Watch Jason Castellan, Skyline’s CEO & Co-Founder, and Sam Firestone, Partner & Co-Founder of Primecorp Commercial Realty Inc., discuss highlights of the 2012 Canadian Apartment Investment Conference.
Held in Toronto, this one-day conference focuses on the multi-residential real estate market, bringing together the industry’s owners, managers, developers, investors and lenders to provide valuable insights and discuss major trends and issues. Last year’s conference attracted over 550 attendees.
Castellan: Well once again the Canadian Apartment Conference was well organized and there were a lot of diversified topics. So in the sessions it is always good to see new blood. The continued theme that we have seen over the past few years is lowering cap rates, so it is good to hear of different ways that you can generate yield and improve the return. So the conference was great and the topics were excellent and the panels were very interesting and though provoking.
Firestone: I love this conference. I mean it is really good opportunity for players small to large to network, learn a bit about our business, get them out of their offices and expose themselves to new ideas. Today the perspectives getting individual perspectives, getting Bob’s perspective in the United States and relating it to the Canadian experience was really a highlight for me today. And the last session, two young professionals stepping up and putting themselves on the firing line, I really was impressed with both of them. Very smart individuals. That was fun and a highlight for me. In general just getting together with people in our industry is just generally a highlight for me.
Castellan: The masters’ chamber was a great new event added to pique the interest at the end of the day. Today I’m very happy with the way that went off. Both guys, it was great to see the diverse looks at how you can take a property and squeeze it and change it and manipulate it to improve the income streams and the ideas that went into the financing, the severing and the different kind of building. I think that is something that apartment owners are going to have to start thinking about when they are buying new pieces of real estate. How they can squeeze that lemon and maximize that dollar invested. So it was a great though provoking session and a great job by the contenders and good insight by the masters.
Firestone: It was really a highlight to work with Jason on this on this one (Firestone shakes Castellan’s hand). It honestly was. We get to work together professionally but it’s just enjoyable to be able to do this together and that was a real highlight for me.