About Me
The sun is setting on At Waters Edge …. but rising on larrywaters.ca. A little about me.
Re-Fresh
At Waters Edge (“AWE”) needed a refresh. I found that much of the content had become dated and I wanted a different look. Plus, Larry Waters has more name recognition than At Waters Edge. Maybe not much more recognition, but more all the same.
I have gone through all of the old web site posts and moved a bunch of them to the trash bin. After re-editing, shortening, improving, and re-categorizing, I moved the articles that remain timely or relevant to this new location. I will repost some of these from time to time.
New Focus
I have had luck in post-retirement. At first, I continued to work with old clients as an advisor. Nine years into retirement – the Coronavirus put paid to regular advisory work. I started to write AWE and it attracted the attention of Anastasia Mourogova-Millin. For two years, we worked closely on her innovative concepts for financing urban green space and bio-diversity. It was becoming too much of a job for me, not something I was looking for.
I wanted to write more – more about cities and a family history to leave as a written legacy for my children. And, just before Coronavirus lockdowns and thanks to an old friend, I started to work in the not-for-profit sector. Several of my mandates involved the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre, a Toronto charity working with the unhoused. I had always had an interest in the homeless sector but I couldn’t see a way to have an impact. My time with Anastasia showed me that If I focussed on the “money” , that impact was possible. I am concentrating on developing financial tools that will raise capital at scale to build homes for the most-difficult-to-house.
I still sit on the boards of two development companies, act as an advisor to a building materials company, and I will take on occasional mandates – very selectively!
Background
I was born in Dundee, Scotland, the fifth of five children. In 1953, our family emigrated to Canada where my father established a medical practice and a maternity home in Cape Breton. He died in a car accident in December 1956. My mother had to work to support us. So, in early 1957, she moved my brother Paul and me to Sept-Iles, QC. There she re-started her career in journalism at the Iron Ore Company of Canada. My mother was the only woman considered IOC management in the 1960’s – very early lessons in employment equity!
I still miss summer in Nova Scotia
I would return to Nova Scotia almost every summer until age 18. At first, I spent the summers with the MacDonalds – a farming and lobster fishing family. They had bought our former home located between Judique and Port Hood and caring for me in the summer was part of the deal. Later, I spent most of my Scotian summertime in and around Antigonish. You don’t idle away the summers with farmers and fishermen. At the age of 8, I could dismantle and clean the intricate parts of a milk separator and then put those pieces back together. I churned butter, drove cows in for milking, and baited hooks hanging off the back of a fishing boat. And so, I forged a close connection to land and sea.
Leaving Home
I left home at 17 to attend school in Québec City. There I completed my first year of university at St-Lawrence College but my real interest was the hospitality industry. Ecole d’Hôtelèrie de Lausanne in Switzerland accepted my application to study there. To wait out my start date, the school suggested that I work in an hotel – but only at a facility run by one of its graduates. Failing that, I should work in a bank. I finally made it to Lausanne at 45. I had missed my start date.
My temporary banking career
I spent 43 years at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. For most of my career, I worked with real estate developers. I have designed and arranged financing solutions for many landmark projects that required an innovative approach.
- The Montréal World Trade Centre and Intercontinental Hotel mixed use project had various owners. We had to was co-fund construction with its pension fund co-owner. Another complication – the sub-division into hotel and commercial property required a hand-drawn, colour-coded three dimensional plan.
- Bell Canada’s head office on Ile des Soeurs revived the concept of “meets and bounds”. Why? The developments required land mass had not been sub-divided by the start of construction. Also, Bell was responsible for significant IT infrastructure that it funded directly during construction
- Marketplace Pavilion in Whistler required negotiations with the BC Government to establish a lender’s right to cure property-owner environmental violations.
- The 2008 mortgage meltdown delayed the Aura condominium project in Toronto . In 2009, the developer and I agreed! The right time had come for financing. Ten banks later and without a single variation in the original deal structure, the deal closed.
Community
I believe in community service. Therefore my involvement in basketball, soccer, and hockey associations as a coach and convenor. And I have been:
- A member of Concordia University’s real estate planning committee
- Vice-chair of the board of governors at John Abbott College
- Chairman of the Advisory Council on Neurosciences, Ottawa Neurological Institute
- A director of the Ottawa General Hospital Foundation.
And Family
I am happy to talk about me but not my family other than to say that my wife and I have four children of whom we are proud.
I am Larry Waters – made in Dundee, designed for adventure.