HQ Commercial slashes prices of Vancouver rental buildings

HQ Commercial slashes prices of Vancouver rental buildings

HQ Commercial has eight rental apartment buildings for sale in Metro Vancouver, and the prices for three of them have been slashed by more than $750,000 in the past four weeks. The price drops reflect a cooling in what has been a white-hot multi-family market as investors fear tougher rent control regulations from the province and higher lending rates from the Bank of Canada, according to HQ Commercial’s Cynthia Jagger.

Business In Vancouver – Property Biz Canada

Ontario wants to speed up sale of 243 surplus properties

The Ontario government is expediting the sell-off of 243 surplus government properties on 14,600 acres to raise between $105 million and $135 million in the next four years. The plots range from old jails and psychiatric hospitals to empty lots. About 50 of the properties are in the Toronto and Hamilton area, including 20 in the City of Toronto. Among those is the old Thistletown Regional Centre and a children’s mental health facility in Etobicoke.

Toronto Star

Young executives share expertise, views on Canadian CRE

Five commercial real estate executives under the age of 45 provided perspective on the industry and their companies at the Real Estate Forum at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Nov. 29. The participants were: Bryce Alston, director, Alston Properties; Michael Hungerford, principal and partner, Hungerford Properties; Laurence Vincent, co-president, Groupe Prével; Daniel Winberg, principal, The Rockport Group; and Jennifer Balcerak, vice-president, leasing, QuadReal Property Group.

Property Biz Canada

Centurion buys six Western Canadian apartment properties

Centurion Asset Management and Centurion Apartment REIT announced the addition of six multi-family properties in Manitoba, British Columbia and Saskatchewan to their portfolio. In total, the properties comprise almost 740 units and are either new, or recently constructed.Three of the properties are in Regina, two are in Winnipeg and the other is in Victoria.

Property Biz Canada

Winnipeg’s Lount Corp. develops new niche: Luxury apartments

With 13 units, Winnipeg’s Dexter House may be small, but the multi-family project aims to make a big impression with an increasingly affluent demographic: the baby boomers.  The concrete and steel, four-story development in trendy Osborne Village is a purpose-built rental offering a similar experience to high-end condo living without the commitment of ownership, says Ben Lount, executive vice-president of Lount Corporation, the company behind the development.

Property Biz Canada

Iconic Toronto building getting a facelift

We are examining the damage up and down the outer wall of the once stately building at 2 Queen St. W. in Toronto, on the northwest corner of perhaps the most historically significant retail intersection in Canada. Project manager Annabel Vaughan of ERA Architects points out section after section of cracked yellow-beige brick. Landlord Cadillac Fairview is hoping, at a hefty expense, to restore the building to its original, 1896 prominence.

Globe and Mail – Property Biz Canada

Michael McCain bets $700M on Maple Leaf’s future

The Canadian business establishment doesn’t part with its cash easily. So word a McCain was dropping almost $700 million to build a new chicken plant should have been big news. But it wasn’t, really. A massive bet on something as prosaic as food, in a place as normal as London, Ont., just doesn’t make the heart go pitter-patter in the smartphone age. 

Financial Post

NHL ready to help Senators move downtown: Bettman

Publicly, the word Gary Bettman used was “disappointed.” Privately, the NHL commissioner might have a harsher way of describing all that’s gone wrong with the Ottawa Senators lately. After all, this is a mess that keeps growing and growing. And if owner Eugene Melnyk is not going to clean it up, the league might have to step in and do it themselves.

Toronto Sun – Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Citizen

Melcor REIT acquires Lethbridge office building

Melcor REIT (MR-UN-T) Monday announced it has acquired an office building in Lethbridge, Alta., for $6.25 million (excluding closing costs). “This acquisition represents the execution of the second phase of our asset recycling program,” said Melcor REIT president and chief executive officer Andrew Melton.”In May of 2017, we sold LC Industrial in Lethbridge for a meaningful premium after adding significant value to the property.”

Globe Newswire – Property Biz Canada

CAPREIT acquires 345 Dutch residential rental suites

Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT) (CAR-UN-T) announced it has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of 225 single-family rental homes and 120 multi-family rental suites in six properties well-located in three urban centres in the Netherlands for a purchase price of $83 million Cdn. All the above purchases were funded by CAPREIT’s Acquisition and Operating credit facility.

Globe Newswire

High land prices force gas pumps to go mobile

For Vancouver drivers wondering how they are going to fill the gas tanks of their cars as service stations disappear around them, there’s now at least one mobile option. Think of it as a delivery service similar to Skip the Dishes or Amazon, but for gasoline. Consumers order a tankful of fuel delivered to their location by a tank-equipped pickup truck from a company called Filld.

Vancouver Province

Wrecking ball to free up development space in Winnipeg

Winnipeg’s old Public Safety Building (PSB) will meet the business end of a wrecking ball next year, freeing up land in the middle of the Exchange District. The PSB is part of a larger 2.5-acre site, part of which will be developed by CentreVenture, the city’s downtown development agency, and part of which will be developed by the private sector.

Western Investor

Inside SurveyMonkey’s new Ottawa urban jungle

Four years after first coming to Ottawa, Silicon Valley tech giant SurveyMonkey has found a long-term home for its “HQ2.” Earlier this year, the San Mateo-based survey software firm moved into its new downtown offices at 200 Laurier Ave. W. The firm’s 150-plus employees have four floors and more than 40,000 square feet of space to monkey around in, including a first-floor gathering space for all-hands meetings and events.

Ottawa Business Journal

Meet Mike Mackay, president of Strand

As president of Strand, a Vancouver-based real estate finance, development and investment company, Mike Mackay has real estate in his blood. He took the helm at Strand in 2014 when it was focused on financing developers mainly in the U.S. Under Mackay, Strand has achieved significant growth in less than four years and successfully expanded into the local market.

Business In Vancouver

Retailer Crabtree & Evelyn files for bankruptcy

Beauty and home products retailer Crabtree & Evelyn Canada Inc. is closing its stores and has filed for bankruptcy protection. In Quebec court filings, the company says it plans to begin liquidating inventory, so it can distribute the proceeds to creditors. The company employs 123 full- and part-time employees in Canada and operates 19 stores: 11 in Ontario, six in B.C. and one each in Alberta and Quebec.

CBC

Market Trends and Research

Bank of Canada holds key interest rate at 1.75%

The Bank of Canada walked back some of its enthusiasm about the nation’s outlook in a decision that kept interest rates unchanged, saying the economy may have more capacity than previously thought to grow without fueling inflation. The Ottawa-based central bank kept its overnight benchmark rate at 1.75 per cent, reiterating it expects to eventually remove all monetary stimulus from the economy, but its statement was more guarded than in October.

Bloomberg – Windsor Star – Reuters

Real Estate Companies

OMERS to sell majority of Caliber Collision Centers

OMERS Private Equity today announced it has signed an agreement to sell a majority interest in Caliber Collision Centers to funds affiliated with Hellman & Friedman LLC. Caliber will be merged with Abra Auto Body Repair of America to form a leading collision repair provider with more than 1,000 centres across 37 U.S. states. OMERS Private Equity will retain a significant minority investment in the combined company. 

Globe Newswire

Saint John City Hall tower sells for $3M — well below value

Renovations are expected to start within a number of weeks at the Saint John City Hall building, as new local owners step in to take over the major uptown office tower. Developer Keith Brideau and Dr. David Elias, a physician and businessman, took possession of the 48-year-old building Thursday. Service New Brunswick records show the company paid $3 million for the property, less than half the assessed value of $7.5 million.

CBC

Real Estate Investment Trusts

What trade war means for U.S. REIT investors

With the U.S./China trade war escalating through most of 2018, it has been a confusing and scary time for all investors.  The first thing income investors want to know is whether escalating tariffs might threaten their dividends. The answer is absolutely not. That’s because, while the S&P 500, in general, gets about 37 per cent of its revenue from overseas, REITs are the second-least trade-sensitive sector you can own.

Forbes – BusinessWorld

Retail

HBC’s loss widens on higher expenses, JV losses

Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) reported a wider third-quarter loss on Wednesday on higher depreciation and amortization expenses and foreign exchange losses. The owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue luxury retailer reported a net loss from continuing operations of $124 million, or 52 cents a share, for the three months ended Nov. 3, compared with a loss of $116 million, or 64 cents, a year earlier.

Reuters

Restaurants and Eateries

Soaring rents force food entrepreneurs to think small

For many budding food entrepreneurs, the reality is clear: Go small or go bankrupt. In response to soaring commercial lease rates in major Canadian cities, some food businesses are getting creative – inhabiting little nooks and crannies that make your cozy corner café seem palatial by comparison. Today, entrance vestibules, unused storage closets inside other businesses, and even tiny display windows are real options.

Globe and Mail

Sports Venues

A’s unveil plans to build Bjarke Ingels-designed ballpark

The Oakland A’s recently announced plans to build a next-generation urban ballpark at Howard Terminal that “returns the baseball experience to the roots of the sport, while reimagining the ballpark anew.” The overall design takes on a “ballpark within a park” design as the stadium will be tucked into its surrounding urban setting. The square block of the ballpark district will sit within Oakland’s greater urban fabric.

Building Design & Construction

Infrastructure

LRT will move Hamilton forward in possible recession: Mayor

Hamilton’s mayor says he hopes light rail transit (LRT) will help keep the city afloat during a North American recession some economists say could come as soon as 2020. Fred Eisenberger said in his inaugural address Monday the system will bring “thousands of construction jobs” and that those workers will be buying groceries, trucks and appliances here.

CBC

Montreal getting a new, bigger Île-aux-Tourtes bridge

The Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, a crucial and often traffic-clogged artery connecting Vaudreuil-Dorion to the west of the island of Montreal, is getting rebuilt. The new structure will be 50 per cent larger to accommodate reserved lanes for buses and a bike path. A project notice of the plan was quietly posted on the provincial Environment Ministry’s website last week. Roughly 83,000 vehicles use the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge every day, including 9,000 trucks.

CBC

Technology

Canadian Starwood hotels may be part of security breach

Marriott International says Starwood-branded properties in Canada are among those potentially impacted by a recent security breach. A spokesperson for the hotel giant behind brands including W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton and Westin said in email to The Canadian Press the company operates 77 former Starwood branded hotels in Canada. The spokesperson refused to share the number of Canadians who have stayed there and may be impacted by the breach.

CTV

Other

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