Sears applies to build seven towers at its Metrotown site

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.

 

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

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.

 

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Spring months bring balance to Greater Vancouver housing market

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. The Board provides a variety of member services, including the Multiple Listing Service®.

Complete Report:

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