Wesbild JV building six-storey industrial / office project

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Office  •  Metro Vancouver

Canada’s largest stacked mixed-use industrial project has launched in Vancouver, which continues to grapple with a mere one per cent industrial vacancy rate and surging demand. Marine Landing will be Vancouver’s first twinned, six-storey stacked industrial and office complex.

Downtown Winnipeg tower bleeds money

Commercial  •  Winnipeg Free Press

As six of its 11 floors sit vacant, the city is losing $500,000 per year on the office tower attached to the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters. In 2010, the city bought the office tower at 266 Graham Ave. and Canada Post’s former downtown building.

Earls Main Street building next to Artis edifice

Residential, Commercial  •  Winnipeg Free Press

Earls Main Street is moving across the street. The company is building a new Winnipeg restaurant right on the corner of Main Street and Graham Avenue connected to 300 Main, the 40-storey mixed-use apartment building complex Artis REIT  (AX-UN-T) is building.

Concord Pacific, HB to be HQ’s majority shareholders

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  RENX

Concord Pacific and HB Management have entered into strategic agreements to become majority shareholders of New York-based HQ Capital Real Estate. HQ will continue to own a minority interest in the ongoing business and maintain a close partnership going forward.

Epic’s 33 Bloor East evolves with community

Commercial  •  Urban Toronto

Epic Investment Services engaged WZMH Architects to lead a massive $25-million design overhaul of the 17-storey, 291,000-square-foot office building at 33 Bloor Street East. Completed in 2020, the project has reconfigured 33 Bloor’s ground floor to extend the growing Bloor Street shopping corridor.

The Apartment Building Expert › Perspectives on multi-generational family-owned real estate

Derek Lobo: Founder and CEO , SVN Rock Advisors Inc.

T.O. bankers aren’t rushing back to the office

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Unlike on Wall Street, top Bay Street executives seem to be in no hurry to end remote work. If anything, the likes of IGM Financial Inc.’s James O’Sullivan rave about how surprisingly efficient and profitable the arrangement has been.

Mtl. plots ‘charm offensive’ to lure workers downtown

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Montreal’s employers and government officials are preparing to roll out the red carpet for the 310,000 office workers whose patronage is vital to the survival of downtown restaurants and retail stores. The city and the province have budgeted $25 million.

Urgo opens dual-branded Hilton in Montreal

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire

Urgo Hotels & Resorts Canada and Devmont Construction announced the first dual-branded Hilton property in Québec has opened in Midtown Montréal. Hilton Garden Inn includes 157 contemporary rooms while Homewood Suites includes 133 enhanced studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites.

Stratford’s new Tom Patterson Theatre unveiled

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Woodstock Sentinel Review

This week the Stratford Festival offers a look inside the new Tom Patterson Theatre, a $70-million, 77,000-square-foot complex that was scheduled to open last year but delayed by the pandemic. The 600-seat theatre was designed by Toronto-based Hariri Pontarini Architects.

Canadian furniture retailers appeal new tariffs

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Retail Insider  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

The sectional sofa for sale at Dodd’s Furniture & Mattress in Victoria has leather upholstery, reclining capabilities and built-in USB ports. In early May, the price tag read $6,498. By the middle of the month, the store was asking $24,998 for it.

Dollarama’s first-quarter sales climb 13%

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

Dollarama Inc.’s (DOL-T) first-quarter sales rose nearly 13 per cent to $954.2-million, but the discount retailer was hit by a new round of restrictions as Canadian governments took measures to curb the third wave of COVID-19.

How economic recovery is shaping U.S. CRE’s future

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Chuck Schreiber, co-founder & CEO of private equity firm KBS, and David Amsterdam, president of U.S. Capital Markets and Northeast Region at Colliers, spoke to Commercial Property Executive about the challenges and opportunities the commercial real estate industry faces going forward.

‘Zombie’ companies to keep CRE insurance rates high

Commercial  •  Regina Leader-Post

The expectation that hundreds of so-called zombie companies will fail over the next few years is among the major concerns prompting insurers to reduce risk and charge higher commercial premiums, a trend likely to continue, Swiss Re AG said.

Real estate ETFs emerging as a safe bet

Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Real estate exchange-traded funds are raking in cash. The US$6.2 billion iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF  posted US$1.3 billion of inflows last week, making it the second biggest gainer among ETFs after BlackRock’s S&P 500 behemoth SPY.

Trump properties suffer price slump

Residential, Commercial  •  The Guardian

Bargain hunters are swooping in to take advantage of prices in Trump buildings that have dropped to levels not seen in over a decade, a crash brokers attribute to a combination of the ex-president’s polarizing image and the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts doubt new mortgage rules will tame market

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Toronto Storeys  •  ReMax blog

Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, is among experts calling the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ tighter stress tests good policy, but was doubtful of their cooling potential on Canada’s overheated housing market.

Banks find ways around mortgage stress test

Residential  •  Financial Post

VIDEO: Leah Zlatkin, LowestRates.ca expert and principal broker at Brite Mortgage speaks to Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn about the mortgage stress test that came into effect June 1.

Renovation boom to raise home insurance premiums

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

We’ll see a record amount of money spent on renos in 2021, a big reason why the cost of building materials such as lumber has spiked higher. Higher material costs put upward pressure on the cost of home insurance.

SERIES: Why home prices may stay hot

Residential  •  Global News: Part III  •  Global News: Part II  •  Global News: Part I

While the breakneck pace of appreciation of the pandemic housing market has widely been dubbed “unsustainable,” many housing market watchers say when the border reopens new demand from immigration may keep the pressure on prices.