Downtown Calgary Masonic Temple property for sale

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Calgary

Skyrocketing taxes have led the owners of the historic Masonic Temple property, on a half-acre of developable land in downtown Calgary, to put it up for sale. The listing includes the three-storey brick building and two parking lots.

Fiera CEO bets on farmland for future growth

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette  •  RENX

Jean-Guy Desjardins, Fiera Capital Corporation (FSZ-T) founder and chief executive officer, predicts significant growth in the firm’s agricultural holdings during the next 10 to 15 years after the investments outperformed traditional fixed-income assets in recent years.

Triple Five uses malls as American Dream collateral

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Toronto Star  •  Business Insider

The West Edmonton Mall has been put up as collateral on the troubled American Dream mega-mall in East Rutherford, N.J. Edmonton’s Triple Five Group put up 49 per cent of its interest in WEM and 49% of its Mall of America interest.

eStruxture converts ex-printing facility to data centre

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Technology  •  Greater Montreal

A facility that opened 20 years ago as the printing press of the future for The Montreal Gazette has been transformed into eStruxture Data Centers’ largest facility. MTL-2 includes more than 187,000 square feet of colocation space with a planned 30-megawatt capacity.

KingSett, PCL top out at 700 Bay additions

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Two years after demolition began on the west end of the podium at the 1977-built LuCliff Place complex in Downtown Toronto, developer KingSett Capital and contractor PCL celebrated the topping out of a major expansion to the complex at 700 Bay.

Race is on to replace Michael Sabia at Caisse

Commercial  •  La Presse  •  RENX

For the first time in its history, the management of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) will be the subject of a real race. The mechanism for selecting the best candidate will be launched early next year.

Sponsored by Trez Capital The benefits of choosing debt over equity financing have never been clearer

The myriad of logistics that are part of developing real estate can seem endless. Difficult decisions must be made and challenges can arise almost anywhere. Securing financing shouldn’t be one of those challenges.

Calgary CRE-to-residential tax growth leads nation

Residential, Commercial  •  Troy Media  •  Globe Newswire  •  Winnipeg Free Press

An Altus Group report indicates that for the second consecutive year, Calgary saw the largest ratio increase among 11 Canadian cities surveyed for the 2019 Canadian Property Tax Rate Benchmark Report. The report looks at the ratios between commercial and residential taxes.

Toronto council poised to back Ontario Line

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Toronto’s council is poised to back the Ontario Line this week, but critics warn unanswered questions remain about the provincial proposal. Today, councillors are set to debate a new transit agreement between the city and province.

Hexo winds down operations at Ontario greenhouse

Commercial  •  CityNews  •  CBC

Hexo Corp. (HEXO-T) is winding down its operations at its greenhouse in Beamsville, Ont., as part of the cannabis company’s cost-cutting moves. The Niagara-area greenhouse belonged to Newstrike Brands Ltd., which Hexo acquired in May.

Dispute resolution board use on the rise in Canada

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

With the movement to very large infrastructure projects, especially public-private partnerships (P3s), a construction dispute resolution mechanism more commonly utilized in the United States and other nations is increasingly being used in Canada, says leading Toronto construction lawyer Harvey Kirsh.

Canadian investors are losing money: Veritas

Residential  •  Huffington Post

Toronto-based investment research firm Veritas has pinpointed what it sees as the key risk to Canada’s housing market: Money-losing investor-owners. In an informal poll Veritas found only half of those who own real estate as an investment are cash-flow positive.

NexPoint, Condor merge to form 26-hotel company

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

NexPoint Hospitality Trust (NHT-U-X) expects the acquisition by merger of Condor Hospitality, Inc. will be completed in Q4 2019. NHT is targeting estimated 2020 revenue of $150-170 million and estimated net operating income of $57-64 million.

Trez Capital, Hines purchase Texas storage facility

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Trez Capital, in a partnership with Hines, has acquired a 235,400-square-foot storage facility in Plano, Texas. Constructed in 2018, the four-building storage encompasses 1,603 storage spaces, ranging from 25 to 400 square feet.

Denmark’s $450B pension market piling into RE

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Trump Organization explores selling D.C. hotel

Commercial  •  CNN  •  Commercial Observer

The Trump Organization is considering selling its three-year-old hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., Eric Trump, executive vice-president of The Trump Organization, said the company has hired real estate firm JLL to assist the possible sale of the Trump International Hotel.

What a Liberal minority government means to Vancouver RE

Residential  •  CBC  •  Business In Vancouver

Under the First Time Home Buyers Incentive (FTHBI), the Liberals will be increasing the upper limit for eligible homes from $480,000 to $789,000. With the FTHBI, home buyers receive between five and 10 per cent of the purchase price as an “incentive.”

GTA new home market continues recovery: BILD

Residential  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

The GTA new home market was relatively strong in September, both in terms of new home sales and new project openings, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) announced Monday.

Pace of mortgage borrowing picks up

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Canadians increased their mortgage borrowing last month at the strongest pace in more than a year, the latest sign real estate activity is rebounding from a prolonged lull. The total value of residential mortgage credit climbed to $1.6 billion in September.

Chartwell Trait-Carré Retirement Residence breaks ground

Residential  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

Groundbreaking for the Chartwell Trait-Carré Retirement Residence, in Charlesbourg, Que., took place Monday morning. This 359-apartment residence represents an investment of approximately $90 million and highly anticipated benefits for the community. Chartwell Retirement Residences (CSH-UN-T) is an unincorporated, open-ended trust.