Only 11% of tenants consider abandoning offices

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Ottawa

A CBRE survey of Ottawa occupiers offers evidence that, far from being a doomsday scenario for office buildings, COVID-19 is simply causing a rethink of work habits. Only 11% of respondents were considering abandoning offices in favour of remote working.

16% of CRE tenants paid no rent in May: Colliers

RENX  Commercial  •  Office, Industrial, Retail  •  National

A Colliers Canada report indicates 16 per cent of commercial tenants didn’t pay rent in May and the commercial real estate company expects a further decline in June rent collections before things improve, assuming the reopening of businesses continues.

Cormack resigns; Sienna names Jain president/CEO

Residential  •  Globe Newswire  •  Ottawa Citizen

Sienna Senior Living Inc. (SIA-T) announced the appointment of Nitin Jain as president/chief executive officer, effective immediately. He replaces Lois Cormack, who advised the board of directors she is resigning as president and CEO for personal reasons.

An Open Letter to office tenants in 2020

Brandon Yuke: Brandon Yuke Senior Sales Associate, CBRE Ottawa

Surface proposes 30-storey Ottawa mixed-use tower

Residential, Commercial  •  Ottawa Business Journal

Ottawa developer Surface Developments has filed plans to build a 30-storey mixed-use tower that would be home to 353 apartment units. Surface Developments says the high-rise would also include roughly 2,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Port of Quebec receives retail support

Commercial  •  Journal de Quebec  •  Canada Newswire

A hundred Canadian retailers, including some giants, are lining up behind Port Quebec for the completion of its Laurentia container terminal project valued at $775 million. On the Montreal side, the port fears the impact of this site on its activities.

Box’d Canada’s first fully automated restaurant

Commercial  •  Toronto Life

Mohamad Fakih, CEO of Paramount Fine Foods, is set to open his latest casual dining concept Box’d. It is “based on digital cubby technology” in which only one person is involved before the order is added to the customer’s cubby.

Investors should be wary of REIT ETF rally

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail

While a modest recovery appears to be underway after TSX-listed REIT ETFs dropped as much as 20 per cent in the past three months, some investors are cautious about getting into the real estate sector – particularly office and commercial properties.

Top 10 recreational, retail, wholesale, warehouse projects

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

The accompanying tables show the top 10 major upcoming recreational and retail, wholesale and warehouse construction projects in Canada. They are all in the planning stage and are mainly new projects, but may also involve additions and/or alterations.

Restaurants still bleeding despite reopening

Commercial  •  Financial Post  •  Toronto Star  •  La Presse

Restaurants emerging from the economic lockdown to reopen their dining rooms are struggling to break even, with increased food and staff costs, but far fewer customers, according to a report from Restaurants Canada.

What to expect as Ottawa malls reopen

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen  •  RENX

Denis Pelletier, general manager at Bayshore Shopping Centre, estimates only about a third of retailers — aside from Walmart and HBC, which are already open — will be open on Friday, the first day of Phase 2 in Ottawa.

Reopening creating surge in demand for office proptech

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Landlords who had once seen new technologies as interesting long-term features that they could slowly implement have gained an increased sense of urgency, industry experts say, and many are accelerating timelines and rolling out products across their portfolios.

Safe office reopening strategies are reshaping leases

Commercial  •  CP Executive

As businesses pursue phased reopenings, a key issue for CRE owners and managers is how to safely resume the use of office space. The Centers for Disease Control added significantly to the conversation by producing an exhaustive list of guidelines.

Medical office rents weather the storm

Commercial  •  Globest.com  •  D Magazine

The U.S. medical office sector hasn’t been immune from issues caused by COVID-19. However, Kyle O’Connor, president and founder of MLL Capital, would still rather be in that commercial real estate asset class than any other sector right now.

Gordie Howe Bridge 2024 target still in place

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

Productivity losses due to COVID-19 have affected work on the Gordie Howe International Bridge but proponents say the completion target of 2024 has not changed. The project is considered essential in both Michigan and Ontario.

Top-10 major upcoming NE, SE U.S. projects

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

The accompanying tables show the Top-10 major upcoming Northeast and Southeast construction projects in the United States. They are all in the planning stage and are mainly new projects, but may also involve additions and/or alterations.

Feds crack down on real estate money laundering

Residential  •  Toronto Sun

The feds have introduced new regulations requiring Canadian realtors to name suspicious clients. Amendments under the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act target transactions of $100,000 in which realtors will be required to verify names and addresses of clients.

Airbnb bookings begin to pick up in Vancouver

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Short-term rental bookings are starting to climb from the lows of the pandemic shutdowns, potentially shifting the picture for long-term renters in British Columbia’s near-zero-vacancy cities and its vacation communities.

Single-family homes lead Vancouver Island recovery

Residential  •  CTV

Vancouver Island’s real estate market is showing signs of recovery as B.C. continues along its restart plan. Sales of single-family detached homes on Vancouver Island are up since the market dropped drastically in the month of April due to COVID-19.

Website lists architecture ‘icons at risk’

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

It looks like something aliens left for us. A grid-like, concrete cage, tough and imposing, allows for delicate walls of red-framed glass, arranged in cascading cubes, which illuminate open-span rooms.