LG Electronics Canada has leased 984,176 square feet in the King Jane Business Park in King City, Ont. to serve as its distribution hub, a transaction which represents Nicola Real Estate’s largest leasing, to date, by square footage.

Westcliff Management Ltd. announced this morning it has acquired Kingsway Mall in Edmonton, expanding the Montreal-based real estate development, investment and property management firm's national retail footprint.

Teranet appoints a new CIO, while BTB is promoting a new EVP, CFO and COO. Other announcements include Tribe’s COO, a new co-head for Firm Capital, a VP for CBRE’s Toronto office and a new trustee for Margaux REIT.

Oxford Properties Group has acquired One Marina Park Drive — an 18-storey, approximately 500,000-square-foot class-A office building in Boston’s Seaport District — from Clarion Partners for roughly $599 million (US$435 million).

In this column, I usually provide a number of data points and insights to digest as you look across office, industrial, retail and multi-residential real estate.

Eight Canadian cities rank among the top 50 North American technology employment markets, including six in the top 15, in CBRE’s 13th annual Scoring Tech Talent report.

Automotive Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (APR-UN-T) generated strong year-over-year growth in rental revenue, cash net operating income (NOI) and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) in the three- and six-month fiscal periods ended June 30.

GUEST SUBMISSION: Purpose-built rental housing has become a dominant form of new housing in Southwestern Ontario, especially in London. The next phase will reward developers who understand local demand, not those who simply add more doors.

Avison Young has reached a deal for an infusion of capital from a group of mostly Wall Street-based investors to help strengthen the company's finances and provide what it expects to be fresh liquidity for growth, profitability and long-term value.

Jean-Marc Dubé and Arnold Fox sit down with Bill Bates, vice president, investment officer with Prologis, to discuss the changes, challenges and future Canada's industrial and logistics market is facing.

Margaux REIT (ALFA-UN-X) has invested $12.5 million to purchase Mini-Entrepôt St-Basile, a self-storage property in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, on Montreal’s South Shore. The 500-unit facility is fully leased with a waiting list.

Denciti Development Corp. is readying for residents this fall at its new purpose-built rental community in Esquimalt, B.C. The 135-unit Anchor is geared toward the needs of healthcare, defence and skilled trades workers in the Greater Victoria area.

GWL Realty Advisors (GWLRA) is submitting a rezoning application to the City of Toronto for the Canada Life campus of buildings in the city’s downtown core to allow for potential future intensification with new residential and commercial uses.

Peakhill Capital’s Peakhill Opportunity REIT (P-REIT), which launched in January to acquire and manage income-generating apartment assets across the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding regions, has closed on its first property purchases.

Montoni has launched a line of industrial condos — commercial buildings typically between 60,000 to 100,000 square feet that can be laid out like a townhome community — with small- and medium-sized businesses in search of flexibility as the target audience.

As Canada's climate changes, CRE owners are beginning to rethink the assumptions behind their buildings. The summer air is alive with the sound of cicadas. The sun hangs high, relentless and unfiltered, warming rooftops, pavements and everything in between. 

Property technology firm Altrio — which provides software and data solutions to the global real estate investment, lending and brokerage industries — is launching a new artificial intelligence-driven product called Altrio Pro to improve the efficiency of deal sourcing and screening.

Elysium Investments has received Toronto city council approval for two highrise purpose-built rental developments. The 70-storey project on Isabella Street and the 36-storey building on Glenavy Avenue will offer a combined 928 units.

Toronto-based H&R REIT is to be acquired in a $6.7B deal which will see its portfolio divided amongst a group of buyers in Canada and the U.S. The transaction will create Canada's second largest publicly traded residential REIT.

McGill doesn't offer a dedicated CRE program, so its students built one themselves. The McGill Real Estate Club's inaugural Junior Analyst Program put 16 students through a real deal-analysis gauntlet, ending with a live pitch inside Scotiabank's Montreal CRE office.

GUEST SUBMISSION: Canada’s foreign buyers ban was sold as a protection for Canadian buyers, and while the rationale was valid at the time, it’s done little to correct the market’s larger structural problems.

Grosvenor Property Canada has signed a 10-year lease with construction company Doka for a 15-acre industrial site on Annacis Island, the latest in a pair of major transactions that underscore continued demand for industrial space in Metro Vancouver.

Two new seniors VPs for Leyad and the CEO of Teranet will step down after 13 years at the top. Other appointments include a new CFO for Altus, new Toronto VP for Prologis; new executives at Partner and Fiera. 

Forum Student Living Fund I, along with sponsor Forum Asset Management, have closed its inaugural capital raise after securing $46.7 million in total gross equity proceeds in about two months.

GUEST SUBMISSION: Ontario’s housing debate rightly focuses on supply. Zoning, approvals, construction costs, interest rates and development charges all matter. But a less visible constraint matters just as much: how we pay for the infrastructure that makes new communities possible.