Amazon announces major Montreal-area expansion

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Greater Montreal

Amazon has announced a major expansion of its “sortation” and delivery stations in the Greater Montreal Area which will add hundreds of thousands of square feet to its real estate footprint in the province and create more than 1,000 jobs, the international e-commerce giant says.

RGF acquires Mississauga YMCA for future development

RENX  Commercial  •  Retail, Homes, Land  •  Toronto / GTA

RGF (Mississauga) Developments Inc. has invested $90 million to acquire the 4.5-acre property on the northeast corner of Burnhamthorpe Road West and Confederation Parkway in Mississauga, which includes a YMCA building and its 182-space parking lot.

Healthy REIT returns forecast for 2021: Hazelview

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Investment  •  National, International

Canadian REITs are expected to offer total returns of 10 to 12 per cent in 2021, lagging the 15 to 20 per cent projected globally according to Hazelview Investments’ Corrado Russo and its 2021 Global Real Estate Outlook.

Office Depot rebuffs $2B takeover offer from Staples

Commercial  •  Reuters

Office Depot owner ODP Corp. (ODP-Q) reportedly rebuffed a $2 billion-plus takeover offer from rival Staples, proposing to combine only retail operations, citing a letter. ODP said it preferred a sale of its retail and e-commerce operations or a joint venture.

Westland planning 51-, 21-storey Vancouver towers

Residential, Commercial  •  urbanYVR

Vancouver-based Westland Corp. is planning a two-tower, mixed-use project in Burnaby. The project site at 6450-6508 Telford Ave. would consist of a 51-storey mixed-use tower with 408 market condominiums and a 22-storey rental apartment tower with 167 units, with 41 considered “affordable rental.”

Van. recommends against redeveloping historic site

Residential, Commercial  •  Vancouver Sun

Vancouver city staff are recommending against a local developer’s proposal to redevelop the old Celtic Shipyard property on the banks of the Fraser River, a site of historic significance for both Japanese-Canadians and the Musqueam First Nation.

Sponsored by EY Assess, manage and build: how Canadian businesses can expedite their path to recovery

Balancing your portfolio isn’t something you should tackle once this crisis recedes. That process should start here and now, even as waves of disruption continue to impact already distressed assets.

‘Gold belt’ proposed to hem in future Ottawa development

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC  •  CTV

The City of Ottawa is about to have a second marathon debate about where to allow future suburbs to be built, and this time staff propose hemming in development by creating what’s being dubbed the “gold belt.”

London office rents dropping, sublets up

Commercial  •  London Free Press

Downtown London office rental rates dropped from $14.53 a square foot in Q3 to $14.06 in Q4, a drop of 3.25 per cent, indicates a CBRE report. The amount of sublet increased from 74,008 square feet in Q3 to 98,820, an increase of 33.5 per cent.

Banff runs out of new commercial sites

Residential, Commercial  •  Western Investor

Banff is officially out of commercial space for new development, with the final allotment by the Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) going to expansion and renovation of an existing warehouse and two new apartment housing units.

Despite sales boost, Loblaw stocks trail rebound

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Among the laggards of the pandemic, Canadian grocery stocks are perhaps the most surprising. Since the market hit bottom on March 23, Loblaw Companies (L-T)  is the third-worst performing stock in the S&P/TSX Composite Index, with a return of 6.9 per cent.

Couche-Tard vision extends beyond convenience stores

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Financial Post  •  La Presse

For 40 years, shoppers and investors have thought about Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ATD-B-T) as a convenience store chain that sells soda pop and cigarettes. Now, they’re waking to the realization that it wants to be much more.

Ottawa-raised office services CEO adapted during COVID

Commercial  •  Reuters

When the pandemic hit, Larry Gadea, Ottawa-raised CEO of San Francisco-based office-services startup Envoy, saw a chance to pivot, focusing the company to build tools to help workplaces reopen safely, such as mobile apps that handle a health check questionnaire.

HBC plans to be around for another 350 years

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Ian Putnam, one of HBC’s top executives, is clear on this point: Canada’s oldest and most storied department store chain will survive. “We’re not a distressed retailer,” the chief executive of HBC’s property development arm said in December.

What Canadian smart cities can learn from Rotterdam

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Toronto Star  •  Toronto Star

During the past decade, thousands of Rotterdam building owners have installed green roofs — about 3.6 million square feet in total, almost two per cent of the city’s 18.5 square kilometres of flat roof space.  (Part of Toronto Star’s Smart Cities series).

Companies shedding real estate in droves

Commercial  •  Forbes

The great real estate contraction is upon us.  Wherever you look on the planet, companies are shedding their real estate square footage. There is irrefutable proof that the pandemic is shifting the way of work right before our eyes.

Long and winding road to Vancouver laneway home

Residential  •  Globe and Mail

Nearly five years after I wrote the first $10,000 cheque to a local company to design and build a laneway house in the yard behind our Vancouver home, my husband’s daughter and her husband finally moved in with their three children.

Calgary hotels may convert to affordable housing

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC

The Calgary Hotel Association says with a historically high vacancy rate of 80 per cent, it knows of at least eight hotels considering converting their buildings to affordable housing to bring in revenue while addressing a critical need in the city.

Housing affordability no longer just a big-city problem

Residential  •  Global News

Canada’s housing market closed 2020 with a bang — another record-setting month for both home sales and prices. This time, though, the faster property appreciation isn’t happening in Vancouver and Toronto, two of Canada’s priciest markets, but in areas that were affordable.

Ontario real estate and COVID-19: New rules in effect

Residential  •  Remax News

Those transacting in the Ontario real estate market now may be  wondering what’s not allowed under the new “stay-at-home” order now in effect. To help clarify things from a real estate perspective, here’s what homebuyers and sellers need to know.