, partner with NAI Commercial.

Partner, NAI Commercial

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City council has confirmed the appointment of Vic Gupta — a former senior staffer and ally of Mayor John Tory — as the CEO of CreateTO, which manages the city’s $27-billion portfolio of more than 8,000 properties.

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Global business accelerator Plug and Play announced a new headquarters in Calgary as the city’s $100-million investment fund pledged to support its efforts to connect local tech startups to international corporations.

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Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) has entered into a global agreement to manage legal services for Ivanhoé Cambridge‘s Canadian shopping centres by transferring a part of Ivanhoe’s legal team to BLG in Toronto and Montréal.

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On Nov. 1, 1803299 Ontario Inc. sold the property at 1040 Wilton Grove in London, Ont., to Nexus REIT (NXR-UN-T). As partial consideration for the acquisition, the REIT’s subsidiary Nobel REIT Limited Partnership issued 3,303,275 class B limited partnership units with a value of $28.5 million.

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Firm Capital Apartment REIT, (FCA-UN-X), Globe Newswire
Flagship Communities REIT, (MHC-U-T) , Canada Newswire
Inovalis REIT, (INO-UN-T), Business Wire
PROREIT, (PRV-UN-T), Canada Newswire
SmartCentres REIT, (SRU-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Panattoni

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Christina Poon, who grew up in East Montreal, has been the head of Manhattan’s prestigious W Union Square Hotel since April. Her mandate is to establish the model for the global hotels belonging to the industrial giant Marriott International.

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QuadReal Property Group and Los Angeles-based LaTerra Development announced the closing of a $198.5-million construction loan for the development of 573 apartment homes (69 of which are affordable units) adjacent to a transit stop at 777 N. Front St. in downtown Burbank.

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CommonWealth Partners is in contract to buy Manhattan’s Hudson Commons office building for more than $1 billion in the largest deal since Google announced plans to buy its Hudson Square office building from Oxford Properties Group and CPP Investments for $2.1 billion.

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Only 28 per cent of Manhattan office workers are back at their desks and fewer than half will return by January, according to a new survey of 188 major employers by the Partnership for New York City.

Sustainable Biz Canada

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After a battle between the city and province that’s lasted for decades, Toronto will soon require developers to build affordable units in new condo buildings in an attempt to add thousands of homes below market value in the coming years.

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David Singh, a once prominent entrepreneur whose Fortune Financial Management oversaw more than $7 billion in the mid-1990s, has been convicted of fraud after he sold millions of dollars worth of shares in mortgage companies that never invested in any mortgages.

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A series of moves by U.S.-based property technology companies suggest Canadian real estate watchers may soon have to familiarize themselves with an approach to residential home-selling and investing known as the “iBuyer” model.

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The supply of homes listed for sale across B.C. is at a historical low, said the British Columbia Real Estate Association. There were 19,214 active listings in October in B.C. — a nearly 40 per cent year-over-year drop and an all-time record low.

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