Kwikwetlem FN to develop Port Coquitlam industrial site

Kwikwetlem FN to develop Port Coquitlam industrial site

It is at least a year away from signing its first tenants, but the Aboriginal-owned Kwikwetlem Business Park in Port Coquitlam is not expected to have much problem filling up due to a severe shortage of industrial land across Metro Vancouver. The industrial vacancy rate in the Metro region stands at 1.4 per cent, the lowest in Canada. There are virtually no large parcels of industrial land left to develop.

Western Investor

KTB originates $165M loan on Hotel X Toronto

KTB Asset Management, Co., Ltd., a Korean real estate fund manager, announced it has originated a $165-million, non-recourse, five-year fixed-rate loan secured by Hotel X Toronto. Hotel X is located within Toronto’s Exhibition Place and features 404 guest rooms along with numerous amenities. The property is owned by a limited partnership consisting of Henry Kallan, Alex Rovt, and Joshua Durst and is operated by the Library Hotel Collection.

KTB Asset Management Co., Ltd. media release

Calgary, Edmonton driven by private investors: Altus

For decades, the Battle of Alberta has been fought within the sports realm. There’s also a rivalry in the commercial real estate world – a friendly one which sees the cities compete for investors in all aspects of the market. However, Ben Tatterton, Data Solutions manager for the research firm Altus Group, said the two cities are this year following a similar path of growth in investments.

Property Biz Canada

EcoLock Kelowna pushes self-storage into sustainable era

When developer Don Redden was asked about buying piece of land in Kelowna that had been permitted to build a self-storage building, he thought: “Why on Earth would I want to do that?” After a bit of research, though, the CEO of Vancouver-based Ulmus Development changed his mind and indeed bought the downtown property at Ellis St. and Bay Ave.

Sustainable Biz Canada

81-storey M3 condos to tower over Mississauga’s M City

Mississauga’s M City will soon be home to the city’s tallest high-rise, and one of the tallest in the Greater Toronto Area. The 81-storey M3 will be the third addition to Rogers Real Estate Development Limited and Urban Capital’s M City development. “It will probably be the CN Tower of Mississauga for many generations to come,” said Urban Capital partner Mark Reeve. “You’ll see it from everywhere.”

Property Biz Canada

Montreal development offers a balance of ‘magic’ and math

For Montreal real estate developer Benjamin Sternthal, the ideal building project is a marriage of logic and vision: not just financially successful, but also, in some way, remarkable. “We believe in magic, and we believe in logic,” Sternthal said. “You can’t look at real estate development as an Excel model. You can’t forget you’re building for people.”

Montreal Gazette

Montreal soaring to new economic heights

Facebook’s lab has already expanded to 20 specialists from four since its launch in September 2017, with plans to move to a bigger facility come January. Microsoft Corp. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. have both launched Montreal-based AI labs in the past two years. A mix of cutting-edge tech clusters, real estate growth and old mainstays like tourism and shipping are transforming the city into an economic hot spot.

National Post – Toronto Star – Property Biz Canada

Brampton comes alive: A big, bold vision

At the corner of Main Street and Steeles Avenue are a Food Basics supermarket, a mall fronted by a Canadian Tire and a lot of parking lots. Nine lanes of traffic growl past in each direction as the evening rush begins. From here, Brampton doesn’t look like a city of the future. Yet, this suburban city of 600,000, northwest of Toronto, envisions a different picture here a generation from now.

Globe and Mail

GTA CRE leased space up 24.9 per cent year-over-year

Toronto Real Estate Board commercial network members reported nearly seven million square feet of industrial, commercial/retail and office space leased through TREB’s MLS System in Q3 2018. This represented an increase of 24.9 per cent in comparison to the 5.6 million square feet reported leased in Q3 2017. Industrial space accounted for nearly 75 per cent of total space leased.

Globe Newswire

Beaten-down Prairie looks like a gold mine to Avenue Living

As property values surge in Toronto and Vancouver, a Calgary asset manager with about $1.1 billion is making a contrarian bet on the Canadian Prairie. Avenue Living Asset Management Ltd., whose clients include private family offices and small institutions, owns and operates properties across Western Canada. The closely held company is out to raise as much as $450 million in all to expand in the region.

Bloomberg – Property Biz Canada

Granville Street to get a new look with new Hotel Belmont

Granville Street is set to get a new look by next spring with the new Hotel Belmont replacing the Comfort Inn, the building’s owner and Pacific Reach CEO Azim Jamal confirmed Thursday. The transformation is part of broader change on the Granville strip. A couple blocks north, Regus-owned Spaces is expected to be open by the end of 2018. Blueprint also intends to open its fourth Colony restaurant.

Business In Vancouver – Vancouver Sun

Partners sells Cornwall Square shopping centre for $8.4M

Partners REIT (PAR-UN-T) announced today it has agreed to sell its retail property in Cornwall, Ont., following an extensive process run by CBRE and supervised by management and the REIT’s Board of Trustees. The property has been agreed to be sold for $8.4 million. Closing is expected to occur on or before Dec. 10.

Globe Newswire – Property Biz Canada

New Horizon Mall shop owners remain optimistic

The New Horizon Mall near Balzac has been opened since the summer but as of Thursday, only 11 shops have opened. Owners of Eye Optix, which has only been open for a week, said traffic has been slow and quiet. “Maybe a dozen people a day come through here. On weekends it is a lot busier but again, it’s kind of quiet,” owner Adrian Wong said.

Global News – CBC – Property Biz Canada

Halifax hospital $2B redevelopment to be P3 funded

The redevelopment of Nova Scotia’s largest hospital complex will cost about $2 billion — the bulk of which will be funded through a public-private partnership, says Premier Stephen McNeil. McNeil made the revelations for the first time since the massive project at Halifax’s QEII Health Sciences Centre was announced two years ago. “We have committed now $350 million to announcements that we’ve already made,” McNeil told reporters Thursday.

Halifax ChronicleHerald – CBC

$1.57B deal gives Parkland Fuel access to 526 gas stations

Parkland Fuel Corp. (PKI-T), a Canada-based marketer of petroleum products, said Wednesday it would buy a 75 per cent stake in privately held SOL Investments Ltd and its units for $1.57 billion Cdn. The deal gives Parkland access to 526 retail gas stations, expanding its presence in the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the company said.

Reuters – Globe Newswire

Featured Column

Is NAFTA 2.0 a boon to rural and small-town economies?

Now that we have had time to detox from the NAFTA 2.0 political spin over Thanksgiving, it’s time to consider what it really means for real estate. (Disclosure: I just can’t bring myself to call this new deal by its acronym without suffering the terrifying image of POTUS in costume dancing to the Village People’s YMCA, so NAFTA 2.0 it is.)

Read more

Real Estate Companies

Firm Capital provides update on U.S. holdings

Firm Capital American Realty Partners Corp. (FCA-X) announced the full repayment of its $4.1 million, 6.5% per cent interest-only first mortgage loan secured by 120 single-family homes located in Atlanta. It also announced it has sold or closed sales on 73 homes, or 61% of the total portfolio, for gross proceeds of $7.8 million.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Genesis announces renewal of normal course issuer bid

Genesis Land Development (GDC-T) Fridayannounced the TSX has accepted Genesis’ notice to renew its prior normal course issuer bid which terminated on Sept. 11, for a one year period. The bid will commence on Oct. 10 and will terminate on the earlier of: (i) Oct. 9, 2019; and (ii) the date on which the maximum number of common shares in the capital of Genesis are purchased pursuant to the bid. 

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Norway’s SWF pays $541.6M for Amazon’s London office

Norges Bank Real Estate Management (NBREM) has bought a Central London office property, occupied by Amazon, for $541.6 million Cdn. NBREM, which manages Norway’s $1.299 billion sovereign wealth fund, said it has acquired the Sixty London property located on 60 Holborn Viaduct from VGV Immobilienfonds II, a fund managed by Union Investment Institutional Property.

IPE Real Assets – CP Executive

Real Estate Investment Trusts

Choice Properties CEO purchases $3.6M worth of units

In a trade valued at more than $3.6 million, on Sept. 28, Choice Properties REIT (CHP.UN-T) president/CEO Stephen Johnson acquired 294,673 units at a price per unit of $12.3568 for an account in which he has indirect ownership, increasing the account’s holdings to 1,443,943 units. That day, CFO Mario Barrafato purchased 34,347 units at a price per unit of $12.3568 for an account in which he has indirect ownership, lifting the account balance to 207,521 units.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Property Biz Canada

Retail

Sears Holdings preparing for bankruptcy

Sears Holdings Corp., the struggling U.S. retailer owned by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, is laying the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing as soon as this weekend as it faces a critical debt maturity. Lampert, who for weeks has been pushing a debt restructuring proposal that would avoid a Chapter 11 filing, is now focused on a deal that would preserve stakeholders’ value in a court restructuring, according to source.

Bloomberg – Reuters

Cannabis industry news

Ascent announces strategic alliance with Green Sage

Ascent Industries Corp. announced a strategic alliance with Green Sage, LLC, a Colorado- and California-based real estate investment firm focused on acquiring, developing and managing real estate infrastructure in cannabis-legal jurisdictions throughout North America and Europe. Green Sage and Ascent may jointly pursue opportunities in commercial real estate of benefit to their respective businesses in Canada, the U.S. and internationally.

Canada Newswire

Investment banks reap rewards with $2.8B in equity deals

Canada’s burgeoning cannabis sector is helping to fill the gap created by a slowdown in capital raising by energy and mining companies. In the first nine months of the year, investment bankers helped a slew of Canadian medical marijuana producers – including Canopy Growth Corp., ABcann Global Corp. and Aphria Inc. – raise a total of $2.8-billion to help finance their expansion plans, according to data from Refinitiv.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

New Development

CGI to open centre of excellence in Drummondville

CGI (GIB-A-T) announced it will open a centre of excellence in the city of Drummondville, within the Centre-du-Québec region, before the end of the year. The centre, which will specialize in digital transformation and innovation and primarily target the finance, retail and manufacturing sectors, will be CGI’s seventh in Quebec, in addition to centres in Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Shawinigan, Montréal and Gatineau.

Canada Newswire

Sports Venues

Calgary invites Flames back to table to discuss new arena

City council voted 13 to 1 Tuesday afternoon to restart talks with the Calgary Flames about a new arena in Victoria Park. Negotiations between the two parties collapsed last year after Flames’ CEO Ken King said the city’s offer to share costs was short of what the team needed. On Friday, a council committee passed a motion recommending council resume talks on a new building.

CBC – Calgary Herald – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Infrastructure

Alberta joins petrochemicals boom with $2B methanol project proposal

Nauticol Energy Ltd., a little-known private company with a star-studded board of directors, announced plans Tuesday for a methanol manufacturing facility in Grande Prairie, Alta., which is in the heart of the province’s most active natural gas basin. The proposed $2-billion methanol plant could help the province achieve its goal of processing more of its oil and gas resources within its borders in the midst of severe infrastructure bottlenecks.

Financial Post

Other

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