December 15th, 2010
This week on Buzz Talk we feature the president of one of the most widely recognised developers in the city – Alan Menkes of Menkes Developments Ltd.
Menkes has been a stalwart of the GTA land development scene for 30 plus years and was a pioneer of the North York corridor enhancement.
We find out about what makes Menkes tick, the evolution of the company and some background information on the North York Yonge corridor.
And now on to the Buzz Talkin’.
BuzzBuzzHome: How did you get your start in the industry?
Alan Menkes: I had started in the securities business and worked in New York for a short time before deciding to come back to Toronto. Our business is a family business – my father started the company in 1956, I started with the company in 1976 and basically at that time there was an opportunity for me to really launch the condo division of our company.
BBH: What part of the city do you call home?
AM: I’m in the Avenue Road and St. Clair area, the central part of the city. I’ve been there for about 7 years. I grew up in North York and raised my children there but they grew up and flew the coup so I moved closer to downtown!
BBH: Menkes was a pioneer of the North York Yonge corridor – can you talk a little about the ideas behind the development?
AM: We had purchased a large tract of land in the north central part of Toronto in North York for about 1500 units and from there we built a 6 building project that was a phased project over a 6 year period and that was really the genesis of what we call ‘condo lifestyle living’.
BBH: What is ‘Condo Lifestyle Living’?
AM: So basically, the concept at that point in time was that people wanted to have health/fitness amenities but didn’t really want to join a club so, buying into a condo, they really got all of these facilities included in the purchase price.
BBH: Why is this lifestyle so attractive?
AM: Number one, it was a value proposition. Number two, it was a lifestyle that they never really had the opportunity to engage in before so that was an added benefit.
I think another part of it was that people wanted to feel that they were part of a community, in a building – it’s a significant little village so to speak.
So there was an interaction with people in terms of their common interests – it’s very interesting because when you think about what Facebook is all about, social networking – it’s been going on for a long time, it”s just been done in different ways.
BBH: How did the ‘condo lifestyle living’ theme evolve?
AM: We rolled that out from Scarborough to Mississauga, from Vaughan down to the city of Toronto, starting in the early ’80s and basically did that until the mid ’90s. So for the next 15 years we were basically running with the phased buildings program.
In the mid 90′s we came up with a new concept. We took that condo lifestyle theme and asked what can we do next to really make a difference.
We looked at lifestyle living and layered on the next level we came up with which was the whole retail/mixed-use program and we built a project at Yonge and Empress in North York, connected to the subway at the North York City Centre.
North York was building a downtown and this was going to be the central location for that. We built it for the whole retail/lifestyle centre. Loblaws were in the lower level directly connected to the subway – they had never done that before.
We had 2 level retail operations including a Milestones, Tower Records (which is now a Business Depot), spa and movie theatre, and we basically added the separate uses – we had 250,000 sq. ft. of lifestyle retail and overall 1 million sq. ft. of residential.
It was the first of the generation of the new taller buildings in the city so it gave us tremendous vistas that the market was really looking for. It created the next wave of interest that people were really enamoured with which was this whole ‘retail lifestyle’.
And that today is still the life centre of the area. In terms of pricing it still demands the highest prices in the area and is still considered the premier building in the area.
BBH: What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
AM: Besides looking at the buildings and feeling a sense of accomplishment after completing something and being proud of it, I’m proud of building a great company, a great brand, a reputation that we can hand-off to our next generation and all of our company employees and associates that are involved in the company.
We’re considered a leader and our focus is wanting to ensure that that legacy continues. We’re not only proud of the buildings we build, but the company we’ve built and the company that we keep.
BBH: Where does the need for ‘evolution’ come from?
AM: We try to build on the same theme and just continue to evolve that theme as we hear from our buyers and what they’re interested in – we do all of our own marketing and research so we’re always in touch with the market because it’s important that we get that feedback.
You know today, with the way the Internet is working, it’s almost immediate feedback – people put blogs up and what not and you really are a lot closer to the market than you were earlier!
BBH: You’ve remained based in the GTA, from the 416 to the 905 – why is that?
AM: For us we want to be able to drive no more than an hour to any of our properties. We want to be able to add our personal touch, and to really remain connected with the buying market as well as the construction market.
Because we’re builders of our own product we want to ensure that we’re up to date with all new engineering, technical and marketing issues etc. within that particular neighbourhood.
As you go from region to region there are different aspects of the market that turn people’s attention so by staying close to the market we feel that we can be more reactive and then of course plan ahead and be more proactive in building and planning new projects.
BBH: Four Seasons Residences – how did that come about? How does it fit in with the Menkes theme?
AM: We took our theme and went to the next level – the super luxury market. We looked at what that market was looking for and found that the ‘hotel-style living’ today was something that was wanting and in Toronto we weren’t able to achieve it before because 5 star hotels were un-economical to build because of their huge infrastructure costs and from a revenue model point of view they couldn’t make it work with the cost structure of actually building the building and providing the services.
However, with the add-on of the residential portion of the project, if the economies make it viable to build both the hotel and a condo and have the synergies of each other, it allows for the economic reality to come to pass.
The residential helps subsidise the hotel because of the additional density that’s allowed on the property and of course the residential gets all the benefits of the services of the hotel – the pool, exercise facilities, doorman etc. with Four Seasons staffing.
BBH: How important do you think that is?
AM: This was very important to our buyers – we recognised that Four Seasons is the premier identifiable brand in luxury living worldwide – it’s the largest luxury brand in the world, and because it’s a home-town company, people tend to have more of an affinity to the brand because of that. People can touch and feel it, understand it and know first hand how they operate.
The other hotels that are being built, whether it be Trump or Shangri-La, none of them have operated in the Toronto market like Four Seasons has, so people really understand the brand and the loyalty to that brand.
BBH: What does the future hold for Menkes?
AM: The future for us is to continue building on our ideas, doing more mixed-use projects, our plan is to always be an innovator not a follower – Innovate in a way that is practical from an economic standpoint and from a longevity standpoint – in other words, we’ll stand the test of time.
If you look at our buildings we built 30 years ago, they’re still the premier buildings, they’re ones that have stood the test of time. We’re very involved in design and want to ensure that that too stands the test of time.
We put a lot of time and effort in to ensuring that they work from a functional and design standpoint and will maintain it’s integrity and investment value because obviously one day people will want to move and they want to know that their resale value is one they can count on when they bring it to the market.
BBH: What do you do in your spare time to relax?
AM: I read a lot, I cycle for exercise, play golf. I spend a lot of time with my kids and grand-kids – I’m very family based.
We do a lot of community work. Our company is very supportive of all the community charities. We’re involved with the North York general hospital , UHN (University Health Network) and other arts and culture things.
We cover education, community and arts & culture and we try to spread ourselves across those 3 areas. We get our company involved, our family members involved, and some of our next generation family members are beginning to enter the business today so it’s important that we instill the same values from our family into our business and it crosses both lines
BBH: What do you see happening to the Toronto condo market in the next 10 years?
AM: I think it’s basically the same. With the intensification of the city and increase in population that will continue I think it will be an evolution of the same types of issues that we’ve seen over the last few years and we’ve built on.
I see more in terms of the next generation of buyers coming up, it’s going to be a continuation of satisfying those buyers by coming up with ideas that are going to be important to those people.
As I mentioned earlier about social networking – it’s been around forever and it’s all part of a socio-economic program where people want to live with other people that they have common interests with and can build a community together with so I think it will continue, and that’s the strength of the city – people want to live around other people.
Clearly that’s why they’re living in the city and that’s why they want to migrate back into the city core today because that’s where the population is, the services are, and the people are.
Many thanks to Alan for taking the time to talk to us. For information on Menkes‘ developments click here.
December 15, 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
