This content chronicles the remarkable entrepreneurial journey of Jonathan Weiner, highlighting his strategic acumen, integrity, and philanthropic spirit in building a vast real estate empire from humble beginnings.
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he said you can't buy the Royal trust
building on a credit card I had written
one building 65 million I'd signed it I
said could you please call for a authorization
authorization
and it was a gold Royal trust credit
card they sent me my bill yesterday
and I paid it and I brought it up to date
date
that means I won't get another bill for
30 days
that's worth one percent one percent is
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars
and I said and by the way I don't know
whether you know it or not but on a gold
Royal Trust Credit Card you get a one
percent discount
so as long as I have like known about
like the real estate business and you
and I have always been fast in the real
estate business there's this one company
that always comes up
and I actually didn't know the story
behind candrell until you started
talking about Jonathan weiner that's
amazing and you you brought him up to me
for years and years you've been talking
with this guy Jonathan Jonathan and I
actually knew nothing about him and so
as we began to think about big shot and
who he wanted I started to do a little
bit of some research on this guy to
figure out okay is this guy as amazing
as Dave thinks this is the stats it's
unbelievable so this guy in the 1970s
started with a 10 000 load ten thousand
dollar loan yeah and he's rolled this
into let me get the numbers here
um many many billions sorry so a ten
thousand dollar loan in in 1975 he
borrowed ten thousand dollars on a 19
000 salary and he was able to make this
purchase he ended up making fifty
thousand dollars profit on that first
right he brought it uh Concordia
building and turned it into a restaurant
exactly Concordia for those I don't know
it's it's a university here in Montreal
so he bought a little building right by
Concordia and then he used that money to
start kandarel the profit he made he was
25 years old today they have 60 million
million square feet of owned managed
developed properties and they've done 15
billion with a B dollars of Acquisitions
and developments I mean this guy has
built the entire landscape of Canada
amazing the tallest Residential Building
in in Toronto he's also now the
chancellor of a university huge in the
community now it's not just that he's
like this incredible entrepreneur and a
credible Builder one of the things that
when we started talking to some people
and asking them tell us about Jonathan
the way that he operates is really smart
he's so strategic so if he wants to work
with someone for example even if they
say no he always finds a way to bring
them in and make it worthwhile for them
he leaves enough on the table so they
can benefit and instead of just
convincing them he kind of shows them
and eventually in his own Jonathan way
he gets exactly what he wants and that's
his book right no is maybe on the road
to yes that's what his book's called I'm peace
peace
I love that I mean like it's it's so
perfect for a Big Show totally so this
story is incredible because one most
people have an earth if you don't
understand real estate you may not have
heard Kendra but what you will start
seeing now that you've heard the name
you will start using candle signs
everywhere I mean these guys built
Canada and they're done in a way that's
you know
so we reach out to says he is such a
huge heart they called him the Jewish
Santa Claus I love that but again he
started with a 10 000 loan and has built
a 15 billion dollar real estate Empire
and he did with heart and integrity I I
cannot wait it's gonna be a great
episode and he I think he exemplifies
this concept of big shot and big
audacious goals Jonathan weiner Jonathan
leader let's go let's go [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause]
John thank you for having us thank you cheers
I'll kick us off here
you weren't always such a big shot
I was never a big shot
well we we you know we make we may
disagree on that but yeah but David's
right yeah tell us take us back to the
beginning I mean we all know the famous
story of the ten thousand dollar
starting point of candle but we want to
go back before that at 16 I went to see
Maxwell Cummings
um that's Stephen Cummings grandfather
we know the coming Center yeah and uh
uh he was married to Queenie weiner
which was my grandfather's sister and
they were building a large portfolio in
Calgary and I said listen
I'm 16 I'm going into University next
year and I want a job in management right
right
he said tell you what
go buy yourself a pair of heart tote
construction boots and a helmet and I'm
sending you out to Calgary and you'll
learn about management
and I learned to build from the ground
up you're like the form in there no it
by the end of the summer and they put
they put me through the ringer and I
wouldn't quit and I could go on for
hours on some of the stories that went
on in terms of
having to carry steel frame exit door
frames yeah up 30 stories and I wasn't
allowed to use the crane
um and most people would have quit the
party you love it I didn't love it no it
just said that nothing's going to break
my back right
end of the summer I became Clerk of the
works on the job and so I moved up quite
a peg I wasn't anymore on the
construction site it was in the office
the next year they hired me to act as a
general contractor for the same building
selling tenant Improvement packages to
the tenants
and I made a million dollars in the six
months in my second year first year of
University like 17 years old 17 years
old and you're selling them Insurance
effectively no no I was selling them
packages of of tenant improvements
and we were the general conference I was
running so you basically had a pro a
menu of things you could sell them and
you just out of it doors today this is 19
19
1968 right yeah wow okay so I fell in
love with the business I absolutely felt
was there an aspect of the business
scale uh the size of like I wasn't
talking you know suit for sixteen
dollars I was talking about million
dollar contracts
I was dealing with prominent business
people I was getting deals done
I was
just absolutely beyond happy okay in
terms of intellectual stimulation I said
this is it for me wow so I was lucky
and I consider the lucky people in life
the people who can have a passion for
what they're doing
not the people who just make money or or
the people who unfortunately never find
the things that they're passionate about
and just follow in a rut for the rest of
their lives that I consider my
greatest piece of luck yeah the rest
followed sure and you make your luck by
how hard you work and how you put
yourself into everything you do
but that gave me a real foundation for
the future let's go back a little bit to
when you decided you want to spend the
summer as management I mean it takes a
certain a certain level yeah to call and
say I'm going to be management now was
that something that that sort of is that
is that something you always sort of had
you always felt
um The Audacity the confidence to do to
take something well wait before you
answer that what is mean to you
Noah's may be on the road to yes which
is your your book's coming out yeah
yeah I believe
not taking no for an answer so figuring
it out I was probably a bit brashing a
little very naive at the time you're 16.
I mean okay right yeah who's not um
um
I knew that I was going into management
at Concordia which was Sir George at the time
time
I obviously wanted something that was
aligned to that
but if this was a route to get there and
he told me he said you you know hunker
down learn yep learn everything and I
the the amount I learned about
construction that summer
and I remember a cement truck driver
saying to me
you must be Jewish
I said why he said you asked so many questions
and I was asking about the different
Aggregates and how what's the difference
between this concrete and that concrete
I was learning I was learning a sponge
and I've always been a sponge for
learning from people and or experiences
so that's now you're in the office
you're selling what happens next
so what happened next is they asked me
to quit school and come back
to Calgary yeah and there's a lot of
interesting little anecdotes within that
because what happened was I wasn't
making enough money for my expenses and
I was putting myself through school my
parents did not put me through school
well in fact they made it worse they
charged me red
um they charge you rent to live at home
yeah and why is that yeah I only found
out later it was before saving they gave
it back to me when I got married but
didn't know at the time no and so they
were trying to create Independence
presumably yeah yeah they just they
wanted to instill the value to stay I
save it yeah yeah they were hard driving
they really did and sometimes I felt like
like
it was too much right like maybe I
should be able to cool my Jets or my
engines a bit and I but I was so hard
driven in so many ways
it was always there and I am a
passionate guy I love what I do whether
it's philanthropy or it's Community or it's
it's
uh business um
um
and so the engagement's always intense
right and I don't mean intense in the
dealings intense to get it done to get
to the Finish Line right
um and then you get to Concordia
which is it you describe as a part of
you and you meet your wife on the first day
day
her father
her father said you're only going to
University to get married and she said
no I'm not and she met me in the first
hour where where'd you meet her how did
that happen
so I was very active at Sir George I was
the first student member of the Board of
Governors I was chairman of clubs
chairman of a blood drive skiing and all
kinds of other activities
in my fourth year I was involved with
freshman orientation
there I was wearing a three-piece suit
and this young lady comes with no shoes
on no shoes no shoes
she walked from her home in Saint
Laurent no shoes to downtown wow
middle of her back and stunning and I
gravitated to her table and managed to
talk to her well you're in a three-piece
suit she's yeah we're not wearing shoes
I mean anyway she goes to her friend
Linda who's still a good friend of ours
and says that's that's the kind of guy I want
want
and she played hard to get for a few
weeks a few months
and finally we had a date I was
president of the Student Union in that
last year I had renovated that student
union and I was the emcee for past the
Hat wait what do you mean you renovated
the Student Union okay so a group of us
bought the Student Union which is where
vilnov had his bar yeah yeah
um so a group of like you you were a
student you bought the building yeah how
old were you 20. this is privately or or
through the school through the school
through the school
um and my summer job that year I told
you I took a year off from Cummings that
year I renovated it
and it's actually in itself quite a
story because
I kept going for a building permit and a
set of plans and
the first time
these are all part of the nose Maybe um
um
first set of plans the building permit
department said you need to make these
this and this and this change and I said
okay so it's back made the changes came
back made application for the permit
didn't get it
this happened three times
I finally
I'm only 20 but I'm realizing that I'm
being held up and I'm an institution and
right this isn't right
so I go back to the Student Association
floor on the fourth floor at uh Sir
George and I said I'm calling the mayor
oh yeah who are you you're gonna call
I'm calling the mayor
so I pick up the phone I call the
mayor's office [Laughter]
[Laughter]
and the woman says I'm sorry the mayor's
busy I said well I kind of knew that
that's what you were going to say but
just let me interject a few words here
and then we'll see where this
conversation goes I said my name's
Jonathan weiner I'm president of the
Student Union
I don't know whether you realize it or
not but the mayor's running for
re-election in October
and this is the first time that students
will have the right to vote at 18 years
of age they are going to be furious when
they find out that City Hall has been
holding up the Student Union from being
able to renovate and be open in
September that got our attention just a
moment please mayor's not busy all of a sudden
sudden
Mary gets on the phone he said uh
tell me the story Mr winner I tell him
the story he said you come here at nine
o'clock tomorrow morning you'll pick up
your permit wow and he made the guy hand
it to me he was so red-faced wow
klutzpah yeah totally no it's not a
matter of hutzpah it's a matter of right
and wrong and my attitude is
you have an obligation to execute right
yes but the part of it is the fact that
you decided to call the mayor directly I
mean whereas most people would never
even think to do that they'd be like
well I guess that's the way it's done
yeah I guess we have to wait in line I
mean you're 20 years old but I also
because of the ethos that I was given by
my grandfather
payoffs we're just not in the vocabulary
what was the actual ethos what was the
thing that just highly a high level of
Integrity in dealings I've left millions
of dollars on the table for integrity
can you give me an example that well I
have two situations one is where a large tenant
tenant
uh invited me we were working on their
renewal and he invited me into his uh
premises on a Friday
uh uh at noon time
and he said to me and I think at the
time I was 29 years old
he said to me um
you know my daughter's getting married
very soon I said congratulations I said
I have two daughters myself
he says you know weddings are very
expensive I said oh yes I'm starting to
save now
and four years old but I I understand
that weddings can be very expensive and
he goes on and on and on like this and I
said to him look
and this is an open Office landscape
environment but there is nobody else in
there except me and him and he says to me
do you not understand what I'm saying I
said I understand completely what you're
saying but if you're telling me that the
renewal of your space depends on me
helping you with your daughter's wedding
we're not doing business wow and this
was at the time
about a 10 million dollar lease wow okay
and 75 and that's 79 and you own this
building I was a part owner yeah
not a major owner right but still yeah
and I lost the deal wow
and I told my guys my bosses I said you
know if you want to overrule me that's
fine but I will not do it and just to be
clear it's a 10 million dollar lease but
he probably didn't need much he probably
needed 25 000 bucks right something like
that right and you still said no I don't
do it you don't do it I don't do it I've
never done it I never have to look over
my shoulder so I mean we gotta go back
to the start of Real Estate where this
famous story where you you I believe you
start first you leave Concordia and you
get a job right with Eugene reason the
council I got
was you know enough about construction
go into leasing because that's where the
money's made it's not the execution is
in construction the value is created in
leasing so I went into leasing I worked
in pvm and then I moved over to a
building called 2020 University
which was a joint venture with first
Quebec Corporation and trizek
I did the leasing there I gained my
first 20 pounds in real estate uh doing
the first fast food fair in the basement
of 2020.
um trying out all the different foods to
make sure we have the right package Etc
and get it done interestingly so many of
the buildings I had connections to I
ultimately bought because I ended up
buying 2020 University 30 years later I
must feel good yeah um
um
anyway I I put together a fairly large
deal a hundred thousand foot deal and
trizek said too small for us we don't
want to do it I said you're too big for
me I need to go
and first Quebec was Gene reeseman and
Ralph Berman at the time a very small office
office
they made me a vice president at uh
23 years old incredible
um and uh riesman who's still alive and
who I've looked upon as a father figure
he's a real Renaissance Man a very
lovely individual
but not a great businessman
um strategic but not business executional
executional
and that was a great asset because it
was a void that I could fill and he let
me go
and so one deal after another after another
another
when I started out with him and we'll
roll back to 1975. but
but
I told him I said I'm not really
interested in salary I'm interested in
equity I want to build wealth was that
always how you thought about it yeah
with jobs yeah um
um
everything I did along the way was to
get to that point yeah
um and so
uh recently said you know you can
participate I'm happy to have you
participate in the deals but you're
gonna have to write your own checks
reesman's father
used to call me on Fridays to find out
what his son was up to and was he doing
the right thing or the wrong thing um
um so
so
roll back to 75 because in 1975
I needed Equity to go into a couple of deals
deals um
um
and I had
a pregnant wife right
was the birth of my first child so
we had that we had an apartment on Nuns
Island we were looking at a house
um uh recently was giving me an
interest-free mortgage to buy a house so
that that would really get me going
and I realized I better put together
some money lo and behold
now Concordia not Sir George calls me
the treasurer of the university and says
John Nobody Knows the Student Union
building better than you you know every
screwed nut and bolt in the place
we've outgrown it we want to sell it
would you like to buy it so I said sure
I negotiate with him
but you said sure you had to have no
money yeah I had five thousand five
thousand yeah sorry I had five thousand
dollars it almost rounds to zero but yes
yeah yeah five thousand dollars in those
days was not so bad sure it's true it's
funny because when you research the
story it actually rounds up to 10.
no but then I had to go see gitromblay
at the bank nationale
um it was then the BC and Ben Canadian national
national
and I figured he was one of my true
heroes because earning I think thirteen
thousand dollars at the time I said to
him I need to borrow 10 from the bank
did you laugh at you
laugh at you and he said well how are
you going to repay it Etc and I showed
him and and I said look I'm gonna be
worth a lot more money but you need to
take a chance on me and so I figured
what credibility did you have with him
uh he showed him my plan and my my life
plan and whatnot right but you had never
done a deal before I'd never done a deal
before for my own account yeah so I
figure he was my real so how did you
know him I mean you must have gone to a
bunch of other banks that that they were
a tenant in one of our buildings
obviously he was the bank manager and I
had a relationship with him anyway so he
lent me the 10.
and I made my offer and I executed on
the offer and
a good friend of yours a father uh Jerry
Shiner who's a notary
introduced me to a fellow by the name of
Maurice barrero who was a Moroccan
restaurateur okay
and was interested in a location in
Montreal and I met him and we sat down
and we worked it through and negotiated
and I started to organize my financing
for the takeout
and two weeks before closing Mr barrero
came to me and he said look John
he said I know we negotiated a lease
I'll live up to it but I really don't
want to be a tenant of like to own the
real estate he had bought some of the
Timmins the old Timmins properties up in Westmount
Westmount
and had renovated and done very well
with them so he said I I like the
location I'll give you a fifty thousand
dollar profit
uh would you be interested in the deal I
said well so this was a fifty thousand
dollar property to sell the building
right away yeah yeah it's closing at
closing finished no lease with a
restaurant to her yeah yeah wow
that 50 000 we did close
and that 50 000 became the startup
capital for Canada but wait at this
point you're thinking you're raising
money to put in equity into Eugene
Richmond steals right but I was going to
do it through a vehicle my vehicle
became candy rail wow so candaril
started out
joint venturing with reeseman in one two
five ten fifteen twenty Thirty
eventually 49 percent positions wow in
the deals
and so
actually a bit of the past my next deal
which was much bigger with Leo colber
um and a number of other investors which
was 57.57 Cavendish in code St Luke
which a year later was supposed to be
the continuation of jean-taloupe and the
continuation of calvinist Drew to Saint Laurent
Laurent
it is now uh
47 years later it still doesn't happen
that's right yeah um
um
but I needed to borrow
a large sum of money and guarantee it at
the bank
I did not have enough net worth
statement to do it
and it humbled me tremendously but I had
no choice because I had no family to go to
to
so I went to see Maxwell Cummings
and I said the original boss when you
were 16 years old right and I said to him
him um
um
could I get you to be a guarantor for my financing
financing
because I can't I don't have the
underlying value to do it
and he said are you prepared to assign
your shares in your company etc etc I
said yeah he said how long will it be I
said not more than a year
and he did and TD Bank became the banker
he insisted on TD Bank
and uh uh I got the deal done and I came
back to him I refinanced it and gave him
back his note in six months he said six
months you got a whole year
I said well here's what I did and I did
a couple of other deals that have made
it happen and so that became I never had
to do that again where did you hit the
first one that didn't work
to tell you if I worked no we've had two
or three yeah that didn't work but they
happened in the 90s and was it was it
was there a Common Thread of the ones
that did not work no they were all
different different things that I
learned for example The Forum yeah
Montreal Forum we did
we brought in a partner that was
supposed to know what they were doing um
um
assignment property Grew From the states
David Simon and the unfortunate thing
that you learn with many Americans is
they are arrogant as hell
and that you Canadians who don't know
anything just move over and let us in
right and this is your backyard I mean
we're blocks away from it so they didn't
listen and they pulled a number of moves
that we recommended against but we
weren't a major partner
and uh
uh that project was 60 million bucks 60
million you know so what did I learn
from that yeah entertainment real estate
is out why
we're in the business of financing other
people's Covenants
in the buildings we build right in
entertainment real estate they're using
the developers balance sheet to finance
their leases and so what do you mean by
that go a little deeper on that for
people because you were putting so much
money into their business yeah in tis
and improvements okay and tenant
allowance right it's when you give but
hundred dollars a foot or a hundred and
fifty dollars to make it look nice yeah
yeah so so that basically they weren't
taking money out of their pocket right
sure yeah and I became chairman of
credit at Laurentian Bank and I learned
a lot of lessons on the way through about
about
you know
the credit and the quality of of the
user because it's not the developer in
the end it's the quality of all those
pieces yeah can you talk about how you
build such great relationships
particularly when you're at a young age
like 23 years old and you're asking for
a lot of money from these people how did
that happen like what was sort of the
I think underlying whatever you do to
build trust you have to have competence
and we had proven confidence and there's
the old expression you're only as good
as your last deal but as long as you
have a good track record to point to and
when you look at the fact that we've
built over 8 billion and maybe along the
way lost 60 or 80 million dollars in
real estate that's not too bad no no
um I will say there were a couple of
deals that we didn't make as much as we
thought we would because circumstances changed
changed um
um
but you bring up a good point because to me
me
the ability to cross the same Bridge
multiple times was more valuable than
how much money we pulled out in any one
deal can you explain that a bit yeah
um for example when I built my business
um and I'll give you a just a brief
interlude because it'll transition to
the next piece
in 1979 I was so blown away by what had
gone on here in Quebec that I had been
called I was 29 years old
I've been called by all kinds of
companies to come bceo do all kinds of things
things
and I'd always said no I'm very happy
I'm making good money and at the time I
by by 79 I had made a million dollars
okay and that was very much in my goal
before I was 30 that I had made a
million bucks um
um
but I forgot something
and I only remembered later and reeseman
reminded me
that I also had said that I wanted to
have my own business by the time I was
put away way back and very deep
so in at 29 I said to Richmond I said I
love you like a father
but I'm dying here because I grew like this
this
and I'm growing like this right now I
need out of Quebec
and so I actually went through what
looked like a heart attack
in Florida in Florida
um I started the morning starting to
feel a lot like a parochial congestion
and I was lying in my bed at uh
10 o'clock at night talking to my wife
I felt like a horse was sitting on my chest
chest
and she screamed at me get an ambulance
and go to the hospital so I went to the
hospital and they checked me for a heart
attack and they said it's not a heart
attack you're having an anxiety attack
you must know what's causing it deal
with it or it will be a heart attack wow
and I went home and resigned it wow that
same day the next day right
and I wrote him a note and I said when
you've had a chance to read this because
I was really emotional about it um
let me come and talk to you so
I talked to him and then I opened up and
I started getting flown to California and
and
bellsberg in Vancouver billsburg was a
wonderful story because he flew me out
offered me president of first city developments
developments
uh 10 of the action bottom line uh 400
000 salary and I think I was pulling at
the time maybe a hundred and on and on
he takes me home to have dinner with his wife
wife
drives me back to the hotel and says I
withdraw my offer
I said why
he says I don't think you want to work
for anybody wow
wow
what'd you say I said I think you're
right I went home and opened the door
amazing what was it what was it about
that dinner that that that he figured it
out well he was just very incisive he
was very incisive and he said I really
feel like you're a guy that wants to do
your own thing and he knew you were a
[ __ ] he he knew where I was going and I
I developed quite a relationship with
him following that anyway long story short
short
um I had been working on a deal with
ayata for a building on Peel Street
and I had acted as a consultant to
Richmond to keep it going because the
firm wasn't doing anything with it
and finally I said to reason I said your
whole company nobody's filling in for me
having left and I'm not coming back
he said well why don't we do it as partners
partners
and so we did a 50 50 deal we only had
50 000 deposit out on the land
and uh so we kept going forward and I
kept moving and
working on financing and getting things
organized long story short
he had a little bit of financial trouble
and he said well why don't you buy me a
so I said you know what Gene I said
let's go to zitter sibling's office yep
we'll sit with herb simpler who's that
that's the accounting firm yep they were
bought by Ian why okay eventually
and I said let's sit down and and um
um
discuss price because I don't want to
take advantage
and I said so Gene what do you want
he said I want a million dollars for a
half interest on a fifty thousand dollar
deposit sounds rich
I said Gene
I tell you what I'm going to give you a
million one
and he looked at me and he said why I
said because I don't want you to ever be
able to say that I didn't give you more
than you asked for wow
and I did it herb said one said to me
John are you out of your mother yeah I
knew exactly what I was doing
I was tired of having been through the business
business
joint venturing with other developers
and when you're drug venturing with
other developers there are many ways to
do things so you're arguing Style
in a partnership when that's not
complementary it's not complimentary
it's competing what's complementary was
for me to be able to bring Financial
money institutions to the table so they
had the money I had the know-how put
that together and be able to go do many
deals yeah the Venn diagram overlap is
too much you both have the same skill
set if you bring money if they bring
money and you bring the skill set you
actually form the best partnership
unless you're remarkable I mean million
one it's probably worth what 50 000 or
100 even if you're you're giving them a
premium I mean right so
what ended up happening
and it goes back to a question you asked
me earlier is I did a deal with North
American Life
who put up the million one to buy recent
so I didn't put out the money
I got the full development fee which I
didn't have to split with him and I
developed a relationship with North
American Life which Built My Career
because I did multiple deals with them
so many that have got to a point where
and I love the relationship so much
that I had befriended the financial uh
uh the CFO of the company
and I told him what I had in mind that
maybe I should sell 50 of the interest
in the company to North American and we
just keep going forward
Ori fidani built up a huge uh portfolio
with North American life so there was
the example and he said to me John don't
do it I said why he said you're going to
outgrow us before we outgrow you
you're going to have more deals than we
can service
diversify your relationships and so what
ended up happening
which goes back to your earlier question
I did half a dozen deals with North
American life I did half a dozen deals
with Great West Life I did 10 deals with
Aetna and they became my partners and
they all had different
kinds of deals that fit their mold and
so I say you know if this deal came
along I said well this one belongs to
Aetna and This one belongs to North
American life because it fits their mold
and there was no resentment and lawyers
were you know amazed they could send me
a bill for 1200 instead of 12 000 or 125
000 because it was the same document so
that in itself is absolutely amazing the
other thing that I find absolutely
amazing as we walked in here you showed
us uh what we call in my world a deal
Tombstone which is after a deal is done
everyone gets something to commemorate
it and the thing you showed me was this
three-dimensional chess yeah talk to us
about that well actually I want I have a
really interesting story that I want to
tie to this if I may so
um we did some research on this sort of
thing and I've been thinking about when
you said three-dimensional chess I think
a couple things clicked for me
um one of the people that I spoke to in
in anticipation of this interview was
Steve Kaplan from Reliance construction
and and I said Steve tell me some
stories of Jonathan and what's what what
like how do you explain Jonathan his
success his audacity
um and and how he built this incredible
company they said well the thing but
Jonathan is this he's like you know a
couple years ago Jonathan wanted me to
come and work on a deal in Toronto with
him and I didn't want to go to Toronto
this is Steve talking I didn't want to
Toronto and you know Jonathan kept
asking me and I said I don't want to go
to Toronto it's not my thing so Jonathan
said fine do me a favor just come for
the kind of the you know the dog and
pony show like we want to talk to some
bankers help me come and talk to the
bankers about it and so I go and
Jonathan I sell these bankers and they
were so impressed and Jonathan called me
and said great news we got the deal
we're gonna do this there's only one
issue they'll only do it if you do it
with me and then he said how could I say
no and he said I knew that entire time
it was always about Jonathan getting me
into the deal
that to me is three-dimensional chess
you knew exactly what you were doing you
saw all the different pieces of it and I
I just think that is there was another
piece to it though tell me yeah
and Steve will tell you today he's very
grateful for me having dragged him to
Toronto I mean we know that that it does
well no isn't that the Aurora building
that's the biggest residential Tower but
he he needed to come to Toronto so he
was not so reliant on Montreal
I have done billions of dollars with
Steve and since Sam aberman died from divco
divco
because I used to switch deals between
the two of them I had the same handshake
relationship with both of them
um and and and really literally a handshake
handshake
um but Steve had all his eggs in
Montreal and a bit in Ottawa and I said
Steve that market is crying for you
you have such an opportunity in there to
be one of the large contractors there
we're getting out of general contracting
our own deals I'm prepared to give you
my staff
um because we don't want to carry them
anymore in between projects because we
got smashed with two million dollar
carry of all the key staff well the
project got delayed in 2008 because of
the debacle um
um
and I knew Steve would fly but why did
you want I mean that's not your business
it's someone else's business because Steve
Steve
and I have a trusted relationship that
goes back 30 years
if I wanted to do most of my business in
Toronto don't you want to have your own
General Contractors there by your side yeah
yeah
and Steve has never screwed me
he is he runs his business the way I run
mine that's why we get along so well
um there's huge mutual respect up and
down the entire organization um
um
I can tell you a story about Steve that
we had a project where Steve I brought
Steve in as a design build contractor
for Bill Canada on Nuns Island
we had to pull that project together
which was a quarter of a billion
we had 17 months to do it and we had to
pull together the provincial government
the federal government the port
authority and the City of Montreal
get everybody sitting at the same table
with 30 million dollars worth of Highway infrastructure
