The Critical Lane

I’m thrilled to have Matthew Young, President and CEO at Republic Developments, as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here are a few items we discussed: 1. High rise: Republic developments’ focus is high rise and one of their key projects is for the development of 7,600 units in Scarborough. 2. Innovative Culture: Fostering an innovative culture within an organization is essential for stayi...

In this week's podcast episode, I’m delighted to have Sandy Shindleman, President of the Shindico Group, a leading real estate company in Winnipeg, as our special guest. Sandy discusses the three R's of real estate, giving back, and investing for the long term. Sandy emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships in the real estate industry, highlighting how they contribute to success...

I’m very thrilled to have Jean-Pierre Poulin, Founder and CEO at Devcore as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here’s an excerpt from JP during our conversation, “How cold should it be for people not to sleep outside with electricity and water… we’re in Canada, this is totally unacceptable. And everybody right now are shoveling this into somebody else backyard… it’s the federal government t...

“Productivity growth in the long term, in any economy, is how you get stable inflation growth and improvements in real living standards and improvements in long term income and improvements in per capita GDP… it gets very little attention but it’s probably the most important economic number out there. And in Canada it has been shrinking…” said Dylan when talking about productivity being the most i...

I’m super excited to have Bob Knakal as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here is what Bob said when I asked him about what’s new and noteworthy about his career, “Hopefully if God blesses me with good health, I can keep doing this for another 20 or 25 years… It’s the greatest business in the World… Do the right things, work hard. The great thing about real estate is that it’s probably the...

I’m very thrilled to have Jeff Moffatt, President at SpaceWerx as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here’s a quote from Jeff during our conversation, “Nothing great can get done by these micro interest groups coming up with opposition, that makes absolutely no sense. When you look at the city of Ottawa, with so much potential, there’s a all bunch of projects that are in the planning stages...

I’m very thrilled to have Brad Bradford, the Councillor for Ward 19 Beaches East York in Toronto as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here’s an excerpt from Brad during our conversation when discussing extremely restrictive zoning and policies. “…let’s be clear, all that was done very deliberately. And that was done because of the powers and forces and politics of the day that set those re...

I’m very thrilled to have Kevin Leon, President and CEO at Crestpoint Real Estate Investments as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here’s an excerpt from Kevin during our conversation, “When you go to refinance a building… sometimes you can’t count on the lenders to either take out your entire financing, meaning refinancing upward, and in some cases now what you’re in the office market esp...

I’m very thrilled to have Hugh Gorman, CEO at Colonnade Bridgeport, as our special guest on this week’s podcast. Here’s an excerpt from Hugh during our conversation, “Historically we’ve overbuilt, we go through these boom bust cycles were we overbuild… It doesn’t matter what type of development… it’s a long lead time… by the time you’re through land acquisition to entitlement to design to construc...

I’m very thrilled to have Mike Bonneveld, President at Skyline Industrial REIT, as our special guest on this week’s podcast episode. Here’s one of my favourite quotes from Mike in our discussion of industrial assets types on the podcast, “You’re seeing groups like Amazon… Walmart and Sobeys with these large… scale robotic pick and pack facilities, which is changing the dynamic of who the employee...

I’m very thrilled to have Jaime Mckenna, Managing Director and Group Head Real Estate at Fengate Asset Management, as our special guest on this week’s podcast episode. Here’s one of my favourite quotes from Jaime in discussing the different aspects impacting the supply of housing, “If we woke up tomorrow and we all said ok great, we can now pencil all the development we wanna build, whether it’s c...

I’m very thrilled to have Adrian Rocca, CEO at Fitzrovia, as our special guest on this week’s podcast episode. Here’s one of my favourite quotes from Adrian on the podcast when talking about the impact of delays in the development approval process, “Delays kill deals… it’s an equity drag, it reduces your returns, it impacts your ability to fundraise, it impacts your ability to give… investors, ins...

I'm very thrilled to have Rob Kumer, CEO of KingSett as our special guest on this week's podcast episode. Rob takes us behind the scene of KingSett's decarbonizing of the Royal York Hotel, revealing a story of transformation and forward-thinking. Rob also shares his leadership philosophy of leading from behind as new CEO of KingSett. And what could be achieved regarding the current hou...

I'm very thrilled to have Ugo Bizzarri, CEO at Hazelview Investments as our special guest for this week’s podcast episode. In the podcast, Ugo talks about how investing for the long term has been key for Hazelview. We also discuss Hazelview’s development pipeline of over 21,000 housing units and what it’s going to take to completely build these units. Ugo also mentions how technology can be us...

I'm very thrilled to have Wenzel Hoberg, Global Head of Real Estate at Fiera Real Estate as our special guest for this week’s podcast episode. In the podcast, Wenzel talks about a recent Fiera white paper that highlights how Canada has showed stronger performance metrics compared to other G7 countries for real estate investments in the last 15 years. We also discuss the difference in the real esta...

“What the City of Ottawa did and a number of other cities, was to institute this three phased pre-consultation. There’s no justification in the law. But what it’s done is, it has pushed the timelines for consideration of re-zoning and site plans out so long, that I literally have in my office, files representing thousands of units that are delayed because of the city." - Michael Polowin during our...

I'm super thrilled to have Jason Castellan, CEO and Co-Founder at Skyline Group of Companies as our special guest for this week’s podcast episode. In the podcast, Jason talks about the government wanting pension funds to invest more capital in real estate within Canada. We also discuss the 1031 exchange in the United States and how this approach could be used in Canada to increase the supply of ho...

I am thrilled to have Ishbel Buchan, Executive Vice President at ACM Advisors, as our special guest on this week’s podcast episode. In the podcast, Ishbel briefly talks about Equitable Bank’s purchase of ACM Advisors, a transaction that closed mid December. We also discuss what borrowers can do to better manage interest rate risk in the current interest rate environment. Ishbel also mentions ACM a...

I am thrilled to have Erin O’Connor, General Manager at Thomas Cavanagh Construction, as our special guest on this week’s podcast. In the podcast, Erin talks about why it is challenging to have a standardized approval process for every site in the development of housing. We also discuss what the Municipal Government’s approach should be regarding requirements for tree canopies in Ottawa to help sp...

I am thrilled to have Roberto Campos, Partner at Figurr Architects Collective, as our special guest on this week’s podcast. In the podcast, Roberto talks about how some Not-for-Profit affordable housing buildings are of better quality than other types of housing. We also discuss Figurr Architect's design project for affordable housing with the Anglican Diocese in Ottawa. Roberto also mentions mana...

I am thrilled to have Miguel Tremblay, Partner at Fotenn Planning and Design as our special guest on this week’s podcast. In the podcast, Miguel talks about the current challenges in the housing development approval process. Miguel also mentions the provincial government’s decision to reduce the urban boundary and how this decision will impact the supply of housing. And we discuss what the new loc...

I am thrilled to have Scott Coates, Group Head, Mortgage Investments at KingSett Capital as our special guest on this week’s podcast. In the podcast, Scott talks about KingSett’s approach to appraisals in the current real estate environment. Scott also mentions the lag in cap rates. And we discuss the CMBs and what could be done to improve the Canada Mortgage Bond program. Click the link below to...

I’m thrilled to have Harley Gold, Managing Partner at Peakhill Capital as our special guest on this week’s podcast. In this week’s episode, Harley talks about the difference in lending between Canada and the United States. Harley also mentions lending in the current real estate environment. We also discuss the different metrics used by lenders to underwrite transactions and why the Debt Yield is t...

I'm thrilled to have Dan Pereira, President at Bassi Construction as our special guest on this week's podcast. In the podcast episode, we discuss what makes an office building suitable for adaptive repurposing to residential. Dan also talks about the biggest challenges encountered when converting office to multifamily. Having a competent and experienced team is critical to a successful ada...

I'm incredibly thrilled to have Dennis Mitchell, CEO and CIO at Starlight Capital as our special guest on this week's podcast. What does empirical data show regarding the real estate class? What does research indicate on companies that use ESG strategies? Dennis provides insight on these questions among other items. Dennis is a regular guest on BNN Bloomberg, and it was an honor to have a...