Retail and real estate analysts believe large retailers such as Walmart or Target could start pushing for construction of a new mall on either of two downtown blocks that are ripe for redevelopment.

Canada Post’s sale in January of its long-time Vancouver headquarters to BC Investment Management Corp. (BCIMC) has opened up the block bounded by Georgia, Homer, Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets.

Two blocks east is Larwill Park, which is owned by the City of Vancouver and bounded by Georgia, Cambie, Dunsmuir and Beatty streets.

The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is hoping to convince the city at a meeting, likely to be held in early March, that it should be given the site – which some estimate to be worth $200 million – to build a new $300 million gallery.

Neighbors to the North Emerge As Largest Foreign Investor In U.S. Real Estate – CoStar Group.

“As a handful of major deals this month attest, Canada continues to be the most dominant foreign investor in U.S. assets, with a total investment more than triple that of its nearest competitor country, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

“Canada emerged from the recession in better financial shape due to its banks issuing recourse loans and suffering fewer hits during the mortgage meltdown versus other countries. These deeper pockets allowed Canadians to invest in U.S. real estate when values were most suppressed,” said Steve Collins, international director of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Capital Markets, who attended last week’s Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate’s (AFIRE) annual Winter Conference in New York. “

After months of expansion in the British Columbia market, SpaceList launched its commercial real estate listing platform across Canada this week.

Based in Vancouver, SpaceList is now available in cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal. Finally, commercial real estate listings will be aggregated in a single place, making it easier for businesses to find a new location. In the past, those looking for space had to search through dozens of different websites, each displaying different information in different formats.

SpaceList has solved this problem by building the MLS for commercial real estate. With over 60 Million square feet of available space for rent across Canada, businesses and individuals can see more options in one place than ever before. Landlords and brokers can add their listings in minutes, and as a result, hundreds of new spaces are added each week.

Read more: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1118859/spacelist-launches-marketplace-for-office-retail-and-warehouse-space

Darwin Construction has applied to the District of North Vancouver to rezone 4 single family lots at 1561-1583 Oxford Street. The proposal is for 107 rental apartment units and 2,168 sq ft of commercial floorspace in a 6 storey building over 96 parking stalls. The proposed density is 3.35 FSR, which exceeds the 2.5 FSR medium density floor space envisioned in the District’s Official Community Plan.

The site located at the south end of the Lower Lynn Town Centre adjacent to Phibbs Exchange. The Lower Lynn Area Plan is expected to be adopted later in 2013.

KEYreit Board Recommends Unitholders REJECT the Unsolicited Huntingdon Partial Offer and Announces Special Meeting of Unitholders.

“TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2013 /CNW/ – KEYreit (TSX: KRE.UN) announced today its board of trustees, on the recommendation of its special committee, unanimously recommends that unitholders REJECT the unsolicited partial offer by Huntingdon Capital Corp. If successful, the unsolicited partial offer would give Huntingdon effective control of KEYreit.

“The board strongly believes the unsolicited partial offer is wholly inadequate, coercive, highly opportunistic and does not represent fair value for your units,” said Donald Biback, Chairman of the board of trustees. “The partial offer fails to provide unitholders with an appropriate control premium for the units purchased, and provides no premium for units not purchased. It significantly undervalues KEYreit’s assets and businesses, which have a proven track record of creating value for unitholders. We urge unitholders to reject Huntingdon’s wholly inadequate partial offer.”

The board of trustees and management, representing 17% of KEYreit’s issued and outstanding units, have stated that they will not tender to Huntingdon’s coercive unsolicited partial offer.”

Courtesy Canada Newswire