RENX’s 2020 summer commercial real estate review

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Investment  •  National, International

Labour Day has passed, and fall looms. That means it’s time for us to play some catch-up on the commercial real estate scene across Canada. We present the 2020 version of RENX’s annual Summer Real Estate Review.

The Bay’s heritage building in Montreal is for sale

Commercial  •  La Presse

The Bay’s flagship store and heritage building located on Sainte-Catherine Street in downtown Montreal is for sale. The store will remain open and will occupy two floors and the basement leaving 400,000 square feet of loft office space on floors 3 to 8.

Sublease office space climbs in Toronto, Vancouver

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  RENX

Space available for sublease in downtown Toronto nearly tripled to 1.7 million square feet in August from the end of 2019 according to Avison Young, pushing the office vacancy rate to 3.2 per cent downtown, up from 2.1 per cent in January.

Artis REIT to spin-off retail holdings into $819M entity

RENX  Commercial  •  Office, Industrial, Retail  •  National, International

Artis Real Estate Investment Trust (AX.UN-T) says its board of trustees has approved a spin-off of its Canadian retail properties into a new REIT., with up to 42 properties comprising 2.9 million square feet of GLA and valued at $819.3 million.

Korol to replace retiring O’Neill as AHIP CEO

RENX  Commercial  •  Hotels and Resorts  •  International

Jonathan Korol is leaving his role as president at SilverBirch Hotels and Resorts to take over as CEO at American Hotel Income Properties REIT when John O’Neill retires from the position in October. O’Neill has held the CEO’s role since 2018.

CN to invest $250-million in new Milton Logistics Hub

Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

CN is investing $1 billion in new railcars, and Ontario infrastructure including over $250 million to construct the proposed Milton Logistics Hub, an essential transportation infrastructure project critical to the economic future of consumers in Ontario and Canada.

Sponsored by Yardi Implementing new energy strategies post COVID-19

Expense management is one of the main concerns for owners attempting a return to the office post COVID-19. Utilities are among the largest controllable expenses for business owners . . .

Some big-box stores racking up impressive profits

Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Big-box retailers, low prices, and upgraded online order systems are the right combinations for the COVID-19 era. While almost every other retailer is suffering, big-box retailers Walmart, Target and Costco are racking up impressive sales and profits.

Wide sidewalks help CRE weather the pandemic

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail  •  Business in Vancouver

The positive effects of wide sidewalks as opposed to narrow ones are easy to see as they experience a faster return of people and therefore business, says Val Rynnimeri, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo.

Office work could be changed forever by COVID-19

Commercial  •  CBC  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Ottawa Business Journal

Only a fraction of employees working from home during the pandemic have returned to full-time office work. This has ramifications for everything from how workplaces are run to where we live — and whether small businesses around office buildings survive.

Great Canadian Gaming to re-open 11 Ontario locations

Commercial  •  PR Newswire

Great Canadian Gaming will be reopening its 11 Ontario properties on September 28 as part of Ontario’s Stage 3 framework for the reopening of its economy. The company will adhere to provincial guidelines and establish a limit of 50 guests at a time.

Flagship Communities REIT files prospectus for IPO

Residential  •  Flagship Communities News Release

Flagship Communities REIT is a newly created, unincorporated, open-ended Canadian real estate investment trust formed to own and operate a portfolio of 45 income-producing manufactured housing communities, comprising 8,255 lots located in the Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee.

SWFs shifting from property investments to private equity

Commercial  •  Asian Investor

The desire of sovereign wealth funds to find higher-yielding alternative assets is leading them to de-emphasise real estate investments and prioritize private equity and private debt. SWF investments in real estate fell to 6.65% in August, down from 7.18% a year ago.

Dalfen Industrial acquires Georgia property

Commercial  •  PR Newswire

Dalfen Industrial recently closed on the acquisition of Shiloh Crossing Distribution Center in Alpharetta, Ga. The two class-A industrial buildings totalling 71,640 square feet are less than two miles from GA-400 and the newly developed Halcyon mixed-use project.

Data centres see no clouds ahead

Commercial  •  CP Executive

Society has become more reliant on online services, thus creating a stronger demand for data centres space. In response, data centre companies have taken steps that changed the direction and course of their growth while ensuring the world stays connected.

Net lease investment falls, but leads CRE activity: CBRE

Commercial  •  CP Executive

The pandemic-induced economic downturn continues to challenge the commercial real estate industry — and not even net-lease assets, a favourite among investors for their durability, escaped unscathed in the second quarter of 2020, according to CBRE.

U.S. millennial purchase market continues to heat up

Residential  •  PR Newswire  •  PR Newswire  •  PR Newswire

Despite tight housing inventory across the U.S., millennial purchase activity continued to rise in July, according to the latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker. Share of all purchase loans closed to millennials reached 61% in July, up five percentage points from June.

Extend mortgage deferrals until the job market recovers

Residential  •  Financial Post

Earlier in March, many borrowers, who were uncertain about their jobs, opted for mortgage deferral as a precaution. By mid-April, 600,000 borrowers had applied for mortgage deferrals, and at its peak, over 700,000 mortgages had been in some form of a deferral.

More than half of Redfin offers faced bidding wars

Residential  •  PR Newswire

Nationwide, 54.5 per cent of Redfin offers on homes faced competition in August, according to a new report from Redfin. It’s the fourth consecutive month more than half of Redfin offers encountered bidding wars.

Greater Victoria market remains hot during pandemic

Residential  •  CTV  •  Victoria Times Colonist  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

The numbers are out and Victoria real estate sales for August 2020 are up 48 per cent year-over-year. The Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB) reports a total of 978 properties sold in the region last month compared to 661 sales in August 2019.