NOVEMBER 2001

It has been two years since we sent out our first Newsletter highlighting real estate news and sales in the Ottawa area. Once it was decided to use email as the format, we had to build up an email list. The first list was comprised of the email addresses of the few clients we had addresses for and email addresses from the BOMA Office directory. What a difference two years makes. The first newsletter was sent to only 60 to 70 people. It is now sent to over 300 with the numbers increasing every month. Now, the question is not, "do you have email?" But rather, "what is your email address?"

Email technology allows us to stay in contact every month (provided I can find the time to complete the newsletter) with over 300 individuals who have an interest in the Ottawa real estate market. It is a very cost effective and quick method of communication that is being used more and more. We can now share Argus files, send draft reports and pictures to our clients over the Internet. This allows for quicker turnaround, which is key in our industry.

I would like to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions over the past couple of years concerning the newsletter and would encourage everyone to continue to keep in touch.

Now onto a summary of the sales that occurred in October.

SALES

  • The OFFICE market was fairly quiet with only two sales. The more significant of the two sales was the purchase of 275 Slater Street by 2005460 Ontario Inc. from Standard Life Assurance Company for $34,500,000 or $152/sq.ft. This is a very good quality multi-tenant office building in the core. Nathan Smith of Royal LePage listed the property for the vendor.
  • Claridge Homes (Somerset) Inc. purchased 210 & 222 Gladstone Avenue from their landlord Donald Snipper, Edward Cohen and Robert Murray as tenants in common. The purchase price was $1,150,000 and included an older four-storey office building and a single-family house.
  • The RETAIL market was also fairly quiet in October. A retail plaza at 858-868 Merivale Road together with a house at 1246 Thames Street (this might be a new trend we have to watch for: buy my property and I will throw in a house) was sold by Casa Properties Ltd. to 1168707 Ontario Ltd. for $1,050,000.
  • A 50% interest in a retail/restaurant building at 1440-1444 Merivale Road (the former Hurley's restaurant) was sold from Capro Investments Ltd. to Mill Hill Developments Ltd. for $650,000. The purchaser was the other partner in the property.
  • A one-storey restaurant/bar at 141 George Street in the ByWard Market was sold by Connie Salomon to Donley Investments Limited for $885,500 or $86/sq.ft.
  • Bytown Lumber Inc. sold their store in Bells Corners at 175 Robertson Road to Robertson Road Inc. for $2,000,000 or $69/sq.ft.
  • There were also two sales of more traditional MIXED-USE properties. Valuga Properties Ltd. sold 366-380 Bank Street, a two-storey retail/apartment building, to 2006363 Ontario Inc. for $1,185,000 or $73/sq.ft.
  • Everlasting Investments Ltd. sold (I thought with a name like that they would not be vendors) 702-704 Somerset Street West and 91 & 101 Arthur Street to Canada Chen Guang DC Inc. for $1,200,000. This represents three buildings: a restaurant, a six-plex and a duplex.
  • The APARTMENT market was also relatively quiet with only one sale. 818965 Ontario Inc sold a 47-unit building at 325 Besserer Street in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood to Mapro Corporation for $2,500,000 or $53,191/unit.
  • Clarica Trust Company sold a RETIREMENT home at 1735 Montreal Road to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation under power of sale for $1,575,000.
  • There was only one INDUSTRIAL building sale in October. This was the sale of 40 Jamie Avenue by Aldo Chiabai to Co-Auto Co-Operative Inc. for $610,000 or $87/sq.ft.
  • The market for vacant LAND continued to be strong.
  • A 3.6 acre site on Scala Avenue in the Orleans community in the east end of the city was sold by Urbandale Corporation to Conseil Scolaire de District Catholique du Centre-Est de l'Ontario for $640,673 or $177,965/acre.
  • A 3.5 acre site, also on Scala Avenue, was purchased by the City of Ottawa from 1351219 Ontario Inc. for $515,598 or $147,314/acre.
  • Urbandale also sold a 6.96 acre school site on Portebello Boulevard in Orleans for $1,149,225 or $165,119/acre. The purchaser was the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic District School Board.
  • The City of Ottawa sold a 2.132 acre site on the south side of Innes Road in Orleans to Loblaw Properties Ltd. for $557,309 or $261,402/acre. A residential redevelopment site on the north side of Gloucester Street and the south side of Laurier Avenue West was sold by Antonio and Angelo Abellan to 1479355 Ontario Inc. for $1,930,000 or $104/sq.ft. The site
    is currently improved with four buildings however, it is proposed to be developed with a 22-storey, 220 unit residential apartment building.
  • An older warehouse building and a single family house (see there is a trend) at 13 & 25 Willow Street were sold by Edward and Sidney Cohen to the City of Ottawa Non-Profit Housing Corporation for $555,000 or $13/sq.ft. of site area. The house is to be demolished and the
    warehouse is to be converted into 28 residential apartments. An additional 22 townhouse units are to be constructed on the site.

NEWS

  • The unemployment rate in Ottawa for October 2001 declined for the first time in seven months to 7.5%. Hopefully this is the start of another sustained downward trend.
  • The BOMA Office Vacancy Survey was released and notes that the overall vacancy level is at 7.9% including space for sublet but only 3.0% for direct space. Kanata leads the region with an overall vacancy level of 26.2% including sublet space and 10.4% for direct space. The downtown core continues to perform well with an overall rate of only 1.6% including sublet space. A copy of the report can be viewed at www.boma.ca/ottawa/.
  • The most recent report from the Ottawa-Carleton Real Estate Board indicates that 955 properties were sold in October, which is similar to last October when 992 properties changed hands. The total for the first ten months of the year is 10,534 as compared to 11,293 for the same period last year. The average price for the year has remained virtually the same as last month at $175,351, 10.7% higher than last year.
  • CMHC's has released their annual survey of the rental market, which indicates that the overall vacancy rate for Ottawa has increased to 0.8%. Ottawa no longer has the lowest vacancy rate in the Country (Victoria does) but it still has the lowest in Ontario. The average increase for rental rates was 4.1%, which is much lower than the previous year when they increased 12.6%.