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PROREIT buys in Ottawa, Winnipeg; Collingwood to invest $50M

3 years ago

PROREIT plans to acquire 12 industrial properties in Ottawa and Winnipeg for $86.8 million, and announced Collingwood Investments will take a $50 million equity position in the REIT. There are three Ottawa acquisitions and nine in Winnipeg representing 571,000 square feet.

The continuing adoption of technology, and a recognition of new pandemic-related realities will be dominant trends in 2021, according to Altus Group experts. “The real estate sector will move from adapting to adoption as workplace needs continue to change and evolve…”

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Walmart Canada (WMT-N) is closing six stores – three in Ontario, two in Alberta and one in Newfoundland & Labrador – and spending $500 million to upgrade more than half its remaining locations to improve the “look and feel” of its stores.

Summit Industrial Income REIT will pay $183.3M to acquire a modern 765,145 square foot logistics and office complex on a 35-acre property in Saint-Laurent, Que., a suburb of Greater Montreal.

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Mission Group is partnering with Nicola Wealth Real Estate to develop the final phases of Bernard Block, a master-planned urban village in downtown Kelowna. The final phases will include class-A office tower The Block and 34-storey residential condominium tower Bertram.

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Six months after WE Charity announced it would sell off its Canadian assets to create an endowment fund for its humanitarian programs abroad, it still holds more than $40 million in Toronto real estate including a block of downtown commercial properties.

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Amazon Canada said it is no longer considering Pickering’s protected Duffins Creek wetland property for its new fulfillment centre, a project that could be as large as four million square feet of warehouse space.

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Amazon.com Inc. has been ordered to close its Brampton fulfillment centre for two weeks as public health officials worry about rising COVID-19 cases inside the complex.

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For Jim Gray, 87, the veteran Calgary oilman whose name adorns the downtown Gray Family Eau Claire YMCA, the recent closing of the facility due to falling membership is the “canary in the coal mine” for the Calgary economy.

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Rogers Real Estate Development Ltd. and Urban Capital say 67-storey M4 will likely be one of the country’s most tech-savvy buildings with additions like a distributed antenna system (DAS) exclusively built for M City in Mississauga.

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By a couple of important investment measures, Empire outshines Loblaw (L-T). Empire (EMP-A-T) shares have a lower price to earnings ratio (16.12 vs. 21.54) and higher return on equity (17.3 per cent vs. 10.6). That means it offers bigger bang for the investment buck.

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Firm Capital Property Trust, (FCD-UN-X), Globe Newswire
Invesque Inc., (IVQ-U-T), Canada Newswire
Skyline Investments, (SKLN.TA), Globe Newswire

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Blackstone Group Inc. (BX-N) and Starwood Capital Group (STWD-N) have agreed to buy Extended Stay America Inc., an operator of hotels and motels, for about $6 billion, betting the industry will recover as progress in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates.

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Investors in trophy U.S. office buildings could be in for a rude awakening. A new report from Fitch Ratings shows property values could tumble 53.8% if workers and companies adopt a more “severe” scenario of staying home three days a week.

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Phoenix, Seattle, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas join five other metropolitan areas among NAR’s top 10 commercial real estate markets. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun predicts CRE will improve in 2021 due to steady improvements in the overall U.S. economy.

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The accompanying table shows the Top-10 major upcoming hotel/motel and shopping centre construction projects in Canada. They are all in the planning stage and are mainly new projects, but may also involve additions and/or alterations.

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Hot real estate markets in many regions helped propel house prices higher, pushing demand for mortgage loans to $34.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 — beating the previous high of $28.7 billion set in the third quarter, Statistics Canada said Friday.

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Extending a rental increase freeze for a full year and capping rent increases at the rate of inflation and restricting renovations “marks a tipping point for some landlords,” said Avison Young Vancouver’s Robert Greer. “Some will throw in the towel.”

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Westbank and others have set their sights on Vancouver’s West 10th Avenue with the likelihood it would eventually become a transit hub if the Broadway subway line continues further west along the line, to the University of B.C.

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Ideal Developments, which transferred ownership after allegedly defaulting on multi-million dollar loans, is accusing current owners Grand Grace Development of reneging on its promise to honour the agreements of purchases signed for Modern Manors’ 36 Richmond Hill townhouses.

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