F or almost two decades, it was a black hole at the eastern entrance to Vancouver’s downtown: a hulking empty building surrounded by vacant storefronts and drug dealers. But now, the former Woodward’s department store – once the centre of gravity on a bustling commercial street – is coming back to life, as one of the most complex urban-rehabilitation projects in Canada nears completion. This fall, more than 1,000 people moved into market condos that are part of the $500-million project, including Joe Lousa and his wife, part of the crowd that bought the idea of living in a unique experiment aimed at creating a socially mixed microcosm of the city

A pple Inc. AAPL-Q is set to announce a new tablet device later this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, as anticipation builds about what could be the company’s biggest product launch since the iPhone.

C opper HG-FT soared to a new 16-month top Monday, building on gains of about 140 per cent last year, on improved demand prospects from upbeat U.S. data, a weaker dollar, supply threats in top producer Chile, and new investment money at the start of the year. Copper for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division rose 5.95 cents (U.S.), or 1.8 per cent, to close $3.4060 a pound, after dealing between $3.3465 and $3.4290, a new high dating back to early August, 2008

In an effort to get its advisers to focus on snagging more of their existing clients’ assets, along with new clients, Wells Fargo Advisors LLC has introduced a new rewards program in its deferred-compensation plan. Until Jan. 1, the firm’s 12,000 advisers were eligible for a bonus based on growth in revenue.

Here’s something that will surely unleash a wave of high-fives at Morgan Stanley: The firm beat out arch-rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last year to rank as Wall Street’s top dealmaker. Morgan Stanley bankers had a hand in arranging $586 billion worth of corporate mergers last year, research firm Mergermarket said Monday, nudging aside Goldman, which was involved in $549 billion worth of deals

If you can’t work in development of voice-over-Internet protocol, a career in retirement planning may be just the ticket for the coming decade, according to a study by industry and market research firm IBISWorld Inc. With an estimated cumulative revenue growth of about 134%, the retirement planning industry comes in second on IBISWorld’s list of winning industries for 2010 to 2019, right after VoIP. The alternative to traditional telephony, revenue from VoIP is expected to grow by nearly 150% over the next decade

Asset manager M&A activity fell 23% in 2009, to 179 transactions from 231 in 2008, although total assets under management of firms involved in transactions was up 179% to $4.682 trillion, spurred by large transactions such as BlackRock’s acquisition of BGI, according to a Freeman & Co. report. For 2010, deals involving firms in the $3 billion-to-$30 billion AUM range will rise but “large transformational asset management deals will diminish,” the report predicts.