Kehoe on top of trends in commercial real estate
Calgary commercial real estate broker Michael Kehoe is off to Las Vegas next month where he’ll speak at the International Council Shopping Centres RECon gathering. The world’s largest retail real estate convention annually attracts more than 37,000 participants representing 58 countries.
Kehoe, broker/owner of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate, will address students on careers in retail real estate. He’s had a long and successful spell in the industry, starting with a marketing job at Southcentre Mall in 1975.
He then moved to Edmonton to join Cadillac Fairview, later becoming manager for Stewart Green Properties at its Kingsway Gardens Mall there. Kehoe returned to Calgary to join the company’s leasing team. He handled the initial leasing for Willow Park Village, including Caesar’s Steak House, which is still a tenant. In 1991, Kehoe launched Fairfield as a boutique real estate company specializing in retail leasing.
Membership in International Council Shopping Centres and attending its annual conventions during the past 35 years has been hugely beneficial, he said.
Kehoe attended the organization’s leadership conference in Chicago last month, and with many of its 500 Alberta members will be at its Trends conference May 1-3 in Banff. He is ICSC’s ambassador for the prairie provinces and was recently appointed to the voluntary position of government relations chair for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, working with provincial and local governments on issues that affect retail real estate.
In Calgary, he has leased space for many name-brand companies. His current mandates include securing street-front locations for Calgary-based Good Earth Coffeehouse. A client for several years it now has 40 coffee houses in Canada with 19 within the city of Calgary.
Kehoe recently signed Good Earth into the Elk & Avenue Hotel in Banff, which is to open in July. Another interesting assignment there was leasing the retail space for the Bison Courtyard on Bear Street.
Much of his time over the past couple of years was in working with Allied REIT on its Calgary properties. Recently he moved Hatley clothing store into the corner of Alberta Block — the new name for Fashion Central on Stephen Avenue at 1st Street S.W.
Today, his concentration is largely on East Village.
Fairfield is representing the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation to lease two cafe spaces in the new Central Library.
Fram + Slokker is another East Village client that has Kehoe
The retail real estate sector is thriving in Calgary, and Fairfield ... is enjoying a good share of the business.
busy leasing retail spaces in both its Verve Q1 and First residential towers. Verve has store and restaurant spaces from 650 to 3,550 square feet available for late fall 2018, and another 1,800 square feet is available on Riverfront Avenue S.E., across from the Simmons Building.
The retail real estate sector is thriving in Calgary, and Fairfield — which recently hired Judith Sinclair as a new associate — is enjoying a good share of the business.
NEWS AND NOTES
After 35 years as a radio program director, the past 21 with Rogers here and in Ontario, Gavin Tucker has joined Moore Suites as vice-president and general manager of its Calgary office. With offices in Toronto and Halifax, Moore Suites provides furnished accommodation. Tucker and his team have 40 suites available for rent in Calgary buildings. David Parker appears regularly in the Herald. Read his columns online at calgaryherald.com/ business. He can be reached at 403-830-4622 or by email at info@davidparker.ca.