Epic acquires 17-building London, Ont., ind. portfolio

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Ontario

Epic Investment Services has acquired a 17-building small- and mid-bay industrial portfolio in London, Ont. on behalf of an unnamed institutional client. The portfolio comprises 365,423 square feet of leasable space and is 98 per cent occupied.

Ivanhoé Cambridge sells Mic Mac Mall to local CRE firm

RENX  Commercial  •  Retail  •  Atlantic Canada

The Mic Mac Mall, the largest enclosed shopping centre in Atlantic Canada, has been sold by Ivanhoé Cambridge to local developer Joe Ramia and Rank Inc., along with other unnamed investors.

Slate Office REIT to sell Toronto office for $34 million

Commercial  •  Business Wire

Slate Office REIT (SOT.UN-T) has entered into an agreement to sell an office property at 1 Eva Road in Toronto for $34 million, or $370 per square foot, which implies a capitalization rate of 2.3 per cent.

Plans revealed for massive Royal Victoria Hospital site

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette  •  Plans from the consultation for Royal Victoria Hospital site

As Montreal’s public consultation office launched a two-month review process of the master plan for the former Royal Victoria Hospital site, McGill University unveiled some key features of its plan for a $700-million campus expansion on the site.

REM de l’Est now to include 500-metre tunnel

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette  •  La Presse

Bowing to public and business pressure, CDPQ Infra will bury the westernmost portion of its REM de l’Est elevated light-rail line. It will create a 500-metre tunnel section under René-Lévesque Blvd. between Jeanne-Mance St. and Robert-Bourassa Blvd.

Unique food hall opens near downtown Calgary

Commercial  •  Retail Insider

In a first of its kind for Calgary, a purpose-built residential rental tower has opened a contemporary urban food hall at the building’s street level. The First Street Market, at The Underwood, was designed with the community in mind.

CIBC to take over Costco credit card business

Commercial  •  Vancouver Sun  •  Globe and Mail

CIBC and big-box retailer Costco have launched a long-term agreement that makes CIBC the exclusive issuer of Costco Mastercards in Canada. CIBC also takes over the existing Canadian Costco credit card portfolio, with $3 billion in outstanding balances.

The Hudson’s Bay split is confusing customers

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Starting this August, Canada’s oldest company will be Hudson’s Bay and The Bay, both owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), each their own separate entity. In doing so the 351-year-old business has separated its department stores from its website.

Couche-Tard struggling to find, keep staff

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard is facing immense challenges hiring and keeping employees, a response to the COVID-19 resurgence. The labour market is “the most difficult” in his 33-year career, CEO Brian Hannasch said on the Q1 conference call.

Survey finds remote work less harmful to environment

Residential, Commercial  •  Sustainable Biz Canada

A study by Alliance Virtual Offices projects 34.3 million tons of greenhouse gas will be produced in 2021 by employees working from home; however, remote work is still better for the environment than working in an office.

Hybrid work risks the next ‘career killer’ for women

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

OPINION: Women were the first to be laid off when the pandemic hit. Those who kept our jobs lost our minds while juggling child care and working from home. Now hybrid work may push us further off the leadership track.

Real estate podcasts

Residential, Commercial  • 

Daniel Tropp, AEBOV: Innovation & tenant experience in the industrial sector, Tenant Experience Network. Season 2, Episode 12

Kate Fox Wood, Association of Equipment Manufacturers: The $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure bill, The Construction Record, Episode 133

Brendan Wallace, Co-Founder, Fifth Wall: The Intersection of PropTech and Innovation, REALtalk, Episode 28

Avison Young lists collapsed Florida condo site

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Avison Young has begun marketing the site where the Champlain Towers South once stood in Surfside, Fla. The tower collapsed on June 24 and has been ordered sold by a judge. A bidding process will be held in a Miami courtroom.

Five firms awarded U.S. federal coworking contracts

Commercial  •  Bisnow

The GSA which manages real estate for U.S. federal agencies has awarded coworking services contracts to WeWork, LiquidSpace, Deskpass, Expansive and The Yard in a shift toward office use that’s more efficient, sustainable and offers better worker experiences.

New York extends eviction moratorium to January

Commercial  •  NY Times

N.Y. State lawmakers extended sweeping protections against evictions into 2022, to keep hundreds of thousands of people financially battered by the pandemic in their homes. The move follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a Biden administration moratorium.

Diapers.com guy wants to build a utopian megalopolis

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Marc Lore founded two e-commerce startups, selling them for $550 million and $3.3 billion, before running Walmart Inc.’s online shopping division. Now, he proposes to start a foundation to buy enough land to build a new city of five million people.

Toronto home supply down 43% YOY in August

Residential  •  Globe and Mail  •  Globe Newswire  •  Toronto Star

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board reported that August home sales slowed from the frenzied pace seen earlier in the year, but market conditions have tightened as supply plummeted by 43 per cent compared to August 2020 and prices rose yet again.

Lack of housing supply drives up Victoria home prices

Residential  •  Times Colonist

A lack of supply slowed the housing market in August and drove prices up again in the region, according to the Victoria Real Estate Board. Last month, 831 properties sold in the region, a drop from 979 sales in August last year.

N.B. apt. rents rise sharply with legal notification

Residential  •  CBC

In New Brunswick, which has some of the weakest protections for renters in Canada, a tenant recently received notice of a rent increase to $1,150 per month from $580. There is little protection against rental increases particularly when rents have been stagnant.

Abandoned gas well explosion in Ontario ‘tip of iceberg’

Commercial  •  CBC  •  CBC map showing abandoned wells

An explosion in Wheatley, Ont., believed caused by an abandoned gas well is an extreme example of what can happen if such wells are not properly plugged, according to a hydrogeologist who has researched oil and gas wells.