The CEO of Canada's largest REIT says he came out of last week's ICSC Canadian Convention in Toronto quite surprised. "For the first time in three years, attendance was great, and retailers--not all of them--were quite bullish about doing new stores," says Ed Sonshine. Everyone was talking about urbanization as they watched retailers move into the big cities--and now they want to follow suit with more stores. (That's positive news unless you have a teenager... in which case, hide your wallet.)

Ed was part of the Real Property Association of Canada's celebrations at the TSX, celebrating the 20th anniversary of REITS in Canada. Ed, CREIT president and CEO Stephen Johnson, and Morguard Investments president and COO Steve Taylor were among the notable guests. RioCan has interests in 16 shopping centres across B.C.--the largest (in terms of SF) being its 50% stake in Grandview Corners in Surrey, totaling 598k SF.