Five features of Edmonton’s industrial market rounding out 2023.

What a ride 2023 has been so far for businesses across the province and beyond! The sheer scale of compounding factors being vollied at companies as they try to regain balance and grow their income is farsical. How does anyone project into the future and plan for growth, or perhaps conservation, when so many opposing factors are at play. I’ve outlined Five Takeaways that we are seeing play out in the industrial asset class, from leasing, to sales, construction costs to trends and opportunties.

Market, Trends, EconomicsBronwyn ScrivensOctober 25, 2023trends, manufacturing, Lease, Sale, construction, alberta, edmontonComment

7 Different Types of Commercial Real Estate

Working in the commercial real estate industry, you get a perspective of how large and multi-faceted this industry is, with hundreds of different jobs, roles, motivations, and ultimately types of assets that are managed, maintained, invested in, leased, and developed. For many outside of the industry, commercial real estate can seem like a "linear concept”, but it is far from that.

Just in Time Manufacturing... is Running Late

In my last article, Where has all the distribution space gone, Alberta?, we took a superficial look at the soaring demand for warehouse space in Alberta due, in part, to the expedited shift in consumer patterns as the world dealt with COVID-19. This article will analyze how this problem, in conjunction with many other interconnected links in the supply chain, have reverberated around the world causing blockages and delays in the manufacturing, transportation and delivery of goods, and earning the name of “The Great Supply Chain Disruption”. My goal is to simplify what may be one of the most complex global issues, where no one player is steering the ship (pun intended).

Economics, Market, TrendsBronwyn Scrivens, Omada CommercialOctober 28, 2021Distribution, Freight, Port, Transportation, tanker, covid-19, Supply ChainComment

Where has all the distribution space gone, Alberta?

It truly wasn’t long ago, maybe 12 months or less, that Edmonton and Calgary were flush, perhaps too flush, with Class A speculative distribution space. In the matter of not years, but months, the inventory in both major cities has been absorbed by household names who have entered the Alberta market in quick succession. Regardless of submarket - north, south, east, west or periphery - the pickings are now unbelievably slim for large distribution tenants looking to take advantage of the low cost environment in our province and move into warehouse space within the calendar year.

Perhaps the first Alberta-focused Industrial Real Estate Podcast!

I recently had the enjoyment of sitting down with my esteemed colleague and friend, Chad Griffiths, Partner at NAI Commercial, and Gerald Tostowaryk, host of The Real World of Real Estate podcast, to discuss the past year and our upcoming projections for the Alberta industrial real estate market.

Five great stories coming out of Edmonton this quarter

Research shows that on average, people pay more attention to negative news than to positive news (named “negativity bias”). This is a huge reason why the astonishingly higher proportion of news articles and media in today’s day and age leans toward negative, clickbait titles, rather than neutral, or heaven forbid, positive headers. So to start your week, here’s a compilation of five positive, no, GREAT stories that have come out of Edmonton and broader Alberta this past quarter.

Potential outcomes and opportunities for commercial real estate assets following a pandemic

In the coming months, we will be entering into a global recession, unemployment will rise, liquidity will decrease and insolvency will be the ultimate looming presence. In the short-term it will be brutal, but in the medium term, it will be okay. In this blog, I’ve outlined the potential causal effects that this pandemic will have on the various, unique commercial asset types, and where the opportunities lie.

The multi-billion dollar industry that is relatively non-existent in Alberta...and shouldn’t be.

Data is growing at an almost incomprehensible rate. There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day at our current pace, but with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, 5G and AI, that pace is accelerating. By understanding the requirements and initiatives surrounding tech based real estate, Alberta could be in an advantageous position to diversify industry and encourage the absorption of current vacancy in the form of data centres.

Investment, Development, Market, Technology, TrendsBronwyn ScrivensJanuary 7, 2020data centre, Tech, Technology, tech based real estate, development, InvestmentComment

"Beds and Sheds" hedging to be the front runners for investors in 2020

The catchphrase of the moment is proving to hold its weight as we analyze commercial real estate trends leading into the new year. Canada’s Multifamily market is the strongest it’s ever been with rental rates nearing 10-year highs, apartments near 100% occupancy, and volatility remaining low. On the industrial front, demand for fulfillment space continues to reign supreme to satisfy the multiplying growth metrics in e-commerce.

April, May and June 2019 among slowest months for commercial sales in the past decade

While activity has stayed fairly constant with regard to tenant/purchaser requirements and listings, the deal flow has been slow as most companies continue to have a low risk tolerance in Alberta. Add to this the much anticipated Federal election expected in October of this year, and there has been a mentality of hurry up and wait…until there is a change up federally that is.

Improving Canada's real estate investment and taxation policies - where's our 1031 exchange?

Unless you’ve had the opportunity to be involved with real estate investments in the United States, you may not know what a 1031 exchange is. Also called a like-kind exchange, this is a unique and progressive policy under the IRS that allows allows an investor to sell a property, reinvest the proceeds into a new property, then defer all capital gain taxes until a future date. It improves asset liquidity, increases market transaction volume, and promotes larger capital investment into the market.

Commercial tax rates continue to rise in Edmonton and Calgary; concurrently, their periphery markets ranked among most entrepreneurial in Canada.

In what appears to be a long, slow road ahead for the Alberta marketplace, it is essential that the City of Edmonton and the City of Calgary find ways to spend smarter, not harder, in order to improve the entrepreneurial mindset in these cities, increase business confidence, and slow the outward migration.

The truth about Canada's tanker traffic...and its lack thereof.

With 243,000 kilometres of coastline, Canada boasts the longest coastline in the world. Due to the nature of the sea ice in our northern territories, the majority of the northern coastline is untouched by human intervention and ship traffic. Due to the nature of our politics, the majority of our functional coastline in Eastern and more so, Western Canada, is blocked from viable tanker traffic. The rest of the world is aggressively trading with each other, and we’re being left in the dust.

The budding industry that is taking over Alberta

The cannabis industry has proven to be a game changer in states that have already gone through recreational legalization, and from what we are currently witnessing locally, there's no doubt that it is already having a tangible effect on our commercial real estate market here in Edmonton.

Investment, Market, TrendsBronwyn ScrivensJanuary 31, 2018Lease, Sale, Industrial, Trends, Cannabis, Edmonton, AlbertaComment

Is Amazon aiming for political influence in their HQ2?

The majority of the Top 20 Cities selected, slimmed down from 238 submissions, are located in Eastern USA. But more interesting to me is where the clusters lie - particularly one cluster located around Washington D.C. proper, with three potential locations within neighboring counties. Where the big banks and pharmaceutical giants used to dominate the US lobbying industry, flexing their economic muscle, the new player in town is the tech industry, and in a big way.

Technology, Market, Investment, EconomicsBronwyn ScrivensJanuary 18, 2018Amazon, HQ2, Technology, Politics, WashingtonComment

What's in the stars for the North American industrial market?

While the industrial and commercial markets in Alberta have been far from a pretty picture, The North American industrial market as a whole has experienced a record-setting run, registering some of the strongest leasing tallies and tightest market conditions on record. In particular, the industrial market in the United States, largely due to the huge growth in e-Commerce, has been unstoppable.

Trends, Market, EconomicsBronwyn ScrivensDecember 22, 2017Industrial, Market, Forecast, Trends, Canada, USA, Mexico, North America, trendsComment

The Oil & Gas "Butterfly Effect"

The Butterfly Effect perpetuates that "something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon half way around the world" - Chaos Theory. Although the oil & gas market is more of a behemoth than a butterfly, the trends that it maps out have an enormous ripple effect on nearly all other industries, especially in our "diversified" province of Alberta. See my latest video where I discuss this effect here...

Trends, Market, EconomicsBronwyn ScrivensDecember 1, 2017Oil & Gas, Energy, Market, Marketbeat, Edmonotn, CycleComment

Why industrial businesses are looking outside of Edmonton's city limits

The strength of Edmonton's industrial market has a lot to do with the strength of the many surrounding markets that further support the City's industries and connect the communities as a whole. Have a look at this video clip where I discuss the strength of Edmonton's peripheral markets.

Market, Investment, TrendsBronwyn ScrivensNovember 17, 2017Edmonton, Alberta, Acheson, Sherwood Park, Leduc, NiskuComment

Edmonton commercial real estate market update, from yours truly.

Edmonton's third quarter was a quiet one in the industrial sector, as is often typical for the summer months, with a meaningful pick up entering into the fall months of September and October. If you're interested in learning more, check out this quick video clip where I discuss some of the factors at play among Tenants and Landlords, Purchasers and Vendors in our market.

Trends, Economics, MarketBronwyn ScrivensOctober 31, 2017cushman & wakefieldIndustrial, Marketbeat, Market, Economy, Alberta, Edmonton, Leduc, Nisku, Acheson, Q3, 2017Comment

Thought Leadership

Bronwyn Scrivens, SIOR is a licensed real estate agent with: