Sutter Hill Developments CEO happy to keep low profile

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Office, Retail, Apartments, Seniors Housing  •  Toronto / GTA

Sutter Hill Developments’ recent 50 per cent acquisition of a downtown Toronto office building is the latest in the $1.2 billion of transactions it has very quietly completed since 1992.

Public lands, Part I: Canada Lands, Infrastructure Ontario

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Infrastructure, Land  •  National, Ontario, Toronto / GTA

Demand for better utilization of public land is growing, and representatives from four bodies responsible for such portfolios talked about their strategies during a recent webinar presented by the Urban Land Institute’s Toronto chapter.

COVID-19 damage eludes property insurance coverage

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Class-action lawsuits have been launched against insurers in Canada and abroad, mainly to seek business interruption payouts. Those factors, more than COVID-19, are likely to affect insurance products and pricing available to commercial real estate companies, industry stakeholders say.

Bosa shifts focus to rentals instead of condos

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun  •  RENX

Adding more rental properties has become a popular mantra for some developers. The latest is Bosa Properties CEO Colin Bosa, who is looking to create hundreds of new rental units across various sites in Vancouver, Burnaby, Squamish and Surrey.

Timbertrin proposes four-building rental complex

Residential  •  Urban Toronto  •  RENX

Timbertrin, a partnership between Trinity Development Group Inc. and Timbercreek, has proposed rental buildings of 10, 12, 25, and 35 storeys at 4121 Kingston Rd., at the entrance to Guildwood GO/VIA rail station. The IBI Group-designed development would include 996 rental units including 107 three-bedrooms.

Sponsored by First National Financial LP First National introduces game-changing conventional term program

First National is differentiated as a commercial property mortgage lender not just because of its size – with over $35 billion under management – but because of its ability to provide both insured and conventional financings . . .

Congebec expanding Mississauga cold-storage facility

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

In order to build its presence in Toronto and increase its pan-Canadian development in temperature-controlled food storage and distribution, Congebec Inc. is expanding its Mississauga facility from 170,000 to 232,600 square feet increasing its storage capacity by 12,000 pallets.

Design details of Ottawa’s new $2.8B hospital unveiled

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen

Lessons learned from COVID-19 will be imprinted onto Ottawa’s newest hospital, with infection control and flexibility for the next pandemic built into the design of the new Civic campus when the long-awaited $2.8-billion development opens near Dow’s Lake in 2028.

Real World of Real Estate › Podcast: Space planning with Michele Roach, Wolski Design

Gerald Tostowaryk:

CMLS’ Commercial Mortgage Commentary – April 2021

Commercial  •  CMLS News Release

Results from CMLS Institutional Services’ annual commercial real estate lender survey indicate the Canadian CRE term debt market continued its upward trend in 2020. Total outstanding debt ended the year north of $349 billion, a seven per cent increase year-over-year.

Fronsac, Canada’s best REIT, flies under the radar

Commercial  •  Yahoo Finance  •  RENX

Fronsac REIT’s (FRO-UN-X) market cap is only about three per cent of H&R REIT’s. Because of Fronsac’s small size, it’s in the sweet spot to make acquisitions not large enough for bigger firms but too big for individual investors.

REIT first-quarter financial results

Residential, Commercial  • 

Choice Properties REIT, (CHP-UN-T), Canada Newswire
RioCan REIT, (REI-UN-T), Globe Newswire

Teachers’ invests $400M in Hines for Asia RE

Commercial  •  Bloomberg  •  IPE Real Assets

Cadillac Fairview, the real estate investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is backing Hines with $400 million in search of  Asia-Pacific region deals. The fund, Hines Asia Property Partners, will have an initial investment capacity of roughly $900 million.

CPP invests $274M in debt investments in France

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  IPE Real Assets

CPP Investments, through its Real Assets Credit (RAC) investment group, and Acofi Gestion have confirmed a business partnership to invest in middle-market real estate credit opportunities across France. CPP Investments has committed $274 million Cdn to the strategy.

Manhattan’s office leasing plummets in April: Colliers

Commercial  •  Financial Post  •  Bisnow  •  Wealth Management

Leasing of commercial office space in New York City’s Manhattan borough dropped 46.4 per cent in April month-over-month, as some businesses folded due to the coronavirus pandemic while other companies went to long-term remote work, Colliers data showed Monday.

CI acquires $2.4B AUM Pinnacle Advisory Group

Commercial  •  Wealth Management

CI Financial’s Congress Wealth Management has acquired Pinnacle Advisory Group. The acquisition brings $2.4 billion in assets under management to Boston-based Congress, raising its AUM by 70 per cent to $5.8 billion. Toronto-headquartered parent company CI Financial (CIX-T) has $58 billion in AUM.

Remote work has boosted hot housing market

Residential  •  Globe and Mail  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Will the flight from cities, and the corresponding real estate boom in newly favoured precincts, last? As vaccination brings Canada closer to the end of the pandemic, despite a crushing third wave, some economists and urbanists are skeptical.

GTA new condo sales near pre-pandemic levels in Q1

Residential  •  Toronto Star

The 5,593 new condominiums sold in the Toronto area in the first quarter put sales only four per cent below pre-pandemic levels and surpassed the 10-year average, a sign the market has shaken off last spring’s malaise, according to Urbanation.

Calgary home sales up 462 per cent YOY: CREB

Residential  •  CTV

The Calgary Real Estate Board said 3,209 homes were sold in April, up 462 per cent over April 2020, when economic shutdowns led to a massive sales decline. CREB’s latest figures show new listings soared 227 per cent year-over-year to reach 4,670 in April.

What $716K average house price can get you across Canada

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  CBC

The average national price stands at $716,828, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association‘s MLS system. So what do you get for nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in Canada?