Construction Maison

Here’s some real estate news of possible interest. Three properties on Towering Heights Boulevard in south St. Catharines recently sold for $37.7 million. Real estate records show the seller was George Wakil and Company Ltd. of White Oaks Resort and Spa fame; the buyer was Kingston- based Homestead Land Holdings Ltd. The key piece was the 135- unit Crown Tower apartment building , which, at 17 storeys, is St. Catharines’ tallest edifice. I doubt which company owns what apartment complex in the city is of much interest to anyone but residents of the buildings. And, for all I know, maybe these dwellings change hands on a regular basis. What makes this transaction potentially interesting for a broader audience, though, is the state of the other two parcels. They’re vacant, raw land. The larger piece, on the northwest corner of Towering Heights Boulevard and Glen Morris Drive , is 4.42 acres. The smaller one, across the boulevard, is 2.48 acres. Homestead Land Holdings is a fair...

Lincoln Property Company , a national home and business real estate firm with 500 communities within its network, has seen the  traditional apartment search process go from word-of-mouth to mostly being driven by online reviews and social media. In other words, real estate has a lot in common with restaurants — and pretty much every business — in driving new customers. The real estate service company was struggling to manage all the customer reviews of its multi- family housing . As a result, its search rankings were slipping. Lincoln Property first tapped a reputation management company in 2012. While things improved, its strategy nevertheless suffered from a gap when it came to social media listening/responding and online presence management . Last year, Lincoln Property turned to Chatmeter, an online presence and reviews management platform . In a matter of weeks, Lincoln Property’s total review quantity rose 71 percent with a 277 percent increase in the number of reviews po...