REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Newswire | May 29, 2023
Canada's leading real estate companies Dream Unlimited Corp., Kilmer Group and Tricon Residential Inc. (together, DKT Partnership) have officially launched Maple House, the first phase of Canary Landing – one of the largest and most significant rental communities in Canada. Altogether, the 12-acre community is comprised of 2,300 rental units – of which 30 per cent will be dedicated as affordable housing and 25 per cent will be barrier-free – creating a model for inclusive, true mixed-income communities across the city.
Canary Landing is located in Toronto's award-winning Canary District community, a pedestrian scale urban village adjacent to the Distillery District in the Downtown East. Canary Landing includes eight mixed-use buildings spanning four city blocks along Cherry Street. In addition to significant market and affordable rental housing, Canary Landing will also include 30,000 square feet of retail and a future 5,000 square foot community space. Canary Landing represents an innovative public-private partnership between the DKT Partnership, the Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto, the Government of Canada, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), all working collaboratively to create affordable housing solutions at scale.
"We are grateful for the collaboration with our municipal, provincial, and federal partners as we work towards our shared vision for Canary Landing, which will target ambitious LEED Gold sustainability outcomes, and provide long-term market rental and affordable housing. Maple House is the start of fulfilling our promise to create beautiful, sustainable, and affordable housing, and we look forward to seeing residents thrive in this vibrant new community very soon," says Andrew Joyner, Managing Director at Tricon Residential on behalf of the DKT Partnership.
Bringing much-needed affordable housing to the city, the development team is delivering 126 rental homes that will be filled in partnership with seven non-profit agencies from across the city, including: WoodGreen Community Services, Artscape, COSTI, Wigwamen, Performing Arts Lodge, March of Dimes and Interval House. These affordable rental homes will be offered at 40 to 80 per cent below the average market rent. An additional 105 affordable rental homes will be available to the public through a soon-to-be-released open market call. All 231 of the affordable homes have been financially supported by the City of Toronto's Open Door Program.
"We have all watched as Toronto's affordable housing crisis has grown during the past several years," says Anne Babcock, CEO of WoodGreen Community Services. "WoodGreen Community Services is thrilled to be working with other not-for-profit agencies and the DKT Partnership to deliver real and permanent housing solutions to a diverse range of Toronto residents. The Canary Landing initiative is a testament to what we can all do by working together for the common good."
Maple House sets the stage with community-centric amenities and design
Central to the vision for Canary Landing's Maple House is a desire to create beautiful architecture that is inclusive and accessible to all. The acclaimed architecture and design team, which includes Danish firm COBE, along with Canadian firms architectsAlliance and CCxA (Claude Cormier x Associés), focused on creating a design-forward and environmentally responsible community that respects the local heritage. Maple House has already garnered several accolades, including the Canadian Architect Award of Excellence and the 2021 BILD Award for Best New Community.
"Maple House is very special to us. It is not just a city-building project – more importantly, it is a community building project. We have focused a design that is highly contextual, connecting to the fine grain scale of the Distillery District, the prominent scale of Canary District, and at the same time, referencing the industrial heritage of Toronto's waterfront. It results in buildings that both fit in and stand out, and a project that celebrates architectural inclusion and fosters and embraces social diversity and cohesion in this magnificent context," says Dan Stubbergaard, Founder and Owner of Cobe.
"We are incredibly proud to be delivering this truly mixed-income community that is the first of its kind in Canada and a model for city-building," says Joyner. "This type of housing will strengthen our city's social fabric and meet the diverse needs of all Torontonians."
About Dream Unlimited Corp.
Dream Unlimited Corp. is a leading developer of exceptional office and residential assets in Toronto, owns stabilized income generating assets in both Canada and the U.S., and has an established and successful asset management business, inclusive of $24 billion of assets under management across four Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") listed trusts, our private asset management business and numerous partnerships. We also develop land and residential assets in Western Canada. Dream expects to generate more recurring income in the future as its urban development properties are completed and held for the long term. Dream has a proven track record for being innovative and for our ability to source, structure and execute on compelling investment opportunities. For more information please visit: www.dream.ca.
About Kilmer Group
Kilmer Group is the privately-held Toronto based investment holding company of Canadian business leader and philanthropist, Larry Tanenbaum O.C. Kilmer operates in three verticals, 1) real estate and infrastructure, 2) sports, entertainment and media and 3) private equity. Kilmer's operations employ over 22,000 people with a long-term, multi-generational horizon and vision. Kilmer brings an entrepreneurial and solutions driven approach to project delivery.
Kilmer has more than 40 years experience in the construction and development industry in Canada and continues to maintain a focus on the infrastructure sector. Kilmer has extensive expertise in large-scale redevelopment and a focus on unique public private partnerships, mid-rise urban infill projects, and master planned communities. Kilmer is proud to have had a hand in the development of over 12,000 homes.
About Tricon Residential Inc.
Tricon Residential Inc. (NYSE: TCN, TSX: TCN) is an owner and operator of a growing portfolio of more than 36,000 single-family rental homes in the U.S. Sun Belt and multi-family apartments in Canada. Our commitment to enriching the lives of our employees, residents and local communities underpins Tricon's culture and business philosophy.
Tricon was the first-mover to enter Toronto's purpose-built rental apartment sector with scale in 2016, and is today the market leader and most active developer in the marketplace. We partner with celebrated architects to create inviting living spaces and inspired amenities, empower our employees to deliver an exceptional service experience with the support of an innovative technology enabled platform, and build resident community through programming and events to foster meaningful connections. At Tricon, we have reimagined rental living.
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AGENT, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | April 05, 2023
RentSpree, the industry's premier end-to-end rental management software provider, today announced the release of its brand new subscription service, RentSpree PRO. PRO bundles transaction and marketing tools for agents that help streamline the entire rental process. With existing home sales continuing to fall in a rising interest rate environment, the focus has shifted to the rental market and these new tools support its steep increase in competition.
PRO combines existing transactional capabilities in RentSpree's offering, such as RentSpree's award-winning online rental application and tenant screening, with brand new tools to ensure RentSpree is a one stop shop for agents and their rental clients alike.
"We are constantly pushing ourselves to develop better solutions within the rental process to cut down on wasted time and other pain points," said Michael Lucarelli, CEO of RentSpree. "We've been diligently working on PRO to up our ability to specifically support agents as they advance their rental process." He added, "PRO will exponentially increase agent efficiency in dealing with rentals, with the ultimate goal of increasing each agent's return on investment."
New tools on PRO will give agents the opportunity to exponentially level-up their business. These tools include:
Document Upload: This feature seamlessly collects necessary documents from rental applicants within one singular platform, eliminating the need to move between multiple solutions to complete a rental transaction. It ensures that transactions are closed faster with less friction.
Reference Checks: Automated reference checks help streamline outreach to potential references. It speeds up the process and assists agents in finding the right applicant for a rental.
E-Sign Documents: The rental/lease agreement stage is one of the most important, tedious and drawn-out procedures of the rental transaction process. PRO alleviates the need for agents and landlords to perform manual tasks like sending lease agreements via print, scan, email, or other tools outside of their current solution. It helps execute and securely store lease agreements smoothly.
Agent Reviews: A high volume of positive reviews from past clients can be displayed and easily shared with an agent's network. Agents will be able to prompt their clients to leave a review, which can be seen by anybody that visits the profile page. The reviews an agent collects can be shared via social media to promote their service and profile on RentSpree.
Custom Link for your Agent Profile Page: Agent Profiles can help generate an online presence and create professional branding opportunities that can increase the likelihood of attracting more business. This feature offers another opportunity for agents to further build on their professional brand with the ability to modify the slug in their Agent Profile Page's URL, offering increased link trust and discoverability of their services. Since these pages are indexable, Google can surface if someone were to be researching a particular agent.
"RentSpree PRO helps me keep all my listings, applications, and supporting documents in one place," said Juan Caba with Velez Realty Corp. "It saves me time vetting the best tenants for my clients and helps me build relationships with future buyers. It's my virtual office."
About RentSpree
Los Angeles-based RentSpree is a provider of award-winning rental software that helps seamlessly connect real estate agents, owners, and renters to simplify and automate the entire rental process, from listing to lease. The all-in-one platform is known across all 50 states for its easy and secure interface and suite of rental tools, including tenant screening, rent payments, marketing and renter management. To date, RentSpree has partnered with more than 250 of the most influential MLSs, real estate associations and brokerages to serve over one million users in the U.S. RentSpree is ranked 625th on Inc. 5000's fastest-growing private companies in 2022. Visit http://www.rentspree.com for more information.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Businesswire | April 27, 2023
Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced the expansion of its exchange-traded fund (ETF) suite with the launch of the Columbia Research Enhanced Real Estate ETF (NYSE Arca: CRED). Designed for investors seeking a thoughtfully constructed and accessible way to gain exposure to the real estate sector, the strategy incorporates the firm’s research intensity and proprietary insights in real estate in a cost-effective vehicle.
“Real estate has long played an important role in portfolio diversification, and there are many ways to access the asset class across the liquidity spectrum,” said Marc Zeitoun, Head of Strategic Beta. “With the launch of CRED, we are offering investors and allocators a differentiated, research-driven way to improve their benchmark exposures to real estate.”
CRED, which tracks a custom, proprietary index, is designed to outperform the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index through research-driven security selection and modified market cap weighting that emphasizes income and geographic opportunity. This weighting approach directly addresses financial advisor preferences towards real estate investing expressed in a recent Columbia Threadneedle Investments survey, which found that income diversification and generation were among the top three reasons why financial advisors allocate to real estate. In terms of advisor due diligence, the survey also found that 9-in-10 of financial advisors consider underlying geographic exposure when investing in Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) strategies.
Managed by Christopher Lo and Henry Hom, portfolio managers in Columbia Threadneedle’s Managed and Indexed Portfolio Solutions team, CRED is designed to serve as a core allocation to the U.S. real estate sector in an investment portfolio. The ETF will track the firm’s proprietary Beta Advantage® Lionstone Research Enhanced REIT Index, which typically consists of 70-90 REITs weighted across eight sectors, including Specialized, Industrial, Diversified, Hotel & Resort, Residential, Retail, Office, and Health Care REITs. This custom index represents the first collaboration on a strategic beta solution between Columbia Threadneedle Investments and its institutional real estate investment subsidiary, Lionstone Investments.
“Columbia Threadneedle has significant global real estate investment capabilities that span the entire capital structure, and we are committed to offering this expertise in a variety of solutions, from strategic beta to direct real estate investment, to suit specific client needs,” added Zeitoun.
About Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2,500 people, including over 650 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage $608 billion of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP).
Columbia Threadneedle Investments (Columbia Threadneedle) is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.
About Lionstone Investments
Lionstone Investments is a data-analytics driven real estate investment firm that conceptualizes, analyzes, and executes national investment strategies using proprietary algorithms and advanced analytics to strategically pinpoint the locations where innovation, economic vitality, and productivity intersect to create sustainable and vibrant communities. Generating smart insight via sophisticated analytic tools, Lionstone is able to identify the highest concentrations of growth and productivity in the U.S. economy. This unique approach finds durable growth and resilient income in a rapidly evolving world. Lionstone Investments is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC.
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