|
Retail developments are swooning over the pending arrival of Nordstrom, and Sobeys' $5.8B purchase of Safeway, both market game changers this year.  Ivanhoe Cambridge VP Graeme Silvera say the market entry of the US retail behemoth "was huge in terms of having a new, credible anchor tenant driving traffic to a centre," says Graeme, who works in western region retail development. (No one could have predicted it, except for Nordstromdamus.) The downside, he adds, is that Nordstrom will be very selective in their initial location choices, given the demographic of the typical Nordstrom shopper, "so the impact will be limited for now to a select few centres." (For instance, if we walked into a Nordstrom, there's a good chance we'd be asked to leave.)  Above is the rendering of Nordstrom's store in Vancouver. Ivanhoe hopes Nordstrom lands in one of their centres, obviously. As for its other big tenants: "Target's entry into the marketplace has not been as smooth as Walmart's arrival, but we are confident that over time they will add tremendous value to the centres, which we have them in," Graeme says.  The safeway acquisition, along with other buys this summer and fall, are heavy on the mind of Colliers VP director of retail consulting James Smerdon. "It started with Loblaw's acquiring Shoppers Drug Mart, and was quickly followed by Sobeys buying Canada Safeway, and then Hudson's Bay taking over Sak's." As usual, it will take years to assess the full impact of these deals to materialize. "But I think it's the start of a trend, rather than the end of one," he adds.  The deals, James says, are as much about real estate as they are about retailing, and the fundamentals behind the deals (accessing untapped markets, high land values in urban areas, and low retail vacancies in major metropolitan markets) are unlikely to disappear soon. (That's great news for teenagers who know how to swipe their parents' credit cards.) |
|
|
 |
JLL Boosts Vancouver Team Last week, we reported on JLL's hiring of Mark Lester and Alan Johnson for its Vancouver office, brought over from Sotheby's to run JLL's unique properties group. Those were the latest moves in a growth spurt at JLL that now sees its roster at 24 employees. EVP and managing broker Ray Ahrens tells us to expect more hires in 2014. "We opened in 2011 with just four people in the tenant rep business," he says. (The downside is now you have to write a lot more holiday cards.) |
|
|
Concert Makes a Mark |
||
 This is the time of year when Concert Properties puts a special focus on its year-long Concert Community Works initiatives, according to company prez Brian McCauley. Staff in Toronto participated in a program supported by the company's Tapestry Retirement Communities called "Be a Santa to a Senior," where much-needed items were purchased and given anonymously to seniors in need; they also participated in a Police Toy Drive. |
 In Vancouver, they constructed aà Christmas tree in their reception made entirely out of canned food items, donated through a staff-led food drive with contributions matched by Concert. Over 1,000 cans of food were delivered to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. The food was accompanied by a $1,000 cash donation from Concert. |
|
|