Despite women being the majority of residential real estate agents in the US, gender parity in other segments of the real estate industry continues to be elusive. Men continue to dominate in industry leadership roles, commercial real estate, residential and commercial development and real estate investment.
One development team in Toronto is looking to provide a new model within the real estate industry. Reina is a development team of women planning to execute an 8-story, 198-unit family-friendly development in Etobicoke, the western part of Greater Toronto.
Members of the Reina development team include:
- Jane Almey with Bluescape Construction
- Heather Rolleston – an architect with Quadrangle
- Natalie Tkach – an agent with eXp
- Sherry Larjani with Spotlight Development
- Taya Cook with Urban Capital
- Stacy Meek – an agent with eXp
- Fatima Shakli with Adjelelan Allen Ribeli
- Tara Chishom with WSP Group
- Fung Lee with PMA Landscape Architects
- Lisa Spensieri – an architect with Quadrangle
- Man Ling Lau with Market Vision Research
Note that two of the principals in this development team are real estate agents with eXp…highly entrepreneurial, pro-active eXp real estate agents willing to risk becoming industry leaders.
Heather Rolleston, an architect with Quadrangle, said, “This project will be characterized by the female perspective at every degree, from street level design to unit layouts. This project is a conversation about details…details such as more storage space, bedrooms designed specifically for children, stroller storage on every floor, common spaces such as communal kitchens to that families can host large gatherings, corridors designed for more safety.”
This project is coming at a time when Toronto is growing denser and taller with more family-friendly units. “We think our approach, our approach of engaging with potential residents in the planning process so they can input their ideas and concerns before anything is actually built and may have to be rebuilt…attracts investors,” said Taya Cook with Urban Capital.
“This open approach” said Stacy Meek, an agent with eXp, said, “this approach of bringing the community into the design and development process brings prospective buyers into the project from its inception. This approach invites prospective buyers to invest in this project intellectually and emotionally so that when the time comes, I believe many of these prospective buyers will invest in the project financially.”
Who knows? At this point, “this is an experiment,” said Rolleston. “We’re all interested in how it turns out.”
Thanks to HousingWire for the information and data for this post.
