Real Estate Development Done Right
The real estate development landscape continues to undergo significant transformations, requiring professionals to adapt quickly and strategically. Adam Altabelli, President of the Geofocus Group and Buy Dirt Developments, offers valuable insights into navigating these challenges based on his extensive experience in the construction management and development industry.
Growing up on construction sites and following in his father’s footsteps, Altobelli has developed a comprehensive understanding of the industry from the ground up. This unique perspective has positioned him to provide exceptional value through the Geofocus Group, which specializes in construction management services. Unlike general contractors who often maintain a more confrontational relationship with clients, Altabelli’s approach emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and practical solutions to maximize efficiencies for both clients and his team.
The construction management model has proven particularly effective for two distinct client segments: new developers entering the industry for the first time and experienced developers transitioning to new market segments. By engaging with clients as early as possible in the development process, Altobelli’s team can provide crucial guidance on everything from site selection and land acquisition to design development and trade contractor retention. This comprehensive approach helps clients avoid common pitfalls and optimize their investment decisions.
Recent years have presented unprecedented challenges for the real estate development industry. The 2007-2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic stand out as particularly disruptive periods. While the former led to numerous takeover projects as developments faltered, the pandemic triggered hyperinflation that dramatically increased construction costs.
Projects that were initially budgeted at a specific dollar amount per square foot suddenly faced cost increases of 50-100%, forcing developers to reevaluate, value engineer, or even redesign their projects entirely. These experiences have reinforced the importance of flexibility, strategic planning, and setting aside ego when making critical decisions.
One of the most valuable lessons Altobelli shares is the importance of due diligence beyond what lenders require. Many developers focus solely on satisfying lender requirements without conducting comprehensive investigations into factors like geotechnical conditions and site servicing. This oversight can lead to devastating consequences, potentially reducing a property’s development potential by significant margins and undermining its financial viability. By identifying these issues early in the acquisition process, developers can make informed decisions that protect their investments.
Looking forward, Altobelli identifies the “missing middle” in purpose-built rental properties—particularly developments with 10 units or fewer—as a significant opportunity in today’s market. This niche has gained substantial traction in recent months, attracting both new developers and established players looking to diversify their portfolios.
While acquisition costs may be higher in primary markets like Toronto, these investments typically carry lower risk during lease-up and stabilization. Conversely, secondary and tertiary markets offer lower entry costs but may present challenges related to population base and lender familiarity.
Perhaps Altobelli’s most compelling philosophy is summed up in his mantra: “Bad news early is good news.” This approach emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing problems as soon as they arise, rather than allowing issues to compound over time. By fostering an environment where challenges are communicated openly and resolved promptly, developers can position themselves for long-term success in an industry known for its complexity and volatility.
Thank you to Adam’s company, The GeoFocus Group for bringing us this month’s episodes. To learn more, go to https://thegeofocusgroup.com.
“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at @more2give.ca.
Join us again for our next episode May. 7.
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesofficial & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
Real Estate Podcast Transcript
Serena HolmesHost00:35
Thank you.
Adam AltobelliGuest00:37
Let’s see what’s going on with my camera.
Serena HolmesHost00:40
Yeah, no problem, there you are, hello, hello.
Adam AltobelliGuest00:48
How’s your morning going so far?
Serena HolmesHost00:49
Doing okay. My daughter’s been on this whole thing like coming into bed with us every night.
Adam AltobelliGuest00:56
Yeah.
Serena HolmesHost00:57
And my husband was on shift last night, but she actually made it till, I think, quarter to five before she came in. So I was actually awake when she came in, but then we fell back to sleep till like seven, 30, which is like very late for us. So it just felt like the morning got a little sidetracked.
Adam AltobelliGuest01:12
Well, I know how that goes.
Serena HolmesHost01:14
Yeah, yeah.
Adam AltobelliGuest01:15
So it’s. It keeps us on our toes, for sure.
Serena HolmesHost01:18
You feel bad, but at the same time it’s like you don’t want to kind of create this whole pattern, because it really throws us off, like my husband was working the other night and she came in at 3 30 and he just never went back to sleep.
Adam AltobelliGuest01:29
So it’s like I love you but you’re making me so tired not to not this night, but the night before my son’s got some stomach bug.
Serena HolmesHost01:38
I didn’t sleep at all oh no, yeah, that’s like touch wood. That’s one thing that, um, she really hasn’t had yet, so hopefully not looking forward to that.
Adam AltobelliGuest01:48
Hopefully she doesn’t for sure.
Serena HolmesHost01:50
Yeah, so this will be a little easier than what we recorded last time. I actually have all those videos edited and ready to go. I just finished up the whole batch yesterday. So I’m just going through the process now, you know, refining them and getting the captions organized, so I’ll have everything on track and over to you later this week.
Adam AltobelliGuest02:06
That’s great.
Serena HolmesHost02:06
A lot easier because it’s just really a conversation. So I will do your bio and then we’ll go in for about six questions and then we’ll take the really brief sponsor break. I just pause for a few seconds and then we come back. Just so I have that, you know, stops for my timeline and then we’ll go a few more questions in Sounds good.
02:25
So I mean, it’s all pretty straightforward, like anything. Obviously you can add to it. To go into more detail, like I find that some guests not to say this will be you, but some can be very long winded and have to like jump in to keep the conversation moving. Other times people don’t elaborate enough, so I might dig a little bit more just to be like can you talk more about you know whatever you’re alluding to and stuff like that. Right?
02:45
So I’ll guide you through the process, but it’s far more conversational. We’re not going to have to like repeat anything and stuff like that.
Adam AltobelliGuest02:52
Sounds good.
Serena HolmesHost02:53
Okay, cool, so we’re already recording and should see. Yeah, I have everything set to auto record now, because I had an experience where things didn’t record properly.
Adam AltobelliGuest03:02
You got experience where things didn’t record properly. You got through the interview and nothing was recorded. Say that again you got through the interview and nothing was recorded no, I um.
Serena HolmesHost03:09
So actually the internet blipped, so when we came back I just forgot to hit record again so we did it thinking it was recording, and then of course there was nothing different.
03:20
things happen, like my husband started drilling outside of my window once. I was like what are you doing? So it was kind of we’ve had some funny things. But now I just have it set to auto record and then it’s kind of the opposite and meetings feel like why are you recording this? So I just have to remember to shut it off sometimes, but it’s all good.
03:40
All right, so I’m just going to get started and then I’ll cue you in. Hey everybody, welcome to Inspired to Invest. I’ve got Adam Altobelli here with me from the Geofocus Group in Vaughan. He is the president of this development and construction management firm that’s dedicated to helping clients navigate the complexities of real estate projects, from acquisition through to completion. He is also the president of Buy Dirt Developments, focusing on purpose-built rental, acquisition and development ventures. With extensive experience in multifamily development, commercial projects and purpose-built rentals, adam delivers value through transparency, accountability and practical solutions. His commitment to supporting his clients in making informed decisions has positioned both the Geofocus Group and Bidar Developments as trusted partners in the industry. Thanks, adam. How are you today?
Adam AltobelliGuest04:29
Thanks, Serena Great. How are you?
Serena HolmesHost04:30
Good Thank you. So thanks for spending time out of your day to be with us. I obviously have had the chance to get to know you a little bit outside of this podcast, but for anyone that doesn’t know you, can you take us back to the beginning and how you got into this field, because obviously it’s pretty significant in terms of the work that you’re doing. So I’d love to give everybody a little bit of backstory on you.
Adam AltobelliGuest04:49
Yeah, absolutely, I was pretty much born into it. My father’s always been in the construction and development industry and growing up I grew up on construction sites, so it was a natural evolution for me really, from going through high school and working in the business to going through university and working in the business to eventually getting into the business full time.
Serena HolmesHost05:10
Yeah, awesome, they got you started right away.
Adam AltobelliGuest05:12
They did.
Serena HolmesHost05:13
So now, not everybody likes to go into a family business. Like, obviously you naturally gravitated there. But was there ever a time where you thought like I don’t know if this is for me, like I want to do my own thing?
Adam AltobelliGuest05:28
There was. There was a small period where I kind of branched out and did my own thing, but it was to supplement what we were doing as a company as a whole. So I created a few businesses Geofocus Mold Solutions, via virtual to help supplement what we were doing on the construction side. So, as an example, Geofocus Mold Solutions was assisting our clients that were having disaster restoration problems, required asbestos abatement or mold remediation. So I did branch off into that, but I naturally gravitated back towards construction. That’s where my love is. My passion is construction and development and I ended up falling right back into essentially running the show here at the Geofocus Group on the construction and development side of things.
Serena HolmesHost06:05
Now, to be clear, you guys aren’t the actual construction company, though, right, so can you talk a little bit about how you support developers and like really where your role would come in, either from the beginning or when you come in to kind of save the day?
Adam AltobelliGuest06:18
Yeah, great question. So and that’s a question we get often you know, what do you guys do? It looks like you guys do a lot of different things and we do so from developer side of things. We can get involved as early as site selection and when let’s use purpose built rentals as an example, when developers are looking to acquire land, we’re coming in to assist with that site selection process and that land is acquired, we’re assisting them with the due diligence. Then we get into design development, then we get into retaining trade contractors. So we’re providing more of a construction management type relationship. I’d say 95 plus percent of what we do today is construction management related. We do offer general contracting services, however, we find that’s more of a confrontational component to it whereas construction managers are working more as a collaborative partner and working towards really trying to maximize efficiencies for both our clients and ourselves.
Serena HolmesHost07:15
Now, when you look back at all the projects that you’ve been involved with since obviously this has been pretty much the majority of your career what would you say is one of your biggest successes?
Adam AltobelliGuest07:25
I’d say the biggest one and the one that we discussed most often with new clients is the Randall Residences in Oakville, ontario. It was an ultra luxury condominium development developed by Rosehaven Homes. We were retained as construction managers and that’s probably one of the highest profile projects we’ve been involved in to date.
Serena HolmesHost07:45
Now for someone that’s considering using you, what would be ideally the perfect step to have you guys involved, because I know that you’ve shared in the past. Sometimes you’re brought in to save a project or restructure a project and you’re adding a different lens to it and things like that. So ideally, when a client’s coming to you, how would you prefer to see that relationship develop?
Adam AltobelliGuest08:10
develop. So it depends on the client and the reason why I say that is we typically focus on two client segments. One is new developers who haven’t been in this business before, and the other is experienced developers that are transitioning to a new market segment. The new developers bringing us in as early as possible as they may not have that insight into acquiring land or putting together consulting teams or things of that nature. Experienced developers sometimes can bring us in a little bit later. They have the experience in acquiring properties. It just may be for a different segment now, but in all cases the earlier the better, because we do bring that lens of taking projects over that have gone sideways and really in those situations we’re brought in to identify what went wrong, work backwards to fix them and move those projects forward. And that’s given us the niche experience to really identify those red flags, problems and issues, hopefully earlier than our competition.
Serena HolmesHost09:01
Now, obviously there has been a lot of like crazy things happening in this last couple of years, and when you talk about challenges, can you give a couple of examples where you did come in, where a project was going off the rails and what you guys did to get it back on track and see it through to completion?
Adam AltobelliGuest09:17
I would say the most common in the last two years has been developers over designing projects and that results or happens from a few different things or from a few different perspectives, one of those being the team that they surround themselves with. So if they’re surrounding themselves with a team that specializes in single family homes but now they want to build purpose built rentals, what we’ve seen in those types of situations is projects being over designed, budgets being extremely inflated than what would have been reasonable to execute that development and, in more cases than not, we’ve had to come in and essentially scrap those designs and start over.
Serena HolmesHost09:52
Yeah.
Adam AltobelliGuest09:53
It’s a difficult lesson for developers to learn on their first go around, but we find it’s an important lesson and they learn not to make that mistake going forward with their second project.
Serena HolmesHost10:03
Yeah, if they’re around for a second project, I guess.
Adam AltobelliGuest10:05
Exactly.
Serena HolmesHost10:09
Now, in terms of things like obstacles, when you look at just running the business in general, what would you say are one of the biggest challenges that you face just in terms of your overall operations?
Adam AltobelliGuest10:17
I’d say personnel and I’d say because we’ve always had a low and slow growth approach. We want to build the team correctly and finding people who are like minded A lot of people that are in our company right now. A lot of the personnel have a very similar upbringing to myself. They grew up in the industry, so they understand everything from boots on the ground. That’s what they kind of sludge through in their earlier days as little ones and really transitioned and were brought back into the business as they got older. Finding that level of personnel to bring on board and also taking that a step further, trying to find personnel that had experience or have experience in takeovers, that’s been very difficult. They’re few and far between.
Serena HolmesHost11:00
It’s very specialized right Now. Since you have been in the business, you’ve gone through different real estate cycles and just you know different crazy things like COVID and stuff like that. Can you identify what you think is like one of those craziest times that you’ve been through, just in terms of, you know, just trying to stay on top of things and managing the business as a whole?
Adam AltobelliGuest11:20
I’d say there’s really two. One is the 2007-2008 crash that brought us more takeover projects than I’ve ever seen in my career, yeah, and COVID brought hyperinflation. So they were two very different situations. Um, I would say COVID was probably the more challenging. With, you know, developers are pegging their projects at x dollar per square foot and all of a sudden you know it’s 50 to 100 percent more expensive. Yeah, that’s a challenge that you can’t typically overcome unless you value engineer or redesign, and we did a lot of that during during the COVID crisis.
Serena HolmesHost11:56
Yeah, and I think the biggest lesson too is like, you know, people thought the pandemic itself was the challenge and you know, there it came with challenges, especially if you weren’t an essential worker and stuff like that. But at the same time there was subsidies in place. You know, gas was the lowest it had been in years and you know there was different things maybe the government put in place to give people a break because maybe they couldn’t work. But I think what nobody was prepared for was like the ripple effects after right, when it came to inflation. We all kind of came out of COVID thinking like okay, we’re done now, like the smoke is cleared, and it’s like absolutely Hang on.
Adam AltobelliGuest12:36
So I think that we’re going through something similar like that now with with the tariffs, and we’ll get through it. Things like this happen when I speak to. My father has been in the industry since the 70s. Don’t complain, it’s not so bad out there, yeah. So we’ll get through it. Something else will come up and we’ll get through that too.
Serena HolmesHost12:49
Now speaking of your dad, since obviously he’s why you are where you are in many ways today. How involved is he? Like do you call him up often still, and you’re like dad, like what do I do here?
Adam AltobelliGuest13:00
From a strategic advisory perspective, absolutely. You know he’s got 30, 40 more years of experience than I do in the field. You know he’s got 30, 40 more years of experience than I do in the field. There’s just things that he’s seen a lot more of than I have. So it is an invaluable tool and it’s an invaluable resource that I use quite often.
Serena HolmesHost13:18
Yeah, that’s awesome and I think it’s one of those inherent things that you know you can teach what you can, but until you’ve gone through it, it’s something he might be like oh, in 1983, we went through whatever, whatever.
Adam AltobelliGuest13:28
Exactly, you know, things change, the industry evolves and there’s things that may not be applicable, but there’s a lot that that still is applicable in the industry, for sure.
Serena HolmesHost13:36
Yeah. Now, when it comes to things like lessons, what would you say is one of the toughest lessons that you’ve had to learn, as you’ve, you know, molded into this role as the business owner and the president?
Adam AltobelliGuest13:52
this role as the business owner and the president, I’d say, taking ego out of everything. You can’t build a business, especially in the construction industry and especially in development, because it’s full of egos. And if you can’t have those tough conversations with your client and vice versa, unfortunately we have to tell a lot of people that your project, this isn’t the right one, it’s not working out. You know you’ve put a lot of money into it but your best decision is going to be to walk away from it. Those are tough conversations to have. Sometimes those conversations aren’t well received, but that’s been the biggest lesson Earlier in my career, when I was younger, yeah, there was a lot of ego there as you’re trying to prove yourself and you don’t have that experience and you kind of have to bank on that bravado a little bit More. So now it’s really just working through those things, setting ego aside, having those tough discussions, always keeping in mind the best interest of our clients the best interest of our clients.
Serena HolmesHost14:47
Yeah, and I think that’s a big thing is just positioning yourself that you’re trying to help and you’re trying to provide that value, save a project or save costs from the outset and stuff like that, Right? So I think the average person hopefully it’d be very receptive to that. But I can see if two strong personalities come into a room where they can butt heads a little bit.
Adam AltobelliGuest15:04
Absolutely, and you have to be that way to be in the development and construction industry. Yeah, but I find the older you get in this industry, the easier it gets to have those discussions. When we have those discussions with younger development groups, we’ll get through them. It just takes a little bit longer to make sure everybody understands we’re not having those hard discussions to sway you from doing what you’re trying to do. We’re having those tough discussions to make sure that you can continue to do what you’re trying to do for a long time.
Serena HolmesHost15:32
Yeah, no, that makes sense Now, on that note, we’re just going to take a really brief break for our work from our sponsors and we’ll be right back. Awesome, hey, everybody. Welcome back to Inspired to Invest. I’ve got Adam Aldabelli here. He’s the president of the Geofocus Group and I’m going to forget the name of your other company, fill me in.
15:50
Yes, yes, thank you for that. So we’ve talked about a lot of different things. Just in terms of how you got started in this industry and the challenges and lessons that you’ve learned. What would you say is the absolute craziest thing that you’ve ever encountered during your career so far?
Adam AltobelliGuest16:06
On the takeover side of things. Yeah, on the takeover side of things, I’ve seen countless people lose everything, and that’s a tough lesson to learn when you’re younger. When you’re younger, getting in the industry, you think there’s only green lights and blue skies, but I think that’s helped mold me and the rest of the company into what we are today. But seeing people lose everything in the construction and development industry, having those tough discussions with them when they’re at their lowest point, that’s a tough thing to see for sure.
Serena HolmesHost16:40
Yeah, I mean, I would agree that I, you know, I always really like the tangibility of real estate, right, you can touch it, you can feel it. To me it felt like the stock market is like elusive, it’s intangible, and it was like you hear, there’s risks in real estate and I was like, ah, you know, as long as you’re diversified, like, the value is the real estate. But then obviously, just these last couple of years have really changed that for a lot of people, right, and I think it’s going to really change the perspective of at least the landscape when it comes to investment and things like that going forward. So I think it is something to keep in mind that, even if you think you’re diversifying company, it’s, there’s a lot of value in diversifying across different industries or different locations and things like that, because I think you know you could plant all your seeds in a field or something. Well, if a bomb hits that field, it doesn’t matter that your seeds are on one side of the field or the other, it’s still the same field.
Adam AltobelliGuest17:30
And don’t overpay for those seeds.
Serena HolmesHost17:33
Yeah, which is what?
Adam AltobelliGuest17:34
we’ve seen a lot of in the last two, three years. That’s been a huge hurdle for a lot of people to overcome. Prices have kind of inched their way back into reality.
Serena HolmesHost17:45
Yeah, inching one tiny half inch at a time. Now, in terms of the best advice, obviously you’ve got such an amazing resource. Being your dad, what would you say is the best advice he’s ever given you, or even maybe other people that you’ve met along the way?
Adam AltobelliGuest18:02
I would say one of the biggest lessons I learned from a large developer as we were transitioning from our sole focus on projects that were being taken over, recovered, turned around was at all costs, try not to burn bridges. You don’t know what somebody’s going through in the industry, you know. You don’t know what their intentions are. Do what’s best for you, but try not to burn those bridges because you’re going to run into these people along or throughout your career if you’re in this industry for a long time. That was one that that really kind of set me back a little bit on the takeover and turnaround side of things. You’re dropped into a frying pan in the middle of the fire and and the relationship component of that really isn’t as important as saving the client in the project. So that really brought a different focus and gave me a little bit of a different strategy as we approach some of these relationships, especially as the focus has now turned to new builds and new developments.
Serena HolmesHost19:02
Now, since we have had the chance to talk in other environments and things like that, when it comes to things like due diligence, what would you say is some of the most important things? Because I know we talked about things like trust and that you know not everyone is out there to help you or could be trustworthy. So what would you say are some of the red flags that you’ve identified? When you know, you don’t know, you don’t know. So if you’re coming in as a new developer, you know you’ve got those shiny glasses on, you think things are going to be a certain way, but what could help them really understand, like if they should go one way or another way?
Adam AltobelliGuest19:36
Great question and something we deal with on a daily basis. There’s due diligence for your lender and then there’s due diligence for yourself. Just because you can pass kind of the due diligence for your lender doesn’t mean you should acquire a property. And we see a lot of people come in and say, yeah, we did everything our lender required. This should be a great opportunity. Well, you didn’t do a geotechnical investigation and you may not have done a site servicing report. Do you know if there’s utilities there from a hydro perspective or infrastructure from sewer and water? Those are project killers that, if you’re not attempting to identify those things at the earliest stages of your acquisition, could derail your development and essentially, that parcel of land that you bought to put on X amount of units, well, if it can only yield 80 or 90% less, you’re going to take a big hit in value.
Serena HolmesHost20:28
Yeah, now, in terms of things like opportunities, like it feels, like you know, the GTA is saturated in some ways, but where would you personally think are some of the greatest opportunities right now that people should be paying more close attention to?
Adam AltobelliGuest20:43
We’re seeing them everywhere. We essentially have files from New Brunswick to Vancouver, down to Southwest Florida, and I would say it’s different in every market. Toronto has a much higher acquisition cost, but it’s going to be a little bit less risky on the lease up or stabilization side, especially on multifamily purpose-built rental, whereas if you transition out into those secondary, tertiary markets you can absolutely find great opportunities. Your acquisition cost is going to be a little bit lower, the rents are still strong, but you don’t have that population base or even knowledge on the lender side, depending on what market you’re in. So I think those opportunities are still prevalent everywhere. I think a lot of what we’re seeing right now is more missing middle purpose-built rental in that mid-rise and below, and that 10 unit and under has really taken off in the last year. And I would say that purpose-built rental missing middle 10 unit and under is probably one of the biggest opportunities we’re seeing in the market right now, both with new developers and even large and small developers that are transitioning into that market segment.
Serena HolmesHost21:47
Yeah, that’s awesome. Now, in terms of things like what’s next for you, obviously it sounds like your company is pretty robust as it is. Do you have an idea in mind of how far you’d like to take things and what’s next for you, just in pursuit of your own financial freedom and to be like I’ve made it? You know, maybe you feel like you’ve already hit that pinnacle, but what would you say is next.
Adam AltobelliGuest22:09
I don’t feel like I’ve made it and I don’t know if I ever will. When you’re doing what you love, it’s whenever I’ve hit a milestone or goal, it’s just let’s get on to the next one. I think for us right now it’s maximizing on the of these missing middle purpose built rentals and we’re starting to see a little bit of an uptick in condominium development. Nothing to get too excited about. I think it’s going to be a long haul before the condo market comes back, but just continuing to build our teams internally and get ready for when that sector makes its kind of reemergence and get ready for when that sector makes its kind of reemergence.
22:49
Yeah, and just be ready for those opportunities. You know we fell in the niche of this purpose-built rental, especially this missing middle, and it was a blessing in disguise. I think a lot of work has flowed into that segment of what we do now, so it’s just being prepared for what’s going to happen next. There’s going to be another pivot, so you just got to be ready for it.
Serena HolmesHost23:10
Yeah, and that’s the thing, and I think, just not to wait when you see an opportunity like. I saw a piece of land actually close to where I am in Pickering and I just saw the for sale sign and I didn’t look into it right away but it turned out it was this 10 acre parcel of land and Tuck had put in a half a billion dollars of resources in all the area around it. But then because of the moratorium on building on the green space and stuff like that, there’s a short-term ban of maybe five to eight years, but at the end of the day you could probably put anywhere from 70 detached homes to 140 townhouses on that parcel being sold for 3 million. I’m like imagine you bought that with some like 30 investors a hundred thousand a piece and just held onto that for the next five years.
23:50
Right, like because everything had kind of gone in. And, of course, by the time I went, which was a few days later, it was all conditional and I was like, ah, because it was just, it was a perfect spot, because Pickering is still close enough to the GTA that.
24:02
I could see how attractive that would be to to build and it just kind of worked out that I happened to drive by and those couple days passed. So I probably kick myself on that when I see whatever development goes in five or ten years from now hindsight’s, hindsight’s always 2020, um, and if you’re in this game long enough, you’re gonna have hundreds of those.
Adam AltobelliGuest24:22
so you just got to focus on what you can focus on and close on the ones that you can close on. But we’ve all seen those opportunities, we’ve all passed them. Hindsight’s 20-20.
Serena HolmesHost24:33
Do you know a lot of people that are involved in things like land banking?
Adam AltobelliGuest24:36
Yeah.
Serena HolmesHost24:37
Yeah, yeah, I think that’s something that I found really interesting. I had dinner with a real estate lawyer at the end of last year and they were talking about all this land banking they’re doing in Ottawa, which I found just like an intriguing conversation, because obviously they don’t intend to develop it now, but the thought is like we’re not making any more land.
Adam AltobelliGuest24:54
Yeah, and a lot of them just focus on land banking. They never get into development. They see it as kind of a risk mitigated way to get involved. Pick up a piece of land where that investment is going to be secured by that land and just wait until it goes up. It’s a long-term game. It’s a long-term play but we’ve seen a lot of people do very well in that market but they’re most of the land bankers I know are will not touch new construction. They see it as too much of a risk to jump in that game and they like that low and slow approach to growth of their valuation of their parcels of land.
Serena HolmesHost25:36
I have a possible client that I’ve been talking to right now that him and his wife bought some land in North Whitby and it’s industrial. It’s 10 acres that they bought for $225,000 20 years ago and then now they’re thinking it’s in the range of 10 million. So imagine that is an incredible jump right and I mean I think really their roadblock is that one person in that group thinks it’s worth more, like actually like 28 million in my research industrials maybe 000 to a million per acre, so it’s probably in that range of five to ten million. They need to decide, like you know, are they willing to take that concession? You still have your capital gains to consider, but that’s still to go from 200 either way, it’s a great one, or?
26:15
whatever to this in 20 years, like that, to have done nothing but just bought it and let it sit. It’s crazy, right? So yeah, it’ll’ll be another 20 years due to that same piece of land, right?
Adam AltobelliGuest26:27
A hundred percent. Sometimes you just got to jump on those opportunities, though, when that dollar per acre or square foot is at its peak, or you can cash out. You never know what tomorrow brings, so it’s just another kind of way to mitigate those entries and exits?
Serena HolmesHost26:44
Yeah, no for sure. Now, in terms of quotes, obviously the name of this podcast is Inspired to Invest, so I always like to ask people if they have a particular quote that they love that really motivates them.
Adam AltobelliGuest26:55
For my clients it’s bad news. Early is good news, and that’s at every stage of the development and construction life cycle, from acquisition all the way to post-construction, and that’s something we probably say in the office I don’t know a hundred times a day. We don’t want to hoard bad news, we want the bad news to flow and if we can get through that bad news and our clients are still in a great position or we’re in a great position as developers, that’s a great position to be in. But not knowing that bad news, getting that bad news late, that’s always a dangerous position.
Serena HolmesHost27:29
Awesome. So for anyone that wants to get in touch to learn about what you do, or maybe they need help with their project, what is the best way for them to find you?
Adam AltobelliGuest27:38
Probably on the internet wwwthegeofocusgroupcom or on LinkedIn. Those are probably the two best methods of connecting with me.
Serena HolmesHost27:48
Perfect, so we’ll include that in the show notes below for anyone that does want to find you, of course, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to be with us today and for anyone that is watching or listening. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, make sure that you like, comment and subscribe, and you can also follow along with us on social at Inspired to Invest Podcast. And remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks again, cool, awesome.
Adam AltobelliGuest28:11
Thanks very much, serena, that was great.