Richard and Brad talk about some important traits of being a good leader. They discuss topics such as having optimism and compassion and their impact on employees.
Category: News
Richard Crenian | The Business Series | Showing Vulnerability | A Leadership Trait
Showing vulnerability in the workplace can create a culture of trust and is a leadership quality that demonstrates a human quality in management.
Richard Crenian | The Business Series | Importance of Hiring the Best of the Best
Your employees’ skills are what fuel the company’s engine.
Hiring the right employee positively transforms the efforts of the team as a whole. In this video, Richard Crenian and Brad Powe discuss the importance of hiring the best people available to you at the time. Don’t be easily enamoured by minimum-wage employees for that fact alone. This might lead you to hire somebody that doesn’t work out in the long-run, causing you to spend more to replace that employee than you would have spent hiring the right talent in the first place.
What do you think are the primary factors to consider when recruiting talent?
Richard Crenian | The Business Series | How to Layoff an Employee with Respect and Dignity
It isn’t easy to give an employee the pink slip. However, it doesn’t have to be fraught with embarrassment.
Richard Crenian and Brad Powe discuss the essentials of laying off an employee in a respectful manner. It all starts with open communication rather than aggressive confrontation. Approach the topic matter-of-factly, and explain that each employee has an important role to play in order to meet company objectives. If that isn’t enough to elicit that employee’s positive contributions, gently but firmly suggest that, perhaps, they might pursue another career opportunity more aligned with their passions.
Canadian Commercial Real Estate is a Solid Investment – Richard Crenian
The commercial real estate has for decades been viewed as an alternative asset by investors, but no more as evidenced by positive results in this regard. Especially in Canada, the commercial real estate has recently caught the attention of potential investors as a safe bet. Richard Crenian, the CEO of ReDev Properties, believes that it’s the right time to invest in Canadian commercial real estate. Learn more
Taco Bell becomes newest tenant for ReDev Properties at Imperial Square, Guelph
(Toronto, July 23, 2018) ReDev Properties Ltd. is pleased to announce the completion of a lease with Taco Bell at Imperial Square, located in Woodlawn Road West, Guelph, ON. This is a 2,000 square feet pad that was built for Taco Bell which includes a restaurant and a drive-through facility.
“This is an ideal location for a fast food restaurant in Guelph given how close it is to a very busy Cineplex, the only major multiplex facility in that part of the region,” said Richard Crenian, President and Founder of ReDev Properties. “We are delighted to have provided Taco Bell with a location ideally suited to their needs.”
Taco Bell Canada also announced their intention to become a 700-restaurant brand in Canada. Currently, Taco Bell Canada operates 170 Canadian restaurants in over seven provinces and is the leading Mexican-inspired quick service chain in the country. Richard Crenian, President and Founder of ReDev Properties said, “Imperial Square is well located with excellent potential for continued growth.” Imperial Square is fully leased, featuring a strong mix of prominent national tenants including Cineplex, A&W and Mandarin.
About ReDev Properties Founded in 2001 by Richard Crenian, ReDev Properties is a leading real estate investment management firm with an exceptional track record of successfully owning, developing, and managing over $2.5 Billion of real estate properties across Canada. ReDev focuses solely on commercial real estate, which enables the firm to deliver competitive investment performance, while ensuring alignment of interest with partners.
ReDev Properties announces the sale of Dixie Road Plaza, Mississauga
(Toronto, July 20, 2018) ReDev Properties is proud to announce the sale of Dixie Road Plaza, in the City of Mississauga. The building (86,547 square feet) is situated in the westerly part of the Greater Toronto Area. It is zoned for mixed-use with great accessibility via public transit.
“The area has a strong retail market and this property offers a diversified blend of retail, restaurant, and showroom use,” said Richard Crenian, Founder and President of ReDev Properties. “We believe this was the right time for ReDev to sell this property to ensure the best return for our investors.”
The complete press release is posted at https://www.redevgroup.com/redev-properties-announces-the-sale-of-dixie-road-plaza-mississauga
ReDev Properties welcomes Sherwin-Williams to Edmonton’s Kensington Commons
(Toronto, July 20, 2018) ReDev Properties has completed a lease agreement with paints giant, Sherwin-Williams, at Kensington Commons in Edmonton.
“This is an ideal partnership,” said Richard Crenian, Founder and President of ReDev Properties.
“Sherwin-Williams is moving into a site surrounded by mature developed neighbourhoods where residents are likely to be interested in renovating or improving their homes.” He added, “We are pleased we could accommodate Sherwin-Williams after both sides work diligently to find terms that worked.” Kensington Commons opened its doors to tenants in 2014 and features a strong mix of national and local tenants. Along with retail, there are financial services and personal and wellness centres located on a site that has direct access to 137 th Avenue and 127 th Street; both primary roadways servicing the north-eastern sector of the city
The complete press release is posted at https://www.redevgroup.com/redev-properties-welcomes-sherwin-williams-to-edmontons-kensington-commons
Richard Crenian Talks About Retail strategies to survive, and thrive, in 2018
As I’ve written earlier, covered malls are at risk unless they entice shoppers through their doors to spend money rather than shopping online. That means major retailers have to be willing to change their business models to survive. There is no holy grail waiting to be discovered but being innovative is a starting point. Don’t be surprised if we see more consolidation in the Amazon–Whole Foods mould.
For those of us involved in community plazas, it is paramount to focus on retailers and services that cannot be offered online and require walk-up traffic. Until recent years, that included banks as a key anchor tenant but that may be changing. As lease renewals come up, banks are now considering smaller premises or stand-alone pads as they become less about bank tellers and more about online services. It is likely the traditional 15-year tenancy agreement will be shortened as the banks try to figure out their future in each community landscape.
As the banks try to reposition themselves, we are seeing new companies emerge as principal players in local communities – the most notable has been those offering child care services. The key to success is becoming more than a single-service outlet. Instead, they are facilitating evening and weekend courses, such as English as a Second Language and cultural awareness nights.
These outlets are operating more like old-fashioned community centres. As a result, they increase foot traffic in the plaza, which in turn boosts potential sales opportunities for other outlets. Some say we will look back on 2018 as a year of slow-and-steady growth as we deal with interest rates inching higher.
For some tenants, this could be the best time to lock in a lease as it will provide cost certainty. For landlords, having plazas near to capacity, or full, is the best advertisement to attract new tenants.
This year will be great for those who pay attention to details and are prepared for the next upturn. What we are experiencing is a “New Normal” that remains cyclical, but with fewer extremes.
As always, the best measure of your decisions and hunches will be hindsight. On that, some things never change.
Building better communities – Richard Crenian
Higher density through high-rise living is changing skylines across many parts of the country and turning suburban areas into more exciting places to live and work for many Canadians.
One of biggest challenges for ReDev Properties is finding businesses and services that reflect the diversity and needs of the neighbourhood for our existing properties or in potential new developments. Therefore, a lot of time is spent studying the local area and understanding the emerging trends so we can best serve the residents.
This is very much a partnership involving municipalities, local businesses and ourselves. One of the main reasons we decided to move into the construction of neighbourhood plazas was to help shape the conversation on how best we can serve local communities.
Higher density = better services
While the pace of migration to the suburbs remains high, some areas presently find themselves below certain minimum transit service thresholds, making it difficult for people to move there because it has a poor public transit system.
Higher density is important because it draws in more services – when an infrastructure network is more dispersed, it is going to be more expensive to maintain. Building one structure takes time; creating a neighbourhood takes a lot longer.
The decisions made today may not take shape for another decade or even longer, so developers and planners are always in an anticipatory mode. They have to understand demographic trends to marry supply with demand.
Nodes and corridors are part of the strategy many of us are committed to seeing flourish because they offer a great opportunity for communities to grow organically. Nodes are higher-density areas where pedestrians, transit, residential, employment and essential services are all readily available. These locations are ideally suited to the expertise at ReDev Properties.
The corridors are the transportation routes that link the nodes and may be areas for greater development in the future. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, we have sought to integrate the unique aspects of each community, as much as possible, into our projects. For example, local libraries have become an important component in the reconfiguration of neighbourhood plazas. Canadians care deeply about the environment and expect to see a careful balance between development and greenfield sites.
We should all be striving to create dynamic areas that offer opportunities to live, work and shop for future generations. As many younger Canadians appear less interested in owning a car, neighbourhoods, to proliferate, will need to have readily available services and a viable transit system.
It was the emergence of this cultural change that prompted ReDev Properties to move into retail construction. We believe a new type of plaza, that will be more in tune with the diverse nature of our changing neighbourhoods, is starting to emerge.