Manulife Centre’s ambitious redevelopment years in the making

Manulife Centre’s ambitious redevelopment years in the making

The $100-million redevelopment of the landmark Manulife Centre – too rich to term it a renovation – has been years in the making but in reality, the timing couldn’t be better. The ambitious project, which will see the venerable building at Toronto’s Bay and Bloor southeast corner reimagined.

Property Biz Canada

RioCan to step up investment in urban properties: CEO

RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) is looking to invest about $1.3-billion over the next five years in the development and redevelopment of properties in urban markets, its top executive said this week. With the pace of rental rate growth slowing and its acquisition strategy taking a backseat, Canada’s biggest REIT has been looking for new ways to expand.

Reuters – RioCan REIT’s big city bet still paying off – RioCan REIT repositioning its Canadian portfolio

Timbercreek ranked among Canada’s fastest-growing companies

Timbercreek Asset Management announced that it has been recognized as one of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies in the 28^th annual PROFIT 500 list. Timbercreek was also named one of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in Toronto.

MarketWired

‘Joe Schmo’ lenders double stake in the mortgage market

Alternative lenders in Canada have doubled their share of the residential mortgage market in the past decade, increasing risks in the housing sector where they operate with limited federal government oversight. These mortgage providers increased their share of the $1.4-trillion mortgage market to about 13 per cent last year from 6.7 per cent in 2007.

Globe and Mail

Work begins on second 50-storey Canadiens condo tower

The appetite for Montreal Canadiens-themed merchandise — even $250,000 studio apartments and $1-million-plus penthouse condos — appears to be boundless. Demand is such that construction has begun on the second 50-storey Tour des Canadiens condo tower downtown, directly across St-Antoine St. from the Bell Centre.

Montreal Gazette – Canada Newswire

CBRE Hotels adds experience and diversity with hires

CBRE Hotels has made two new appointments and its continued growth has made it the largest and most comprehensive hotel brokerage and advisory group serving the hospitality sector in Canada. CBRE HotelsScott Duff has joined the division of CBRE Limited from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and will serve as Western Canada vice-president.

Property Biz Canada

Starwood takeover gives guests choice and flexibility: CEO

Marriott International Inc. ‘s blockbuster takeover of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., creating the biggest hotel chain on the planet, will give its business customers more choice and a reason to stay loyal, the company’s CEO says. Marriott and Starwood closed their deal Thursday, a $13-billion (U.S.) cash-and-stock arrangement that will create a 5,700-property chain with 1.1 million rooms.

Globe and Mail – Montreal Gazette – CoStar Group

Blow-up tunnel coming to Montreal to mitigate construction woes

The City of Montreal’s new plan to help pedestrians and businesses cope with construction on Ste-Catherine Street West includes a $3.8 million inflatable, caterpillar-like structure. The big white tube, designed by the architectural firm KANVA, is supposed to make it easier for foot traffic to move around during major construction.

CBC

Dream launches into Calgary market with speaker series

Dream, one of Canada’s largest real estate companies, is showcasing its growing presence in the Calgary market with its Connected speaker series. Hosted by Love It or List It Vancouver’s Todd Talbot , the event will feature presentations from futurist Jesse Hirsch; designer Amanda Hamilton; and urban planner Joseph Scanga.

Canada Newswire

Committee recommends tunnel under Bow River for LRT

It’s a decision that’s poised to impact Calgarians for decades to come. The north-central leg of the 46-kilometre, $5-billion Green Line LRT is one step closer to a tunnel under the Bow River and the downtown core. Members of the transportation and transit committee voted in favour of the nearly $2-billion underground option.

Calgary Herald

Calgary plan earns LEED-ND Platinum in Canadian first

Calgary’s University District is not even built yet and already it’s scored one of the highest green certifications available. The 200-acre development in northwest Calgary, which will ultimately be home to some 17,000 people, became the largest residential project in Canadian history to earn LEED for Neighbourhood Development Platinum certification.

Sustainable Biz Canada

The private sector’s big role in developing ‘smart cities’

Earlier this year, Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, outlined how we’re on the brink of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” – “a fusion of technologies” that represents an exponentially fast transformation unlike anything humanity has experienced before.

Globe and Mail

Blackstone readies India REIT listing

The world’s largest private equity manager Blackstone Group, which is also the most prolific investor in Indian commercial properties, is finalizing plans to raise $600 million U.S. through the listing of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) on the domestic stock exchanges, India’s first REIT listing and a test case for global investors.

Times of India

Blackstone is back with big industrial property deal

Barely a week after Global Logistic Properties, Ltd. (GLP) pulled off its latest billion-dollar-plus purchase, two high-value examples of companies seeking to trade industrial assets provide more evidence of the seemingly limitless appetite for US warehouse and logistics properties.

CoStar Group

The China property companies that look like shadow banks

The lines between China’s financial sector and property market are getting blurrier still. While the degree to which China’s banking system is exposed to its red-hot real estate sector has long concerned analysts, a new report from CreditSights Inc. suggests a fresh link is growing.

Bloomberg

Featured Column

Is there room for public art in industrial buildings?

Vancouver’s PC Urban has voluntarily commissioned two public installations for their upcoming industrial buildings and in doing so, have shaken the complacent development industry and called into question the difference between having to create the art and wanting to.

Read more

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Market Trends and Research

European pension assets grow by 9%

Europe’s pension funds now manage more than €6.7trn in combined assets, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%, according to IPE’s latest Top 1000 Pension Funds survey, with data provided by S&P Global’s Money Market Directories. The increase marks the second year in a row of significant gains.

IPE Real Estate

Fortress Market Manuscript analyses housing supply

In the report released earlier this week by Fortress Real Developments, Senior Vice-President of Market Research and Analytics, Ben Myers presents findings and relevant statistics on supply’s impact on residential house prices. Mr. Myers is an analyst with 15 years experience researching real estate markets across North America.

Canada Newswire

Pension plans must be wary inflated real estate markets: expert

Recent data from Statistics Canada shows employer-sponsored pension plans have $150 billion invested in Canada’s real estate market. But as warning bells continue to ring that Canada’s hot housing markets – namely Vancouver and Toronto – are ripe for a correction, are the pension plans putting their eggs in the wrong basket?

Global News Canada

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their second-quarter 2016 results. Have we missed any?  Canadian REITs & REOCs – Second-quarter 2016 report

 

New Development

Construction to begin on Chartwell Retirement Residence in Oakville

Chartwell Retirement Residences (CSH.UN-T) has launched construction of Chartwell Waterford Retirement Residence, certain to bring a new level of sophistication and activity to retirement living in Halton Region.

Marketwired – Chartwell sees great potential in aging population

Council to force demolition of St-Dominique St. building

The Plateau–Mont-Royal borough council is taking legal steps to force the owner of the building at 3476 St-Dominique Street to demolish it. The move comes after a CBC investigative report on the state of the building that was published Wednesday.

CBC

Infrastructure

Waterloo embarks on massive wastewater project

The Region of Waterloo has undertaken an ambitious $320 million project designed to reduce odours, further improve effluent quality and increase the efficiency and reliability of its Kitchener, Ont. wastewater treatment plant. Construction is underway in Kitchener, Ont. on upgrades to a wastewater treatment plant on Mill Park Drive. 

Daily Commercial News

Montreal’s airport folly fault of broken management

To land in Canada’s second-largest city from an overseas or U.S. destination means experiencing customs wait times that stretch up to two hours (the worst in the country) and traffic bottlenecks exiting the airport that rival those of a developing country. Almost none of this is the fault of Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) which is a non-profit authority.

Globe and Mail

Other

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