Lougheed Town Centre has long been one of the quietest of Burnaby’s four town centres. Not in terms of traffic, of course. The intersection of Lougheed Highway and North Road has always been busy. But while Metrotown has boomed, and the neighbourhoods of Brentwood and Edmonds have seen a flurry of new development over the years, the Lougheed area has been comparatively stagnant.

Since opening in 1969, the mall has evolved over the years. It doubled in size in 1986, and underwent significant renovations about a decade ago. But now big plans are in the works. The area is poised for a massive makeover.

Shape Properties Corporation owns the mall property, and recently purchased four more properties in the town centre.

To prepare the ground for redevelopment, the city is embarking on a planning process for the entire 61-acre “Lougheed Core Area” that includes the wedge from Cameron Street in the north all the way down to the Lougheed-North Road intersection.

And like the plans for Brentwood Town Centre, which Shape also owns, the city and the company hope to gradually transform the site from suburban, car-oriented shopping centre to urban, transit and pedestrian-oriented town centre.

Read more: http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/254758551.html

by 604 City

By Paul Brent

Toronto-based Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN) just capped off a strong 2013 financial year and is not afraid to tell investors even better times are ahead. That positive message came out in a recent conference call Allied had with investors and analysts and the theme was picked up in an interview by the REIT’s president and CEO, Michael Emory (shown in image from the company website).

“It was a great year, a great quarter, and maybe even more importantly, we felt that we set a very good foundation for a very good year in 2014 and 2015,” Emory said, “to the extent that you can predict the future.”

What has changed?

After rates spiked and REITs stalled in May, the market for properties Allied is interested in have slowly and steadily recovered, meaning acquisition opportunities may be more abundant in the near term than initially expected.

Last year’s market retreat “led us to the preliminary conclusion that acquisitions may slow down. Not because we didn’t have a very favourable cost of equity and cost of debt, even after this event, but because we felt the vendors would lose some momentum and some readiness to sell,” Emory said.

“We did …read more

Source: RENX