The Bay is resurrecting the Zellers corpse

Hear ye, hear ye: news dropped this week as to which Hudson’s Bay (HBC, The Bay) department stores will feature restored Zellers stores within their existing footprints.

This news isn’t a complete surprise as the Bay has been dropping tidbits of this brand within a brand for the past year.

I may be out of line here, but who exactly is crying to see the return of Zellers?

Continue Reading

One of many benefits to setting up shop in SK

Altus Group has recently released its 2022 “Canadian Property Tax Rate Benchmark Report,” which provides some interesting stats.

Although Saskatoon and Regina both raised commercial tax rates, with Saskatoon increasing by 3.3% to $16.15 and Regina by 2.74% to $17.14, Saskatchewan’s costs are far below the national average.

Continue Reading

Carrying the Mission, Vision & Values Message through corporate leadership

I firmly believe that the most crucial job a leadership team has is to design and implement strategies to see the organization grow and flourish in the long term.

About four years ago, we completed the soft rebrand of ICR.

We didn’t set out to significantly alter our corporate image and logo, but we knew we needed a refresh.

Continue Reading

Slow but steady road towards sales proceeds

Patience is a virtue for multi-tenant investment sales final adjustments

All parties to a sale (brokers, property managers, buyers, sellers, and lawyers) must be prepared for the process necessary to calculate occupancy cost adjustments at sale closing.

If you’re selling multi-tenant commercial real estate, the final statement of adjustments that your lawyer provides could take a couple of months to complete.

Continue Reading

Face Your Fear and Do It!

That was advice I received from a client many years ago when I was considering investing in my first commercial real estate property.

I took his advice, partnered with a colleague, bought the apartment building, and had no regrets.

It was the right message, delivered at the right time and have since repeated that same message to clients when the time was appropriate.

Continue Reading

Required steps to valuing development lands

As brokers, landowners engage us to provide an opinion of value on development land.

At the same time, those landowners often offer, what is believed to be, comparable land sales within close proximity to the subject property.

What they may not realize is that there could be a whole back story to that supposed comparable land sale that render it incompatible as a sale comp.

Continue Reading

Gap narrowing between CRE financing and returns

The markets are pricing in five, quarter point interest rate increases in 2022 which will result in commercial mortgage rates ranging between 4 to over 5 per cent.

What will be the consequences of this increase to the commercial real estate investment market?

Continue Reading

Best practices for negotiating Commercial Real Estate

There are many working parts in offering to purchase or lease a commercial real estate property.

Determining the strategy you will employ in a negotiation, however, can have a big bearing on the outcome.

Continue Reading

Good news stories during pandemic

I can’t handle reading any more news on how the pandemic has decimated the economy.

If you know my background, you aren’t surprised that I have a lot opinions about how media is operating these days.

Overstating the obvious isn’t making anything better, I liken it to reporting on the umpteenth snowstorm this winter.

So I am on a personal mission (at least this week) to report only on the uplifting stories despite the pandemic!

Continue Reading

Why you should sell your Commercial Real Estate now

There has never been a better time to cash-out of your Saskatchewan industrial and retail commercial real estate.

While there is currently demand from owner occupants for office buildings, that demand however is not the same for multi-tenant office due to typically higher vacancy in that particular asset class.

Continue Reading