Allied to spend $1B on Toronto tech offices

Allied to spend $1B on Toronto tech offices

Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T) is planning to spend about $1 billion over the next five years to meet the frenzied demand for offices by tech workers in Canada’s biggest city. The office landlord and developer will commit a large chunk of that capital to The Well, 1.6 million square feet of office and retail space in Toronto, targeted for completion in 2021, chief executive officer Michael Emory said.

Bloomberg

Golden Square Mile witnesses luxury property boom

Montreal’s iconic Golden Square Mile is at the heart of a gold rush of residential and hotel real estate investment that is helping burnish the city’s status as a luxe international destination. Developers are upping the ante in the prestige-building stakes with several amenity-rich condo towers and hotel/residences in the downtown area, including high-profile projects in the Golden Square Mile district.

Globe and Mail

First Capital stocking up on Calgary Beltline property

First Capital Realty (FCR-T) is accumulating buildings in Calgary’s Beltline district, just outside the downtown core, for potential future redevelopment into large, mixed-use projects. RENX has learned that during the past year or so First Capital, in joint ventures with Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T), has purchased three properties in the trendy inner-city community.

Property Biz Canada

Pickering, Ont., becoming a development hotbed

A flurry of recent deals and announcements in Pickering, Ont., bodes well for the economy of the Durham Region city of 94,000 east of Toronto. Ontario Gaming GTA LP, a partnership between Great Canadian Gaming Corporation (GC-T) and Brookfield Business Partners (BBU-UN-T), announced on April 3 it’s proceeding to municipal permitting for the Durham Live entertainment complex.

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver’s growth will depend on building more office space

Only two high-end office spaces of 30,000 square feet or larger remain available for lease in downtown Vancouver, according to a new tenant profile report by commercial property firm Avison Young. By the end of Q1 2018, there were 11 class-AAA buildings, certified in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and located near SkyTrain that included 30,000-square-foot spaces, but only two such spaces remained available.

Vancouver Sun

Hope blooms for Winnipeg’s revitalized Osborne Village

When Robert Orr lived in Osborne Village, he and his wife loved the hip, urban feel of the area. Today, he looks at the dirty windows of a vacant coffee shop, the empty spaces where Desart and other shops were located, the dated exterior of one of its restaurants or the on-again, off-again former Osborne Village Inn.

Winnipeg Free Press – CBC

Sparrow Capital seeks to combine culture, economic impact

Edmonton’s Sparrow Capital is a real estate investment firm with a mission. The firm seeks operators (tenants) for its projects who enhance the cultural fabric of neighbourhoods or whose work is meaningful to the future of the regional economy, says company president Antoine Palmer. “On the community side, we think of gathering places, community hubs, culinary, entertainment, arts,” says Palmer.

Property Biz Canada

Farm Boy sets sights on Toronto and perhaps beyond

​An Ottawa-based grocery chain believes the moment has come for its long-standing formula of fresh, local and prepared products, and it’s launched into major markets, going head-to-head with the industry’s giants. If nothing else, Farm Boy is showing nerve and daring as it expands in a sector that is itself bracing for Amazon’s entry into the market.

CBC

T&T CEO follows in her mother’s founding footsteps

The last thing on Tina Lee’s mind while bagging groceries with younger sister Tiffany at their family’s first T&T Supermarket in the early ’90s was that she would be the one to take up the helm of the company her mother founded. It was assumed her brother Jason would be the one to follow in their Taiwanese-Canadian mother’s footsteps as chief executive.

Financial Post

Inside the brutal feud tearing apart Leon’s

Family estate disputes can get nasty. Widow Lori Horton sued Tim Hortons’ co-founder Ron Joyce to get back the half of the doughnut shop company she had sold to him more than a decade earlier, Canadian Tire heiress Martha Billes sued her brothers for control of the retail chain, and the McCain brothers’ disputed the succession plans at their frozen foods empire.

Financial Post

U.S. retail real estate glut is getting worse

The fall of the Toys “R” Us chain, with more than 700 U.S. stores, shows how much retail real estate has changed in just the last decade. When KKR & Co., Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust took over the company in 2005, the buyers justified the $7.5 billion price, in part, because of the supposedly valuable properties that came with the deal.

Bloomberg – Bloomberg

RENX breaking news gets a thumbs up

The survey sent to all RENX readers last week about our breaking news service gave it an overwhelming thumbs up, although for some readers it was a qualified response. Following is a summary of the results as well as responses to some of your questions and comments.

RENX survey results

QuadReal appoints Sheraden chief technology officer

Building on its commitment to be an industry leader in technology, QuadReal Property Group announced Tom Sheraden has been appointed chief technology officer. Sheraden is deeply experienced in building and leading teams that focus relentlessly on executing business strategy and driving strong business results through technology and innovation. At QuadReal, he will join the executive team and be responsible for using technology to drive competitive advantage.

Canada Newswire

Prologis to sell more assets, ramp up construction

Prologis Inc. (PLD-N) has raised its 2018 outlook based on better-than-expected first-quarter results powered by brisk leasing and near-double-digit rent growth. Based on robust demand for modern logistics space by e-commerce and other tenants, San Francisco-based Prologis this week raised the value of planned development starts by $200 million to between $2.2 billion and $2.5 billion for 2018. Roughly half the new activity is lower-risk build-to-suit construction, Prologis CFO Tom Olinger told investors. 

CoStar Group

Trustee to take over Fortress broker

A judge has ordered a trustee to take over the operations of the lead mortgage broker for beleaguered real estate developer Fortress Real Developments Inc., just a week after the RCMP raided Fortress’ Toronto-area offices as part of a syndicated-mortgage-fraud investigation. Lawyers for the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO)  argued broker, Building & Development Mortgages Canada Inc. (BDMC), was in default of a February settlement.

Globe and Mail

Featured Column

How to avoid problems when repositioning hotel properties

The Canadian real estate industry has experienced a robust hotel and hospitality market renaissance over the past decade. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in demand on the part of investors — from large institutional equity firms to independent operators — looking to purchase aging or under-performing hotel properties. 

Guest Column

Market Trends and Research

Manitoba farmland on a roll

Manitoba farmland prices should keep marching higher in 2018 following another tremendous year for Manitoba crop producers, Farm Credit Canada says. Manitoba farmland prices increased just five per cent in 2017, below gains in recent years. But FCC noted farm cash receipts for Manitoba shot up 17 per cent for the first three quarters of 2017, tops in the country. That’s on the heels of a 13 per cent advance the previous year.

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press

Real Estate Companies

Syntronic expands Ottawa presence with office

Though the original plan in 2014 called for 120 employees in five years, Swedish design house Syntronic has just passed a headcount of 200 in Ottawa with plans and provincial funding to grow further in a new location. Syntronic has moved its Kanata R&D outpost to 340 Terry Fox Dr. The firm now has 24,000 square feet at that location and an additional 4,000 square feet back in its old abode at 555 Legget Dr.

Ottawa Business Journal

Retail

Smyths Toys taking over 90-plus Toys R Us stores

Ireland-based Smyths Toys has reached a deal to take over more than 90 Toys R Us stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In March, Toys R Us said it would be liquidating its U.S. business. Its German branch said in a statement Saturday Smyths Toys has signed an agreement to take over its activities in the three countries, with 93 stores and four online shops. No financial details were given.

Winnipeg Free Press

Amazon to double down on groceries in India

Amazon.com (AMZN-Q) expects groceries and household products to account for more than half of its business in India in the next five years, as it moves to broaden offerings in the segment and foray into areas such as fresh produce. Amit Agarwal, the India head of Amazon, said groceries and goods such as creams, soaps and cleaning products, were already the largest product category in units sold in India.

Reuters

Vancouver to allow separate liquor stores in grocery stores

Grocery store operators in Vancouver are expected to soon have a new option to open separate liquor stores in parts of their stores, thanks to city council on April 17 approving a zoning bylaw that permits the sale of liquor in grocery stores. Council will consider specific policies and guidelines for selling liquor, beer and wine in separated stores within grocery stores in early May and, if approved, city staff could accept applications by May 14.

Metro Vancouver

Cannabis industry news

Cannabis could soon be a $100-million Edmonton industry

Edmonton could become the hub of a cannabis industry worth up to $100 million annually and employing 2,000 people in a couple of years, a city business official says. “I do think the industry and its sectors will gravitate here because of the (provincial) privatization model and because the city is welcoming to all legal sectors,” senior business specialist Brad White said Friday.

Edmonton Journal – Edmonton Journal – Calgary Herald

Cannabis companies look across borders to raise money

As U.S. and Canadian government policies toward cannabis grow more divergent amid Canada’s push for legalization, their stock exchanges have seen a flurry of cross-listing activity from companies eager to snap up investment capital and carve out dominant positions in an expanding global market. Cannabis producers opeataing in U.S. states where pot is legal are prevented from public listings in their home country.

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

New Development

Animation shows proposed development at Bloor and Dundas

VIDEO: A substantial development is planned near the intersection of Bloor and Dundas Streets in Toronto, combining shopping, education and residential use at this hub where different transit options meet. Animation courtesy Choice Properties REIT.

Globe and Mail

Ottawa shortlists architectural teams for new central library

Officials say they’re inviting five teams of architects, including firms headquartered in Holland, Denmark and Canada, to bid on the design work for Ottawa’s new $168-million central public library and federal archive facility at LeBreton Flats. The city had earlier said it had shortlisted five teams out of 33 responses to its request for qualifications for design services on the joint Ottawa Public Library – Library and Archives Canada building.

Ottawa Business Journal

Sports Venues

Ardmore Golf Course teed up for sale at $3.45 million

Ardmore Golf Course in North Saanich, B.C., is on the market for $3.45 million. It is the latest of four locally owned golf courses to be sold or to transition into a different use in recent years. “We’ve talked about it on and off. We didn’t really want to sell it,” said Teri DuTemple, spokeswoman for the family who has owned the course through three generations.

Victoria Times Colonist

Renovation and Restoration

Cineplex converting Brampton theatre into Playdium

Cineplex Odeon Orion Gate Cinemas in Brampton is going to be converted into the entertainment giant’s newest Playdium location. It is the first time the company has shifted one of its properties from a theatre to its gaming offering. The 44,500-square-foot space is expected to open in mid-2019 and be geared towards teens and families.

Regina Leader-Post

Other

UBC Aquatic Centre among winners of 2018 architecture awards

The new aquatic centre at the University of B.C. is one of three medal recipients of the 2018 Lieutenant Governor of B.C. Award in Architecture. The architectural awards are chosen by the Architectural Institute of B.C. A total of 13 awards were presented in five categories Thursday evening.

Vancouver Sun

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