The construction cranes hovering over the trendy Eau Claire area are a sign of changing times in downtown Calgary.
The city’s core is gradually moving north and east toward Eau Claire, where the Bow River and green space are big attractions, says Rick Artus, vice-president at J.J. Barnicke Calgary real estate.
The TransCanada Tower on 1st Street S.W. between 4th and 5th Avenues pulled the centre of gravity of the city’s core to the north and east, he adds.
That tower has added more than 900,000 sq. ft. to the downtown office inventory. TransCanada PipeLines is subleasing 10 floors, but has left space behind in five other buildings downtown.
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| An artist's rendering of the twin towers of Sentinel Plaza, a development in Eau Claire. |
Meanwhile, twin towers to be called Sentinel Plaza are planned for one of the current parking lots, at 3rd Avenue and 2nd Street S.W.
The developer is Beutel Goodman Real Estate Group, which also developed the Amoco Centre just to the south. Barnicke is exclusive leasing agent and has proposals out to prospective major tenants, says Artus.
The development permit is in place. The south tower would be built first and then the west. It would take about two years to put people inside a building from the time a major tenant is signed, he says.
Each of the 21-storey towers will be 450,000 sq. ft. The project will have the largest private protected green space in the downtown and the smaller of the two plaza areas will be bigger than the one at Fifth Avenue Place, he says.
J.J. Barnicke says the towers will be trapezoids rather than rectangles, faced in granite with glass curtainwall projections. The average floor plate will be 18,000 to 21,000 sq. ft. It will boast the latest in building systems and will be wired for Category 5 cable and fibre-optic networks.
A Calgary training company has gone international with a commercial real estate further education program.
INet e-Seminar Center has signed a three-year partnership with the Building Owners and Managers Association International to produce and manage online real estate education programs.
“This is a tremendous endorsement of our sophisticated e-Seminar management system,” says Dominic Lau, vice-president e-Seminars. “The successful launch of the BOMA floor-measurement e-seminar was a key factor in BOMA’s decision to sign an exclusive arrangement with INet e-Seminars.”
Last year, BOMA Calgary and INet produced a seminar on BOMA’s floor-measurement standard. It has since gone global in its reach.
“We were very impressed with the INet e-Seminar Center’s ability to produce and manage the BOMA floor measurement e-seminar,” says Richard D. Baier, managing director of CB Richard Ellis in Kansas City and president of BOMA International. Lau added that under the terms of the multi-year deal, BOMA will provide the course content and marketing expertise and INet e-Seminars will produce, host, manage and administer a series of online educational seminars.
BOMA International represents more than 18,000 members in North America and around the world, who own or manage more than 8.5 billion sq. ft. of commercial property.
INet e-Seminars produces and delivers a range of on-demand learning seminars for businesses and associations. It is a unit of Globel Direct Inc.
Globel Direct provides direct customer communications to businesses. It trades on the Canadian Venture Exchange, where it closed unchanged on Friday at 51 cents.
Apartment landlord Boardwalk Equities Inc. has gained Toronto Stock Exchange approval to extend a bid to buy back up to 10 per cent of its shares.
Boardwalk said in a news release that it believes that its share prices don’t reflect their value. It is buying the shares to increase the interest of remaining shareholders.
Boardwalk’s earlier bid ran from March 3, 2000, to March 2 this year, resulting in the purchase for cancellation of 27,300 shares for an average price of $10.59.
The extension started last Friday and runs to the earlier of March 22, 2002, or completion of the bid.
Boardwalk has a public float of more than 31.5 million shares, so it could buy just over 3.15 million shares.
Boardwalk trades as BEI on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. It closed Friday in Toronto at $10.25, down five cents.
In the same release, the company said that controlling shareholders Sam and Van Kolias will sell 410,000 of their shares starting next month. They have taken steps to ensure none of their shares are involved in the bid.
The company that owns the Three Sisters resort announced a 69-per-cent increase in its cash flow from operations on an 11-month fiscal year as it changed its year end.
TGS Properties Ltd. posted a 113-per-cent increase in assets, 98-per-cent increase in revenue and a 28-per-cent increase in earnings. Its fiscal year-end changed from Dec. 31 to Jan. 31.
Cash flow from operations was $3.1 million for the 11 months ending Dec. 31, compared to $1.8 million for the year ending Jan. 31, 2000.
TGS Properties trades as TGP on the Toronto Stock Exchange, where it closed Friday at $1.27, up two cents.
