Chief Development Officer
Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC)
www.torontohousing.ca

Toronto Community Housing Corporation is the largest social housing provider in Canada and, after New York City, the second largest in North America. Toronto Community Housing believes social housing is an essential part of building a great city. We believe neighbourhoods thrive when a mix of people from different backgrounds live together in a place they can call home.

Our vision is to contribute to a city where quality, affordable housing is available in vibrant neighbourhoods, where residents are proud of the place where they live, and where people feel connected to each other and their community. Our mission is to provide affordable housing, connect tenants to services and opportunities, and work together to build healthy communities.

Created in 2002 as a result of the merger of the Toronto Housing Company and the Metropolitan Toronto Housing Corporation, Toronto Community Housing is home to 164,000 tenants in 58,500 households—about six per cent of Toronto’s population. Tenants reflect the city’s diversity, which includes age, education, language, sexual orientation, mental and physical abilities, religion, ethnicity and race, as well as a diversity in lifestyles and values.

Toronto Community Housing’s social housing portfolio includes 58,500 units in about 2,240 high, medium and low-rise apartment buildings and houses within 365 communities across the city, and the organization employs 1,400 employees who serve the needs of tenants on a daily basis. The organization has an annual budget of about $600 million, $6 billion in assets, an investment portfolio of over $150 million, and 10 property development projects underway—representing $1 billion of new construction—including most notably the revitalizations of Lawrence Heights and Regent Park.

The Chief Development Officer Role

Reporting to the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Development Officer (CDO) will lead and manage the planning, development and delivery of Toronto Community Housing’s initiatives in redevelopment and new construction, with the mission to revitalize existing communities and create new housing stock that will lead to better living conditions for tenants, reduced energy costs, and healthier neighbourhoods.  Key responsibilities will include:

• Leading a department of 15-20 professionals and staff with three direct reports—the Director, Construction, the Director, Development & Real Estate and the Director, Regent Park—overseeing site acquisition, planning/design reviews and approval and ensuring best practices are followed in planning, urban design, architecture, environmental stewardship and energy efficiency and that large scale projects (such as Regent Park) are managed closely to successful completion.
• Providing leadership, direction and oversight to all major construction projects, ensuring proper tendering, budget accountability and performance management of internal/external construction managers and general contractors, reviewing draw requests, trades payments, troubleshooting site issues, negotiating change orders, monitoring turnover and ensuring that commissioning, deficiencies, building turnover and warranties and closeout are executed according to contractual arrangements.
• Negotiating/structuring complex real estate/development transactions, including commercial arrangements, contracting, co-tenancy partnerships to cross-subsidize rental development costs, procurement processes, acquisition of land and assembly of properties for re-development and disposal.
• Pursuing innovation in the creation of sustainable environments, employing an integrated design approach, driving green-building practices and the specification of sustainable features into new construction while setting high benchmarks for energy efficiency, water consumption and construction waste reduction.
• Overseeing the roll-out of preliminary planning and tenant engagement in all community revitalization projects with the assistance and leadership of Toronto Community Housing’s Community Revitalization Consultants.

Desired Qualifications, Attributes & Experience

• Dynamic real estate executive with strong business acumen, excellent negotiating skills and a track record of significant achievement in residential/commercial real estate development/construction and the ability to project a professional image, develop respect and credibility, and display a high level of integrity, judgment and ethics.
• Strong leader and team player - able to think in terms of the overall organization, contribute effectively as a key member of the Toronto Community Housing’s executive team, commit to the organization’s strategic goals. and build consensus while leading, coaching, mentoring and inspiring a team.
• Extensive experience in project management, communication and issues management and the ability to ensure the successful and timely completion of multiple projects.
• Experience in the full real estate development cycle, including site analysis/selection, planning approvals, real estate finance, project budgeting, valuation, evaluating site servicing requirements, assessing/managing community impacts, building/managing public/private sector partnerships, business planning, managing RFP processes and proposal review and selection, contract negotiation  and construction management and controls.
• Extensive experience working with urban real estate developers, engineering consultants, architects, planners, contractors, and municipal and provincial authorities with current knowledge of relevant legislation and by-laws affecting housing development and current market knowledge in relation to construction costs and trends in the construction sector.
• Experience with the reuse of residential lands, buildings and revitalization of residential areas as well as knowledge of green building technologies and sustainable development.
• The ability to thrive and succeed in a large, high profile, public sector organization and  the willingness and ability to communicate with and relate well to a broad range of stakeholders while embracing the mission of Toronto Community Housing to provide creative housing solutions to lower income residents of the City of Toronto.

For further information and consideration, email your resume to:

Patrick Rowan, Partner
Feldman Daxon Partners, Inc.
45 St. Clair Avenue West, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario
(416) 515-7600 ext. 254
prowan@feldmandaxon.com