Battle Of The Beer Sales

There was a nice back-and-forth yesterday between The Beer Store and the Ontario Convenience Stores Association over the sale of suds in corner stores. (If you're going to fight over something, just make it's something you're passionate about.)

The Beer Store's Ted Moroz referenced a Beer Store research paper that says that drinkers should expect to pay $10 more per two to four if corner stores are allowed to sell suds. “Prices will go up. Make no mistake,” Ted says. Regulation allows for lower cost and better selection.

The OCSA says 70% of Ontarians, according to a December Angus Reid poll, want to see competition beyond just the LCBO and The Beer Store--which is owned by Labatt Brewing, Molson Coors Canada, and Sleeman Breweries. That was followed by another statement by The Beer Store--see, the OCSA is flip-flopping, having said previously that prices under a new system would go down. Then Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says during a factory tour she doesn't want to open up the booze market to convenience stores, while Conservative leader Tim Hudak is in favour of it. See you at election time, we'll play some election night drinking games.

CREW Takeaways

Canadian chapters of CREW were all represented at the CREW Network Winter Leadership Summit and Council Meeting in Utah (in the image are the heads of all the chapters). McCarthy Tetrault's Tara Piurko (Toronto CREW president), Oxford's Kim Lanthier, McLean & Kerr's Sharon Addison, and DTZ's Dimple Mehta were there from Toronto. Dimple says her takeaways were another platform for networking and business lead generation, how to grow the CREW chapter, as well as meeting “like-minded individuals” and learning new techniques to improve her deal-making skills.

Online Community Thins The Herd

The key in cutting through the clutter of online listings services these days is to focus your service on qualified buyers and developers, RealNet's Richard Vilner says. (Also stay off of Craigslist unless you're looking for a broken bike or someone to rob your house.) RealNet reports over $2.9B in sale listings from brokerage houses currently posted across their three markets since launching their listings service only a few months ago, across office, industrial, retail, apartment, hotel, and land classes. Brokers are looking to access a community of companies and individuals that are driving the current market—not the general public. Keeping it simple is key for the investor clients as well, Richard adds—how do investors quickly source new opportunities that meet their objectives?

Pump Up The Volume

Getting pumped up for Sochi, Colliers held a broker reception at an industrial property at 300 Orenda Road in Brampton to give brokers an update on the property (a 96K SF industrial freestanding building, with improvements to warehouse lighting and installation of new shipping doors) and to introduce tour and deal incentives. The Sochi-themed event was marked by a snowboard simulator that agents got to play with, as well as Team Canada gear giveaways. In the image is Ben Williams. “Higher than expected turnout from the brokerage community,” Colliers' Colin Alves reports. That was due in large part to the collective efforts of Colliers marketing and the client (Manulife) to come up with an event that tapped into Olympic enthusiasm, he adds.

Top Corner

Canada beat Finland yesterday 3-0 in women's hockey at Sochi, and no doubt Oxford Properties Group VP Leasing John Peets wasn't surprised. A gold medal for both the men's and women's teams in hockey is in the cards, John says. “We invented the game so of course we will be there for the final game,” he says. Caroline Ouellette will lead the women's team all the way, John says.

World's Biggest Bookstore Sale Closes

The World's Biggest Bookstore on Edward St, a tourist attraction for many years, will soon be a thing of the past (from now on you can call it The World's Biggest Former Bookstore), with an industry source confirming to Bisnow the formal sale of the property for $51M. It had been reported previously in the media that the buyer is Lifetime Developments. There has been no confirmation as yet on what will be developed on the land—prime location just off of Yonge, north of Dundas, a short walk from the Eaton Centre. The bookstore will close to the public this month.