Blue Mountain low-rise condo proposal gets step closer.

A four-storey, 88-unit condo building is one step closer to being approved for a residential street in Austin Heights.

Coquitlam council approved zoning amendments for the building that would go from 953 to 969 Charland Ave., east of Blue Mountain Street, at Monday’s meeting after a public hearing.

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.

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

Building permit values in Vancouver hit $1.1 billion for the first half of 2012, a 39 per cent increase over the same period in 2011.

According to Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, over 6,000 jobs were created in the first half of 2012 because of construction activity in the city.

Commercial and industrial construction in the first 6 months of 2012 showed a rise in a year-to-year comparison with the same period in 2011. As of June 30, just over one million square feet of non-residential floor space was approved through building permits.

Courtesy: Journal of Commerce, September 4, 2012