Search results

... Canada Offices About Professi... ...Area OverviewLethbridge is the centre of a trading area that serves 275,000... ...ta, British Columbia and Montana. The city is located in the southern portion of Alberta and is a one-hour drive from... ..., Lethbridge is a two-hour drive from Calgary and a five-hour drive from Ed... ...g, Lethbridge now has a diverse range of key industries. While agri-foods continues to thrive and remains one of the key industries, new and emerging sectors such as alternative energy and equipment-manufacturing are gaining strength. Among its multitude of attributes, Lethbridge boasts two nationally recognized post-secondary institutions, the largest research centre in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's national network of research centres, and a young, well-educated and ethnically-diverse population.With a growing population and consistent new business growth, Lethbridge boasts a stable economy. Over the past 10 years, the city’s comparatively low commercial real estate rental rates and housing prices have also provided lifestyle and business cost advantages. Service and trade industries generate over half of all the occupations in Lethbridge. Other occupations are diversified across the industries of manufacturing, public sector services, construction, transportation, finance/insurance/real estate, and primary industry. Lethbridge demonstrates lower unemployment rates than the provincial or national averages and consistently ranks among Canadian cities that have the lowest cost of doing business.MarketsOfficeThe office market comprises primarily the downtown core, while business parks have emerged on the city’s outskirts in recent years. Health care and government services organizations are the largest users. RetailLethbridge’s retail market has attracted several large Canadian and American retailers in recent years, including Wal-Mart. South Lethbridge is home to the majority of the city’s big-box developments while North Lethbridge has displayed recent growth. Of the city’s three sectors, West Lethbridge is experiencing the highest population growth resulting in renewed interest from new and existing local operators. With strong ongoing development activity, the outlook for West Lethbridge appears bright. IndustrialThe Lethbridge industrial real estate sector provides some excellent investment and development opportunities. With continuing low interest rates, more and more industrial clients are looking to own their own buildings, often in a strata-ownership structure to reduce land costs. In recent years, demand for small-bay space (2,000 square feet) has been quite strong.Avison Young LethbridgeAvison Young opened its Lethbridge office in 2009. It was launched by a team of highly-skilled professionals who had established themselves as very successful associates in both sales and leasing of commercial real estate in Lethbridge and the surrounding area. Lethbridge area brokers provide exceptional service and innovative solutions for their clients through the use of social media and other technologies. The associates work closely with other Avison Young professionals, particularly in Calgary and Edmonton, to facilitate national...

... U.S. Offices About Profession... ...rea. Metropolitan Chicago is a center of learning with more than 20 college... ...nowned schools such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois-Chicago, DePaul University and Loyola University are located here, making the city’s workforce one of the most highly educated in America. The diverse, talented workforce has attracted the headquarters of more than 30 Fortune 500 companies. Chicago is also home to the largest financial and commodity exchanges in the world, the Chicago Merchantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and serves as the financial center of the region, which has a highly-diversified economy.The Chicago real estate market as a whole is the third largest in the U.S., with more than 2.25 billion square feet of space. Almost every major REIT and national property owner has a presence in the Chicago market, either through headquarters or branch offices.MarketsOfficeThe Chicago office market, home of the original skyscraper, comprises 450 million square feet of office space. Downtown Chicago, especially along Wacker Drive, has become the location for multiple office developments and redevelopments that have reshaped the city skyline and redefined the market. The strong development activity continues to attract new institutional ownership and enhance an already vibrant market. RetailThe retail market consists of approximately 500 million square feet of retail space. In the central business district, the market is driven by opportunistic retailers who have recognized that the CBD provides them an interesting demographic of young professionals as well as mature empty nesters. Companies entering the market and existing retailers are also creating opportunities for themselves and supporting reverse migration to the CBD. As a result, stores and retail centers have a long-term opportunity to capitalize on the creation of new residential properties.IndustrialWith 1.1 billion square feet of industrial space, Chicago ranks as the second-largest industrial market in America, serving as the logistical hub of the United States. Since Chicago is the only market in the nation where all six class I rail lines converge, the industrial property sector benefits from a unique location within North America. The industrial market also gains from the rare combination of a large population and unlimited green field space. The demographics make Chicago an attractive market for industrial investors. In fact, every major U.S. industrial property investor has a presence in Chicago.InvestmentChicago’s office prices remain highly affordable in comparison to other U.S. and international markets. This situation reflects a developer-friendly environment, a lack of physical restraints, and the desirability of the market. In contrast, stable capitalization rates can drive consistently-strong pricing in the industrial market. This is a reflection of the attractiveness of the market to institutional investors, and Chicago’s strategic location in the center of the country. Consequently, Chicago remains a vital market for institutional buyers and is positioned well for the future.Avison Young in ChicagoAvison Young opened its first U.S. office in Chicago in 2009, marking the launch of aggressive North American and international expansion efforts. Due to the city’s Midwest location and prominent role in North American transportation, Chicago brokers have gained considerable industrial real estate experience while also facilitating major office and retail sale and lease transactions. Avison Young’s Chicago office also works closely with the comp...

... Canada Offices About Professi... ...ue S.W., Suite 309 Gulf Canada Square Calgary, AB T2P 3C5Canada Map ... ...viewLocated in the Alberta Foothills, Calgary is known for its entrepreneur... ...n BC and other Prairie provinces, the city provides a regional transportati... ...ing national and international trade. Calgary's strong economic fundamental... ...ted, and rapidly-expanding population of 1.2 million, which exceeds nationa... ...ortation and - thanks to the presence of internationally-recognized univers... ...eges - high-technology. Consequently, Calgary has a robust commercial real estate market. Over the past decade, the office, retail, industrial and investment sectors have all displayed strength while facing a number of global economic challenges. Thanks to the city's wide-open landscape, real estate market expansion is not hindered by geographic barriers like it might be in other locales.MarketsOfficeDue to the strong presence of the energy industry, Calgary has more head offices than any other Canadian city except Toronto. The downtown office market caters mainly to large users who operate globally and typically require more than 100,000 square feet of space. As a result, cycles tend to be short, with demand for new development coming on strong in upswings while down cycles are met with great resiliency.RetailDue to the city's high employment and income levels, the retail sector has expanded steadily over the past five to 10 years. In addition to encouraging large national chains to establish more locations, Calgary has attracted increasing numbers of American retailers. A lack of good-quality space, particularly in the northwest and southwest, has kept vacancy levels low and enabled rental rates to improve steadily.IndustrialCalgary's industrial real estate sector benefits from the presence of steadily-growing local, national and international oilfield service, warehouse-and-distribution, and transportation firms. Unlike a number of other cities, Calgary is not limited by a lack of industrial land. A strong leasing market keeps vacancy levels low while the availability of large parcels of developable land ensures a steady source of new supply.InvestmentInstitutional investors - notable pension funds, REITS and public companies - are attracted to Calgary in increasingly-large numbers, along with private players who favour Alberta's low corporate tax rates and the absence of a provincial sales tax. While institutional investors dominate the office sector, they have also invested billions in the retail, industrial and multi-family markets. Private investors tend to have stronger footholds in the retail, industrial and multi-family sectors.Avison Young in Calgary Avison Young's roots in Calgary date to the formation of the company itself in the late 1970s. In recent years, Calgary brokers have negotiated several large transactions in all asset categories while partnering on major projects with other Avison Young offices in Canada and the United States. Avison Young's Calgary office is particularly well-suited for energy-related partnerships with the company's Houston brokerage, and collaborates frequently with the Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto locations on a variety of office, retail, and industrial leases, acquisitions...

... Canada Offices About Professi... ... Area OverviewSituated on the shores of Lake Ontario, Toronto is the capital of the province of Ontario and, with a population of more than 2.6 million, the largest city in Canada and the fifth largest in N... ...ty and multiculturalism are hallmarks of Toronto life, with nearly 50% of city residents born outside of Canada as of the last census. More than 180 languages and dialects are spoken by Toronto’s citizens, offering employers a labour pool well-suited to doing business around the world. Toronto is considered the financial capital of Canada – home to more corporate headquarters than any other Canadian city, along with the country’s five largest banks, many of its largest insurers and pension plan funds, and the Toronto Stock Exchange, which is the second largest in North America and lists more energy and mining stocks than any other in the world. In addition, the city is an important base of operations for publishing, media, telecommunications, film production and information technology.MarketsOfficeToronto is Canada’s largest office market, and among the five largest in North America, with inventory in excess of 168 million square feet. Toronto’s office market houses a diverse tenant base, including financial and professional services, law firms, and the head offices of resources and mining companies. The last five years have seen a revival in development projects in the city’s downtown, expanding the traditional boundaries of the district as new building sites have been located both within and just outside the downtown core. Office submarkets along the subway lines in midtown and at the north end of the city offer good alternatives within the city limits, while the suburbs also boast a wide selection of spaces.RetailWith more than 5 million consumers in the Greater Toronto Area, the city’s stock of retail real estate has historically enjoyed low vacancy rates and stable rental rates. Regional malls and big-box centres scattered across the region augment the city’s smaller plazas and local shopping amenities. As Canada’s largest retail market, Toronto has attracted the attention of retailers from around the world. Over the past five years, high-end retail chains have contributed to the up-market transformation of the posh Bloor-Yorkville area, creating the city’s premier designer-brand shopping district.IndustrialWith more than 850 million square feet of space, the Greater Toronto Area industrial market is Canada’s largest and among the top three on the continent. Traditionally part of the manufacturing heartland, the area is undergoing a transition from manufacturing to a focus on warehousing, logistics and distribution, with some of the largest logistics and supply-chain management companies operating facilities in the area. With 120 million people living within a 500-mile radius of Toronto, the city benefits from its proximity to the most densely populated part of Canada and the United States, the 400-series highways, cross-border railway distribution lines, and air and sea cargo connections to the rest of the world.InvestmentToronto, like the Canadian market overall, is viewed internationally as a safe, stable and transparent place to invest, and thus has attracted attention from foreign buyers. Given the institutional-grade quality of assets in the city, the size of the market and the high profile it enjoys among the international commercial real estate investment community, it is not surprising that Toronto captures the lion’s share of dollar volume in the Canadian investment market.Avison Young in TorontoAvison Young’s presence in Toronto began with the founding of Avison & Associates in 1989 and has grown steadily ever since. Avison Young’s brokerage team in Toronto has consistently completed major leasing and investment sales transactions involving all types of assets on behalf of tenants, landlords, vendors and buyers alike, including many large national and international corporate clients. As Toronto serves as the national headquarters for many corporations, Avison Young’s Toronto office frequently partners with the company’s brokerage operations in both Canada and the United States, collaborating on transactions for branch offices, distribution and retail facilities across the continent. ...