Michael Brooks
Canadian Property Management
Taxing debate awaits Toronto commercial parking
Debate about a proposed surcharge on commercial parking spaces in Toronto has been deferred until City Council begins to consider 2025 budget measures.
Canadian Property Management
Range of CRE stakeholders demand ESG metrics
Canada’s leading commercial real estate players are increasingly turning to ESG metrics to track responsiveness to a range of emerging risks and business imperatives.
Canadian Property Management
CAGBC commends 2023 roster of green influencers
The Canada Green Building Council has bestowed 2023 leadership awards to four individuals and a company at the forefront of adopting and driving sustainable policies, practices and products.
Canadian Property Management
REITs unexpectedly tapped for new tax measure
Advocates for the Canadian commercial real estate industry are asking the federal finance department to clarify why real estate investment trusts have been included in a pending new tax measure.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Ukrainian evacuees arrive to housing scarcity
Newcomers will be confronting Canada’s affordable housing shortage, while also dealing with potential trauma, language barriers and the general culture shock of unfamiliar surroundings.
Canadian Property Management
Business case assumptions evolve alongside ESG
Investors and lenders are expected to increasingly focus on the physical and transitional risks of climate change, in turn upending some conventional views of costs and value.
Canadian Property Management
Rare decisions have acute carbon consequences
Daily vigilance is central to achieving operational energy savings, but rare decisions typically have the most acute carbon consequences in buildings.
Canadian Property Management
GRESB validates real estate’s ESG credentials
Canadian participants accounted for less than 3 per cent of the entire GRESB database in 2021, but make up nearly 5 per cent of the 5-star cohort, which achieved the top 20 per cent of scores through the assessment.
Canadian Property Management
COVID impacts linger for commercial ratepayers
Assessed values in Ottawa and Toronto will be at least seven years out of date and Winnipeg’s will be nearly five years behind before new assessment cycles begin in those cities.
Canadian Property Management
Pandemic paperwork piles up with new protocols
Pandemic paperwork is becoming more voluminous for commercial landlords as a growing list of influential tenants ask for proof that building personnel have two valid COVID-19 vaccinations.
Construction Business
Michael Brooks joins WGBC board of directors
Michael Brooks, chief executive officer of REALPAC, has been named to the board of directors of the World Green Building Council and will also serve as treasurer for 2021-22.
Canadian Property Management
COVID-19 clips 2020 investment performance
A ten-year run of capital growth abruptly reversed, resulting in a 7.8 per cent loss of value across the 2,356 assets that the 44 portfolios represented in the Canada Annual Property Index hold.
Canadian Facility Management & Design
Landlords would welcome vaccination clinics
Prominent commercial landlords are offering free space to accommodate COVID-19 vaccination clinics and related support services in malls, conference centres, office buildings and other well-located sites throughout Canada.
Canadian Property Management
GRESB swaps GBCI umbrella for B-Corp status
The global benchmark for ESG performance of commercial real estate portfolios and infrastructure investments has reacquired its independence and established a non-profit foundation to oversee standards development.
Canadian Property Management
Property tax ratios epitomize commercial burden
The commercial property tax rate is at least double the residential rate in eight of the 11 surveyed cities, with commercial ratepayers in Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City shouldering the most disproportionate shares.
Canadian Property Management
New subsidy tagged for fixed property expenses
Qualifying commercial tenants and businesses operating in owned premises will be eligible for direct subsidies of up to 65 per cent of their fixed property expenses through the new Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy.
Canadian Property Management
Ontario capital markets set for rule revamp
Proposals address a range of issues that are likely to be of interest to listed real estate entities and their investors, as well as start-up ventures and other publicly traded service providers to the industry.
