NAIOP's REX Awards next Wednesday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre should be a lively time, with stand-up comedian Steve Patterson emceeing. Steve’s the host of CBC Radio One’s The Debaters, and in 2013 won “Best Male Stand-up Comedian” at the Canadian Comedy Awards for the second time in three years. (Rich Little must be furious.) He also hosts HGTV’s I Wrecked My House, and tells Bisnow that being a new property owner, he's eager to entertain a room full of real estate types and hopes to learn a thing or two about corporate real estate.

He’ll be in the right company. The annual awards celebrate excellence in the industry. Nominees include the Globe and Mail Centre at First Gulf’s 351 King St E for Office Lease of the Year, and the Mirvish Village/Honest Ed’s site sale to Westbank for Investment Deal of the Year. First Capital Realty has two nominations in the retail/Mixed Use Development of the Year category—120 Lynn Williams and Leaside Village. We’ll speak to a few of the winners next week. Snapped are dignitaries at the groundbreaking for the Globe building that we were at last fall, including a certain celebrity Mayor.