General Update/Rumour thread [Urban Ottawa]

[S-Man]

I was gonna say...

Glass or concrete! Glass or concrete!

[J.OT13]

Domicile sets sights on Rochester.

http://www.obj.ca/Real-Estate/Residentia...micile-sets-sights-on-Rochester-Street/1

A local urban infill condo builder is asking the city for permission to demolish an unoccupied two-storey single-detached dwelling in Little Italy, according to municipal records.
Topics : Domicile Development , Fanto Group , Rochester Street , Little Italy , Loretta Avenue
The purpose of Domicile Developments' application for 518 Rochester St. is to "accommodate potential redevelopment," according to the city.

Located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Rochester and Pamilla streets, the house is surrounded by surface parking lots.

Little Italy is seeing a surge of condo development activity. While the Fanto Group has been planning condos on Rochester Street for several years, most of the activity has so far been concentrated west of Preston Street.

Domicile is currently constructing the 12-storey 94-unit hōm condominium project several blocks over at 100 Champagne Ave. S. As of June, 80 per cent of the units had been sold, a Domicile official told OBJ at the time. Domicile is also the builder behind the Merrion Square Norfolk project on Loretta Avenue, which consists of an eight-storey and a 10-storey condo building, along with a block of townhouses.

In a 2009 interview, Domicile president John Doran said the Preston Street area "pulled" the developer in and continues to get "better and better."

Elsewhere in the city, Domicile is constructing the eight-storey One3One condominium on Holland Avenue, just south of Wellington Street West, and recently filed a site plan application for a 10-storey condo building on Beechwood Avenue.

[J.OT13]

Although we still have no news about the future of the Rideau Centre, no official statement confirming that Nordstrom will take up Sears space, and no idea if the expansion/new hotel will be built any time soon, I would like to give you guys a bit of hope by presenting a few initiatives that will be taking by the Vancouver Pacific Centre once Sears vacates it's space. They will also expand the Pacific Centre itself on the corner of Howe and Georgia.

The plan is to totally re-clad the old "dirty marshmallow" Sears building with glass and build a direct connection to the City Centre Skytrain subway station. Once the renos are over, the building would be handed over to, as rumored, Nordstrom;

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/08/luxury-shops-coming-to-pacific-centre/

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/07/is-this-the-new-sears-building/

The Bay is also looking at investing 40 million dollars in its Pacific Centre Building (like in Ottawa, the Bay is connected but not part of the downtown shopping centre) to better compete with new high-end stores coming in.

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/07/the-bay-vancouver-renovations-new-stores-costs/

I'm hoping these changes in Vancouver are a preview of things to come here in OT, and as I have said before, I'm think we will hear a lot from Cadillac Fairview, the Rideau Centre and even maybe the Bay somewhere around September/December once the bids for the LRT and downtown subway come in and the city chooses a winner (assuming that the bids come in on budget).

[Postmaster]

It would certainly be nice to see the rest of Rideau properly tie into the new Convention Centre. Nordstrom sure won't take over that building looking like that.

[teej1984]

+1

[J.OT13]

http://www.obj.ca/Real-Estate/Non-reside...-muscles-into-local-real-estate-market/1

Cominar REIT muscles into local real estate market

Purchasing 1.55-million-square-foot office portfolio from GE Capital Real Estate
Ottawa’s real estate landscape is set for a shakeup as Quebec’s largest commercial property owner establishes a significant presence in the city.
Topics : Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust , General Electric , GE Capital Real Estate , Ottawa , Quebec , Montréal
Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust is purchasing 14 local office buildings and one vacant land parcel from GE Capital Real Estate as part of a larger $697-million national portfolio sale.

The Ottawa portion includes 1.55 million square feet of gross leasable area and a 3.4-acre development site. The office properties have a weighted average occupancy of 98.5 per cent, with a weighted average lease term of 4.1 years.

A GE spokesperson said the specific properties would not be identified until the sale closed later in the third or fourth quarter of the year.

However, records suggest GE only owns 14 office buildings in Ottawa, which would imply that the realty arm of General Electric will be left without any properties in the local office market.

However, spokesperson Nancy Nyikes says GE will continue to have a presence in Ottawa and that GE Capital Real Estate will continue to offer commercial real estate financing services.

GE picked up 14 Ottawa office properties from Dundee REIT as part of a blockbuster $2.4-billion national portfolio sale in 2007, around the time the commercial real estate market was peaking.

For its part, Cominar REIT’s only Ottawa property at the moment is a nine-storey office building at 400 Cooper St., at Bank Street. It also owns several office and retail properties in Gatineau.

Its portfolio is heavily concentrated in Quebec and the REIT noted in a statement that the acquisition – which covers 68 office and industrial properties in Ottawa and Montréal totalling 4.3 million square feet – will increase its geographic diversification.

Ms. Nyikes said GE Capital Real Estate’s Ottawa-based employees will transfer to Cominar following the completion of the pending sale.

GE’s current director of leasing in Ottawa, Stan Humphreys, is well known in the local industry and worked for Dundee prior to its 2007 portfolio sale to GE.

The stability of the Ottawa market, combined with a strong appetite on the part of REITs and other institutional owners for quality real estate assets, makes commercial properties in the National Capital Region highly appealing to investors.

Kelvin Holmes, managing director of Colliers International, says the GE portfolio is a particularly attractive acquisition.

“There has been tremendous management and good stewardship of those properties,” he says. “They have been able to fill those buildings and keep them filled with quality tenants.”

Mr. Holmes adds that as a new player in town, Cominar could bring a new philosophy and perspective to the Ottawa market. Combined with the return of Dundee – the REIT has purchased more than $100 million worth of local assets since 2010 – Cominar’s entrance represents a significant ownership shift in the city’s real estate market.

“The landscape in Ottawa is changing,” says Mr. Holmes

Headline should have read "Cominar REIT buys tear me downs in Downtown Ottawa and other banal suburban buildings".

I always hoped Brookfield would have bought 222 Queen and the other buildings on the block for a huge Place de Ville phase III-IV complex.

[McC]

Jewels in a commercial real estate crown:

222 Queen St. (204,339 sq. ft.)

110 O’Connor St. (189,600 sq. ft.)

171 Slater St. (148,705 sq. ft.)

no, it's not exactly a list of Ottawa's finest is it? ;-)

The Slater and O'Connor buildings aren't pretty, but they are some of the better examples of Ottawa's too brief (and maddeningly spotty) experimentation with covered arcades sheltering the access to buildings and retail. The worst examples IMO, are on Bank St, between the Jackson Building and 250 Albert, where a nice piece of 60s mosaic blocks passage between the two adjoining arcades, and the CD Howe Building, where you can walk under the arcade on Queen from either Bank or Kent, but then have to abandon the shelter to actually use the main entrance... Come to think of it, L'Esplannade Laurier East Tower does the same thing, and I bet some of you have favourite examples, too!

[J.OT13]

The transformer between the two Esplanade towers on Laurier, Place de Ville's tower C arcade is in a hole full of bikes (bike parking is good, but thats not the way to go), same with the Podium; in a hole. The WEP's on Queen stops when you get to the second tower.

[McC]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Place de Ville's tower C's arcade is in a hole and full of bikes

not for the faint of heart, or the clean of pant

[J.OT13]

fail

epic fail

total epic fail

http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/chinatown-art-installation/

[S-Man]

Is this the new "Safe Sex District"?

[AuxTown]

Can anyone say dildo?
(I know you were all thinking it)

[S-Man]

Speaking of phallic objects near downtown, the ender for the proposed Parkdale building has me worried about the quality of life of parked cars in the nearby parking lot. A parking lot that is empty every night and weekend (and holiday, obviously):

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Pu...le+Avenue+condo+tower/7054177/story.html

There are only a few sites along this stretch of parkdale that can accomodate new development, so why wouldn't you want the high density to be fronting on the Tunney's office campus? More of a chance for developers to leave your residential street deeper in the community alone? Or is that wishful thinking?

The article does mention coming changes to the Bayview area to coincide with LRT construction. What became of this meeting the article mentions? Did anyone go?

[McC]

I was there, I'll post something to the thread about it eventually. But in the meantime, please remember that on one side it's empty parking lots, on the other side it's a neighborhood, and the tower that fronts onto Parkdale also backs onto townhouses and single family homes.

[S-Man]

The previous one didn't (99 Parkdale, sandwiched by mid-rises), so I probably assumed similar circumstances on this site.

[Marcus CLS]

I am not sure where to place this comment but decided to choose this thread. I am pro intensification but based on the concrete number of approvals, OMB appeals, applications to commitee of adjustments, etc.. and the state of the Ottawa economy I am trying to figure out where are all the potential buyers of the condos going to come from. Apparently this last months job statistics are net job loss. Based on the present known projects it is going to take 5 to 10 years to bring these to market and have them all completely built. Lebretton Flats phase 1 must have taken 5 years. I will admit phase 2 came quicker. I think the developers need to take a step back for now and let the market absorb the present projects. Unlike T.O. Ottawa is slow and steady. Some of these projects will not get built before I am 60.

Canderal finally applied for site plan approval (with Minto) for a tower that was approved well over 5 years ago.

I just do not see the present economy moving all this stuff quickly forward.

[Nepean]

Originally Posted by Marcus CLS

I am pro intensification but based on the concrete number of approvals, OMB appeals, applications to commitee of adjustments, etc.. and the state of the Ottawa economy I am trying to figure out where are all the potential buyers of the condos going to come from.

You raise a question that I have also been thinking about. In November of last year, the Ottawa Business Journal published a story which said that an estimated 20 per cent of the city's highrise condos are being purchased by investors who plan to rent them out. The story went on to say that these investors may have difficulty finding renters in two to three years time when the current batch of condos are built.

For what it's worth, in my condo complex in Nepean, the property manager told me that over 50 per cent of the units were being rented out.

With that in mind, I have not seen any definitive information on who is set to buy future condos in Ottawa. For sure, some buyers are like me and my wife who are young professionals and first-time home buyers. I also recently read a story about how women are increasingly buying real estate. That being said, giving the relatively gloomy economic forecast for the future, I have also wondered who will buy the condos of the future.

[kevinbottawa]

Originally Posted by Marcus CLS

I am trying to figure out where are all the potential buyers of the condos going to come from.

We keep hearing that young professionals and downsizing babyboomers/emptynesters are buying the condos. Perhaps as more babyboomers retire they'll buy them up.

[Nepean]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

We keep hearing that young professionals and downsizing babyboomers/emptynesters are buying the condos. Perhaps as more babyboomers retire they'll buy them up.

But that raises the question: Who will buy the large suburban homes of the babyboomers?

I recently talked with some friends about how the definition of success was changing. Twenty or 30 years ago, success meant buying a large suburban home, with a double-garage and all the fixings. Today, success is starting to be defined by many people as having a modest home in an urban setting, where you can walk to all the shops that you need, with easy access to good transit and, ideally, bike lanes.

My wife and I, even though me have a baby daughter, have discussed moving downtown. (Our condo, which is relatively small for the suburbs, should be easier to sell than our bigger neighbours). The search for a modest downtown home made me wonder who will move into the suburbs, and what happens if all the downsizing babyboomers can't sell their homes. I don't think this will happen but it is an interesting thought experiment.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

I'm considering buying a small condo in a few years either here or in Montreal. I'm an urbanite, and I don't have a lot of stuff and I don't need a lot of space. A condo makes sense for someone like me who's trying to get established in life and is not ready to settle down yet.