Sears applies to build seven towers at its Metrotown site

Sears Canada has applied to the City of Burnaby for a rezoning of its Metrotown store site to allow a total development that would include up to seven highrise towers and be worth up to $1 billion.

The company is going through a transformation and one of its strategies is to look at ways to create value through the assets it owns, said Sears president and chief executive officer Calvin McDonald.

“The nine acres at Metrotown are a great opportunity for us to share in a development project that will create significant value and bring a brand-new store to the community,” McDonald said. “It’s a great opportunity for us to create something exciting on a piece of land we own for our community, our business and our transformation.”

Sears first opened in Burnaby in 1954 on the site at 4750 Kingsway, which Sears and Toys R Us occupy in what is now Metropolis at Metrotown. The rest of the property is taken by a parking lot, loading facilities and a public plaza at Kingsway and Nelson, the documents filed with the City of Burnaby show. Across Central Boulevard is the Metrotown SkyTrain station.

The new development would include two office towers and five residential towers of undetermined height, all of which would be above commercial retail space on the ground floor, the documents show. A new public plaza is also part of the plans.

“We think this is a great location,” McDonald said. “It’s preliminary, but we went to the city and we’re going to continue to work with stakeholders and a great developer. It’s in the early stages, but we’re excited.”

Burnaby has agreed to work with Sears in creating a plan to develop the property and Sears is close to choosing a developer to work with, McDonald said.

The project could be worth $1 billion or more, given today’s real estate prices and the potential density of the site, Stephen Champion, vice-president, real estate at Sears Canada, said in an email.

“However the final value will be a function of what makes sense from a city planning perspective and from an economic perspective,” Champion said.

There are a lot of residential towers planned for Burnaby, said Michael Ferreira, principal at Urban Analytics, a company that provides analytical interpretation of real estate market data.

“There’s an absolutely tremendous number of towers being planned in a number of different areas of Burnaby,” Ferreira said, adding that as long as the condominiums don’t all flood the market at once, the number should be sustainable.

“Everybody has to go forward with modest expectations of absorption, given the amount of product that’s going to be competing against each other.”

Ferreira said that similar deals have already been done in other areas of the city and there is potential for many more.

“As the cities have matured and evolved, some of these retailers are looking at different ways to get value out of their property,” Ferreira said. “If you look at the location of some of these stores — look at Safeway on Fourth Avenue or West Tenth — who wouldn’t want to put a tower there?”

This is the first project of this type that Sears has considered, but the company is exploring the possibility of similar deals elsewhere, said Sears spokesman Vincent Power. The so-called “transformation” program is also looking at improving the core retail operations and finding efficiencies in operations, Power said.

Sears Canada Inc. posted a $31.2-million loss as well as lower revenue in its latest quarter but says its transformation program is showing results. The department store retailer says same-store sales fell by 2.6 per cent while total revenue for the 13 weeks ended May 4 was $867.1 million.

Sears returned its lease last year on the Pacific Centre store it had occupied for more than a decade since Eaton’s departure, along with two other locations in Calgary and Ottawa, for $170 million to Cadillac Fairview. Iconic U.S. retailer Nordstrom will open in the former Sears building downtown in 2015. McDonald took over as Sears president and CEO in 2011, Power said.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Donald Trump's Vancouver visit next week confirms speculation about tower

VANCOUVER -- Donald Trump is coming to Vancouver next week, confirming speculation that the Holborn Group will be bringing a Trump International tower to the city.

The Holborn Group wouldn’t elaborate on the announcement, saying only that the iconic Manhattan developer is bringing his family — including son Donald and daughter Ivanka — to a news conference Wednesday to announce details of what is described as “one of Vancouver’s most iconic buildings.”

But branding expert Steven Kates isn’t convinced Vancouverites have an appetite for Trump and everything he represents.

Kates, a professor at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, said the man seen by some as “the public face of capitalism” may have soured many Canadians on his brand.

“On the one hand he is quite a divisive figure, especially with his antics during the presidential campaign of last year questioning whether President Obama was in fact born in the U.S. — that borders on ‘crazy town,’” said Kates. “Canadians don’t go for that, they think it’s absurd.

“On the other hand, there may be a small target segment of consumers who just don’t care about that and believe the Trump brand is associated with top luxury and opulence.”

Thursday’s announcement follows media reports earlier this year that a deal was close for a Trump Tower on the site of the cancelled Ritz-Carlton hotel-condo project, which was designed by Arthur Erickson as a twisting 60-storey tower that would have been Vancouver’s second tallest building.

The Ritz-Carlton project, on Georgia between Bute and Thurlow, was cancelled in 2009 because “worldwide economic turmoil” affected the sale of units in the project, a letter from Holborn’s lawyers stated at the time.

At the time of the 2009 cancellation, Holborn had sold about 62 of the 123 condos in the tower, where prices ranged from $1.4 million to $28 million. A 127-room luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel was supposed to occupy the first 20 floors of the building, with condos taking up the top 40 floors. Construction was halted at the site in 2008.

Real estate marketing and consulting groups said Thursday they believe there is room for another luxury condo highrise in Vancouver, although price points will be very important.

Although Holborn wouldn’t comment on their plans, Jon Bennest, principle of Vancouver-based real estate and urban planning consulting company Urban Analytics, said there’s widespread belief that the units in a redesigned building bearing the Trump brand would be slightly smaller and possibly slightly less extravagant than what was originally planned for the Ritz-Carlton project.

There are several other hotel-condo projects in Vancouver, including the Shangri-La, which was completed in 2009 and is Vancouver’s tallest building at 62 storeys.

“I think there’s a potential demand for (luxury condos),” said Bennest. “A lot of people on the west side of Vancouver who want to stay in the area want to sell their single family home and have some money left over.

“The idea is that the product would be luxurious, but at a lower overall price point so they could attract a larger pool of buyers. That is anecdotally what we’ve heard is the direction of the building. And their intention is to make the units slightly smaller than the previous offering.”

Scott Brown, senior vice-president, Colliers International’s project marketing group, said that although he’s never sold a Trump building, he’s sold several other top brands including Four Seasons Hotels, Raffles Singapore, Westin Hotels and Resorts, and Hard Rock Hotels.

“Generally, a market associated with these brands do bring a premium,” said Brown. “However, since 2008, the premium those brands could fetch has not been as high. They (Holborn) should get some premium, it’s a question as to how much.”

“It will be interesting what the Asian response is to the Trump brand.”

Holborn Group bought the West Georgia property from Cadillac Fairview about eight years ago and demolished a partly built concrete structure that had sat derelict for years, after failed attempts to build a private members’ club and a strata-title office building.

In February, Amanda Miller, Trump’s vice-president of marketing, said members from the Trump Hotel Collection development team had recently visited Vancouver looking at various opportunities in the market. “It is a great city with tremendous access to the Asian market and we look forward to continuing to explore the potential of bringing the Trump flag to this location.”

Holborn president and CEO Joo Kim Tiah said Thursday in an emailed response to a request for an interview: “We look forward to sharing more details with you next week.”

Roxanne Reid, president of Hestia Marketing Group Inc. in Vancouver, was senior vice-president of marketing for S & P Destination Properties when she oversaw the marketing of the Trump International Waikiki Hotel project in Hawaii in 2006, which she said had a one-day sellout of $700 million.

She said the Trump brand brings an international appeal. “The Trump brand is synonymous with high service and quality. It’s pure luxury, although not ostentatious. It’s a more refined luxury.”

She also noted that Ivanka Trump has taken a real lead in the brand “and has a good following on an international basis.”

Kevin McNaney, assistant director, central area planning for the city of Vancouver, said Thursday that the city has had a development permit in place on the site since November 2011 for a 64-storey hotel/residential tower. “The building is under construction,” he added, in an emailed statement. “The only thing not known is the hotel brand.”

Talon International, the Toronto developer of the Trump tower in that city, is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from a group of investors, who allege that they were targeted by “an investment scheme and conspiracy based upon reckless and negligent misrepresentations” of the luxury hotel’s financial prospects, the National Post reported in 2012.

Talon directors maintained that they delivered what they promised in the five-star hotel, which rises 65 storeys at the corner of Bay and Adelaide streets.

In their 54-page lawsuit, which also names Donald Trump as a defendant, the four plaintiffs seek to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits, along with more than $2.5 million apiece in general damages for “loss of opportunity and consequential damages, negligent misrepresentation and conspiracy.”

The statement of claim says the plaintiffs had limited or no experience investing in real-estate when they opted to purchase hotel units in the Trump tower, which is divided at the 32nd floor between residential and hotel space.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Spring months bring balance to Greater Vancouver housing market

VANCOUVER, B.C. – June 4, 2013 – While the number of home sales in Greater Vancouver continued to trend below the 10-year average in May, the balance of sales and listings meant continued market stability this spring.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver reached 2,882 on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in May 2013. This represents a one per cent increase compared to the 2,853 sales recorded in May 2012, and a 9.7 per cent increase compared to the 2,627 sales in April 2013.

Last month’s sales were 19.4 per cent below the 10-year sales average for the month, while new listings for the month were 7.4 percent below the 10-year average.

“We’ve seen some steadying trends over the last three months,” Sandra Wyant, REBGV president said. “The number of homes listed for sale has been keeping pace with the number of property sales, leading to a balanced sales-to-listings ratio. This is having a stabilizing influence on home price activity.”

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 5,656 in May. This represents an 18.3 per cent decline compared to the 6,927 new listings reported in May 2012 and a 3.7 per cent decline from the 5,876 new listings in April of this year.

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the MLS® in Greater Vancouver is 17,222, a 3.4 per cent decrease compared to May 2012 and a 2.9 per cent increase compared to April 2013.

The sales-to-active-listings ratio currently sits at 17 per cent in Greater Vancouver. This is the third straight month that this ratio has been above 15 per cent. Previous to this, May 2012 was the last time this ratio was above 15 per cent.

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver is currently $598,400. This represents a decline of 4.3 per cent compared to this time last year and an increase of 1.8 per cent compared to January 2013.

Sales of detached properties reached 1,212 in May 2013, an increase of 2.7 per cent from the 1,180 detached sales recorded in May 2012, and a 22.8 per cent decrease from the 1,570 units sold in May 2011. The benchmark price for detached properties decreased 5.2 per cent from May 2012 to $917,200.

Continued Sales of apartment properties reached 1,136 in May 2013, a decline of 1.7 per cent compared to the 1,156 sales in May 2012, and a decrease of 7.5 per cent compared to the 1,228 sales in May  2011. The benchmark price of an apartment property decreased 3.7 per cent from May 2012 to $365,600. Attached property sales in May 2013 totalled 534, an increase of 3.3 per cent compared to the 517 sales in May 2012, and a 7.8 per cent decrease from the 579 attached properties sold in May 2011. The benchmark price of an attached unit decreased 3.2 per cent between May 2012 and 2013 to $454,900.

The real estate industry is a key economic driver in British Columbia. In 2012, 25,032 homes changed ownership in the Board’s area generating $1.07 billion in economic spin-off activity and creating an estimated 7,125 jobs. The total dollar value of residential sales transacted throughout the MLS® system in Greater Vancouver totalled $18.6 billion in 2012. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is an association representing more than 11,000 REALTORS® and their companies.

Complete Report:

http://issuu.com/annaasi/docs/rebgv_stats_package_may_2013/1

Canadian home sales rise in April

According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales edged up slightly on a month-over-month basis in April 2013. Activity has generally held to within short reach of current levels for the past nine months.

Highlights:

• National home sales rose 0.6% from March to April.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 3.1% below levels in April 2012.
• The number of newly listed homes fell 0.9% from March to April.
• The Canadian housing market remains firmly in balanced territory.
• The national average sale price rose 1.3% on a year-over-year basis in April.
• The MLS® HPI rose 2.2% in April, its smallest gain in more than two years.

Growing Interest in Vancouver Real Estate from China Prompts Vancouver Movers & Overseas Relocation Specialists to Overhaul their 2013 Online Marketing Strategy

2013 reports indicate that real estate in Vancouver remains a hot commodity for investors and new migrants from China with many expecting this trend to continue into the near future. Vancouver movers Best Choice Moving specializes in overseas relocations and in a reaction to recent reports has launched a new website to better communicate with and help capture both local and overseas customers that are considering a move to Greater Vancouver.

On May 22, 2013 the Epoch Times reported on the international surge of funds and migration flowing from China, much of which has labeled the port city of Vancouver as its primary target. Vancouver real estate has long been popular with overseas parties in China that look not only for investment opportunities but seek a place for their families to migrate to. While such activities keep local real estate professionals on their toes in hopes of accommodating this demand, other industries are also immediately impacted by the trend. Vancouver moving companies that offer overseas relocation services in particular are directly affected. For Best Choice Moving, a Vancouver moving and storage provider that specializes in overseas relocations, focusing marketing efforts in this direction is essential. Because of this, Best Choice Moving understood that it was time to launch a new website to better communicate their services to their audience – local and international alike.

In addition to local residential, retail, and office relocations, Ben Wang of Best Choice Moving is proud to state that as Vancouver movers they have long been a part of the overseas moving process for many businesses and families migrating from China. While Ben positions that Best Choice Moving indeed caters to all demographics and contingencies in the diverse market of Greater Vancouver, his team does in fact consider themselves to be specialists in overseas relocations.

As a multilingual company, Best Choice Moving has been able to easily cross the communication barrier with those seeking to move from China to Canada. Ben credits word of mouth and networking to be a big key to the success of Best Choice Moving thus far in the realm of overseas moving but will also admit that this very same strength may have been a weakness in their digital marketing strategy. With so much business coming from referrals their website did not keep up with the demands of today’s online community, until this month that is. In the first week of May 2013 Best Choice Moving secured the services of a Vancouver website marketing firm and built a brand new website to capture the online attention of both local and overseas parties considering moves to Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Ben Wang comments, “It’s easy to get caught up in the word of mouth success that we have created for Best Choice Moving within the international communities within Greater Vancouver. Reviewing recent statistics regarding continued migration from China towards Vancouver real estate was a wake-up call. We had to remind ourselves that there was an entire audience out there looking for overseas Vancouver movers online and the websites that communicate their service better than the rest would be the ones to capture this demand. Best Choice Moving is proud to announce that we have not only joined the party, we now have a superiorly optimized website that clearly defines our ability to accommodate overseas interest from China.”

Best Choice Moving encourages anyone considering a business or household relocation for either themselves or for family located overseas to contact their Vancouver moving and storage company today for an estimate.

ABOUT Best Choice Moving
Best Choice Moving understands the international/overseas moving process in depth because we have been serving households and businesses in this capacity for many years. We work with many diverse ethnic communities within Greater Vancouver and understand that developing trust and clear communication is important in achieving an optimum overseas relocation. Overseas moves are huge undertakings for any home or business. Be sure to secure international movers Vancouver area residences and businesses have been turning to for years.

Courtesy of PRWeb

Almost half of Canadians are keen to buy property, despite cooling market

A new report suggests nearly half of Canadian homeowners intend to buy a property in the next five years, despite a cooling off in the housing market.

The BMO Housing Confidence Report says the 48% figure is mostly unchanged from late 2012, suggesting continued confidence in the housing market.

Among major cities, the report found a five-point gain in buying intentions in Vancouver while Calgary was down by 13 points.

Buying intentions in the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal have held steady, while Atlantic Canada has seen a 15% jump in buying intentions.

The bank‘s report further suggests close to half of all homeowners under 40 intend to purchase a larger home within the next five years.

Ten percent of homeowners plan to buy a recreational property in the next five years, down two points from last fall.

“The relative strength of the Canadian housing market continues to bolster homeowners confidence, said Martin Nel, BMO‘s vice president of lending and investments.

The BMO report by Pollara was based on online interviews with a random sample of 1,008 Canadian homeowners between Feb. 21-27.

Copy Right @ Financial Post

Flaherty discounts fears over housing market, calls slowdown a ‘healthy’ development

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is dismissing fears about Canada’s housing market, saying the current slowdown is welcome news and that there is no need for further government intervention.

While some observers are expressing fears that a steep correction is underway that will bring down housing values and possibly affect bank credit ratings, Flaherty said Tuesday that he believes government mortgage tightening last July actually helped avert what could have turned into a housing bubble.

“I’m comfortable about where we are,” he said in a telephone interview from France where he announced new government financing for the construction of a visitor’s centre at the Vimy Ridge war memorial.

“I’m pleased in particular that the condo market in big cities has fallen back. I’m also pleased with some other moderation in new house construction and in demand for mortgages. I think these are healthy developments because I think we were beginning to see some indications of the beginning of a bubble.”

He called the recent slowdown “healthy” and at least in part a consequence of his decision to tighten mortgage rules last July.

A new Teranet house price report released Tuesday showed home price increases slipped to two per cent in April from 2.6 per cent in March. Analysts noted that was the weakest performance since the recession for April, traditionally a good month for sales and prices.

While home sales have fallen nationally, and starts are now in the 180,000 a year range, well down from over 200,000 last year, home prices have stubbornly resisted that trend in most markets.

However, analysts note that prices are often the last indicator to kick in when a residential market falls, and some have speculated that prices could plunge by as much as 25 per cent, even further in the overheated Vancouver market.

The Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions has told banks it is looking at their holdings of non-insured mortgages — those with at least 20 per cent equity — to determine the systemic risk should values plunge.

But Flaherty said he has no plans to further tighten government-backed mortgages for homebuyers with as little as a five per cent down payment. After tightening rules four times in the past four years, Flaherty said he has done enough.

“I’m not going to intervene in the mortgage market, I don’t need to,” he said.

Over the weekend, Flaherty participated in a Group of Seven meeting in England, where he warned about waning resolve to reduce deficits and debt among southern European countries.

Flaherty said he had not changed his mind even though austerity is being blamed for depressing growth and in some cases exacerbating governmental deficits, since lower growth usually means lower tax revenues and higher costs.

Northern European countries agree with his position, he said, describing the U.S. stance on fiscal restraint as “ambiguous.” “If you don’t get your fiscal situation correct in government, then you can forget about getting education, health-care, research and development and other important initiatives because you won’t have the fiscal means to do it.”

As well, governments risk not having the means to respond to the next economic crisis, he warned.

The minister said that governments can still stimulate economic activity while controlling spending.

“As I said to my G7 colleagues, it isn’t an all or nothing game, it’s about trying to get the right balance,” he explained, pointing out that his March budget retained previously-introduced austerity measures while committing funds to infrastructure projects and job training.

From Canada’s perspective, he says the government remains committed to balancing the budget in 2015.

Going forward, Flaherty said next month’s G8 (including Russia) meeting in Northern Ireland will again seek to tackle the issue of country hopping by multinational corporations seeking the best tax advantage.

“We’re all agreed we have to make sure that large corporations that operate globally pay their fair share of tax and that they don’t try to use one or the other of our jurisdictions not to pay their fair share. We are firmly resolved on that,” he said.

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