While endless challenges faced commercial real estate markets in 2020, investors and end users in Western Canada showed incredible resilience.

The agreement outlines how ASHRAE and CIBSE will work cooperatively to promote a more sustainable built environment through HVAC&R technology.

More than 50 per cent of participating Canadian portfolios were grouped in the top two brackets of results, with 11 earning 5-star status and six attaining a 4-star rating.

As announced in the provincial budget, the Ontario government plans to equalize the business education tax (BET) rate at 0.88 per cent for 2021, equating to a $450-million tax cut province-wide.

Canada has a numerically slight presence with disproportionate weight in Lee & Associates’ newly released third quarter commercial real estate results.

A recycled title adorns the Ontario government's latest initiative to be framed as red tape reduction. Bill 213, the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, 2020, is an omnibus effort to amend more than two dozen statutes.

The bulk of findings in the newly released Altus Group Global Property Development Trends Report are tied to opinions collected in early 2020 before COVID-19’s full hit landed in the world’s commercial real estate markets.

Under COVID-19-induced pressure, investors, lenders and public markets are signalling a preference for multifamily assets. The asset class was the top attractor of investment dollars in Canada’s commercial real estate market during the first half of 2020.

Market analysts typify a second quarter uptick in downtown sublet activity as a spurt, not a glut. However, they project the trend is likely to continue.

Commuters’ willingness to jump on the bus, light-rail car or subway is expected to be a driving factor in repopulating office space in some major North American markets, including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

At least 84 Canadian commercial buildings have been abuzz during protracted COVID-19-related business shutdowns. They house the data centres that have literally underpinned the continued functioning of the economy.

A package of proposed changes to Canada's National Building Code aims to improve navigability and safety in large buildings for people with mobility, vision and/or hearing constraints.

A wider selection of high-performance windows and doors is expected to hit the market as Canada's National Energy Code continues to push the envelope toward net-zero-energy-ready development.

Prominent Canadian asset managers recently recounted their experiences in repositioning underperforming properties, offering insight on turnaround logistics and the role value-add assets play in investment strategies.

The recently completed $102-million deal for Toronto Don Valley Hotel & Suites heralds the development momentum attached to the Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit line, now under construction across a 19-kilometre east-west stretch of the city.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre again takes the title of Canada's most productive mall in the Retail Council of Canada's annual analysis of shopping centres with more than 250,000 square feet of gross leasable area.

Market pressure and industry competitiveness could propel accessible commercial real estate in the coming decade, much the way those complementary forces have already bolstered energy efficiency and low-carbon footprints.