Our Management Team

Bob Forrest

President

The 50's

Born In Matatchewan, Deep In Northern Ontario.

Played Hockey Poorly Enough To Have No Future.

Grew Up On A Mink Ranch. Worked Hard At Everything But School.

Pumped Gas, Sold Tires, Worked In A Machine Shop, Sold Hand Cleaner.

First Home Building Experience Was In 1956, A New Family Home, With My Dad, Archie.

Somewhere There Is A Piece Of Paper Claiming A Grade 12 Education.

The 60's

Became An Embalmer, Via An Apprenticeship Program And Worked Three Years In The Funeral Business.

Became Disenchanted With The Funeral Business And Left It.

Published A Best Selling Book Critiquing The Funeral Business.

Renovated And Sold, Many Old Houses In Rosedale And Roxborough Areas Of Toronto.

Joined The Art Shoppe, On Toronto's Yonge St, As A Furniture Salesman, Left As Management.

Launched A Furniture Design, Manufacturing And Retail Business, In 1969, That Became The Toast Of Design Conscious Torontonians .......... L'Image Design.

The 70's

Grew L'Image Design Into A Well Respected Residential Design Business.

Served As A Design Consultant In The Infancy Of Condominium, In Toronto.

Started, In The Building Business, By Designing Model Homes And Sales Centres.

Rode The First Toronto Condominium Bust In '74.

Launched We Merchandise Space Inc., Providing Design Services To The Residential Building Industry, Across Canada And In The Northeastern United States.

Repositioned L'Image Design From A Design Firm To A Merchandising Firm.

Brought Toronto Condominium Design And Marketing Savvy To The Alberta Oil Boom.

Became An Investor In Condo Projects And Began Connecting Deals With Money And Savvy.

Struggled To Develop, Implement And Refine The Residential Design, Merchandising And Marketing Approaches That We Take For Granted, Today.

Was A Reluctant Speaker, But Willing Teacher Of Condo Merchandising And Marketing 101.

Began The Metamorphosis From Merchandisers, To Designers Of Communities.

Began To Assume A Management Role In Projects.

Clients Included - Cadillac Fairview, Costain, Greenwin, Sandbury Homes, Patrician Land.

The 80's

Survived The Complete Demise Of The Alberta Condo Market After The Announcement Of The National Energy Policy.

Easily Handled The Second Toronto Condominium Downturn, In 1982.

Grew The Furniture Business. Grew The Merchandising Business. Started Bob Forrest Consultants Limited, To Provide More Sophisticated Residential Consulting Services.

Conceived The Notion And Developed The Mechanics Of "Design Marketing," A Process By Which Community Planning, Product Programming, Pricing And Marketing Strategy Is Developed Concurrently And Marched Forward Together. The Premise Being That No Planning Or Design Decision Is Made, Unless It Rests On A Marketing Foundation.

Developed The "Green Will Be Gold," Concept, As A Marketing Tool And Discovered It To Be A Powerful Influence For Municipal Approvals. For Forrest, Environmental Sensitivity Is A Moral Imperative.

Introduced The "Smaller, But Smarter," Approach To Home Design, Initially, To Address Rising Costs. Later, During The Recession, It Was The Secret That Produced Sales.

Became A Condo Flip Artist.

Bought Out My Design Partner,` Who Had Set The Design Standard For The Company. Took On A Lot Of Debt And Set The Stage For Trouble, To Come.

Sold The Furniture Business To Fund The Partner Buyout. Never Got Paid.

Clients Included - Tridel, Penta Stolp, United Lands, Teron International.

1990

Watched The Market Collapse, Clients Become Insolvent And The Banks Panic.

Downsized, Big Time, But Could Not Stay Ahead Of Cash Demands.

Took On $1.75m Worth Of Debt, Personally And Paid It Off In Five Years.

Went From A Big Net Worth, To A Negative Net Worth.

1991 - 1994

Developed "The Hyper Efficient Building Design System" And Took It To Vancouver.

Designed Buildings For Small Fees And Contingencies.

Commuted Between Vancouver And Toronto.

Clients Included - Adera Developments, Noel Developments, Larco Investments.

1995 - 2000

Formed Joint Ventures To Buy And Develop Land.

Sold Approved, Prepackaged Land Deals To Builders, Usually Retaining A Carried Interest.

Projects Include - Strawberry Hill, In Newmarket ....... The Brownstones Of Pickering ..... Walnut Lane, In Pickering ...... The Brockstone, In Pickering ...... Tradewinds, In Scarborough ...... Harmony, In Scarborough ...... On Bogart Pond, In Newmarket.

2001 - Present

Managed A Condo And Retirement Building In Downtown Toronto, In Which Forrest Had A Minority Ownership.

Well Into Construction, The New York Based Lender Failed And Forrest Invested The Next Two Years Unravelling The Problems And Seeing That Everyone Got Paid.

Lost A Ton of Money

Picked Up The Pieces And Moved On.

Continuing To Acquire Land For Development And Joint Venture Construction Opportunities.