Small businesses spur Burnaby industrial deals

Small and medium-sized businesses are driving an industrial real estate recovery in Burnaby, says a new Avison Young report.
Broker Kyle Blyth, who specializes in Burnaby industrial sales and leasing transactions, says small and medium-sized companies are helping to maintain the Vancouver suburb's traditionally stable conditions. Traditionally, after a downturn, he says, smaller industrial owner-users re-enter the market first and then larger companies come back.
Although Burnaby vacancy has notched up to 3% from 2.6% in the fall of 2009, it is still well below the Metro Vancouver average of 4.7%. Older properties needing renovation or redevelopment have slightly skewed Burnaby's rate upward.
But properties with high ceilings, good visibility and exposure, and easy access to arterial routes are in high demand. Meanwhile, landlords, well educated on market conditions, are offering new tenancies or retain existing ones.
Existing tenants will likely be able to capitalize on more favourable lease rates as they act on long-term needs that have been put off pending the global economic recovery.
In the few cases where developable land is available, developers will be asked to pay a premium. Lawrence Green, president of Spire Development Corporation can relate.
His company paid $1.4 million per acre for land where the new Spire Corporate Centre on North Fraser Way is located.
According to Blyth, strata-ownership projects, which help offset high land costs, are likely to increase. As the report notes, the Beedie Group, is also developing strata projects in South Burnaby.
Notable leases include Core-Mark International renewing on 70,000 square feet (sf) at 7800 Riverfront Gate while Mustang Survival (45,000 sf), Japan Foods (40,000 sf), Dynamex Couriers (30,000 sf) and Shoppers Home Health Care (20,000 sf) inked new rental agreements.

Richmond Q1 industrial dollar volume exceeds $60 million

Richmond's industrial property sales and leasing activity is on the rise.
According to a new Avison Young report, industrial real estate sales and lease deals in Metro Vancouver's largest submarket have rise dramatically from about this time last year. (Disclosure note: your agent was involved in preparing the report.)
In the first quarter of 2010, Richmond industrial investment dollar volume surpassed $60 million compared to only $3 million a year earlier, when global markets were still caught in the recession.
IKEA's acquisition of Key West Business Centre for $35 million spiked the dollar volume in the first quarter of this year, but the market still displayed underlying strength as deals tripled to nine from three in the first quarter of 2009.
Meanwhile, vacancy is hovering around 6%, but supply remains relatively tight due to limited available new and existing industrial inventory. Tenants should be able to capitalize on large inducements to renew existing lease agreements or sign new ones.
In some cases, landlords are offering several months of free rent in exchange for long-term lease agreements.
The report also details recent sales and leasing transactions and updates readers on phase II of Farrell Estates Ltd.'s Shelter Island project.

To access the report, click on the this link:

http://ow.ly/1xrEr

Calgary commercial activity continues upward

Calgary commercial real estate transaction activity is likely to continue upward as property values adjust to the new equilibrium and the bid-ask gap narrows, says an Avison Young report released Monday.
"While both the number of transactions and total dollar volume are down, activity levels and values are reflecting quality, not quanty," says the report.
The average price per transaction has only declined 1.5% versus the 10-year average and 2.7% versus the five-year average.
Overall transaction volume for six asset classes (office, retail, industrial, ICI land, and residential land) for 2009 was $1.42 billion from 127 sales. Dollar volume dropped 58% from 2009 and 69% from 2007.
Retail properties accounted for the largest dollar volume share (36%) in 2009 while industrial led in number of sales (28%).
"Knowledgeable, well-capitalized buyers are actively looking for quality products with long-term leases and good-quality tenants," says the report. "There are a number of positive factors within the investment market today."
For the first time in more than a decade, office deals took a backseat to retail transactions. Office transactions dropped 59% to 15 from 37 while office dollar volume dipped 70% to $377.8 million from $1.2 billion in 2008. The average sale price dropped to $25.2 million, or $254 per square foot (psf) from $33.5 million in 2008 and $39.8 million in 2007.
Office vacancy finished the year at 11.6%, compared to 6% at the end of 2008.
Meanwhile, 28 retail property transactions valued at $509 in 2009 were "highly comparable" to 28 worth $540 million in 2008.
However, Calgary's industrial market experienced one of its slowest years in the past five as 35 transactions valued at $228 million were completed. Industrial dollar volume was off the record-setting pace of 2008 and 2007 while vacancy reached 10.6% at the end of 2009, up slightly from the third quarter and up significantly from 7.8% at the end of 2008.

NAIOP panelists to assess recovering market

How can commercial real estate developers profit from the current economic recovery?
NAIOP Vancouver members will attempt to answer that question during this month's breakfast meeting, March 18 at the Hyatt Regency.
The panel will discuss the market's current and future prospects in wake of the global economic downturn and examine ways to profit heading into the next expansion phase. It should be a lively discussion, because the Vancouver market is extremely active right now with many deals in the works, especially in retail, which made a strong comeback in the second half of 2009 following a slow start to the year.
Bill Tucker, CEO of Omicron Canada Inc., which assists developers from design to construction and offers such services as architecture and engineering, will serve as the moderator. The panelists include Gino Nonni, president of Wesgroup Properties; Ron Emerson, president of Emerson Real Estate Group and Andrew Grant, president of PCI Group.
Wesgroup and PCI Group are two of Metro Vancouver's most active and prominent developers.

For more details NAIOP's monthly breakfast, click on the link below:

http://www.naiopvcr.com/eventCalendar.aspx#e38

Former Watergate investigator joins Avison Young

Legendary commercial real estate executive Stephen Leopold has returned to his Quebec roots.
Avison Young announced Tuesday that Leopold has been appointed chair of the brokerage firm's Quebec operations.
Leopold, whose career spans four decades, will advise on strategy and growth in the Quebec marketplace.
In the 1970s, he served as an investigator on U.S. Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate Committee, which investigated former president Richard Nixon. In the 1980s, Leopold, a Montreal native, acted as executive assistant to Brian Mulroney during a successful Progressive Conservative Party leadership campaign that helped him become prime minister.
Leopold's many commercial real estate career highlights include serving as vice-president of Canada's largest mortgage bank, now known as RBC Capital; forming his own firm, Montreal-based Leopold Property Consultants, which became the largest North American company to represent corporate users of space; and conceiving and creating Skymarkets in the World Trade Center. In 2002, he was appointed chairman of William B. May International in New York, which was founded in 1866 and ranks as one of North America's oldest brokerages.
Avison Young chair and CEO Mark Rose says Leopold's appointment is part of the company's aggressive expansion plan and demonstrates its increasingly significant presence in North America.
Leopold will be based in Avison Young's Montreal office.

B.C. investment volume rises over low cap rates

British Columbia's commercial real estate investment market made a strong comeback in the second half of 2009, says a new Avison Young report.
The number of transactions increased to 37 from 23 in the first half, which at the time marked the lowest first-half total in seven years. Meanwhile, second-half investment volume rose 11% to $715 million from $643 million in the earlier period, the report adds. Total investment for the year reached $1.36 billion, up from $1.27 billion in all of 2008, when provincial investment activity was caught in the global economic downturn.
The report attributes the increases mainly to a narrowing of the bid-ask gap as the effects of the worldwide downturn and U.S. credit crisis subside further.
Retail deals spurred the second-half 2009 comeback after lagging in the first six months. A total of 16 retail deals were completed in the second half compared to four in the first half. Remaining second-half trades were split evenly between office (11) and industrial (10).
For the year, total trades dropped to 60 from 68.
In the second half of 2009, retail investment volume accounted for $64%, or $458 million, compared to a modest 6% ($41 million) in the first half. Following a 70% drop, office deals accounted for $154 million as opposed to $506 million in the first half.
The large decrease resulted because large Downtown Vancouver office deals similar to Bentall V ($297 million) and the Grosvenor building ($84 million) did not repeat in the second half.
Industrial volume rose slightly to $102 million in the final six months of 2009.
Looking at 2009 as a whole, deals were evenly split between office (19), retail (20) and industrial (21). Office deals comprised 49%, or $660 million, of volume while retail accounted for 37% ($499 million) of volume and industrial represented 15% ($199 million).
The year-over-year increase in sales volume occurred even though the province's traditionally low capitalization rates nudged downward.
And, they are expected to continue on that course.

Segal recalls Olympia and York and Block Bros.

It’s not a well known fact, but Joe Segal briefly owned a real estate brokerage business in the late 1980s.
During NAIOP Vancouver’s monthly breakfast meeting on Thursday, the legendary entrepreneur, philanthropist and real estate investor became interested in a group of properties owned by Olympia & York, then one of Canada’s dominant developers. Figuring that O&Y had lost interest in them, he put in a call to Alberta Reichmann, one of three brothers who founded the company.
The 18 income properties weren’t on the market at the time, but Reichmann was willing to listen to what Segal might offer, so Segal went to Toronto to see him. The potential acquisition included Block Bros., then a booming residential real estate brokerage.
Reichmann told his company’s vice-president to tell Segal “anything and everything” he wanted to know about Block Bros. Segal said he would come back in two weeks to talk with Reichmann again.
But Segal, knowing he could not get through all of the properties in two weeks, did not look at any of them.
“But I really didn’t care,” said Segal. “All was interested in, all the valuation, was in the income stream.”
He did some number crunching and eventually offered Reichmann $140 million.
“I said, ‘I’ll give you $140 million . . . or I’ll give you $145 million if you keep the brokerage business,’ ” said Segal.
Reichmann rejected that pitch and asked for $145 million – brokerage business included. Segal agreed.
Segal’s next step was to get financing. He called the president of his long-time bank and requested $100 million.
His plan was to pay the bank back through the sale of the properties. But the bank boss said Segal would have to wait six weeks until he and the board assessed the proposal.
So Segal went to Canada Trust, made the same offer to its president, who said approval would take six days or so. Segal set the second bank boss in motion, got his money, and then sold Block Bros. back to its president and brokers for $5 million.
It took Segal a year to pay back his $100 million loan. A few years later, Block Bros. and O&Y both went bust while Segal continued to build a commercial real estate portfolio now worth hundreds of millions.
The year was 1988, but with the credit markets still tight, investors developing deals today can probably relate to what Segal went through.
I wonder where that bank president who told Segal to wait six weeks is now . . .

Segal expresses confidence in B.C. economy

Legendary entrepreneur Joe Segal isn’t worried about the B.C. economy these days.
While the global, national and provincial economies struggled in the past year, Segal’s Kingswood Capital firm has invested more than $150 million in commercial real estate.
“We’re going to be okay in British Columbia,” said Segal during a question-and-answer session at NAIOP Vancouver’s monthly breakfast. “But if the rest of the world goes bad, we’ll go bad, too – because we’re not an island.”
When asked if he is still a buyer, Segal said the answer depends on a particular property listing.
If the zoning is right, if the economy is right, if the property is right and the price is right, we’re buyers,” said Segal.
Around the time Segal was making his second request at a NAIOP breakfast in the past three months, comments, Bank of Canada boss Mark Carney told an Ottawa news conference that the country’s recovery is becoming more solidly entrenched. However, there won't be a sharp rebound in job growth for some time.
"Economic growth is expected to become more solidly entrenched over the projection period as self-sustaining growth in private demand takes hold," the bank said as part of its quarterly update.
Meanwhile, the bank said bankruptcies declined by four per cent in November from October. But the bank is also predicting the economy will grow by 4.3% this spring. On an annual basis, grow is expected to average 2.9% this year and 3.5% in 2011.
Which probably explains, at least in part, why Joe Segal isn't overly worried about his home province's economy as 2010 unfolds.

Canadian real estate investment set to climb

Canada's commercial real estate investment market is expected to pick up in 2010.
Avison Young's 2010 Forecast says investment transaction volume dropped 55% to $5.4 billion in the first nine months of last year. Simply put, owners were reluctant to sell their assets at de-valued rates, so they held on to them instead.
Although 2010 is not expected to set any investment records, investors may face more pressure to make moves this year as the economy improves and REITs re-enter the market. Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal are among the cities expected to experience increases.
But Toronto will be a notable exception. Brokers there believe that rents still have to complete an adjustment, and in some cases decline further.
Still, at least two REITS, ARTIS out of Winnipeg and Toronto-based Dundee, have been extremely active in late 2009 and early 2010.

Chicago, Washington, D.C., paint U.S. office vacancy picture

If you want to get a read on the U.S. office market, just check out Chicago and Washington, D.C.
According to Avison Young's 2010 Forecast, their office vacancy levels reflect the double-digit norms prevalent in major cities across the U.S. Chicago, a vital transportation hub to many industries, expecially the oil and gas sector, saw its vacancy rise to 15.3% in 2009 from 13.2% a year earlier. Washington's office vacancy level rose to 13.5% from 11.3%
Mounting job losses and a corresponding fall in office demand are cited as the main causes of the declines.
This year, office vacancy is expected to nudge up 50 basis points in Chicago and dip by the same modest amount in the U.S. capital.
To check out Avison Young's Forecast click on the link below.

http://ow.ly/W562

Canadian industrial vacancy expected to exceed 7%

Canadian industrial real estate vacancy is expected to continue to climb in 2010.
According to Avison Young's National 2010 Forecast, released today, the industrial leasing market was hit hard last year, and vacancy should rise to 7% by the end of this year. The national vacancy rate, which applies to 1.9 billion square feet in 11 major cities, rose 110 basis points (bps) to 6.3% in 2009. Most of the increases occurred in Western Canada.
Edmonton witnessed the biggest jump as industrial vacancy in the Alberta capital rose 300 bps to 4.2%. But Rob Iwaschuk, an Avison Young principal based in the firm's Edmonton office, expects the market to stabilize as a large amount of sublease space released in the past year continues to put downward pressure on rental rates.
With a number of stalled projects in the Alberta oilsands now back on track, activity in Edmonton's industrial real estate market should pick up. The city serves as an important oilsands supply and distribution centre.
Meanwhile, Vancouver's industrial vacancy climbed 200 bps to 4.4%, but still ranked among the lowest in North America. But Vancouver, traditionally one of the tightest industrial markets on the continent, is already show signs of a notable rebound due to limited supply.
Calgary's industrial vacancy is expected to exceed the national average and reach 7.5%. As a result, construction of some 22 million square feet of new projects will be postponed until sufficient preleasing is secured.
To check out the report, click on the link below.

http://ow.ly/W562

Canadian office vacancy on the rise

Office vacancy is on the rise in major Canadian markets, says Avison Young's 2010 Forecast.
The report, released today, says the national vacancy rate for office space is up 270 basis points (bps) to 9.0% and is poised to reach 10% by the end of this year.
Calgary (plus-410 bps to 10.1%), where many speculative office buildings are starting to come on the market, and Toronto (plus-340 bps to 10.5%), which is witnessing the launch and effects of new downtown office towers, took the biggest hits. Regina and Winnipeg, on the other hand, experienced modest vacancy increases.
Vacancy in Regina inched up to 1.5% from 1.2% and Winnipeg's rate increased to 5.4% from 4.8%.
Meanwhile, Vancouver vacancy is expected to encroach 8% this year after ending 2008 at 5%.

To check out the Avison Young 2010 National Forecast, click on this link.

http://ow.ly/W562

Edmonton office market remains resilient

Edmonton's office market continues to show strength and stability, says an Avison Young report.
Office vacancy in the Alberta capital has risen to 8.2% compared to 5.8% at the end of 2008, says the firms Fourth Quarter 2009 Office Summary.
As a result of the recession, many companies changed their office space utilization in a bid to become more efficient, but the market is still considered healthy entering 2010. Vacancy in many other Canadian markets will reach double figures, if it hasn't already.
These are some of the key trends noted in Avison Young’s Fourth Quarter 2009 Edmonton Office Summary, released today.
“Despite a higher vacancy rate, the Edmonton office market is still considered to be in reasonably good health,” Avison Young principal Cory Wosnack in a news release. “The past six months have seen a continued rise in the amount of available space, mostly due to the injection of numerous sublease opportunities, and we expect this trend to continue until mid-year 2010. With these new opportunities comes a more competitive marketplace amongst landlords; as a result, tenants will benefit from more creative financial incentives to lease space. This situation will cause modest downward pressure on rental rates and higher inducement packages for tenants by way of free rent and improvement allowances."
A vacancy rate of approximately 8% is considered to represent a balanced market. Downtown Edmonton overall office vacancy, which includes head lease and sublease space, increased to 6.9% from 5.2% a year ago. Absorption was negative-184,485 square feet (sf), up from 37,097 sf at this time in 2008.
Suburban office vacancy rose to 10.7% from 7.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Absorption was negative-21,895 sf, compared to positive absorption of 267,734 sf at the end of 2008.

Bennett Jones anticipates CRE recovery

Law firm Bennett Jones predicts commercial real estate activity will pick up in 2010.
Toronto-based Bennett Jones, where former Bank of Canada head David Dodge, is now a senior adviser, issued comments on commercial real estate as part of a wide-ranging forecast on trends that will influence Canadian business in 2010.
"With renewed access to the public markets and improved borrowing costs, watch for an increase in activity levels by Canadian real estate entities both within Canada and internationally (particularly in emerging markets)," states the report. "Pension funds and other institutional investors will continue to seek the safe return of stable income-producing commercial real estate assets."
The outlook coincides with Dodge's prediction that Canadian economic growth will rebound to about 3.5% and the dollar will rise modestly on the strength of firming commodity prices, with the exception of natural gas, and a softening U.S. greenback. Dodge has warned that the U.S. commercial real estate market still faces a correction, he does not anticipate Dubai's economic woes to pose serious problems when it comes to raising capital for property investments.
Meanwhile, the Bennett Jones report predicts a greater proportion of restructurings and fewer outright liquidations as bank credit begins to loosen. It also anticipates more Alberta oilsands projects will get back on track, little in the way of tough new Canadian climate-change regulations while Washinton remains in "political gridlock" and more public-private-partnerships on infrastructure projects.
All of these factors will likely have at least an indirect effect on commercial real estate.

Investors showing more confidence as 2009 ends

Signs continue to point to a significant rebound in Canada's commercial real estate market in 2010.
While bloggers and tweeters in the U.S. are fretting about an impending market crash, the Canadian market is quietly moving into position for a turnaround. As 2009 comes to an end, institutional investors, especially REITs, continue to shore up their balance sheets and scout properties to purchase.
In many cases these days, the decision not to buy is based on a lack of supply, especially in in downtown Vancouver, where a new office tower is not expected to be built before 2013. Avison Young brokers predict that many investors will come off the sidelines next year as the effects of the global financial meltdown ease and they gain more clarity on their own business operations.
The general feeling, notably in Toronto and other Eastern Canadian markets, is that the worst of the recession is over. Investors will show considerably more confidence in 2010, especially if employment, considered a key commercial real estate benchmark, continues to rise.
A number of large transactions, ranging in price from $25 to $212 million are already in the works. They include Dundee REIT's announced acquisition of the 655,000-square-foot Adelaide Place office complex in Toronto for $211.5 million, which is slated to close in February.
Other pending deals range from office buildings in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa to large retail properties in Calgary and apartment buildings in Montreal.
The next 12 months should not break many records, especially when you consider the well documented glut of office vacancy in Calgary. But 2010 is expected to put commercial real estate investors in a better mood than they were this year.

(Follow Monte Stewart on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MonteStewart.)

Industrial land base shrinking on Vancouver's North Shore

A shrinking industrial land base on the North Shore has helped keep that sector of the commercial real estate market more stable during turbulent times, Avison Young broker Matt Thomas told the Vancouver Sun in an article published Wednesday.
Thomas said the scarcity of industrial property should keep such lots at high prices while values recover in other areas of Metro Vancouver. North Shore industrial properties average $2 million per acre compared to $4 million in Vancouver proper.
But values in other Metro Vancouver industrial submarkets have plummeted. Avison Young reported in November that industrial land values had decreased 20 to 30 per cent in other areas of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Thomas, Avison Young's North Shore specialist, said North Shore industrial land values "have been more stable simply because there's a lack of it and: "People will always pay top dollar for land that's in the right location."
The findings were in an Avison Young report on the North Shore commercial real estate market released Wednesday.

To see the report, click on the link below.

http://www.avisonyoung.com/library/pdf/Media_Releases/AY_North_Shore_BC_Market_Press_Release_Dec_1_09_FINAL_1.pdf

Follow Monte Stewart on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/MonteStewart

RioCan continues to buy retail properties

Canada's largest REIT continues to make sizable retail acquisitions.
Toronto-based RioCan REIT announced Tuesday it has agreed to purchase a stake in four retail shopping centres in British Columbia and Alberta for $166 million. Under the deals expected to close at the end of the year, RioCan will purchase malls in Surrey, B.C., and Edmonton in joint ventures with CPP Investment Board and Sun Life, respectively.
RioCan will co-own Grandview Corners shopping Centre in Surrey and and the Edmonton West Retail Centre. The trust will hold 100% interests in retail centres in Lethbridge and Calgary.
“These four centres represent an excellent addition to RioCan's core portfolio and provide an opportunity to acquire a number of strategic assets while expanding our important relationships with CPPIB and Sun Life,” said Edward Sonshine, RioCan's president and CEO, in a news release.
With credit markets loosening, RioCan has arranged a five-year conventional first mortgage financing of $113 million whereby it will cover $94.5 million at a rate expected to be in the 5% range.
Last month, RioCan announced that it will spend $170 million on eight Canadian retail properties. The properties range from Ottawa to Winnipeg to Fort McMurray and offer a healthy 7.9 per cent cap rate.The move came after RioCan agreed to purchase seven grocery-anchored properties in the Northeastern U.S. as part a joint venture with U.S.-based Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. for $141 million.

Real estate marketers embrace social networking

Traditional real estate marketing methods aren't working anymore, and
David it's time for the industry to embrace social networking, an Urban Devlopment Institute Pacific branch's heard Tuesday morning.
David Allison, principal of real estate development marketing firm Braun Allison, said developers can no longer market projects on spec, and offerings must "brand with the truth."
He was part of a panel discussion that examined how social networks are changing real estate marketing efforts.
Allison, author of the book Sell the Truth: A Marketing Campaign Guide for Real Estate Developers in the New Economy, said five key trends have emerged with the growth of online advertising.
People want more information about everything so that they can use it as "an antidote to fear." Consumers also expect dialogue with sellers, buyers are searching for authenticity, traditional advertising is less effective and social media usage is increasing.
However, real estate marketing is still about branding. All facets of a project must be based on truth, not just marketing. Real estate companies "can't pull a fast one anymore" and must help buyers win.
Allison has worked in such countries as Costa Rica and Mongolia as well as Canada and the U.S. in an advertising and marketing career that spans about 25 years. He calls for marketers to be more like journalists.
Contending the social media movement is as big as the Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s, he says websites have become the centre of the universe and traditional media support them. Likening social networking to a bar, he calls for real estate marketers to adopt a "blended media" approach to time stories, get the pulse on information campaigns and engage sales teams.
If you can sell the truth, he concluded, you can be the media.
real estate markets can "be the media."
Hanson Lok, senior research manager with polling firm Ipsos-Reid, said 85% of Canadians now have Internet access compared to 70% in 2001. But the Internet is not a real estate marketing silver bullet, and online marketing should be only one part of a blended approach.
Kirk LaPointe, managing editor of the Vancouver Sun, said online efforts have helped his publication's readership stable over the past five years.
"We don't really consider ourselves a newspaper anymore at the Vancouver Sun," said Lapointe, who uses Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn extensively. "We're a news platform."
LaPointe said a new engagement is emerging as news deadlines effectively disappear. If the Sun works on Web content development every day, the newspaper will take care of itself.
But LaPointe worries about the quality of journalism in the future as journalists become "entrepreneurs" and learn more about search engine optimization while fewer scribes work full-time.
"Everybody's a journalist," said LaPointe, referring to the growth of social media.
He predicted word of mouth will become the most powerful method of sharing news and information in an era that is exciting and profoundly challenging for journalists.
Amie Lake, CEO of Tagga Media Inc., which markets through mobile devices, said cell phones are the future of real estate marketing. Real estate companies must have mobile-compatible websites, because more Canadians use phones than Facebook and Twitter combined.
Contending that mobile devices will ultimately spell highly-qualified leads, she called for companies to devote 10% of their media-buying budget to mobile marketing while using the devices to define their audience and learn and modify what works.
Chris Breikss, president of 6S Marketing, said social networks enable real estate firms to measure return on investment much better than they can through traditional advertising through tools like Hootsuite, Radian6, Twitalyzer, Slide Share and Google URL Builder.
He pointed to Polygon Homes and Opus Hotels as successful cases of real estate firms that have succeeded in maximizing their search engine marketing campaigns. Polygon and Opus have used Facebook and Twitter to build thousands of followers that helped boost their bottom lines.
But, perhaps, the large crowd on hand was the biggest commentary on the social media movement within real estate. When Breikss asked for a show of hands, many indicated that their firms used social networks, but they do not know about some of the technoligies that he mentioned.
Suffice to say they're willing to learn.

RioCan keeps buying as market improves

Here's another sign that the commercial real estate investment dam is about to burst.
RioCan REIT announced this week that it will spend $170 million on eight Canadian retail properties. The properties range from Ottawa to Winnipeg to Fort McMurray and offer a healthy 7.9 per cent cap rate.
The move comes after Toronto-based RioCan agreed to purchase seven grocery-anchored properties in the Northeastern U.S. as part a joint venture with U.S.-based Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. for $141 million. Two of those deals will close by the end of this year and the rest will be finalized in the first quarter of 2010.
RioCan, Canada's largest REIT, also expects to buy six more properties in Western Canada for $335 million by 2010. The properties, which comprise 1.4 million square feet, are under conditional contract and proceeding through various stages of due diligence.
"These acquisitions represent an excellent opportunity to put to work some of the capital raised over the course of this year in a manner that is accretive to our unitholders," said Edward Sonshine, president and CEO of RioCan, in a news release. "These largely grocery and drugstore anchored retail properties represent a continued execution of RioCan's growth strategy in Canada. They are primarily located in well established urban centres with strong national and anchor tenants that will provide a stable source of cash flow as well as the potential to enhance returns through the leasing of currently vacant space."
In other words, RioCan has committed to investing almost $1 billion in recent months.
But RioCan is just one of many REITs that have accumulated cash and cleaned up their balance sheets lately after muddling through the after-shocks of the U.S. financial meltdown and global recession. Some observers might have expected more investment to have occurred by now. but a lot of niggling points kept them at bay.
These RioCan deals offer more strong evidence that the once wide buyer and seller expectation gap is reaching the point where many deals can be done. Meanwhile, credit is more easily attainable, yields are at the point where REITs can justify the investments to their boards, and institutional investors are gaining more confidence in the Canadian commercial real estate market and economy as a whole.
In other words, the dam that has blocked many deals in 2009 is about to break.

Boardwalk REIT boss started from humble roots

Boardwalk REIT boss Sam Kolias shares the secrets of his commercial real estate success in an interview with Gordon Pitts of The Globe and Mail.
Kolias explains how his Calgary-based REIT, now the largest in the country after launching as a small private firm, helps the homeless, self-regulates its rental rates, and makes philanthropy a regular habit.
I met Kolias way back when through his father-in-law. Kolias struck me then as a very decent person. To get the approval of his no-nonsense father-in-law, he would have to be.
It also helps that he can play pool a little bit; however, that's another story.
Click on the link below to read the Globe yarn.

http://tinyurl.com/create.php