Brivia buys downtown Montreal redevelopment site

RENX  Commercial  •  Investment  •  Greater Montreal

A developer leading some of Montreal’s largest ongoing projects has added another property to its pipeline, the Mansfield Athletic Club site just off Ste-Catherine Street West. Kheng Ly and Brivia Group announced the former Loews Theatre acquisition Thursday.

Beedie ind. development grinds through approvals

Commercial  •  Western Investor  •  RENX

A plan to build a large industrial complex in Delta, B.C., is slowly grinding its way through an approval process. Last year, Vancouver-based Beedie assumed ownership of the 163-acre property that’s to be split into several heavy industrial lots.

Edmonton City Plan expands focus beyond downtown

Residential, Commercial  •  Edmonton Journal

Scratch LRT here, build a bus bridge there — Edmonton’s next development plan will be hyper-focused on public transit as it hones in on a series of connected mini-city centres. It’s also less downtown-focused.

Marlin Spring, Greybrook break ground at Toronto Stockyards

RENX  Residential  •  Condominiums  •  Toronto / GTA

Stockyards District Residences will further transform a changing Toronto neighbourhood that has its working-class roots in the meat packing industry. “Marlin Spring is proud to contribute to the ongoing renaissance of Stockyards,” said Marlin Spring vice-president Pedro Lopes.

Van. developers get rezoning carte blanche: Lawyer

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

The number of applications to rezone properties in Vancouver has doubled in the past decade and almost all of them have been approved, says Nathalie Baker, a lawyer who specializes in land-use law.

Opinion: Are iconic buildings good for Vancouver?

Residential, Commercial  •  Vancouver Sun

The twisting 59-storey tower rising up next to Vancouver’s Granville Street Bridge is designed to look like it’s about to fall over. Created by Danish architect Bjarke Engels, the nearly finished tower stands out among downtown’s congested skyline of high-rises.

Sponsored by Yardi Search marketing: 5 ways to win

Shifting online consumer behaviors have significantly impacted marketing budgets in recent years. Not long ago, property management companies would allocate most, if not all, of their digital marketing spend to internet listing services (ILSs) . . .

Ontario Teachers’ net assets top $200B

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan announced its net assets reached $201.4 billion as of June 30, a $10.3 billion increase from Dec. 31. The total-fund net return was 6.3 per cent for the first six months of the year.

Quebec heritage advocates take on developers

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Quebec’s famous old towns like Montreal’s Vieux Port and the capital’s fortified city present an image of a province on top of heritage preservation. However, some heritage experts question if those neighbourhoods conceal holes in Quebec’s system of heritage protection.

Eataly’s first Canadian location set for Toronto

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Eataly, a chain of luxury grocery and restaurant complexes devoted to Italian cuisine, is expected to open its first Canadian location this fall. The 50,000-square-foot Toronto flagship will include a grocery store, a fresh market, four restaurants and  six bars.

The ROM eyes changes to its architecture

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Jagged crystal, meet smooth stone and lush greenery. That’s the equation for two new outdoor spaces at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The landscape projects are part of an ongoing renovation that soon could touch the building itself.

Robots lead the way at Jeffery’s Greenhouses

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

If you stop and smell the flowers at Jeffery’s Greenhouses plant No. 2 in Jordan Station, Ont., a sweet bucolic heartland in the Niagara Peninsula, just be careful you don’t get in the way of the robots.

BTB annual report wins Bronze Creative Award

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

BTB REIT (BTB.UN-T) announced its 2018 annual report has won the Bronze Creative Award at the Summit International Awards (SIA).  The SIA honours the best web, design, video, advertising, interactive, mobile & social marketing from creative agencies worldwide.

Dream Global a top REIT to boost returns

Commercial  •  Motley Fool

A top REIT every TFSA investor should consider owning is Dream Global REIT (DRG-UN-T), which has gained a stunning 20 per cent since the start of 2019 and is poised to soar further.

New WeWork rival lures cash from Brookfield, CPPIB

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen

Another challenger to WeWork is drawing cash from institutional investors as the office-sharing juggernaut faces the prospect of stiffer competition ahead of its IPO. New York-based startup Industrious raised US$80 million from backers including Brookfield Property Partners and the CPPIB.

Amazon opens its biggest global campus in India

Commercial  •  Reuters  •  Bloomberg  •  Forbes

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN-Q) on Wednesday launched its biggest campus in the world in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, underscoring its expansion plans in the country that has been one of its fastest-growing overseas markets.

Receiver takes over two Thompson apartment towers

Residential  •  Thompson Citizen

The owner of Forest View Suites in Thompson, Man., has been placed into receivership because the company hasn’t repayed money it borrowed to run the apartments. This has left a receiver in charge of two apartment buildings, containing 275 suites.

Smart cities need to spend more on security: Study

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star

The world’s largest cities need to invest billions of additional dollars into their infrastructure in order to secure citizen data, analyst group ABI Research concluded in a study published Tuesday.

Regina aims to cut residential building red tape

Residential  •  Western Investor

The City of Regina has announced a review of its building permit process in the hope of eliminating red tape and reducing the time it takes for approval. Year-over-year residential building permits were down 67 per cent to just 111 in Q1.

U.S. mortgage REITs pounded by treasury yield inversion

Commercial  •  The Real Deal

Three of the largest U.S. REITs that buy up residential mortgages and package them into securities have cut their dividends. The cuts came after the yields on three-month and 10-year treasuries inverted for the first time in over a decade.