RENX’s commercial real estate summer in review

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Condominiums, Office, Apartments, Industrial, Human Resources  •  National

Summer vacation is over, and RENX wants to help you catch up on major commercial real estate stories you might have missed. This is our (now annual) compilation of major Canadian CRE stories from the past two-and-a-half months.

CAPREIT buys 595 apartments in Ontario, P.E.I.

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments  •  Ontario, Atlantic Canada

CAPREIT (CAR-UN-T) has purchased four properties, three in Southwestern Ontario and a fourth in P.E.I., adding 595 apartments to its portfolio. It paid $68.8M for the complexes in London and Sarnia; $7.2M for a new building in Charlottetown.

Regional Group acquires Hazeldean Mall

Commercial  •  Ottawa Business Journal  •  RENX

Ottawa real estate development company the Regional Group of Companies has aquired Kanata’s Hazeldean Mall from longtime owners BentallGreenOak (formerly Bentall Kennedy) in a deal that closed Thursday. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Couche-Tard CEO believed in convenience stores

Commercial  •  La Presse

Couche-Tard (ATD-B-T) CEO Alain Bouchard has always believed in the potential of the convenience store market so he did not hesitate to open his first business. He had the idea of ​​creating a network that would go beyond Quebec.

Vancouver’s Shipyards open for business

Residential, Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

An old area of North Vancouver is new again. The Shipyards is a recently completed 84,000-square-foot mixed-use development featuring commercial and community space adapted from a historic industrial area on the north side of the Burrard Inlet.

Value: Weighed and Measured › Change is constant: The trick is to find the opportunities…

John Clark: Vice President , The Regional Group of Companies Inc

CIBT subsidiary acquires Surrey land for $22.6M

Residential, Commercial  •  Globe Newswire

CIBT Education Group Inc. (MBA-T) reported subsidiary GEC Education Mega Center Limited Partnership has completed the purchase of land for the development of GEC Education Mega Center in Surrey, B.C. The price was $22.6 million, or $56 per buildable square foot.

Winnipeg land signed over to F.N. group

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC

The transfer of Winnipeg’s Kapyong Barracks to Treaty 1 First Nations is now official. The heads of seven First Nations and the federal government held a signing ceremony Friday after reaching a settlement agreement for the 64-hectare site.

Ex-WWE boss bidding on Ontario Place project

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

Carl Demarco, a Toronto businessman and former executive with World Wrestling Entertainment, is among those involved in bids to redevelop Ontario Place, the defunct amusement park on Toronto’s waterfront Premier Doug Ford wants to transform into a “world-class” attraction.

Hamilton staff recommend new downtown arena

Commercial  •  CBC

City staff are recommending that a new “right-sized” arena be built downtown to replace FirstOntario Centre. In Wednesday’s general issues committee meeting, councillors will review an Ernst and Young report on the city’s entertainment venues.

Supply chain more complex than ever

Commercial  •  La Presse

The logistics and freight transportation sector has become much more complex in several industrialized countries over the last 25 years. Since the advent of e-commerce, it’s even more marked. Too many Quebec companies are slow to start the technological shift that is needed. 

Stock up on H&R as interest rates plunge

Commercial  •  Motley Fool

H&R REIT (HR-UN-T), which is aggressively expanding its empire outside Canada with mixed-use developments currently underway in Miami, Long Beach, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, and New York City, will prosper as interest rates plummet.

Transcontinental sells California building for $75M

Commercial  •  Winnipeg Free Press

Montreal-based TC Transcontinental (TCL-A-T) has agreed to sell the building that housed its former printing operations in Fremont, Calif., for US$75 million, with the proceeds to be used to reduce debt, the company said Tuesday.

Opportunity zones a windfall for U.S. rich

Residential, Commercial  •  New York Times

President Trump has portrayed America’s cities as wastelands, ravaged by crime and homelessness, infested by rats. A multi-billion-dollar tax break supposed to help low-income areas has fueled a wave of developments financed by and built for the wealthiest Americans.

Indonesian developers want speculation curbed

Residential, Commercial  •  South China Morning Post

Indonesia’s plan to build a US$33 billion new capital from scratch on the island of Borneo has sent developers scrambling for land in the vicinity of the proposed city. The industry’s representative body says that is already pushing up prices.

New rules would boost housing supply

Residential  •  Toronto Star

More than a third of Toronto’s 21,000 Airbnb listings would disappear if short-term rental bylaws take effect. Those are the units operated by landlords with multiple listings violating a key provision, a tribunal considering an appeal of approved rules was told.

Business booming for company exposing Airbnb rentals

Residential  •  Toronto Star

Until recently, there wasn’t much that management could do when condo owners listed their units on short-term rental sites. Now, Harmari, a Toronto-based investigative firm that specializes in helping condo managers and municipalities crack down on short-term rentals, is available.

Salt Spring cracking down on short-term rentals

Residential  •  Victoria Times Colonist

Salt Spring and Galiano islands are cracking down on short-term vacation rentals. The Islands Trust is taking legal action on each island against a specific property that is unlawfully being used as a short-term rental, including one with eight bedrooms.

Edmonton has not been kind to homeowners

Residential  •  Edmonton Sun  •  CBC

The average home in Edmonton is worth 6.8 per cent less today than was the case in 2014. Had you purchased a Vancouver or Toronto home in 2014, it would be worth up to 60 per cent more today compared to its purchase price.

First-time Home Buyer Incentive now in effect

Residential  •  CTV  •  Toronto Star

The federal government’s First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) came into effect Monday. The program is aimed at making it easier for young people to buy their first home by lowering new buyers’ monthly mortgage payments.