Challenger Cities EP97: Developers as Citymakers with Stratton Townley

I met Stratton Townley at the Waterworks Food Hall in Toronto, a couple of hours before it opens, with ten or twelve people sat about with coffees and nobody hovering to work out whether they intended to spend anything.

Stratton is at Woodcliffe Landmark Properties, a small, private, family-run developer that has been on the same Toronto street for thirty years. His stepfather founded it; his mother runs it. He spent his first decade in brokerage and investment sales avoiding the family business entirely, on the strength of one job interview where he was told not to take the job.

The thirty years is what this episode is really about. Woodcliffe kept Waterworks rather than registering the condos and moving on, which turned a real estate landlord into something closer to a hospitality operator — and gave them a feedback loop most developers never get.

We talk about what that does to the design of the next building, why the city won't let him cut the grass in the park next door, heated pavements in Summerhill, silos in careers and buildings and government, and a Toronto waterfront that nobody will commit to beyond an electoral cycle.

He is born and raised in Toronto, committed to it, and an optimist — which makes him better company on the city's problems than most.

LINKS

Woodcliffe Landmark Properties — https://www.woodcliffe.ca

Waterworks Food Hall — https://waterworksfoodhall.com

Shops of Summerhill — https://www.woodcliffe.ca/portfolio/shops-of-summerhill

Read the write-up: https://challengercities.substack.com/publish/post/211069995

Challenger Cities — https://challengercities.substack.com