It is hard to believe that the kids will be back in school in two weeks and our summer is almost behind us. Not that we had much of a summer. I know that this is two weeks late but after taking a two week vacation (to Alaska where the weather was better) and Jennifer (the Johnson in Juteau Johnson Comba) having a baby on August 7 the newsletter was put towards the bottom of the pile.

Jennifer and Rebecca are doing great and we wish them all the best. It is always wonderful having a new baby in the house even if you can't sleep. For those clients who call Jennifer, please feel free to call Ron or I over the next few months until Jennifer returns.

The real estate business in Ottawa has not taken a vacation this summer as can be seen from the sales activity in June.

SALES

A 25,334 sq.ft. OFFICE building at 1 Stewart Street was sold by World Institute for the Family to Human Life International Inc. for $1,595,075 or $96/sq.ft. This property was purchased in 1997 for $365,000. However, the building was only 40% occupied in 1997 and has since been extensively renovated.

A 20,357 sq.ft two-storey office building at the intersection of Conroy Road and Thurston Road in the Ottawa Business Park was sold by The De Leuw Cather Group Ltd. to Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. for $1,800,000 or $88/sq.ft. This represented a sale from an owner occupant to another owner occupant.

There continues to be the occasional power of sale in the market. CIBCMortgage Corp sold a 16,126 sq.ft. RETAIL PLAZA at 591 March Road for $850,000 or $53/sq.ft.

Another power-of-sale was the former Wakid Radio building at 312 Parkdale Avenue. This was sold by the National Bank of Canada to 1408644 Ontario Inc. for $1,375,000 or $57/sq.ft. It is a one-storey building that was part warehouse, part retail and part office. Royal LePage was the agent for the vendor in this transaction.

Investor's Group continues to invest in the Ottawa market. Their most recent purchase was an INDUSTRIAL building at 2405 St. Laurent Boulevard in the Ottawa Business Park. This was sold by 1255037 Ontario Inc. for $4,825,000 or $57/sq.ft. The property was listed by CB Richard Ellis.

NORTEL Networks constructed a new 147,000 sq.ft. fibre optics plant at 500 Palladium Drive in the shadow of the Corel Centre in Kanata. They have sold it to 500 Palladium Portfolio Inc. for $11,312,147 or $77/sq.ft. and have leased it back for a 15 year term. They are to construct a second larger plant in close proximity to this one that will be completed within the next year.

A 13,265 sq.ft. industrial building located at 549 Industrial Avenue was sold by E & R Kassie Holdings Ltd. to 1414612 Ontario Inc. for $795,000 or $60/sq.ft. Facilities Commercial acted as brokers in this transaction.

The APARTMENT market continues to be busy. A 163 unit apartment building at 2969 Fairlea Crescent was sold by Villa Vista Apartments Ltd. to Fairlea Apartments Limited for $6,913,294 or $42,413 per unit.

A 49-unit apartment building at 146 Stewart Street was sold by Peter Chatzigannis, John Vranas and Jim Sourges to 1394684 Ontario Inc. for $1,960,000 or $40,000/unit.

The 41-unit building at 145 Stewart Street, across the street from the previous sale also sold. It was sold by 1202875 Ontario Ltd to 1384673 Ontario Inc. for $1,610,000 or $39,268/unit.

District Realty has been very busy as they were the brokers on the three previous sales.

A very unique multi-residential project in New Edinburgh was sold by Blackburn Properties Corp to River Lane Properties for $2,750,000. The project consists of 18 townhouses and 5 apartment units. The purchase price is equal to $119,565 per unit.

Briny Enterprises Ltd. sold a 25 unit apartment building at 729 Cooper Street to Dale & Sonja Hill for $865,000 or $34,600/unit.

Six-duplex houses on Watson Street were sold by Margaret M. Parups to Parka Land Holdings Ltd. for $1,193,000 or $99,417 per unit.

An empty SCHOOL at 150 Mann Avenue was sold by the Conseil Scolaire du District Catholique Centre-Est de L'Ontario to the Centre Youville Centre Ottawa-Carleton Inc. for $1,300,000 or $53/sq.ft.

Her Majesty the Queen, in Right of Canada noticed how active the Ottawa real estate market has been and decided to sell a 9.4 acre parcel of VACANT LAND on Clyde Avenue to 1394843 Ontario Inc., an adjoining property owner for $1,000,000 or $106,383/acre. This parcel is to be developed with a residential subdivision.

An 8.8 acre site in the Longfields neighbourhood of Nepean was sold by a group of investors to Holitzner Homes (1995) Ltd. for $725,000 or $82,386/acre.

Shenkman Corporation together with a group of investors have assembled a 750 acre site on the south side of Innes Road in the east end of the Region. One of these purchases involved a 97.2 acre site on Mer Bleue Road that was purchased by Emparrado Corp from 715015 Ontario Inc. for$1,034,000 or $10,633/acre. Once the assembly is completed, this will represent the largest block of industrial land in a single ownership in the Ottawa-Carleton region. The challenge will be to shift some of the high-tech companies to the east end of the region which should not be too difficult when serviced commercial land costs are $250,000 to $300,000 per acre in the west end.

Lindia Management Inc. sold an 18.9 acre site in Goulbourn to G. Lemay Construction (1998) Inc for $1,350,000 or $71,428/acre.

The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton sold a 1.22 acre site on Echo Drive overlooking the Rideau Canal to Claridge Homes (Crown Pointe) Inc. for $1,805,000 or $34/sq.ft. of site area. It is expected that Claridge will be developing the property with a townhouse property similar to their project to the north of this site.

Brookfield Homes Ltd. sold a 33 acre site in the east end of the region to 1394860 Ontario Ltd. for $2,000,000 or $60,000/acre. This site is located in the Cumberland portion of the Orleans community.

A 4.7 acre institutional site was purchased by 1390958 Ontario Ltd. from Richcraft Homes Ltd. for $842,500 or $180,000/acre. This site is located on Beatrice Drive in the Longfields neighbourhood of Nepean.

NEWS

Similar to last month, I will keep this section short as it is summer time.

The Ottawa economy continues to outperform the national economy with a local unemployment rate in July at 5.5% as compared to the Canadian average of 6.8% and the average for the province of Ontario at 5.3%.

The Government of Canada has announced that they will be hiring 12,000 new employees per year for the next decade to replace the retiring baby boomers. This should continue to put upward pressures on the local housing market as it is expected that most of the retiring boomers will continue to maintain a residence in Ottawa and new employees will require housing in the local market.

Lastly, the most recent BOMA Office Market Survey for Ottawa which is prepared by jj Barnicke indicates the overall vacancy rate for the whole region is at only 3.0% including space for sub-let. The Class A downtown market has a vacancy rate of 1.4%, the lowest rate in a number of years. However, Kanata continues to maintain a 0% vacancy for Class "A" space. The highest vacancy rate is for office space in the Centretown market at 6.5%. These rates are leading to big increases in rental rates as there is a limited amount of speculative construction. No relief for tenants ison the horizon.