Client Success: How Daniels Builds Social Infrastructure Through Housing
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As one of the top builders of residential real estate, The Daniels Corporation considers its work a platform for progressive social change. David Casper talks with CEO Mitchell Cohen on how the company looks “beyond bricks and mortar” to create value within communities.
Listen to the interview:
Dave Casper:
I'm Dave Casper, Head of BMO's North American Commercial banking business. Joining me today is Mitchell Cohen, President of the Daniels Corporation, one of the top residential builders in Toronto.
Dave Casper:
Mitchell, really delighted you could join us. Just to give our audience a little bit of perspective, not everybody will know Daniels, so tell us a little bit about Daniels.
Mitchell Cohen:
Sure. So Daniels Corporation, we're a real estate development company that thinks of our business really more so as a platform for progressive social change than simply as a company that builds buildings. So we tend to talk about and think about beyond the bricks and mortar. In other words, what can we do as we build buildings, as we develop real estate to actually create value within communities, within the communities and neighborhoods that we're building. So that's the approach we've taken for 37 years. And in the last 15 years, we've been very actively involved in the revitalization of probably Toronto's most stigmatized inner city community. That's a neighborhood called Regent Park and in Regent Park, we've really taken all of that approach in terms of what our business is about and applied that approach in building a social infrastructure that...the goal of social infrastructure to be as strong as the bricks and mortar as the physical infrastructure.
Dave Casper:
Tell us a little bit specifically about how you are building these communities, whether it's Regent Park or the Golden Mile, and talk a little bit about the first home concept, because I think that would be very interesting to our listeners.
Mitchell Cohen:
Sure. Regent Park, as, as I just mentioned, it's a very stigmatized inner city community for decades, very rundown public housing. And the city of Toronto did a proposal call for development partners and we responded to it, but we responded to it in a very different way than the other developers who basically said we will buy density from the city and we'll build condos. And we said something very different, we said that we won't buy density. The way and the only way that this kind of revitalization can happen would be in partnership with you, the city of Toronto, but also with the residents of the neighborhood. So I think Dave, that's what this is all about. It's about listening to local voices. It's about understanding the issues on the ground, in a community, by spending time, by going out there, by being in community, by having a team of people that are there to listen and to learn. And from that, is how we develop a plan as to how we're going to move forward. Integrating community issues, desires, challenges into our overall development framework.
Mitchell Cohen:
So the way we're thinking about this is about community innovation. How do we do things differently? How do we bring all the stakeholders together, public sector, private sector, residents, not for profit sector, to think about what are the building blocks of this particular community, and every community is different. So the market in Toronto, greater Toronto area has been very, very strong for decades. And that means that there's a huge push, upward push, upward pressure on pricing. So the cost of ownership continues to go up and up and up, with very little affordable housing being built. So what we did, corporately, is we rolled up our sleeves with all of our different divisions. And we said, how do we bring down the cost of home ownership? What can we do on our own without government, without the kind of incentives that government might provide to create affordability, what can we do? And we came up with a whole menu of things that allowed us actually to bring down the cost of home ownership considerably. And we sort of put that under this umbrella that we call Daniels First Home.
Dave Casper:
Daniels is a really successful company. The condo market in Toronto is big and huge and growing. You need to make money, but you are also doing low income housing and you're doing things that others aren't doing and you're doing it in really challenged areas. So how does that really help grow your business? Connect the dots for us a little bit.
Mitchell Cohen:
Well, maybe one of the first dots to go back to is my own personal history, where I was a community development worker in a very low income neighborhood when I was just graduated from university. And the people in that low income neighborhood got eviction notices one day, and guess what?, they had 30 days to move out of the homes that they'd been in, affordable homes that they'd been in. And I'm a community worker, I was working for the YMCA at the time and 200 tenants come storming into my office to say, "Mitchell, what do we do? We have nowhere to go. There's no affordable housing." And that is what really opened my eyes and when I really understood that I have a responsibility and obligation to use whatever skills that I have and to try to make an impact, to help people in low income communities who are challenged, who are striving, who are hoping for a stability in their life.
Mitchell Cohen:
I was in the not for profit sector for many years when I was younger. I joined Daniels in 1984, 37 years ago. But my concept from minute one, very much supported by my partner, John Daniels, my financial partner, was if we ever have an opportunity as a private sector company to create affordable housing, we will. And we have been true to that since 1984, we built more affordable homes in Canada than any other company. And we want to continue to find new pathways to create affordability, not just through our First Home program, but also in partnership with government. And we do that in many different ways. It starts from, I guess, my personal history and just seeing the fear and the anxiety in people's eyes as to where are they going to go if they're getting kicked out of their home and they have to move in 30 days. It was that really sparked a very straight line to my career and the building of this company as a company that thinks differently, that thinks about social justice, that thinks about affordability.
Mitchell Cohen:
And yes, it's a balance between profitability. We need to be profitable. Otherwise, we won't be able to do what we do. We recognize we have to be profitable, but along the way, if we're able to make a positive impact through affordable housing, through inclusive, local economic development and opportunity, that will have an impact on our bottom line, long term, because we'll develop a brand that people recognize, that people understand what it is that we stand for and that, in the long time, will stand us in good stead in terms of the future of our company.
Dave Casper:
I'll tell you, it's, it's a great story. And it's a real, it's a privilege to be associated with Daniels. And particularly with you, you're very inspiring. I know our audience will, will very much enjoy this story and I can't thank you enough for sharing it.
Mitchell Cohen:
Thank you for inviting me, Dave.
As one of the top builders of residential real estate, The Daniels Corporation considers its work a platform for progressive social change. David Casper talks with CEO Mitchell Cohen on how the company looks “beyond bricks and mortar” to create value within communities.
Listen to the interview:
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