HBC to cut TO retail space, sell NYC store

HBC to cut TO retail space, sell NYC store

Retail space in select Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada will be converted into office space as part of a series of deals that includes the sale of its Lord & Taylor flagship in Manhattan for more than $1 billion, it was announced Tuesday. The Fifth Avenue store was purchased by WeWork Property Advisors, a joint venture between WeWork and Rhône Capital.

Toronto Star – Financial Post – Globe and Mail – CBC

Future of retail is ‘micro malls’: WEM owners

A member of the family that developed West Edmonton Mall and other giant international shopping centres thinks the future of retail could be small. Mark Ghermezian has helped develop the mall’s new RAAS (Retail as a Service) market that features tiny spaces where local businesses can quickly set up shop without the time and expense of creating their own stand-alone operation.

Edmonton Journal – Property Biz Canada – The Saskatchewan Edge – Property Biz Canada

Greenwich tops long list of Melcor’s Calgary developments

Melcor Developments remains bullish on the Calgary region with a whopping 14 major projects on the go. At the top of the list is the 70-acre Greenwich mixed-use development located across the TransCanada Highway from Winsport, formerly Canada Olympic Park. 

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Transit, mixed-use driving Ottawa’s major developments

During the next decade, the City of Ottawa might finally shed some of its reputation as a big city with a small town feel. That’s certainly likely to be the case in and around its downtown. During a session at the 2017 Ottawa Real Estate Forum, executives crafting four of Ottawa’s largest developments offered overviews of their projects and weighed in on trends shaping their planning and construction.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

‘Sustainable’ demand driving Van. office tower construction

Mark Trepp takes a moment to look through several years of Vancouver office market data for confirmation. Indeed, Vancouver’s downtown class-A vacancy rate hasn’t been this low since just before the 2008 financial crisis, says the senior vice-president with Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Services (JLL) in Vancouver.

Vancouver Sun – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Worst is over for Calgary office sector: AY

The vacancy rate in downtown Calgary office buildings is beginning to decline. The rate still sat at a whopping 25.7 per cent in the third quarter, down marginally from the peak of 26.4 per cent registered in the April-to-June period, according to a new Avison Young report. “The worst is definitely behind us,” said Todd Throndson, Avison Young’s managing director in Calgary.

Calgary Herald

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Learn more about this event

Penticton’s hotel market heats up

Cash is pouring into Penticton’s accommodation sector with a flurry of sales activity and new construction. The Spanish Villa Resort is on the market for $5.9 million, the Beachside Motel for $3.5 million and the Rochester Resort for $2.9 million. Most buyers are reportedly from Western Canada but a part-owner of the Slumber Lodge, which just sold for $3.5 million, said he’s backed by investors from China.

Global News

Airbnb would support B.C. law for hotel tax on rentals

Airbnb Inc. says it’s willing to collect hotel taxes from people in B.C. using its service to rent out their homes, which the company says could raise more than $4-million a year. The U.S.-based company outlines the offer in a letter to the provincial government sayinh Airbnb would support a change in the law to impose the hotel tax on short-term rentals.

Globe and Mail

Genesis sells two Calgary multi-family sites

Genesis Land Development Corp. announced it has entered into an agreement with an arms-length third-party builder for the sale of undeveloped land located in the north west community of Sage Hill in Calgary. The aggregate sale price for the lands, which are zoned for medium-density multi-family development, is $11.27 million. 

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Starlight acquires Atlanta apartment complex

Starlight U.S. Multi-Family announced today it has acquired The Heights at Sugarloaf, a 330-unit, class-A, garden-style, multi-family property completed in 2017, and located in Atlanta. Heights at Sugarloaf consists of five-, three- and four-storey apartment buildings, offering an elegant clubhouse, a fully equipped fitness centre with pool views, a business centre with computers, and a package concierge system.

Canada Newswire – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Firm Capital completes $720 million in financings

Firm Capital Corporation announced the completion of $720 million in new mortgage financings year-to-date 2017.  Sample transactions completed, include a $135,000,000 first mortgage land loan for a 893,404-square-foot mixed-use building located in Toronto; and a $67,100,000 first mortgage construction loan for a mixed-use condo project located in Toronto, and six others described in the news release.

Firm Capital News Release

Avison Young boosts U.K. footprint

GlobeSt.com – Canada Newswire

Ivanhoe, QuadReal invest in Indian logistics facilities

Canadian institutional investors Ivanhoé Cambridge and QuadReal Property Group plan to invest up to US$800m in Indian real estate with industrial property specialist Logos. The two respective subsidiaries of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) are investing via the newly created Logos India Logistics Venture.

IPE Real Estate – Deal Street Asia – Reuters

Newmark Knight Frank operating company files for IPO

Newmark Group., Inc. formed by BGC Partners, Inc. last year to operate Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) and other BGC real estate assets, has filed for an IPO to sell class-A common stock. The entity applied this week to list its class-A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol NMRK.

CoStar Group

Featured Column

There’s a pattern to Saskatoon’s industrial vacancy rates

Our latest 3Q17 market report shows a very slight increase of 10 basis points to 8.1 per cent in Saskatoon’s overall industrial vacancy rate. This very marginal change does not alter our belief that this market has stabilized.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

Calgary, Edmonton CRE markets see significant growth: RE/MAX

Both Calgary and Edmonton saw strong year-over-year increases in total dollar value of commercial property sales during the first half of 2017 as a result of the ongoing stabilization of the oil sector. In contrast, total dollar value of commercial real estate sales in Greater Vancouver declined by 37.5 per cent during the second quarter.

Canada Newswire

Bank of Canada leaves interest rate unchanged

The Bank of Canada left its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday after raising it twice since the summer — but it signalled future hikes are likely on the horizon. The central bank said it held off this time in part because it expects the recent strength of the Canadian dollar to slow the rise in the pace of inflation.

Calgary Herald – CBC – Financial Post

Real Estate Companies

Tricon American Homes sells non-core homes

Tricon Capital Group Inc., a principal investor and asset manager focused on the residential real estate industry, announced Tricon American Homes completed the sale of 1,523 non-core homes for total proceeds of approximately $153 million and entered into a new $347.6 million five-year term loan facility with Morgan Stanley Asset Funding Inc.

Canada Newswire

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Retail

Lampert blames Sears Canada management for woes

Eddie Lampert, the chairman and chief executive of Sears Holding Corp., is blaming Sears Canada for exacerbating its problems before it filed for creditor protection. Lampert’s ESL Investments is the largest shareholder in Sears Canada, which is in the process of liquidating and closing its remaining stores. In a post on his blog, Lampert says the retailer’s reinvention strategy was risky and untested.

CTV – CTV

Roots shares fall below IPO prices

Shares of retailer Roots Corp. fell more than 10 per cent as they began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today. The shares were priced at $12 per share in their initial public offering, however they could be had for less than that in late-morning trading. The shares were down $1.89 or about 16 per cent at $10.11 on the TSX.

Winnipeg Free Press

Amazon rivals attempt to stem Whole Foods strategy

Whole Foods Market met a new foe this summer during talks to lease a top retail space in a San Francisco mall: the Target next door. As City Center mall’s largest tenant, Target Corp had a say over changes to the property. According to sources, Target balked at sharing the mall with Whole Foods because it feared competition from the grocery chain’s new owner, Amazon.com Inc. 

Reuters

Restaurants and Eateries

Half of Tim Hortons Canadian franchisees suing parent

The organization of Tim Hortons franchisees suing its corporate parent has recruited half of the coffee-and-doughnut chain’s Canadian restaurant owners to its ranks. A letter sent Friday to all Tim Hortons restaurant owners from the Great White North Franchisee Association intends to dispel Restaurant Brands International Inc.’s contention only a small number of store owners are unhappy with management’s practices.

Financial Post

McDonald’s sales strong thanks to cheap drinks, new burgers

McDonald’s Corp. reported strong restaurant sales on Tuesday, as $1 drinks and build-your-own burgers helped it draw in more customers and beat back rivals in an intense battle for market share. The world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue has been working to boost flagging traffic at its U.S. restaurants after customers defected to fast-food rivals and pricier fast-casual options.

Reuters – Toronto Star

Renovation and Restoration

Terrasses de la Chaudiere to get $3.9M facelift

The federal government has chosen which firm will handle an exterior renovation that will brighten up one of the Gatineau skyline’s most prominent buildings. The Provencher Roy-NORR consortium has been awarded the $3.9-million contract to design and manage the recladding of the deteriorating Terrasses de la Chaudierè complex, according to an announcement by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC).

CBC – Property Biz Canada

Human Resources

Former Facebook staffer returns to Edmonton to do AI research

Former Facebook employee Kevin Waugh gave up the perks of the company’s California campus last spring for an Edmonton job with the research subsidiary of another tech giant. Waugh, a Canadian who spent seven years at the University of Alberta eaarning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in artificial intelligence, is now a research scientist for DeepMind, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet.

Edmonton Journal

Other

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