A 9-person group from the Associate Real Estate Council (AREC) visited Toronto this past weekend to meet with several companies and take property tours of various projects. AREC, Cornell University’s graduate real estate club, visits major cities each semester to network with real estate industry professionals and learn about new development projects.
The Toronto Trip kicked-off with a tour of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts corporate office campus in North York. Students were given a history presentation of the company, its famed hotels, its values, and then toured throughout the offices to see the inner-workings of one of the world’s most luxurious hospitality brands.
Later that afternoon, the group met with Rob Clark (Baker ’10) of Bentall Kennedy, one of North America’s largest real estate investment advisors with 1,400 employees and over 100 years of history. Clark manages real estate acquisitions for the Canadian market, and provided students with valuable career advice. The opening weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival provided an exciting backdrop to the trip with various film screenings, social events, and retail pop-ups spread out along the closed-off section of King Street West.
The next morning the group met with Michael Elliott, Founder and Managing Partner of Elliott Realty Advisors, a boutique real estate development advisory company based in Toronto. Elliott talked about his experience in development, gave career advice, and toured students through the Mars Discovery District, a multi-phase project focused on the life-sciences technology sector adjacent to the University of Toronto.
Next, the group toured Chaz Yorkville with Developer Jason Fane and Chief Engineer Gad Regensburger. Chaz is a 47-story luxury condominium tower on Charles Street in Yorkville, which sits at the intersection of the two main subway lines serving Toronto. As the population has grown in Toronto, housing demand led to a boom in condominium development starting about 15 years ago, and developers and builders have not let up. The site had formerly been an office building, but the City Council’s progressive zoning policies have allowed Yorkville and Downtown Toronto to develop new housing throughout the urban core as the population swells.
The final stop on the tour was the Daniels Corporation office for the Regent Park Revitalization, a neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment plan that started in 2005. Toronto Community Housing partnered with Daniels Corp to build new mixed-use housing projects and community facilities throughout a 69-acre area northeast of the downtown core.
AREC‘s next trip will be to the City of Philadelphia, and is planned for October 11th and 12th
