LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 79
| COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE |
Brand affiliation has become an-
other hot selling point for mixed-use
condos. In Toronto, at Yonge and Eglin-
ton, Karl Lagerfeld is teaming up with
a developer to create the "Art Shoppe"
condos, which will, when it's complete,
feature the high-end decor outlet on
ground floor. In Montréal, meanwhile,
the cityscape around the Bell Centre,
home of the Montréal Canadiens — and
mecca for many Montréal sports fans —
is almost unrecognizable.
Once full of drab old mid-rise office
buildings, the area is now dominated
by the Tour des Canadiens, a 50-storey
mixed-use complex attached to the hock-
ey rink and partly owned by the team. It
includes 552 condos, 13 floors of park-
15-per-cent tax on non-citizens and non-
permanent residents buying property in
the city. "We see mostly Asians, mainly
Chinese, and people from the Middle
East coming in and buying blocks of con-
dos which they won't necessarily live in.
Maybe they'll rent, maybe family mem-
bers or students will occupy them — it's
a way of investing."
Whenever multiple units are picked
up by foreign buyers with no intention of
living there, Benhamou says, the lawyers
have to address in the condo declaration
whether monthly rentals will be permit-
ted; in some buildings, it's only yearly
rentals or no rentals at all. "en there
are also things like Airbnb issues and
public-liability insurance concerns that
also need to be addressed."
In Toronto, Mayor John Tory hasn't
ruled out a similar tax on foreign na-
tionals buying property in order to cool
housing prices, saying he wants to study
its effectiveness. Early indications are
it's working in Vancouver. e number
of properties sold in August 2016 (the
15-per-cent tax was announced at the end
of July) was down nearly 26 per cent over
last year, according the Real Estate Board
of Greater Vancouver, although prices re-
mained sky high compared to the rest of
the country.
A couple of years ago, the Van-
couver law firm of Koffman Kalef LLP
hosted a cocktail reception for business
magnate Jim Pattison. Someone asked for
his best piece of advice. You know what
he said? Buy land, anywhere in BC's lower
mainland, it doesn't matter where. Just
get some land. Any who took his advice
to heart must be very happy right now.
If urban scarcity were an issue that had
brand managers and lobbyists, Vancou-
ver would have to be its poster child. e
price increases over the past three years
have made it among the most expensive
retail markets in the world. e spill-off
to the commercial, apartment and indus-
trial buildings and even bedroom com-
munities of the lower mainland has seen
an eye-popping increase in prices.
Because Vancouver is defined by moun-
tains and water, the downtown peninsula
is limited by its geographic boundaries.
Planners are extremely protective of the
ing and a large sports bar on the ground
floor. It sold out within three months.
It was so successful, a second 27-storey
sculpted glass tower with 438 condos has
been started. In both, residents will enjoy
priority bookings for Canadiens hockey
tickets and access to training sessions,
among other privileges.
"When you look at where it's located —
it's hard to get there by car — the size of
the units, and the price, it's amazing it can
have that kind of traction, but it does,"
says Elias Benhamou, senior partner in
the commercial real estate and bank-
ing practices at Davies Ward Phillips &
Vineberg LLP. Some units are just 500 or
600 square feet — not unusual to Toron-
tonians or Vancouverites, but newish for
Montréal where, 10 years ago, "you didn't
even see a single crane on the horizon."
Linking a development to an existing
brand adds to the work, he says, requiring
lawyers to dra an IP licence agreement
between the promoter using the brand,
"who wants to secure the names and
brands for the life of the project," and the
brand's owner, "who wants to protect its
rights against any wrongful use."
Whether they have high-profile affilia-
tions or not, similarly sized and priced
mixed-use developments are going up in
the city and, what's notable, says Ben-
hamou, is the increase in the amount of
foreign money buying into the new build-
ings in the Montréal condo scene. He and
other real estate players agree Montréal
has seen a bump in interest from Chinese
buyers, with the pace picking up notice-
ably since Vancouver announced a new
ELIAS BENHAMOU
>
DAVIES WARD PHILLIPS & VINEBERG LLP
"When you look at where
it's located
— it's hard to get
there by car
— the size of the units,
and the price, it's amazing
it can have that kind of traction,
but it does."
