Landlords face mounting calls for rent relief

Residential  •  Globe and Mail  •  Financial Post  •  CBC

Residential landlords are facing mounting pressure to ease or defer rental charges as the COVID-19 pandemic results in widespread layoffs and loss of income, leading some tenants to consider withholding payments in a “rent strike” due to start next month.

Ontario development industry deemed essential

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

In a move predicted last week by Richard Lyall, president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON), Ontario has decreed residential construction is among the essential businesses in the province that will be allowed to stay open.

Crestpoint buys 50% stake in Ottawa’s 234 Laurier

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Ottawa

Toronto-based Crestpoint Real Estate Investments has acquired a 50 per cent interest in the 452,000-square-foot 234 Laurier office tower in downtown Ottawa. Crestpoint paid just over $92 million for its stake in the 26-storey tower.

Value: Weighed and Measured › COVID-19 isn’t an opportunity, but it’s one heck of a motivator

John Clark: Vice President , The Regional Group of Companies Inc

COVID-19 WeWork’s latest crisis

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Bisnow

It took only a few weeks and a global pandemic for WeWork‘s strategy to pack people into each of its shared workspaces to become a deterrent for customers and a major liability for a company that can’t afford further setbacks.

CRE Matters › COVID-19 implications for commercial real estate

Colliers Canada:

Hospitals trying to free up beds in hotels

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Hospitals are looking at moving patients into hotels. Discussions with hotels in the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and elsewhere are exploring using vacant rooms for patients who are stuck in hospital beds even though they no longer require hospital care.

B.C. hotel industry sideswiped by virus outbreak

Commercial  •  Western Investor  •  Vancouver Sun  •  CBC

B.C.’s high-flying hotel industry has been grounded by the COVID-19 crisis, dropping what were the highest occupancy rates in the country to single-digit levels for the first time in history. Major hotels, including the iconic Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, have closed.

Lansing Square redevelopment application updated

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto  •  RENX

Toronto developer ELAD Canada has updated documents for its OPA and ZBA application to redevelop Lansing Square. The proposal calls for four residential buildings, townhouse blocks, an above-grade garage and an office tower on the under-utilized lot.

OSC hits developer with a cease trade order

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

The Ontario Securities Commission has slapped prominent Toronto real estate developer Harry Stinson with a cease trade order, alleging companies under his control may have made misleading statements about investments in a Buffalo hotel.

Canada’s $74B renovation industry in limbo

Residential  •  Western Investor

Renovation spending in Canada was tracking upwards this year, forecast to touch the $74-billion range – $20 billion of that in the Western provinces – but a sharp slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic is now expected through at least June.

Retail COVID-19 business updates

Commercial  • 

Ivanhoé Cambridge, Ivanhoé Cambridge media release

Leon’s Furniture Limited, (LNF-T), Canada Newswire

METRO Inc., (MRU-T), Canada Newswire

Canada, other nations pledge to protect supply chains

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

A group of Asia-Pacific countries, Canada and Chile pledged Wednesday to do what they can to uphold open and connected supply chains as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to tip the global economy into recession.

Apple may start reopening U.S. stores in April

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Apple Inc. told staff that some of its U.S. retail stores may reopen in April on a staggered basis and has extended remote work abilities for many employees through at least April 5.

City, state officials halt commercial evictions

Commercial  •  CP Executive

U.S. state and local officials have enacted measures to mitigate the financial impact of the virus on commercial real estate tenants. Los Angeles, Seattle and the state of Kansas were among the first to do so.

Starwood REIT buys downtown Boston tower for $614M

Commercial  •  Bisnow  •  Commercial Observer

A Starwood Capital Group-managed real estate income trust spent $614.3 million to acquire a 38-story downtown Boston tower. Starwood bought a majority stake in the ground lease at 60 State St., from J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Oxford Properties Group.

Alberta has no plan to freeze evictions

Residential  •  Edmonton Journal

Alberta has no plans as of yet to freeze evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Jason Kenney says. In a news conference, Kenney urged landlords to work with tenants, but stressed property owners must be allowed to protect themselves.

GTA housing market shaped by coronavirus

Residential  •  Globe and Mail  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe Newswire

A Toronto-area real estate market that began 2020 by revisiting the market euphoria of 2016 has changed abruptly. “A couple of weeks ago it felt like 2016 – now it feels like right after the crash,” says Toronto-based Union Realty‘s Rochelle DeClute.

Urbanites run for country homes, cottages

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

The distance between the piazzas of Rome and the snowshoe paths of Ontario’s Buckshot Lake can’t properly be measured in kilometres, even in normal times. However, Leslie Hoyt and husband Ken are feeling especially grateful for the world of difference.

U.S. new home sales fall 4.4 per cent in February

Residential  •  Reuters

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell in February after surging in the prior month, and could decline further because of the coronavirus pandemic which is boosting unemployment and severely disrupting economic activity.