Fortress to buy special servicer CWCapital from Otera Capital , CEO of Quebec and Montreal Real Estate Board Announces his Departure
Fortress to buy special servicer CWCapital from Otera Capital
Fortress Investment Group LLC on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire loan servicing and investment management company CWCapital.
Fortress said it would acquire the company, known as CW Financial Services, from majority shareholder Otera Capital, a Montreal-based lender, to build up its abilities in the recovering U.S. real estate market.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Fortress said it would expect the deal to close during the third quarter if regulators approve it.
CWCapital is the second-largest special servicer in the United States, and does significant lending with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It has attracted attention recently as the special servicer overseeing defaulted loans on the massive Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Manhattan apartment complexes.
As of April 30, CW was the investment manager, servicer or special servicer on a portfolio of $183.6 billion loans and securities, Fortress said.
CEO of Quebec and Montreal Real Estate Board Announces his Departure
Claude Charron, President of the Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards (QFREB), and Patrick Juanéda, President of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB), announced this week the departure of Michel Beauséjour, FCA, Chief Executive Officer of the Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards and the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board. He will remain in office until his successor is appointed.
Beauséjour said that a change in leadership was necessary to help support the ever changing landscape of the real estate industry as well as the major challenges facing brokers today. "On my part, I have developed and implemented all of the necessary tools to ensure the success of the industry and of real estate brokers as they face these essential changes," said Mr. Beauséjour in his letter of resignation. He added that he was very confident in the industry's ability to respond to the challenges it is facing.
Mr. Charron and Mr. Juanéda stressed Michel Beauséjour's exceptional contribution to the province's real estate industry during his eleven years as its leader. "If the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board is thought of, in Canada and the United States, as a role model for its technology, professionalism and organization, this is largely due to the vision of Michel Beauséjour, a real estate industry pioneer who consistently proposed innovative ideas in line with changing market realities," said Patrick Juanéda, President of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board.
Claude Charron, President of the Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards, highlighted the immense contribution that Beauséjour made in the consolidation of the real estate industry in Québec, which included that of standardization of professional practices and the implementation of one MLS® system for all of Québec.
More BIXI Spots on the way
The City of Montreal has announced that BIXI parking spaces will double in the area of Berri-UQAM within the next year.
It’s planned that over the next couple of weeks, the borough of Ville Marie will install hundreds of new spots. It’s estimated that 850 spots should be added by the end of the summer.
Work will continue into next summer, as 1500 spots are expected to be added on Rene-Levesque, Saint-Hubert and Ontario.
Not Everyone Pleased with New Condo Project in Snowdon
According to some residents, they don’t believe that it makes sense to put up fancy condos in an area that’s having its share of financial hardship.
However, this past Tuesday ground was broken in close proximity to the Namur metro station in Snowdon for a large-scale condo project that will include a retail/commercial component. Spread over 200,000 square feet, construction will comprise six phases.
The developer, Condos Vue, said that the first phase of 97 condo units will be ready to inhabit in the summer of 2011. Once the project has been completed, it will feature 700 condo apartments, a 20,000-square-foot green space and an indoor-outdoor pool.
The project is located at the corner of Mountain Sights Ave. and Jean Talon St., mere steps from the Namur station. Almost three-quarters of Phase One condos are sold.
Ron Lavy, one of the developers, characterized the area as underutilized and overlooked. The units will be affordable, he told the Montreal Gazette.
However, a lot of residents have serious reservations about building such an upscale project in an area that is not considered to be upscale.
Depending on whether you want a loft, a one-bedroom or a two-bedroom, condos range in price from $157,000 to $222,000.
Among those present at the groundbreaking was Marvin Rotrand, city councillor for Snowdon. He told the Gazette that he expected the condos to attract young families who want to stay in Montreal but don't want to live in the suburbs. He also addressed the lack of wealth in the area.
"This is not gentrifying," Rotrand said. "You have to find a mix that provides different categories of housing that meet different needs."
Rotrand went on the say that the value of the new construction and renovation of existing housing adds up to about $800 million in real-estate value.
According to the government's plan, the city also intends to close Victoria St. to reduce noise levels, install bicycle paths and pedestrian lanes, improve public transportation, introduce more parks and green spaces, and provide 3,200 housing units, with many of them classified as public housing.
The area is convenient for getting around, as it is located near two metro stations (Namur and Plamondon) and two highways (the 15 and the 40). Attractions include an indoor go-kart centre as well as Dollar Cinema, Montreal's cheap spot for moviegoers.
RBC Relocating Historic Old Montreal Branch
The former head office branch of RBC will shut its doors at 360 St-Jacques St. W. after 80 years of operation.
RBC has signalled its intent to relocate from the St-Jacques Street location to the nearby Magil-Laurentienne managed Tour de la Bourse as of 2012.
The move comes just two years after CIBC vacated a similar location just up the street.
Only Bank of Montreal now remains in the neighbourhood. They recently completed restoration work to their head office branch on St-Jacques, directly across from the Notre-Dame Basilica.
RBC was only occupying about 20 percent of the space at its large St-Jacques Street location but was paying rent on a much larger portion. They reluctantly decided to move following failed attempts to get other departments to move into the location in an effort to maximize unused space.
RBC faced obstacles that are omnipresent in a lot of older buildings. These included difficulties wiring the building for fibre-optic cable, which is all but required today to offer customers quick and prompt service.
The fate of the building is presently unknown. Owned by Time Equities Inc., a New York real estate firm, the building’s exterior is protected as part of the city’s heritage designation for Old Montreal, but its interior is not, said Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal.
“There definitely has to be some kind of strategy. It’s not a matter of sending in the heritage police but of finding an appropriate solution that respects the history.”
The former head office branch in Montreal owned the designation as the tallest building in the British Empire when it opened in 1928. The building was constructed at a cost just below $6.5-million and towered 21 stories.
Construction Set to Begin on New Home for Children in Beaconsfield
A new respite home for children with disabilities is being built in Beaconsfield and will be the only one of its kind on Montreal’s West Island.
Officials say the western part of the city is in urgent need of more resources for parents and their disabled children.
The new building is expected to cost $1-million, most of which will come from private donors.
Construction on the new home begins next week and is due to last until November.
Thallion Pharmaceuticals Ends its Lease on Montreal Property, Looking for new Headquarters
Thallion Pharmaceuticals Inc. a Montreal-based drug developer, says it has struck a deal to pay $2.4 million to end its lease on a Montreal office building while it searches for a new headquarters. The property is located at 7150 Alexander-Fleming in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
The company said Thursday it had struck a binding agreement with Liberty Sites Ltd., the landlord of its corporate headquarters, to pay $2.4 million to cancel the remaining six years of a 15-year lease, which represented a remaining commitment of about $8 million in rent.
As part of the settlement, Thallion will continue to occupy the offices until the end of August, while the company searches for a new head office in Montreal.
Thallion, which is testing an anti-toxin drug called Shigamabs, also has the option to remain in the current building until Nov. 30 if needed.
"This transaction provides us with greater financial flexibility to execute on our business strategies and demonstrates our continued commitment to materially reduce costs that are not core to the Shigamabs program," said Michael Singer, Thallion's chief financial officer.
Commercial Real Estate Market Resilient in Q2
Demand for commercial space was steady in Canada’s major office and industrial markets, as vacancy rates remained stable or were trending slightly higher in most cities, year-over-year, according to the National Office and Industrial Trends Second Quarter Report from CB Richard Ellis released this week.
The overall vacancy rate for the downtown and suburban markets has held at 10.1 per cent in both first and second quarters of 2010 (up from 8.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2009). The year-over-year increase was not an indication of weaker activity, but reflected the sheer volume of newly constructed space that became available in major markets over the last 12-18 months.
In 2010, a total of 2,719,328 square feet (sq.ft.) of newly constructed supply has been completed, year-to-date (YTD), with a significant amount of that space being added in Toronto and Calgary. This is an increase over the second quarter of 2009, when 2,503,340 sq.ft YTD was added to the market.
Despite an increase in year-over-year vacancy rates for Montreal's office market from 9.7 per cent to 10.8 per cent, year-over-year, the market continues to remain balanced with no significant new office towers being built in the downtown market in the last five-year period. Office space conversions (mostly from loft industrial space) continue to meet demand. The industrial market continues to show improvement as the second quarter saw positive absorption for the second consecutive quarter, boding well for the market.
Articles by: William Jegher
wjegher@wikaconsulting.com