Groupe Quint to add 900,000 sq. ft. of Montreal ind.

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Greater Montreal, International

Groupe Quint has recently purchased and is about to close on more than 900,000 square feet of industrial real estate in several buildings in the Montreal area. The rapidly expanding Montreal-based firm has also established a foothold in the Detroit area.

Broccolini to build Amazon mega-hub near London?

Commercial  •  Windsor Star  •  RENX

Broccolini is reportedly in discussions to bring a massive Amazon.com sorting and distribution centre to the former Ford assembly plant site in Talbotville, near London, Ont. Amazon.com has already confirmed it will open two warehouses in London.

Ivanhoé sells Victoria’s Mayfair shopping centre

Commercial  •  Victoria Times Colonist  •  RENX

After attempts to sell all of the mall or shares of it over the last three years, Montreal-based real estate giant Ivanhoé Cambridge has agreed on terms to sell Victoria’s recently renovated Mayfair shopping centre. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The People Space › People Space: Senior hires at Manulife, QuadReal, MTY, Colliers…

Don Wilcox: Managing Editor

Calgary betting $450M it can change tower owners

Commercial  •  CBC  •  CBC

As office tower vacancies in downtown Calgary exceed 30 per cent and the resulting hole in municipal tax revenues increases, the city has formally outlined its 10-year, $1-billion plan which calls for improvements to everything from cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

Parkade to serve as hub for Calgary’s tech sector

Commercial  •  Calgary Herald  •  CBC  •  Global News

An East Village parkade will be home to Calgary’s first “one-stop shop” for tech entrepreneurs. The $80-million Platform Innovation Centre and Parkade is a joint venture between the Calgary Municipal Land Corp., the Calgary Parking Authority and Platform Calgary.

Real World of Real Estate › Podcast: The hospitality retail market, with C&W’s Mario Padoan

Gerald Tostowaryk:

Chard plans offices, housing for Victoria site

Residential, Commercial  •  Victoria Times Colonist

CEO/president Byron Chard said Chard Development‘s offer has been accepted for the former White Spot restaurant property at Douglas Street and Caledonia Avenue in Victoria. Retail, offices and housing are included in the Vancouver-based firm’s plans for the site.

Toronto private school buys Bob Rumball site for $42M

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Canada Newswire

Crescent School, one of Toronto’s premier private schools for boys, has agreed to pay $42 million to acquire the land under the Bob Rumball Canadian Centre of Excellence for the Deaf (BRCCED). The site at 2395 Bayview Ave., is nearly seven acres.

Digital Realty opens downtown T.O. data centre

Commercial  •  PR Newswire

Digital Realty (DLR-N), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced the opening of its latest North American data centre in downtown Toronto, representing 800kw and 6,900 square feet of new colocation facilities.

Retail Council warms to code of grocery conduct

Commercial  •  Financial Post  •  Canada Newswire

The Retail Council of Canada is joining calls to establish rules for grocers and their suppliers, a significant about-face that could accelerate the campaign to check the power of the most dominant players in the Canadian grocery business.

REOC first-quarter financial results

Residential, Commercial  • 

Lakeview Hotel Investment Corp., (LHR-DB-C-X), PR Newswire
Parkit Enterprise Inc., (PKT-X), Newsfile

AY acquires French asset, investment manager

Commercial  •  PR Newswire

Cassian, an asset and investment management company in France, is now part of Avison Young‘s investment management arm. Giles Wintle, Will Woodhead and Steve Woodward join as principals.

CN to divest U.S. rail line over regulator’s concerns

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  Bloomberg

Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR-T) made its first steps to address regulatory concerns over its proposed takeover of Kansas City Southern (KSU-N), committing to the sale of a KCS rail line in Louisiana where the two companies’ routes overlap.

Google building multi-billion dollar San Jose campus

Commercial  •  CNBC

San Jose city officials officially approved a plan for Google to build a massive campus in the heart of California’s third-largest city. The 80-acre Downtown West project will including 7.3 million square feet of office space and thousands of housing units.

Real estate industry vulnerable to data breaches

Residential, Commercial  •  propmodo

Security Discovery‘s Jeremiah Fowler, who specializes in internet security and data protection, called real estate companies “an extremely valuable target” given the size of funds transferred in transactions. “Where else are you going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars?”

Brivia 224-unit high-rise Mtl. project set for vote

Residential  •  Montreal Gazette  •  RENX

Pointe-Claire city council will hear the appeal of a redevelopment project being promoted by Brivia Group during a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Brivia plans to erect five-, seven- and 10-storey sections for a total of 224 rental units at 575 St-Jean Blvd.

The pandemic’s weird influence on Ottawa RE

Residential  •  Ottawa Citizen

ANALYSIS: Consider what’s happened during the four months ended April 30 compared to the same period in 2020. Existing homes in Ottawa sold for an average of nearly $800,000 — up 34 per cent for a capital gain of roughly $200,000.

Van. realtor advises how to avoid foreign-buyers tax

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun

Vancouver realtor Andrew Szalontai’s online advice on “how to avoid the foreign-buyers tax” is a sign of the difficulty in tracking foreign ownership. The website offers a variety of strategies for circumventing B.C.’s 20 per cent foreign-buyers tax on residential dwellings.

Start-Up liv.rent now accepting bitcoin for rent

Residential  •  Globe Newswire  •  Daily Hive

Vancouver-based rental platform liv.rent announced it has added bitcoin as a form of payment, allowing tenants to pay their rent with cryptocurrency while the landlord receives fiat currency. The new payment method works the same as others on the platform.