Altus seeks to trim landlords’ property tax

Altus seeks to trim landlords’ property tax

Altus Group Ltd. plans to double its revenue to about $800 million in the next five years as the Canadian real estate data provider expands further into property tax consulting with acquisitions in the U.S. and U.K. 

Bloomberg

Ranking Canada’s most productive malls

Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre and CF Pacific Centre malls rank No. 2 and No. 3 as the most productive in Canada, according to a new Retail Council of Canada report. Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre was the most productive in the country with tenants racking up $1,650.85 in sales per square foot, according to the country’s retail advocacy and research organization.

Business In Vancouver

New year bodes well for REITs: Timbercreek

Given the uncertainty of a Donald Trump-led U.S., continuing economic and political uncertainty in Europe and a U.S. Federal Reserve that seems hell bent on pushing up interest rates in 2017, this looks like a down year for international REITs, right? Not so, according to Timbercreek Asset Management’s Corrado Russo.

Property Biz Canada

U.S. businesses eye vacant Calgary offices

The election of Donald Trump has caused some American companies to look to Calgary as a possible new locale to set up shop. Mary Moran, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development, said as the organization tasked with selling the city to outside businesses, they’ve been fielding many calls.

Metro News

TO-Waterloo corridor could be tech supercluster

A recent report, titled Tech North: Building Canada’s First Technology Supercluster, argues a technology and innovation supercluster anchored in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor would spark Canadian innovation, attract talent and capital from around the world and turbocharge economic growth for the nation.

Globe and Mail

Home Hardware renovating business strategy

CEO Terry Davis is dipping into a new toolbox to reshape how Home Hardware Stores Ltd. operates in a fast-changing sector. Davis, head of the St. Jacob, Ont.-based company since 2014, is racing to take on intensifying competition from U.S. titans.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Online shopping drives surge in holiday returns

It’s the place where unwanted Christmas gifts go to start a new life. The Feisty Ferret Home cage that didn’t quite work out; dozens and dozens of television sets, returned for all kinds of reasons, end up in the new year on the floor of warehouses such as the one in Brampton operated by Liquidity Services.

Toronto Star

Competition heats up in online shoe-selling

Recent moves by Walmart to compete with Amazon.com for online shoppers could make life more challenging for mid-sized e-commerce players, such as Vancouver’s Shoes.com – but that competition could also make them takeover targets, say analysts.

Business In Vancouver

Stantec beefs up Calgary architecture division

Ross Roy is enjoying his new role after joining Stantec earlier this year as a principal of its architectural practice in Calgary. The Calgary office already had more than 80 architects and interior designers, who work on major projects across Western Canada. Roy was hired to head up a new department that focused on commercial, retail and mixed-use developments.

Calgary Herald

Winnipeg to study suburban retail impact

The City of Winnipeg plans to analyze the effect of large suburban retail developments on older areas of the city as part of a study into future land-use needs. The city will hire a consulting firm to determine how much commercial and industrial land it needs to support continued economic growth and then make recommendations.

CBC

Cityplace attracting local retailers

The downtown Winnipeg Cityplace mall is on the rebound, boasting its highest occupancy rate in years thanks to a recent influx of new, locally owned retail outlets ranging from unique furniture stores to art and photo galleries.

Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg airport sets passenger record

A record number of passengers passed through the gates in 2016 at Winnipeg’s airport. The Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport hosted more than four million passengers in 2016, the first time in its existence that the airport has reached the milestone. It is the third straight year the airport has broken the record for passenger volume.

Winnipeg Free Press

Niagara Falls seen in an all new light

With the flick of a switch, Niagara Falls lights up at night three times brighter than at any time in history. Programmable colours can make the tumbling water look like a golden sunset, an ocean wave in multiple shades of blue or an intensely red lava flow.

Globe and Mail

Supreme Court building to get ‘urgent’ rehab

Canada’s Supreme Court building is crumbling, with some parts expected to fail as early as next year. CBC News has learned Public Works is already searching for a temporary location for the high court so it can refurbish the art-deco stone building for its first complete renovation since being built in 1938-39. 

CBC

GRESB founder Kok joins GeoPhy

Nils Kok has been appointed chief economist of Geo-Phy. Based in New York, Kok joins from GRESB, which he founded and left last year. Kok will head up the firm’s North American business, with GeoPhy launching Alpha, a dashboard for real estate reporting, analysis and portfolio management.

IPE Real Estate

Featured Column

Steady as she goes, in Saskatoon CRE

ICR has collected the fourth quarter results for 2016 and though commercial vacancy remains higher than average in some sectors, overall the numbers have not changed drastically over the past year.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

U.S. CRE executives bullish on industrial

Altus Group Limited (AIF-T), the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries‘ 2017 Real Confidence Executive Index reveals CRE executives are high on industrial, infrastructure and multi-family asset classes in 2017.

Marketwired

Real Estate Companies

AltaGas appears to be gunning for growth

Calgary-based AltaGas Ltd. (ALA-T)  appears to be pursuing a path of aggressive growth. In recent weeks, the company secured regulatory approval to double the size of a natural gas plant in B.C. and also sanctioned the first propane export terminal on Canada’s West Coast.

Calgary Herald

Real Estate Investment Trusts

RioCan completes public offering

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI.UN-T) announced today it has successfully completed its issuance of $300 million principal amount of Series Y senior unsecured debentures. The debentures were sold at a price of $99.997 per $100 principal amount with an effective yield of 2.831% if held to maturity.

Marketwired

Two apartment REITs with stable yields

Here are two residential REITs that have higher growth potential than the industry. InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust (IIP.UN-T) is focused on generating value and growing a sustainable distribution with a portfolio in Ontario and Quebec.  Killam Apartment REIT (KMP.UN-T) has $1.9 billion of assets, including 13,952 apartment units and 5,165 manufactured home community (MHC) sites.

Motley Fool – Motley Fool

Colony Capital, NorthStar create mega-REIT

The much-anticipated merger between investment firm Colony Capital and NorthStar Asset Management Group closed this week, creating the fifth-largest global real estate management firm with $76 billion Cdn worth of assets under its belt. The new REIT, Colony NorthStar (CLNS-N), has an equity market cap of roughly $11. 8 billion.

Forbes

Retail

Japanese retailer Muji to open pop-up store in Vancouver

Vancouver resident Anthony Casey has never shopped at Muji, the Japanese houseware store known for its smart designs and unbranded merchandise. So, he was excited to learn that the store was opening a pop-up location at the Fairmont Pacific Rim from Jan. 27 until Feb. 28. And, he’s not alone.

CBC

Pop-up shops bounce into Canadian malls

For the second straight year, a shop selling dolls popped up for a limited time in a Toronto mall. Last year, Maplelea Girls‘ shop at CF Promenade boosted sales to the point other industry insiders “were really quite surprised at what we managed to do at that mall,” says company president Kathryn Gallagher Morton.

Vancouver Province

Canada Goose set to go public?

Canada Goose is planning to go public as soon as next month, people with knowledge of the matter said, in an initial public offering that could value the company at about $2 billion US.

Bloomberg

New Development

Calgary to vote on revised golf course plan

City council was set to have another look at a proposal Monday for redeveloping a former golf course in northwest Calgary. In July, council put off making a decision about the former Highland Park golf course land at the corner of Fourth Street and McKnight Boulevard N.W. 

CBC

Students compete to redesign SkyTrain area

Students from Vancouver, Seattle and Portland have been invited to create mixed-use commercial development plans for Coquitlam Centre Station on the new Evergreen SkyTrain line. The invitation is part of the 14th Annual Pacific Northwest Real Estate Challenge hosted in Canada for the first time. 

CBC

Georgian College tapped for innovation centre

Three levels of government will pool resources to fund the construction of a new $30-million Advanced Technology, Innovation and Research Centre at Georgian College in Barrie, Ont. The new building will be carbon neutral and LEED-certified.

Daily Commercial News

Renovation and Restoration

Honda Canada receives grants for facility upgrades

The federal and Ontario governments are each providing Honda Canada (HMC-N) with grants of up to $41.8 million for upgrades and research and development at its operations in Alliston, Ont. The government money is along with up to $408.3 million from Honda itself.

Daily Commercial News

Arbutus Village redevelopment about to begin

The upcoming redevelopment of Arbutus Village means neighbouring residents will be without a full-scale Safeway for about two years. The project by Larco Investments Ltd. has been in the works for years. City council approved zoning to allow for a mixed-use development on the seven-acre site back in July 2011.

Business In Vancouver

Royal Tyrrell Museum to be expanded

The dinosaurs may be long gone, but funding for fossils is being given new life. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, the metaphorical mosquito in amber of the Canadian Badlands, is expected to receive a $9.3 million injection from federal and provincial governments for expansions to the facility.

Edmonton Journal

Infrastructure

SNC-Lavalin awarded U.S. rail. transit contracts

SNC-Lavalin (SNC-T) announced it has been awarded two rail and transit contracts in the U.S The first is a five-year contract valued at $18 million Cdn with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The second contract was awarded by Purple Line Transit Partners (PLTP), the private partner selected by the Maryland Transit Administration.

Canada Newswire

International

KPMG to build new campus in Orlando

KPMG LLP will build a state-of-the art learning, development and innovation facility in Orlando to further enhance the world-class training capabilities it offers to its partners and professionals. The 55-acre campus will be built in the 14-square-mile community of Lake Nona.

CP Executive

Technology

Video baristas added to drive-thru windows

Starbucks Canada (SBUX-Q) is installing two-way video links between baristas and drive-thru customers in what experts call the latest attempt to lure more consumers into the fast-food lane. The coffee company has put screens on menu boards at 64 of its 200 Canadian drive-thru locations, including four in Edmonton.

Calgary Herald

Other

	RENX has surpassed 9,660 Twitter followers
	Follower CEB Builders produces natural, sustainable building materials & methods. Earthen architecture.CEB are Compressed Earth Blocks. The future is strong for dirt.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.