First Notice: Crestpoint acquires western Canadian properties; Suncor project goes to panel; StatsCan says construction numbers up

Crestpoint acquires Vancouver, Winnipeg properties

Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd. today announced the acquisition of two investments with a total value of $205 million. The Legacy Apartment Portfolio is comprised of 15 multi-family residential properties, acquired from six different vendors, located across Metro Vancouver. The portfolio includes nine concrete mid-rise apartments and six wood-frame apartments. The other is the FedEx Distribution Centre, a new 248,000-square-foot design-build package distribution and sorting facility located in southeast Winnipeg.

Suncor mining project goes to review panel

Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson announced the referral of the impact assessment of the proposed Suncor Base Mine Extension Project in Alberta to an independent review panel. The project, located three kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta., would involve the development of a new open-pit mining location in order to sustain the supply of bitumen to the existing upgraders at Suncor’s Oil Sands Base Plant operation, once the original base mine is depleted.

Construction up slightly in November: StatsCan

Statistics Canada reported today that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.7 per cent in November, following a 0.4 per cent increase in October. Construction edged up 0.1 per cent in the month. Engineering and other construction activities increased 0.6 per cent and repair activities edged up 0.1 per cent. Partly offsetting the gains was a 0.9 per cent decline in non-residential construction, with residential construction unchanged in November.

ABC calls near-term economic outlook ‘not especially optimistic’

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) chief economist Anirban Bas is not optimistic about the current state of the U.S economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonresidential investment in structures increased at a three per cent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, and Bas said “After expanding 33.4 per cent during the third quarter, the U.S. economy expanded only four per cent during the fourth, an indication of an economy still beset by uncertainty and interruption.”