Ashley Ross Interview with BuzzBuzz

You may have seen this last month in BuzzBuzzHomes, but I thought I would re-post it here and have it on the JTL site. Enjoy!

Buzz Talk with Ashley Ross [INTERVIEW]
BuzzBuzzHome Corp.
March 2nd, 2011

This week we spend some time with Ashley Ross, President of Urban Works Developments. His recent Richmond Town Manors project was wildly successful and among his current projects is the dynamic Junction Triangle Lofts.

We asked him about his take on Toronto's urban planning system, the best thing about working in The Annex, and his least favourite government regulation.

Enjoy!



BBH: How did you get your start in the industry?

Ashley Ross: I come from a real estate family so growing up I would hear about it around the dinner table and it turned out I just had a natural passion and understanding for it. I've now been in the industry for about 15 years and actually in development for about 10 years.

Before I became a developer I was in investment banking, specializing in the real estate industry. I did my MBA at Schulich – in their Real Estate program – and the natural fit was to go right into banking. I represented public real estate companies.

BBH: What is the main difference between what you do now and the work you did in the investment banking world?

AR: Well, I'll put it this way: The reason I switched was that I am more of a hands-on person; I wanted to get involved in the actual designing, planning and construction process and my present work is just naturally a better fit.

BBH: Junction Triangle Lofts is located in Toronto's Silverthorn neighbourhood. What about that neighbourhood made it right for your project?

AR: The site was actually a lumberyard called D and M Lumber and I used to shop there for a lot of my projects.

Once I heard that it was for sale I saw that it was a natural fit based on the wider gentrification of the neighbourhood. The old industrial aspect of the neighbourhood was slowly eliminated and then, after a time, there was both gentrification on the residential side and an effort to try to bring in commercial activity to the neighbourhood as well. So my idea of a work-loft space just mixed in very well with the rest of the neighbourhood.

BBH: What part of the GTA do you call home?

AR: [laughs] Surprisingly, that's actually a tough question to answer – I live in mid-town, and have over my whole live and am quite involved in my community. But I work out of The Annex and so obviously spend a lot of time around there and that's really more where I hang out – I enjoy going to Aroma [Aroma Espresso Bar] in particular.

BBH: What makes for a good day in your field of work?

AR: I like when a purchaser comes back and thanks me. The idea that they appreciate the attention to detail that I put into a project or into their home is obviously very satisfying.

BBH: On that point, do you ever get customers who come back to you with constructive criticism rather than just thanks?

AR: Yeah, I think everyone gets some of that. . . And some of the ideas put forward are pretty good and definitely I try to improve and move forward every time I take on a project. Every project is a learning experience that demands that you apply all that you've learned to that point.

BBH: What are some of the challenges of getting a business off the ground, and are any of these specific to the development industry?

AR: Well, actually I used to have a bunch of different companies all over the place and we thought that for branding purposes it was smart to go with one umbrella name – which is Urban Works Developments.

The amalgamation process is relatively smooth, I'm happy to say, but where challenges exist is actually getting into the industry.

One is the actual financing of it: Banks are very hard to convince when you're new in the business; they want to know all about your financial track-record, they want to see financial stats on past projects and see that those projects were in fact successful.

And I'd say the second main obstacle is the learning curve, especially in dealing with municipalities and learning how to work within the planning process efficiently and as quickly as possible.

BBH: Well, while we're on the topic of efficiency, what is one government regulation you would change?

AR: You know, I think it would be Section 37 of the Planning Act – part of which deals with the development charges that they've put on builders. You find often, especially downtown, that some projects are treated like a cash grab for the city. As long as you satisfy them with money they will almost let a developer build whatever they want. And that the end result is poor planning policy.

BBH: How do you feel about Toronto's planning policies in general?

AR: In general I support a lot of the policies, however the City Plannings ought to look at neighbourhoods individually rather than as a group because the city is divided into very specific areas with distinct cultures and you have to judge an area on its own merits rather than make blanket policies that cover the city as a whole.

In other words plans that make sense in Scarborough don't necessarily make any sense in, say, Etobicoke.

BBH: Toronto has an almost unparalleled number of new home developments - from condos to detached houses - so what kind of challenges have you found come along with competing in such a busy marketplace?

AR: Yeah, that's a great question. Last year I built Richmond Town Manors, which received a bunch of awards as the best low-rise project in Toronto and I think the reason it did was that it was a unique project. And we've already found that there are a lot of projects vying to imitate the Richmond Town Manors but, of course, they won't be unique in any way.

The challenge is being real and coming up with design qualities that no one else has both in interior and exterior elements.

Junction Triangle. What's here?

Spring is finally here. Things have been moving along at Junction Triangle Lofts, and I recently found this post from Eye Weekly that is quite informative on some of the other happenings in the local 'hood. Check it out here.

Come back mid week for a pretty great article on what is being done about graffiti in the city. If you recall, the old D&M Lumber building at 229 Wallace was briefly used as a billboard for the Junction Triangle naming process, and incorporated graffiti elements.

Winter Transit in the T-Dot

This is an interior shot of the Main Floor of 229 Wallace. I took it on one of the first cold, wintery days we had in January....

Ahhh, Toronto in January. Specifically, transit in Toronto in January is what is on my mind for this post. As I look out my office window at the street below all I can think is, "It's a fight."

Sidewalks are a hazard. Pedestrians are confronted with stretches of clean yet salty concrete and then BAM! it immediately turns to icy-slick wasteland. And it's been a wee bit chillier than last year, so everyone is either bundled to the hilt, or a slave to fashion and risking life and limb to get to where they are going as quickly as possible.

Cars are in seeming constant struggle with slush, snow and ice whether it be on the actual roadway itself or in the parking spaces on the sides of the streets. And don't get me started on the snow tires. Snow tires, although fantastic in their application, seem this year to be accompanied by owners who will spend money on the tires, but not on rims. The effect is sort of thug/gangsta for the 2010 Mercedes lineup. Effective, as I said, just not so attractive. C'mon people, you can afford the expensive car, pony up a few hundred bucks for some rims.

Public transit on the subway side of things is quite civilized I find in the winter time. Underground it's relatively warm, the system is fast, and once you're tied into the PATH system, it's possible to avoid the elements entirely. Unfortunately, mass transit is not just subways in this city. It's all one big system, so I have to include the busses and streetcars into the mix which means they struggle under similar burdens that cars do. In fact, as our local political scene and news outlets keeps us ever mindful of, they are often not sharing the roadways of Toronto, but fighting for them.

But I digress. Okay, what am I forgetting.... Bikes! I have two clients who would heartily chastize me if I forgot to mention bicycles in the winter. All I have to say is they are a valid form of transport on ice laden streets, but not for the faint of heart. Every time I see a cyclist in the winter not wearing a helmet and travelling on a busy Toronto street I hope for them that they have an extremely up to date last will and testament.

Yes, it's a bit of a nightmare getting around the city at this time of year. One of the things I have noticed though, is that the city is very good at trying to keep certain corridors very open for traffic during inclement weather. And it's not only what they term as the "main arteries" like Yonge, Bathurst, Dufferin, College, Dundas, Queen and the like. It's also some of the smaller important feeder roads to those arteries like Davenport, Gerrard, Symmington, Logan, Lansdowne and lots of others. They obviously feed into the main routes, so they are very effective to keep transit moving smoothly.

As I was driving to the development yesterday to meet some prospective buyers for one of the units, I realized that partially because of those feeder routes we're not just whistling Dixie when we market the Junction Triangle as a fantastic place for business. Among the other great things the development and area have going for it, it truly is extremely centrally located to major transit arteries and hubs. You can get to where you want to go very fast. I would actually argue that the location is really ideal because if using the roadways you quickly feed into major arteries from great feeder roads going in all directions. And access to the mass transit system is just down the block, with the subway only two blocks away. I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to do is fight to get to and from work.

So that's it for now, just a few thoughts about our fair city, and of course a bit about the Lofts. Drop me a line and come and check them out for yourself.

Michael

Open House Tomorrow!

Hey out there, the build is complete, so we're having an open house tomorrow from 2:30 to 5:30. If you have time, come over and check out the building. We'll have friendly conversation and coffee as well.

Begining of the Build Process

Not that many shots here, but a pretty good shot of the guys at work on the foundation. See if you can see Pini, our fearless Site Supervisor, in the shot. It's kind of like playing "Where's Waldo?". He's the one in the middle of the page obviously directing the action.



This shot is taken from the West. You can see how the brick it going to look on the rear of the units. Textured. Nice.



These Bricks are no longer on the ground, waiting...they're up! And they look mighty good on the front of the building and not rather forlorn, as they do here.

Destruction

Yes, all the way back to the beginning. These two shots were taken from my iPhone a few days before the broker event announcing the name change of the project from 229 Wallace Lofts to Juntion Triangle Lofts @ 229 Wallace.

Pics, Pics, and more Pics...

Thought I would put in a few pics of the very begining. These are some of the shots of the old building. These first six are of the tweaks two artists did on the side of the building. They were adding a bit of detail to the name choices that the community was voting on. As we all know, the community settled on Junction Triangle.