Cadillac Fairview and Nordstroms have released renderings of the soon to be redeveloped Sears building which will see Nordstroms open in 2015.  The project will have approximately 300,000 square feet of office space on the upper four floors and see Pacific Centre expand towards Robson street into what is now the Sears lower level.  Nordstroms will take the first three floors.  Construction is expected to commence on November 1, 2012.

Anthem Properties recently announced the acquisition of the BC Electric Building, a 119,334 square foot office building located at in intersection of Hastings Street and Carrall Street.  The price was undisclosed.

VANCOUVER, Sept. 7, 2012 /CNW/ – Trez Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation (the “Company”) (TSX:TZZ) announced today that it has completed its second public offering of 11,500,000 Class A Shares, which included the exercise in full of the over-allotment option, for gross proceeds of $115,000,000.  The Class A Shares were offered to the public by a syndicated of agents co-led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and CIBC World Markets Inc. and also including Canaccord Genuity Corp., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Raymond James Ltd., Scotia Capital Inc., GMP Securities L.P., Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., Manulife Securities Incorporated, National Bank Financial Inc., TD Securities Inc., Desjardins Securities Inc. and Mackie Research Capital Corporation.  Together with its recently completed initial public offering, the Company has raised $230 million in capital within a 3 month period. Both offerings were over-subscribed.

The objectives of the Company are to acquire and maintain a diversified portfolio of mortgages on real property in Canada that preserves capital and generates attractive returns in order to permit the Company to pay monthly distributions to its shareholders.  The initial amount of the monthly distributions is approximately $0.0583 per Class A Share ($0.70 per annum) representing an annual cash distribution of 7.0% based on the $10 issue price of the Class A Shares.  The Company seeks to accomplish its investment objectives through prudent investments in mortgages on real property in Canada to qualified real estate investors and developers, focusing primarily on short-term bridge financing needs not currently serviced by traditional real estate lenders.  Trez Capital Fund Management Limited Partnership is the manager of and portfolio advisor to the Company.

SOURCE: Trez Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has released stats for August which show mixed results amid a general slowdown of sales activity since May of this year. A sample of selected areas in Metro Vancouver shows pricing as flat or in decline during the summer.

Year over year pricing is in slight decline pretty much across the board, with the exception of some of the Fraser Valley suburbs which did not exhibit significant price increases over the past two years. Pitt Meadows condos, for example, have shown a slight increase of 1.2% since May 2012. Other markets with much higher levels of new inventory, such as North Burnaby, have declined about 2.5% over the summer, and have remained relatively flat since 2010.

Prices are continuing to come off on the Westside of Vancouver, which was one of the hottest markets in 2010/2011 and was the basis for much of the commentary on the health of the overall residential market.

The HPI for single family homes on the Westside declined 2.5% in August alone, and is down over 6% since May 2012. The HPI remains 20% above where it was in August 2010, indicating that with a prolonged lack of sales activity, there may be a further decline in store. Between June and August, sales volumes were down 50% over 2011.