Starlight acquires 5 buildings, 465 apts. in Vancouver

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments  •  Metro Vancouver

Starlight Investments has continued the rapid expansion of its British Columbia portfolio, acquiring five additional buildings containing 465 apartments in Metro Vancouver. This brings it to 964 units acquired in 14 buildings in Metro Vancouver and Victoria during the past month.

Which trends survive? Retail’s pandemic pivot faces new test

RENX  Commercial  •  Retail  •  National

Many retailers have had to change the way they traditionally did business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a June 9 panel at the Land & Development Conference examined this evolution.

Panel supports Republic’s Scarborough Junction plan

Residential, Commercial  •  Urban Toronto  •  RENX

Republic Developments‘ Scarborough Junction Masterplan, a proposal to build a complete transit-oriented high-rise community directly adjacent the Scarborough GO Station, presented its plan to the Toronto Design Review Panel in May and received support from the panelists.

Amacon’s Voya towers bringing 930 units to Mississauga

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Amacon is bringing 32- and 46-storey towers to Mississauga’s Parkside Village community. The Turner Fleischer Architects-designed Voya towers will include 930 condominium units, offered in a range of one- through three-bedroom plans, and ranging in area from 483 to 1,051 square feet.

Reliance acquires Van. office building; will redevelop

Commercial  •  urbanYVR  •  RENX

Vancouver’s 815 Hornby Street has been sold to Reliance Properties and will be redeveloped. The six-storey office building, constructed in 1980, consists of 61,535 square feet with office space over ground-floor retail. Retail tenants include MAC cosmetics, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ollie Quinn and others.

CRE Matters › Record demand, supply woes, hungry buyers: Rental apt. building snapshot, Part II

Colliers National Multifamily Team, East: Colliers National Multifamily Team, East

McGill’s $700M project moving forward

Commercial  •  La Presse

Despite a controversy surrounding the former site of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Quebec Council of Ministers has given the green light to McGill University’s $700 million “New Vic” project, which aims to establish a new university centre.

Ivanhoé, Hines secure $780M green construction loan

RENX  Commercial, Real Estate, Finance  •  Toronto / GTA

Ivanhoé Cambridge and Hines have secured the largest green construction loan in Canadian market history, $780 million, to finance construction of Phase 2 of the massive CIBC Square development at 141 Bay St. in the heart of Toronto’s downtown financial district.

Metro Vancouver CRE sales hit $2.7 billion in Q1

Commercial  •  Western Investor

CRE sales in Q1 reached a total of $2.7 billion in Metro Vancouver, the highest level since Q4 2018,  Altus Group reports. The $103-million sale of the former Mountain Equipment Co-op head office marked the high-water price for a single building.

Reimagined district around McMahon Stadium unveiled

Residential, Commercial  •  Calgary Herald  •  CBC  •  Global News

From a fieldhouse to hotels to tailgating avenues to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, a Calgary council committee got its first look at proposed redevelopment plans for the Foothills Athletic Park and McMahon Stadium area on Monday.

Three new T.O. hubs named on the Ontario Line

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  BlogTO  •  Toronto Storeys

Queen’s Park is speeding ahead on its Transit-Oriented Communities program, announcing three more hubs on the Ontario Line – King-Bathurst, Queen-Spadina and the Exhibition – proposed stops that are to be surrounded by new housing, office, retail space and other uses.

Walmart Canada testing cashier-less store

Commercial  •  Canadian Grocer

Walmart (WMT-N) is replacing cashiers at its Terrace store in northwest B.C., with self-serve checkouts this summer, making it a test project along with a select number of other outlets in Canada.

Brookfield acquires WashREIT office portfolio for $766M

Commercial  •  MarketWatch  •  Globest.com  •  Bisnow

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust has agreed to sell substantially all its office portfolio to a Brookfield Asset Management private real-estate fund for $766 million. The portfolio comprises 12 office assets, consisting of 2.37 million square feet in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

NorthWest increases offer for Australian Unity

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Canada Newswire

Toronto-based NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT (NWH-UN-T) is raising its hostile takeover offer for Australian Unity Healthcare Property Trust to $2.53 Cdn per wholesale unit, $2.59 per retail unit and $1.59 per class-A unit in cash in what it calls its final offer.

U.S. CRE optimism on the rise: Surveys

Commercial  •  Business Observer

The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, NAIOP and the Urban Land Institute believe the U.S. commercial real estate industry will rebound dramatically in the second half of 2021 and into 2022 and beyond, according to new surveys each has conducted.

U.S. CRE construction starts down 14% YOY

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

ConstructConnect announced May’s volume of U.S. construction starts, excluding residential work, was $32.5 billion, a month-over-month decline of two per cent from $33.2 billion. Year-over-year nonresidential January-May starts are down 14.1 per cent.

NYX Capital sells Brampton townhomes development

Residential  •  NYX Capital release

Toronto-based NYX Capital Corp. has sold its Henderson Townhomes project in Brampton. Price and buyer have not been disclosed. The 374,000-square-foot development includes 152 back-to-back stacked townhomes and 250 apartment units and has easy transportation access to Highway 410 and Queen St. E.

Condo prices up the most since 2018: TD

Residential  •  Financial Post  •  Canada Newswire

Benchmark condo prices are up 10.6% year-over-year – the strongest gain since 2018, says TD economist Rishi Sondhi. Benchmark prices have climbed month-over-month for almost a full year, with the gains in the past three months the strongest since the housing boom in 2017.

75% Canadians who want a house can’t afford one

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

Home ownership is now out of reach for about three-quarters of Canadians, as housing prices reach a record high and continue to rise, according to Manulife Bank’s bi-annual Debt Survey.

U.S. rental prices reach highest level in two years

Residential  •  PR Newswire

With many businesses beginning to scale back their remote work policies, the U.S. median rental price hit the highest point in two years in May, surpassing pre-pandemic growth at an increase of 5.5% year-over-year, according to the Realtor.com Monthly Rental Report.