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Land in the Greater Toronto Area is growing more valuable by the month. Some of it is owned by experienced developers with plans for grand projects. However, many large intensification-ready sites are owned by landlords whose businesses have nothing to do with development or construction, and they do not have the knowledge required to manage complex development processes.
“We manage risk for our clients because development is hard,” says Randy Gladman, Senior Vice President of Development Advisory at Colliers Canada’s Strategy & Consulting group, experts in navigating the development process to ensure clients extract maximum value from their sites the same way that developers do. “The process is exhausting and highly stressful. It can be politically dangerous, painfully complicated, and financially treacherous. We lead the process through the project lifecycle and ensure our clients understand the process at every step. The greatest value we provide to clients is empowering them to receive the financial rewards of development without having to give up control of their land. With our help they can effectively act as developers.”
The Development Advisory team has 19 employees in Colliers’ offices located in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. Its pipeline of projects has a construction value exceeding $2 billion, and includes high-rise urban mixed-use towers, affordable housing communities, large-scale industrial warehouses, urban and suburban office buildings, and large-scale commercial land plays. Servicing both the public and private sectors, its clients include insurance companies, pension plans, private equity fund managers, corporations, family offices, and non-profits, universities and municipalities. Colliers Development Advisory does not seek equity interest in projects – clients maintain 100% control and keep all the profits Colliers efforts help generate.
“In the past, these types of landowners generally had little choice but to sell the land in part or whole to a developer,” says Gladman. “Now, they can hire us as their development advisor so that they can take on the risk required by some or all of the development process in order to improve the land value for themselves. We deliver all of the capability and capacity needed to extract that value. We bolt our Development Advisory team onto their business.”
Because the team is part of Colliers Canada, Development Advisory also offers a full suite of services including capital markets, debt advisory, brokerage, project management, property management, and evaluations. With its national reach of 40 Colliers offices across the country, Colliers Development Advisory brings a scale of capability and resources that no other third-party development advisor in Canada can offer. As Gladman points out, for landowners, it’s important to engage these services as early in the process as possible.
“We like to be engaged from the very outset, at the point in time when a landowner begins to realize there are opportunities to intensify the land to extract value,” he says. “As they seek to understand and quantify those opportunities, we can lead the development feasibility study. We can be engaged for the entire process or just parts. We often see situations where the client has hired an architect or land use planner but they are struggling to advance the project through complex municipal approval processes. In our ideal situation we handle all aspects, from delivering feasibility studies through to leading design, entitlement, construction, and rent commencement. We identify off-ramps at many points during the process during which we can help clients exit through transaction when desired. We pride ourselves in leading all our projects with an ‘owners’ mentality.”
It is clear from the services Colliers Development Advisory provides why many landowners turn to them to stickhandle the often-confusing development process. If the feasibility study shows there is a beneficial profit to be made available from intensification, Colliers procures the necessary design team consultants through a rigorous and transparent bidding process. They then lead the design process, manage engagement with external stakeholders including municipal politicians, resident associations and BIAs, and spearhead the entitlement process, whether that is Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment, Plan of Subdivision or Site Plan Approval and on through permitting.
A prime example of the value Colliers Development Advisory delivers for its clients, and in turn, for the community, is 625 Church Street, a downtown Toronto site located between Hayden Street and Charles Street East. Colliers has been leading development efforts for the landowner since initiation of the project in 2018.
“In Q1 2022, this project went before City of Toronto Council and our zoning by-law amendment was approved, permitting a 56-storey tower that will eventually deliver 617 residential units, including affordable housing apartments,” says Gladman. “This is not only a huge win for our client, but also for the city. In the middle of a once-in-a-century housing crisis, we all win when this many new homes will be built within a five-minute walk of three existing subway stations. We are very proud of this accomplishment.”
Land is a valuable asset, especially in a city as dense as Toronto. Colliers Development Advisory services can assist landowners in maximizing the value of their land, while helping the greater good as well.
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| Related Companies: | Bousfields, Colliers Strategy & Consulting, Entuitive, Figure3, LEA Consulting, Manulife Investment Management, Real Estate, RAW Design |
