1. Ireland: Joint venture takes hotel group private
A joint venture investment group has taken Ireland’s largest hotel operator private, with Dalata Hotel Group’s shares delisted from Dublin and London stock exchanges.
The action followed the July announcement by Scandinavian companies Pandox AB and Eiendomsspar AS of plans to acquire Dalata in an all-cash deal valuing the Irish company at €1.4 billion and approved by Dalata shareholders in September. Dalata’s portfolio includes 56 hotels with about 12,000 rooms across Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.
2. UK: Entrepreneur targets pickleball explosion
Hurlands, led by entrepreneur Philip Newborough, is targeting what it expects will be the United Kingdom’s next big leisure growth story, as it prepares to open its first flagship pickleball and padel center in response to the two racket sports’ rising popularity.
A January opening is planned for a £2.75 million project at a redeveloped warehouse in Farnham in Surrey, featuring 13 indoor pickleball and padel courts, with more being planned across the United Kingdom. As co-founder of investment firm Bridges, Newborough pioneered The Gym Group, the first low-cost gym concept in the U.K., and expanded another concept, Viva Gym, from 15 to more than 100 locations.
3. France: Retail center operators resist Shein’s influence
Operators at a French retail real estate summit said online sales platforms need to be integrated into their shopping centers, though some rejected the business model of Asian e-commerce giant Shein that has come under criticism.
“We’re just against Shein’s model of over-subsidizing products that come from China and don’t respect any rules,” said Marie Cheval, CEO of Carrefour’s property company Carmila, during a panel discussion co-organized by Business Immo during this year’s Mapic conference in Cannes. Cheval said the 800 shopping centers owned by multiple operators across France “demonstrate every day that we can bring in customers without needing Shein.”
4. Germany: Google plans big data center investment
Search technology giant Google plans to invest around €5.5 billion in data centers and office locations in Germany by 2029, creating up to 9,000 jobs.
The Mountain View, California-based company said a large portion of this will go toward a new data center in Dietzenbach and the expansion of an existing data center in Hanau, both near Frankfurt. The company is also creating a development center with 30,000 square meters of office space in Munich, and the offices in Frankfurt and Berlin will be expanded.
5. Canada: Cadillac Fairview to start work on first Calgary rental complex
Developer Cadillac Fairview is about to put shovels in the ground to start work on its first rental housing project in Calgary, as vacancy tightens and rents rise in Canada’s fastest-growing major city.
The company said construction is expected to begin this month on a complex that includes two towers with a total of 490 units, on a site currently containing a shopping center parking lot near the Chinook light-rail train station. Calgary recorded an annual population growth rate of 5.8% in 2024, according to Statistics Canada, and its metropolitan population is projected to grow from about 1.6 million to 2 million within the next decade.
6. US: Why a high-profile developer is remaking this 1950s California mall
For half a century, a covered wagon graced the entrance to one of Northern California’s oldest shopping malls, serving as a community direction piece, as in: “Turn right at the wagon.” Today, the wagon is gone, but the Montgomery Village in Santa Rosa, California, is signaling a new direction for retail properties.
A Boston area developer is giving “the Village,” as locals know it, a full-scale update, joining other landlords remaking outdated, yet well-located, properties across the nation to vie for a shrinking pool of brick-and-mortar tenants and shoppers.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.