Tricon buys downtown Toronto site, plans 2 apt. towers

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Office, Apartments  •  Toronto / GTA

Tricon Residential has purchased a 2.14-acre portion of a downtown Toronto site from ONE Properties for $129 million, where it plans to build two apartment towers as part of a mixed-use development.

Canada’s CRE industry gets life sciences ‘wakeup call’

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Office, Investment  •  National, Metro Vancouver, Toronto / GTA, Greater Montreal

The statistics are eye popping. Canada’s life sciences sector captured 26 per cent of venture capital invested across the nation in 2020, a year which saw the three largest Canadian IPOs ever in the sector, Avison Young reports.

Nexus has $120M in ind. properties under contract

Commercial  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

Nexus REIT (NXR-UN-T) has a total of five industrial properties totalling approximately 900,000 square feet currently under contract with four vendors for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $120 million, including a previously unannounced property in Edmonton under contract for $19.7 million

Queen’s Park to add 6,000 acres to Ontario Greenbelt

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe and Mail

Steve Clark, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing, said two acres of land will be added to the Greenbelt for every acre of land affected by Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs). That equates to protecting 6,000 acres of the Greenbelt.

Intermarket’s IP Park snags first tenants

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

Intermarket Properties’ IP Park, a master-planned industrial and commercial development in Cambridge, has signed its first Phase 1A tenants: Energy + (Cambridge Hydro); Angstrom Engineering, a Kitchener-based nanotechnology company; and Fusion Products Ltd., a Cambridge-based outdoor solar lighting and lifestyle company.

Real World of Real Estate › Podcast: Avenue Living on secondary retail, repurposing Wetaskiwin Mall

Gerald Tostowaryk:

Canadian hotel occupancy to hit 38% in 2021: CBRE

Commercial  •  CP 24

CBRE expects Canadian hotels will recover only slightly from the COVID-19 pandemic this year as travel restrictions linger. It expects Canadian hotel occupancy to hover around 38 per cent, up from 33 per cent last year and down from 65 per cent in 2019.

Quebec offers $42M in loans for hotel renovations

Commercial  •  Montreal Gazette

Quebec Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx announced Wednesday $42,428,921 in loans to 22 hotel companies to support 24 renovation or infrastructure improvement projects. Montreal’s Bonaventure Hotel, Laval’s Mariott Residence Inn and the Auberge St-Antoine in Quebec City will each get $5 million for renovations.

Core’s plan to buy $1B in homes sparks outrage

Residential  •  Global News  •  Toronto Star  •  CBC

Toronto-based Core Development Group’s plan to buy $1 billion worth of single-family homes and convert them into rentals has sparked outrage from critics who say it’s an example of how corporations can profit from the country’s housing crisis.

Work-from-home here to stay: BDC survey

Commercial  •  Global News  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Yahoo Finance

A new poll suggests that working from home may be here to stay even after the pandemic. The survey conducted by the Business Development Bank of Canada found 74 per cent of businesses will let their employees work from home post-pandemic.

Signs of lumber bubble bursting relief to developers

Residential, Commercial  •  Bisnow

The price of lumber, which has ballooned to unprecedented levels in recent months, has started to drop. From a record of $1,711.20 per thousand board feet in early May, lumber futures are now below $1K per thousand board feet for delivery in July. That is the lowest level for futures since March.

Feds give Ottawa Airport $6.4M toward future LRT station

Commercial  •  CTV  •  Global News  •  Ottawa Citizen

The federal government is chipping in $6.4 million, just under half of what the Ottawa Airport says it needs to build its Trillium Line LRT station, which is set to be completed in 2022.

PSP Investments shifts to infrastructure after 27% gain

Commercial  •  Bloomberg  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  PR Newswire

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board has cut back on equities and fixed income in its capital markets business in favour of private credit, emerging markets credit and infrastructure after the unit reaped gains of 27 per cent last year.

Brookfield acquires Arlington platform for $1.2B

Commercial  •  Property Funds World

One of Brookfield Asset Management’s private real estate funds has acquired Arlington, a U.K. science, innovation, and technology real estate platform, from TPG Real Estate Partners for $1.2 billion Cdn, increasing Brookfield’s total square footage in the area to 1.4 million.

Walton family raises $2.1B from selling Walmart shares

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

The Walton Family Holdings Trust has sold 16.7 million shares of Walmart Inc. (WMT-N) for nearly $2.1 billion this year as they try to keep their stake in the world’s biggest retailer from ballooning amid the company’s stock buybacks.

London, Ont., okays Farhi’s 40-storey mixed-use tower

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Global News  •  CTV

A proposal by Farhi Holdings Corporation to build a 40-storey tower at 435-451 Ridout St. has received final approval from London city council. The plan calls for 280 residential units, commercial, office space and a multi-level parking area that can accommodate 370 vehicles.

HomeEquity’s reverse mortgage portfolio surpasses $5B

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

HomeEquity Bank, provider of the CHIP Reverse Mortgage, announced its portfolio of reverse mortgages under administration has recently surpassed $5 billion for the first time, fuelled by another record-breaking year in reverse mortgage originations – $830 million in total in 2020.

T.O. landlords cite risk of falling window AC units

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Thousands of Toronto tenants have received messages from large landlords and property managers warning them not to install window-mounted air conditioning units just ahead of the scorching summer months. What’s unclear is how landlords would go about enforcing their demands.

NexLiving acquires Saint John multifamily property for $12.75M

Residential  •  Canada Newswire

NexLiving Communities Inc. (NXLV-X) announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Village View No. 4 Limited Partnership, whose sole asset is a 47-unit multifamily rental property at 49 Noel Ave. in Saint John. The purchase price is $12.75 million.

Windsor committee approves residential conversions

Residential, Commercial  •  Windsor Star

Projects to convert Windsor’s 12-storey art deco-styled Canada Building and circa-1922 Knights of Columbus auditorium building into badly needed residential units — more than 100 apartments including loft-style residences with soaring ceilings — cleared major hurdles this week at a city committee meeting.