élan classique - Allied Properties REIT

15
Groupe immobilier de Montréal :
Au service des
locataires d’Allied
12
IOU Central,
« l’e-Bay » des
prêts d’argent
Q U É B E C
•
M O N T R É A L
16
•
T O R O N T O
Réseau Absolu :
le marketing à
travers le Québec
•
W I N N I P E G
HIVER 2008
WINTER 2008
4
ÉLAN
CLASSIQUE
PHOTO: ATMA CLASSIQUE
Chez ATMA, les ventes
de disques classiques
sont à la hausse
Plus : Médiom Internet
à Québec : des services
adaptés aux besoins des PME
Une agence branchée –
VDL2 élargit ses services
MONTRÉAL
Une agence branchée
VDL2 grandit pour inventer l’agence Web du futur
CITÉ MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / - Il est facile
d’imaginer aujourd’hui que la popularité du vidéo sur le
Web rejoint celle de la télévision. Mais il y a dix ans, cette
notion était encore surprenante. Pourtant VDL2, agence
de marketing interactif basée à Montréal et spécialiste des
tendances Internet, l’avait identifiée très tôt dans sa série
de rapports annuels sur les tendances Internet.
Pour 2008, Philippe Le Roux, président et observateur
en chef des tendances chez VDL2, prévoit que la popularité
croissante des sites de réseautage social continuera de
détourner le public des médias et que l’audience réduite de la
télévision, de la radio et de la presse écrite forcera les agences
de publicité à se concentrer sur le marketing interactif, un
secteur qui semble être en forte progression.
Depuis ses débuts en 1994, VDL2, une des premières
sociétés de marketing interactif au Québec, s’est établie
comme une agence de conseil visionnaire avec Internet
comme seul et unique secteur d’activité. Mais plutôt que
d’emboîter le pas aux autres entreprises sur son marché qui se
sont limitées à la conception de versions Web des brochures
de leurs clients, l’équipe de VDL2 a intégré Internet directement aux plans d’affaires de ses clients plutôt que juste dans
des campagnes publicitaires, une approche qui a permis à
des entreprises comme Via Rail, le Réseau des Sport (RDS)
et Le Devoir d’exploiter Internet pour augmenter leurs revenus.
Pour Via Rail, en 1994,VDL2 a mis sur pied un système
de réservations de billets par courriel, qui a par la suite ouvert
la voie au magasinage en ligne. Aujourd’hui près de 43 % des
billets vendus par Via Rail sont achetés sur son site Web.
En 1996, plutôt que de rester une simple chaîne sportive
avec un site Web, RDS est devenu, grâce à VDL2, un
véritable pôle d’information sportive, en misant sur un forum
pour créer des communautés virtuelles et en faisant appel
aux experts de son équipe pour animer les discussions.
Aujourd’hui, l’audience de ce site est cinq fois supérieure à
celle de son principal concurrent et VDL2 estime que 20 %
du contenu du site de RDS est produit par sa communauté
virtuelle.
VDL2, qui a géré depuis 2000 la stratégie Internet du
quotidien Le Devoir, continue, par ses innovations, à
renforcer la présence sur Internet du quotidien, un des
rares a faire des profits sur le Web. Tel qu’il est actuellement,
le site attire quelque 1 200 000 visiteurs par mois.
Créée en 1994, VDL2 se considérait jusque récemment
comme une agence-conseil de marketing interactif et
d’opérations web. Alors que son équipe grandissait de
manière prudente à hauteur de 10 à 15 % de personnel de
plus par an, en 2007 elle a franchi un cap décisif pour jouer
un rôle plus global auprès de ses clients en développant ses
capacités créatives et publicitaires.
« Nous nous sommes rendu compte soudainement qu’il
n’était plus nécessaire d’expliquer à nos clients que l’Internet
était stratégique. L’Internet est devenu stratégique pour eux »,
déclare Yves Lapierre, vice-président, Finance, chez VDL2
en expliquant que l’équipe a dû aller au-delà de son rôle de
consultant et étendre son offre pour répondre aux besoins de
ses clients. L’agence a donc intensifié ses embauches.
Une importante campagne de recrutement lancée l’été
dernier lui a permis de passer de 35 à 52 employés et, cet
automne, elle a dû quitter ses bureaux du 700, rue Wellington
pour emménager dans 9 600 pi2 au 75, rue Queen.
Forte d’un nouvel associé, André Bélanger, arrivé au
printemps dernier après avoir acheté les parts d’un ancien
associé, VDL2 continue d’élargir sa clientèle (Fonds Daniel
Langlois et Transcontinental Médias font entre autres
partie de ses nouveaux contrats) et de renforcer ses relations
de longue date avec ses clients.
TREND SPOTTING: Since its 1994 start, VDL2, one of the province’s first online
marketing firms, has established itself as a forward-thinking consultancy
whose sole focus is the Internet. But rather than following its peers into the
straightforward development of Web brochures, the team, now at 75 Queen at
Cité Multimedia, worked from client business plans instead of marketing briefs
to help organizations like Via Rail, le Réseau des Sport (RDS) and Le Devoir
leverage the Internet to increase revenues. Today, it has moved beyond the role
of consultant and expanded its offerings to keep up with clients’ needs.
CHRONIQUE COMMUNAUTAIRE • 2
vdl2.com
The only fishing show in the world directed and produced by a woman
ADELAIDE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - Sturgeons are
one of the oldest and biggest fish on the planet. Having not
changed much in the last 200 million years, they live to about
100 and some grow to 10 feet long. They inhabit costal waters
but swim up river in the spring to spawn, says Kathryn Maroun.
But half way through her explanation of sturgeon lifecycles and
her quest to catch one in B.C., she stops, suddenly self-conscious.
“I’m sorry, I’m such a fish nerd,” she says, laughing.
A professional angler and host of the television show What a
Catch, Maroun’s ‘nerdy’ enthusiasm for fish facts have helped to
put her behind the only fishing show in the world directed and
produced by a woman.
ENTREPRENEUR TURNED PRODUCER Her entrepreneurial
background (she ran Paragon Pottery for 10 years before selling it)
prepared her for the vagaries of television production, but it was
her fishing background and dynamic personality that helped
her parlay her work as a guide and fly casting instructor into a
full-time business producing and hosting her own adventure
fishing show, which airs on the Outdoor Life Network in the
U.S. and on the A Channel here.
She also has her own line of practical, fashionable clothing for
women involved in outdoor pursuits (an idea spawned from years
of fishing in clothes designed for men), and runs Casting for
Recovery Canada, a charity that takes breast cancer survivors fishing.
What a Catch Productions, whose headquarters are at
425 Adelaide Street West, is now churning out its fifth season
of adventure travel fishing. In the last four years, Maroun has
traveled from Norway to South Africa seeking remote destinations
in her quest to catch and release some of the world’s most exotic
and rare game fish.
But as any pro will tell you, fishing for a living is anything
but relaxing.
TO CATCH A FISH “We don’t roll footage until we land a fish,
because if you film an area first and don’t catch a fish there and
move, your background scenery won’t match up,” explains Maroun.
And for each fish you see her catch on the show, she’s actually
had to catch as many as three to capture the different camera
angles of hooking, fighting and landing a fish, all of which are
later edited into a single sequence.
TORONTO
WHAT A CATCH
Kathryn Maroun was a guide
and fly casting instructor
before producing and hosting
her own adventure fishing
show, which airs OLN in the
U.S. and on the A Channel here.
Casting for Recovery: Taking
Breast Cancer Patients Fishing
Kathryn Maroun, host of television’s What a Catch, founded
Casting for Recovery Canada in 2004. Since then, 170
women have participated in the weekend getaways, and
most were non-fishers who have since converted, finding the
meditative quality of fly fishing a rejuvenating experience.
Trips are funded entirely by private corporate donations and a
lottery draws names for each trip. Everything is taken care
of, including lodging, meals and instruction, but participants
do need to have their doctor’s permission to go.
To register, volunteer or donate,
visit ww.castingforrecovery.com
EXOTIC TRAVEL MEETS FISHING Filmed in High Definition,
the show’s format is ready for the future of broadcasting, and as far
as the content goes, Maroun knows she’s ahead of the curve there
too as a growing number of men and women pick up fly fishing.
“Fishing is the new golf,” she says, “a lot of big business
deals happen in these fishing camps. You’re there with business
associates for a week, things slow down and business happens.”
whatacatch.net
3 • WINTER 2008
Malgré le téléchargement et le piratage, ATMA augmente ses ventes de CD.
PHOTOS : ATMA CLASSIQUE
MONTRÉAL
Une classe à part
RUE ATLANTIC, MONTRÉAL / - À en croire Rolling Stone
Magazine, les jours du CD audio, supplanté par le téléchargement, le partage de fichiers et la copie de musique, sont
comptés. Mais la maison de disques ATMA, basée à Montréal,
a un entrepôt entier de CD et de CD super audio tout juste
sortis de la production, un catalogue de vedettes musicales
classiques et internationales qui grossit à vue d’oeil et un contrat tout juste signé avec Naxos, qui distribuera ses titres aux
États-Unis.
Pour ATMA, dont le siège social est situé au 400 Atlantic
dans le quartier de la cour de Triage d’Outremont, le
pessimisme ambiant quant à l’avenir du CD est très excessif.
« [Le téléchargement] nous touche moins, car les amateurs
de musique classique n’écoutent généralement pas leur musique
de cette façon-là », explique Michel Ferland, directeur de la
production chez ATMA. En fait, les ventes de la société à
l’échelle mondiale ont fortement augmenté (45 %
du total des ventes proviennent de l’étranger), et
ce, avant qu’elle ne signe son contrat avec Naxos.
Par ailleurs, son catalogue ne cesse de s’étoffer.
« Contrairement à la musique pop, il n’existe
dans la musique classique pratiquement aucune
barrière linguistique ou culturelle », affirme
Michel Ferland en expliquant que le réseau de
distribution d’ATMA compte maintenant 25 pays.
Pour ce qui est du téléchargement, selon lui,
les symphonies sont beaucoup trop longues
et nécessiteraient de nombreux efforts et des
ordinateurs très puissants pour être téléchargées
correctement, car pour ce type de musique, la
qualité de l’enregistrement est très importante.
Malgré tout, ATMA est bien présente sur le
Web. Son directeur du marketing, Brandon Bayer,
en poste à Toronto, a créé une base de données
d’enregistrements à laquelle les détaillants
comme iTunes peuvent accéder, mais elle est utilisée plutôt
pour faire naître un intérêt pour ses albums et faire vendre
les CD par la suite.
ATMA, mot sanscrit qui signifie « âme », organise des
séances d’enregistrement pour de grands talents classiques
canadiens. Elle s’occupe de l’embauche des musiciens, de la
location du lieu d’enregistrement (souvent une église plutôt
qu’une salle de concert) et de la gestion de l’aspect technique
de l’enregistrement. Elle grave aussi le CD et gère le réseau
de distribution.
Johanne Goyette, mélomane et ancienne réalisatrice à
Radio-Canada, a travaillé comme ingénieure du son pendant
dix ans avant d’acheter ATMA en 1995. Depuis, le catalogue de
la maison de disques, qui couvre plusieurs périodes du baroque
au contemporain, est passé à plus de 300 titres et compte
de nombreux artistes très connus, québécois pour la plupart.
In a Class of their Own Despite music downloading and
piracy trends, classical record label ATMA’s CD sales growing.
ATLANTIC AVE., MONTREAL / - To ATMA, whose headquarters are
located at 400 Atlantic in the Triage Outremont, rumours of the CD’s
death have been greatly exaggerated.
“[Downloading] affects us less because classical music enthusiasts
don’t generally listen to music that way,” says Michel Ferland, ATMA’s
director of production. In fact, international sales, have grown
considerably (45 percent of total sales are made abroad), even before
the company signed with Naxos, and its catalogue keeps growing.
CHRONIQUE COMMUNAUTAIRE • 4
ATMA, which is sandskrit for ‘soul’, arranges recording sessions
for major Canadian classical talents, doing everything from hiring
the musicians, to renting the recording space (often a church over
a concert hall), to managing the technical aspect of the recording.
It also presses the CD and manages the distribution network.
Classical music aficionado and former Radio-Canada producer
Johanne Goyette worked as a sound engineer for 10 years before
buying ATMA in 1995. Since then, the firm’s catalogue, which covers
(Page précédente) Session
d’enregistrement pour Les
Violons du Roy au Palais
Montcalm à Québec, 2007.
PURCHASE OF KITCHENER
BUILDING OPENS NEW
MARKET FOR ALLIED REIT
Montreal soprano
Karina Gauvin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin,
Montreal conductor
On y trouve, pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns, des
enregistrements du chef d’orchestre Yannick Nézet-Séguin,
de la soprano Karina Gauvin, du clarinettiste André Moisan,
des ensembles les Boréades, les Voix humaines, Les Voix
Baroques et les Violons du Roy, sans oublier ceux de la
Société de Musique contemporaine du Québec et du Nouvel
ensemble moderne.
« Nous enregistrons aussi nous-mêmes 80 à 90 % des CD
de notre catalogue », déclare Michel Ferland, en ajoutant
qu’en 2007, la maison de disques a organisé quelque 40
séances d’enregistrement différentes. La grande majorité des
enregistrements est réalisée à Québec ou à Montréal, mais
cette année certaines productions ont emmené l’équipe
d’ATMA en Angleterre, aux Pays-Bas et en Espagne.
« Même si ses ventes restent appréciables, ATMA reconnaît
que l’industrie de la musique est en constante évolution et
en profonde mutation. Elle est en train de remanier son site
Web, qui comprendra des pages réservées exclusivement aux
abonnés, notamment des podcasts et des profils d’artistes.
WAREHOUSE DISTRICT, KITCHENER / - “With the acquisition of
72 Victoria Street, we’ve established a promising new target
market in the Warehouse District of Kitchener. It’s an emerging
urban neighbourhood with the same historic character and mix
of uses that have made our current target markets so successful,”
says Michael Emory, president of Allied Properties REIT.
72 Victoria Street is a five-storey, Class I office building located
on the southeast corner of Victoria and Joseph Streets in the
Warehouse District of downtown Kitchener. It has 85,610 square
feet of GLA, 4,265 square feet of storage space and 228 surface
parking spaces.
The high-quality, brick-and-beam structure that was renovated
in 1999, is almost completely leased to eight tenants, all consistent
in character and quality with other tenants in the portfolio.
atmaclassique.com
several periods from Baroque to contemporary, has grown to over
300 titles and includes a great number of well-known, and mostly
Quebecois, artists.
Among these can be found the recordings of orchestra leader
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, soprano Karina Gauvin, clarinettist André
Moisan, as well as recordings from ensembles such as les Boréades,
les Voix humaines, les Voix baroques et les Violons du roy, not to
mention works from la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec
and from the Nouvel ensemble moderne.
72 Victoria Street in Kitchener’s Warehouse District, inside
(above) and out.
5 • HIVER 2008
TORONTO
Award-Winning Hospital Architects
Building Healthy Office
Farrow Partnership renovating College West space to LEED Platinum
COLLEGE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - Architect Tye Farrow has long
considered the notion of what makes a healthy environment. In fact,
as a senior partner with Farrow Partnership Architects, a Toronto-based
firm with a world-renowned expertise in building healthy hospitals,
he’s made something of a career of it.
Granted, the firm has commercial, educational and public sector
projects to its credit, but its work on Mississauga’s Credit Valley
Hospital and the Thunder Bay Health Sciences Centre - particularly
each project’s dramatic use of wood, and multiple-height interior
spaces flooded with natural light - has garnered worldwide attention
and a slew of international awards.
With all that time spent considering ideas of health and what is
a healthy environment, it’s hardly a stretch to discover the firm’s new
space at 559 College Street West will be renovated to a platinum
level LEED Commercial Interior standard, making it one of the first
such projects in Ontario. (For more on LEED, see sidebar.)
“We look at what is the power of a physical environment to
create significant change,” says Farrow of his role as an architect.
“And health projects are a spectacular frontier in that respect.”
When designing a radiation treatment centre, for example, the firm
heard cancer patients talk of their need to see signs of life. “But real
signs of life,” recalls Farrow, “not flower motifs worked into the design.”
That’s when they looked to art galleries to learn how indirect lighting
could filter into the space giving the interior a daylight quality.
The firm has designed operating rooms with views of the outside
and won accolades for its daylight-friendly design of the Thunder Bay
COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 6
Health Sciences Centre. A glass and wood public concourse arcs along
the sun’s path, allowing the space to be passively heated by the sun
in the winter, and in summer, when the sun is higher, the sunlight is
deflected.
Reaching to elements of nature, the Farrow Partnership also
pioneered the use of intricate glue lam construction at Credit Valley
Hospital’s atrium where massive Douglas Fir columns spread and span
to make what is arguably the most intricate wood structure in North
America.
“It ties into issues of nature and health,” says Farrow, adding
that it is also about the people who work there and how retention in
health care is a serious issue.
“You want to create an environment that people want to work in,”
he explains, bringing the health and wellness conversation back to
the developments in his own office.
The firm’s 10,000-square-foot warehouse-like space on the top
floor of a five-storey College Street address just West of Bathurst is
the tallest structure for some blocks, and its large windows yield
spectacular views on all four sides.
Daylight harvesting, using light shelves on the south and west
sides to reflect light onto the ceiling, is one part of the renovation plan
(the space already has lights on sensors, allowing a savings of almost
45 percent on electricity). And a lantern popping out of the roof’s
centre will draw more light into the core, as well as facilitate a
displacement air system that will circulate air over a living (plant)
wall and into the space.
Radiant heating and cooling will keep the space comfortable
through the different seasons and a roof-top water harvesting system
will help fill tanks to flush the toilets.
Work is underway and, while staffers are keen to see their offices
transformed, most do not hide their enthusiasm for plans to build a
rooftop patio. After all, this is College West.
farrowpartnership.com
INCOMING!
New Slow Food Restaurant to
Open in King West Boiler Room
Thunder Bay Health Sciences
Centre (above and left) with its
arced public concourse and Credit
Valley Hospital (opposite page) in
Mississauga with its forest of
Douglas Fir columns in the atrium
are attributes of the firm’s best
known health care projects.
WHAT IS LEED CI?
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design, and the CI is for Commercial Interiors. LEED is a set
of guidelines that evaluates a project using a rating-based
system that looks at every aspect of how a space impacts
the environment, from the amount of fossil fuels burned to
renovate it, to its operating efficiency (how much water and
energy it uses, for example) right through to its proximity to
public transit and whether there’s bike parking. It’s a big
picture approach to reducing the impact of buildings on
the environment.
KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - The boiler room on the
west side of 604 King Street West will soon be the setting
of the King Street Food Company’s latest venture, an
as-yet un-named Italian restaurant.
Peter Tsebelis and Gus Giazitzidis, the duo that brought
Brassaii Bistro to the neighbourhood five years ago, and in
January opened the Brant Street steakhouse Jacobs & Co.,
are converting 3,000 square feet of a former mechanical
room into a slow food restaurant.
“It refers to a clean, rustic, organic approach to food
service,” says Tsebelis of the slow food term. While the
50-seat Italian restaurant will have a selection of pizzas
and pastas, he says, the heart of its menu will be simple
and clean tasting dishes featuring cured meats, regional
cheeses and seasonal veggies.
Using artisanal sources, some local, some international,
says Tsebelis, means much of the menu will change
almost daily.
“We’ll be using very source-specific items where
the producers only make so much of it, so we’ll be at the
whim of that,” he explains.
Rather than the onus being on cooking, the new
restaurant focuses on sourcing, assembling and
presenting great food to discerning diners. It’s a
philosophy in tune with the growing international slow
food movement, an antidote to the fast food attitude
that often overlooks quality for the sake of convenience.
As for space, the main room will feature a standing
wine bar and towards the back of the house, there will
be a small 20-person tasting room. And rather than hide
the location’s pipe work, the duo intends to highlight it.
“It’s like the food,” says Tsebelis. “We’re going to try
to preserve as much of its natural integrity as possible
when presenting it.”
7 • WINTER 2008
QUÉBEC
Médiom Internet :
des services adaptés aux besoins des PME
ST-ROCH, QUÉBEC / - Médiom Internet, un des tout premiers fournisseurs de services Internet à Québec, est bien
placée pour savoir que, dans le secteur des technologies, le vent
peut tourner très vite. Pionnière à ses débuts en 1995 quand
elle a commencé à proposer ses services aux particuliers et aux
entreprises, elle compte aujourd’hui dix employés installés,
depuis 2001, dans 3 000 pi2 de bureau à Saint-Roch. Mais
Médiom est une entreprise miniature comparée aux géants,
comme Bell et Vidéotron, qui dominent son marché.
« Quand on est en concurrence avec des entreprises de
cette taille, les prix à eux seuls ne peuvent pas faire la différence », explique Pascal Turmel, contrôleur financier, « mais
on peut se distinguer par la qualité du service à la clientèle. »
Médiom propose à sa large clientèle de particuliers des
services adaptés spécifiquement à leurs besoins comme les
connexions haute vitesse, la téléphonie IP et l’assistance
technique, dans la lignée de ce que proposent les grandes
entreprises, mais avec l’avantage d’être plus flexible pour
s’adapter aux nouveaux besoins et d’offrir des services plus
personnalisés.
Par exemple, un service de nettoyage de virus et de
logiciel espion est proposé aux abonnés qui leur permet
de faire nettoyer leur ordinateur à distance par l’équipe
de Médiom.
Mais Médiom ne s’arrête pas aux services de
connexion. Depuis 2000, elle propose aussi des services
d’hébergement et de conception de sites Web. En proposant
aux entreprises l’infographie, la programmation, l’exécution
et la maintenance de projets Web, Médiom fournit un service
personnalisé et flexible à de grands sites tels que Les arts et la
ville, La Maison du Futur et Concert Plus.
En fait, c’est grâce à la flexibilité de ses services que Médiom
a pu lancer son projet Phénix de développement de fonctions
Internet spécialisées pour les entreprises. C’est un programme
qui vise le développement d’outils de commerce électronique
axés principalement sur les besoins de la PME.
En 2005, Médiom Internet décide de proposer un service
de Téléphonie IP, ce qui a fait d’elle une des pionnières dans
ce secteur à Québec. Suite à un partenariat avec babyTEL,
Médiom offre 5 forfaits différents à ses clients.
En 2007, la société commence à proposer des services
de soutien informatique à distance. Ses techniciens ont
directement accès en ligne aux ordinateurs des clients pour
résoudre leurs problèmes techniques.
« Nos clients nous choisissent parce que nous leur apportons
ce dont ils ont besoin », déclare Pascal Turmel en ajoutant
que si son entreprise n’offre pas tel ou tel service, elle trouvera
souvent les moyens de le faire si besoin est. « Les grandes
entreprises ne peuvent pas s’adapter aux besoins spécifiques
de leurs clients aussi rapidement que nous. »
mediom.qc.ca
Mediom Internet’s pioneering spirit and nimble size allow it to stay ahead of the curve
ST-ROCH, QUEBEC CITY / - As one of the first Internet service providers in Québec City, Médiom
Internet knows how quickly the tides of technology can change. It was a pioneer in 1995 when it
began connecting its residential and commercial clients, but today, this company of ten employees,
which has operated out of 3,000 square feet in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood since 2001, is the
little guy in a marketplace dominated by behemoths like Bell and Videotron.
Beyond residential services and IP telephony (one of Québec City’s first such providers) Médiom
offers commercial web hosting and runs a full-service web site development arm it started in 2000.
Grouping design, programming, execution and maintenance of web projects, it works with large
commercial clients bringing personalized service and adaptability to web sites such as Les arts
et la ville, La Maison du Futur, and Concert Plus.
In fact, it’s this adaptability has help to launch Phénix, its specialized enterprise service offering,
which is designed to respond to the commercial marketplace’s interest in electronic commerce.
CHRONIQUE COMMUNAUTAIRE • 8
WINNIPEG
Arnott + Associates:
Long Term Relationships Key to
Interior Design Firm’s Success
EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / - If there’s 5,000 square feet
of commercial space to be designed, it’s likely to be a project on Arnott +
Associates’ job list. An established local designer, Leah Arnott is
Winnipeg’s go-to person for small-scale office design.
“I enjoy a lot of [project] turnover, I guess I get bored easily,” she says,
so she focuses on projects in the 3,000 to 6,000-square-foot category.
By keeping her fees reasonable, her budgets tight and her relationships
close, she has earned a reputation as one of the city’s most respected
independent Interior Design firms.
“Winnipeg is a tough market, so you have to be creative.” she says,
adding that there appears to be a greater awareness of the role interior
designers play.
“It’s a great time to be an interior designer, there have been a lot of
positive changes in the industry,” she says about the fact that designers
are called upon to do increasingly more than manage aesthetic changes.
GETTING TECHNICAL Always up for a challenge, Arnott is unafraid to
venture outside of the usual expectations of interior designers by working
on exterior facades and larger structural projects. Of course structural
engineers are consulted on such matters, but Arnott says she’s not
daunted by technical challenges.
“I’ve done more architectural-like projects than most interior designers
would take on,” she says.
Leah’s father, a well-known Regina architect, influenced her appreciation
of architectural design from a young age. Arnott studied theatre and set
design as well as graphic design before entering into the University of
Manitoba’s Interior Design school.
RADIO BUSINESS Business grew in the mid 1980s when she re-designed
a rural radio station for Radio Southern Manitoba, morphing an
outdated space into a more corporate environment. The work made her
a radio station expert and she went on to do nine more stations for
RSM, as well as HOT 103 and Corus-owned CJOB.
It is work she refers to as fairly standard office renovations with an
added technical aspect. Still, it has earned her a reputation that continues
to keep the studio at 115 Bannatyne Ave. abuzz with activity. Beyond
doing a good job, Arnott believes in the strength of her relationships.
“There are lots of designers out there that produce good design,” she
says, “but it’s important to build long term relationships. That’s how I
built my business.”
Arnott’s interior work includes
(from top) Winnipeg ad agency
Osborn + Barr Canada; Western
Industrial Services; and a
Winnipeg wine bar. Exterior work
completed includes (below l-r)
Things, an antique store; mortgage
broker Invis; and The Paper
Gallery on Corydon Avenue.
9 • WINTER 2008
WINNIPEG
Boutique Architecture Firm Focuses Foremost
on Unique Problem Solving
EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / - Simple, well
lit, logical and accessible, the Winnipeg office of Syverson
Monteyne Architecture, at 70 Arthur Street, draws neat
parallels between its work and its own space.
Recognized frequently for its successful realization of the
Fort Whyte visitor’s centre in 2000, the firm has focused
much of its late efforts in the residential sector, creating
unique, modern and very functional upscale homes.
“Five years ago, somebody with money wouldn’t
necessarily build an expensive house here because they’d
see it as a questionable investment since it wouldn’t hold
its value,” says Tom Monteyne, noting that, 10 years ago
city houses were even depreciating.
VALUE & STYLE But now that real estate in Winnipeg in
general is appreciating, people are seeing the value of
in-filling a stylish new house in an established neighbourhood,
one with old trees and all the amenities close at hand.
“And people are also appreciating the value of good architecture,” says Monteyne, who left local firm Smith Carter in 1994
with co-worker Dean Syverson to form their own partnership.
FORT SUCCESS They also both taught at the University of
Manitoba’s School of Architecture and continued to grow their
business, winning awards and recognition for their innovative
design of the Fort Whyte visitor services centre, a Winnipeg
environmental education centre that incorporated a number
of environmentally-sensitive approaches well before the LEED
movement took hold.
Passive solar heating, geothermal heating and cooling,
re-using old cedar telephone poles to make doors and window
frames as well as incorporating the building’s on-site sewage
treatment into the design were just some of the ideas that
helped draw national attention to the building.
The firm’s offices
on Arthur Street
in Winnipeg.
Syverson Monteyne’s
innovative Fort Whyte
visitor centre (left), and
a model of one of its
residential projects.
“It was the perfect project for us because everything about
it needed to be unique,” says Monteyne, adding that the client
seemed to like, “every radical idea we came up with.”
For this boutique firm, architecture is personal. It’s perhaps
why residential work is what occupies the firm’s core staff of
eight (it hires consultants as needed) most.
PERSONAL TOUCH But the team has worked on a number
of commercial projects with the same personal approach,
including conversions of inner city rooming houses to low-cost
rentals, office interiors (for Allied Properties REIT tenants
Cocoon and Frantic Films), and a small terminal for regional
airline Calm Air.
Rather than specializing in one building type, the firm
seeks interesting problems to solve, and Calm Air’s $4 million,
30,000-square-foot facility, which opened last year on the
Winnipeg airport tarmac, was typical of the challenges it seeks.
“Most of our clients aren’t coming to us with a preconceived,
cookie-cutter notion of what they want,” says Monteyne,
who helped to create a space that was not only a hangar, but a
cargo handling facility, pilot training centre, charter passenger
terminal and regional office.
With over a decade of experience, Syverson Monteyne has
become more adept at finding and executing the projects that
interest it. As a boutique firm, the work it produces continues
to focus on creative problem solving, mostly by delivering
one-of-a-kind designs that respond to the needs of the space’s
surroundings as much as to its users.
sm-arc.com
COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 10
TIPS
Two Simple Exercises for
a Better’s Day’s Skiing
Deux exercices faciles pour
une meilleure journée de ski
Alleviating that feeling of aching quads half-way down the hill is
just a matter of building up your anaerobic endurance, says Totum
trainer Mike Conroy, who is also the strength and conditioning
coach for the Ontario Alpine Ski Team.
Pour éviter le mal de jambes au milieu d’une piste de ski, il suffit de
renforcer son endurance anaérobie, explique Mike Conroy, entraîneur
chez Totum, mais aussi responsable de la mise en condition de l’équipe
de ski alpin de l’Ontario.
Dry land training for skiing is about developing strength, power
and endurance, he says, explaining that typical conditioning for
developing your body’s energy systems includes high intensity
intervals – like a few 30-second, all-out sprints followed by
60-second rests. For power, he suggests a box jump.
L’entraînement de ski sur la terre ferme consiste à développer la
musculation et l’endurance, explique-t-il en ajoutant que pour
développer les systèmes d’énergie du corps il faut des exercices de
forte intensité entrecoupés de courtes pauses – plusieurs sprints
de 30 secondes suivis de pauses de 60 secondes. Pour ce qui est
de la musculation, il conseille les sauts sur une boîte.
1
Box Jump
You need to jump onto a box or
something that’s about the height
of an average gym bench.
1
1. From a squat position
(eyes forward and thighs
parallel to the floor)...
1. Start with your head up, eyes front,
knees bent with thighs parallel to floor.
2. Power upwards straightening
through the hip, knees and ankles.
2
3. To land onto the box in the
squat position. Start with three
sets of 10 and increase.
Les sauts sur une boîte
2
Pour cet exercice, il faut sauter sur
une boîte ou un petit banc de la
hauteur d’un banc de gymnastique.
1. En position accroupie
(les yeux droit devant et les
cuisses parallèles au sol)...
3
Squat
For strength and endurance, as well as
the ability to manage the lactic build up
and increase your core strength, nothing
beats a proper squat. Here’s how to do
one right.
2. poussez vers le haut en
allongeant les hanches, les
genoux et les chevilles.
3. et atterrissez sur le banc ou
la boîte en position accroupie.
Effectuez trois séries de dix
répétitions.
2. Power upwards, extending through
the hips and knees, all the while
keeping your torso straight. Reps
can vary from 5 to 15 depending on
your workout routine.
Les accroupissements
Pour gagner en muscles et en endurance
et permettre au corps de gérer l’accumulation d’acide lactique et renforcer la
ceinture abdominale, rien de mieux que
des accroupissements.
1. La tête droite, les yeux droit devant, les
genoux pliés et les cuisses parallèles
au sol.
2. Poussez vers le haut et allongez
les hanches et les genoux tout en
gardant le torse droit. Effectuez 5 à
15 répétitions en fonction de votre
routine d’exercices.
totum.ca
To learn more about training programs for specific activities,
contact Tim Irvine at timirvine@totum.ca or call (416) 979-2449.
Pour de plus amples reseignements (416) 979-2449.
11 • WINTER 2008
HEALTH / SANTÉ
TOTUM
MONTRÉAL
Une équipe de professionnels de l’immobilier
au service des locataires d’Allied
MONTRÉAL / - André Plourde était conscient de la difficulté
du défi quand on lui a parlé du Balfour. Ce bâtiment des
années 20, situé au 3575 St-Laurent, s’étalait sur 180 000 pi2
et était occupé par plus de 90 locataires répartis sur 9 étages.
«Le Balfour avait été géré comme un centre d’affaires, on y
retrouvait plusieurs locataires occupant de petits espaces dont
les locaux étaient plus ou moins en bon état et il était difficile
d’y attirer de gros locataires. La circulation dans l’immeuble
était dense et rendait l’entretien des espaces communs difficile
en plus de ralentir les déplacements en ascenseurs», se souvient
André Plourde, président du Groupe immobilier de Montréal,
embauché en 2005 pour réduire le nombre de locataires de
l’édifice tout en conservant un taux d’occupation élevé. Le
Balfour compte aujourd’hui moins de 50 locataires et affiche
un taux d’occupation de 94%.
Depuis 2005, Groupe immobilier de Montréal est
responsable des services de location des quelque deux millions
de pieds carrés d’espaces de bureaux qu’englobe le portefeuille
d’Allied Properties REIT à Montréal.
Groupe immobilier de Montréal est en quelque sorte un
prolongement d’Allied et travaille comme sous-traitant
responsable du marketing, de la location des espaces vacants
ainsi que de la gestion des renouvellements de baux et
de l’expansion des locataires.
« Un des avantages de s’occuper du portefeuille d’Allied
est de pouvoir offrir à nos locataires une variété
d’espaces dans des immeubles différents et accessibles
à presque tous les budgets. Malgré le fait qu’on
y retrouve des loyers s’échelonnant de 8,00 $ à
35,00 $ le pied carré, la plupart des locataires
Groupe Immobiler de Montreal’s dedicated Allied
Properties REIT team includes (l-r): Georges Renaud,
André Plourde, Martin Vallée, Erik Tremblay and
Michael Merten.
CHRONIQUE COMMUNAUTAIRE • 12
du portefeuille sont issus du monde de l’informatique,
de la publicité, des communications, des entreprises à la
recherche d’une atmosphère de travail originale au niveau
du design et soucieuses d’offrir un niveau de confort adéquat
à leurs employés ».
Les agents de location du Groupe immobilier de
Montréal travaillent en équipe avec un système de partage
de rémunération, une formule unique dans le courtage
immobilier où normalement on se fait concurrence au sein
d’un même bureau. Bien que chaque membre de l’équipe
s’occupe d’immeubles différents au sein d’un vaste portefeuille,
en se partageant la responsabilité de l’ensemble, les locataires
ont plus facilement accès à une plus grande variété d’espaces.
André Plourde prend toujours soin de rappeler aux locataires
d’Allied qu’ils ne sont pas juste locataires d’un immeuble
mais qu’ils occupent une partie d’un portefeuille immobilier
comprenant près de 2 millions de pieds carrés. Une partie de
son travail consiste à leur en faire profiter.
groupeimmobilierdemontreal.com
Leasing Experts Help Tenants Navigate
Montreal’s Allied Properties
MONTREAL / - André Plourde knew he had a challenge on his hands
when he was first approached about the Balfour. The 1920s era
building, at 3575 St. Laurent, had 180,000 square feet occupied by
more than 90 tenants, spread out over nine floors.
“It had been managed like a business centre, so there were lots of
smaller tenants in mostly tired space, and it was hard to attract larger
tenants. The building also had a lot of traffic, which made it hard to
maintain the common areas and kept the elevators moving slowly,”
recalls Plourde, president of Groupe Immobilier de Montréal, the local
firm hired in 2005 to reduce the number of tenants while maintaining
the high occupancy. Today, the revitalized Balfour houses 50 tenants
and is 94 percent occupied.
NEIGHBOURHOOD
WATCH
NEW ADDRESS...
255 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5H 1X9
Since 2005, Allied Properties REIT has worked with Groupe
Immobilier to provide leasing services to its close-to-two-millionsquare-foot Montreal portfolio.
Groupe Immobilier de Montreal works like an outsourced arm
of the REIT, and is responsible for the marketing and leasing of the
vacant space as well as managing renewals and expansions with
existing Montreal tenants.
“The beauty of working with the Allied portfolio is that we can
offer tenants a variety of space in different buildings that will fit
most budgets. Spaces range from $8- to $35-a-square-foot gross
and there’s a large selection of the type of space that creative and
knowledge-based companies are always looking for,” says Plourde,
explaining that tenants with changing space needs might do well
to investigate options within the Allied portfolio.
What’s more, Groupe Immobilier operates on a pooled fund
system where a team of five is responsible for that city’s portfolio,
and share in the revenues generated from the deals completed.
“It’s also about idea sharing,” adds Plourde on the topic of his
firm’s team approach, which is unusual in a business more likely
to see individual brokers operate competitively – even within the
same firm.
With team members focused on different areas of the
wide ranging portfolio, but sharing in the responsibility,
tenants can get a clearer picture of what is available.
When discussing space options, Plourde often
reminds tenants that they didn’t just take space in
a single building.
“I tell them they’re part of a two
million square foot portfolio that is only
getting larger,” explains Plourde. “And
part of our job is to help them take
advantage of that.”
Allied REIT’s Head Office
Moves to Adelaide West
ADELAIDE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - As the Allied
Properties REIT portfolio expands, so does its
staff since the need to service this larger number of
buildings continues to grow. Staffers quickly outgrew
the space at 602 King Street West and, this January,
operations were relocated to 255 Adelaide Street
West. Phone and fax numbers, as well as email
addresses remain the same as REIT personnel settle
in to the lower level, ground and second floors of
this 1900s-era, seven-storey building in Toronto’s
Entertainment District, just West of Duncan Street.
alliedpropertiesreit.com
13 • AUTOMNE 2007
TORONTO
Colborne Lane’s Space and Taste Blend
Culinary Ironies with Iconic Toronto
ST. LAWRENCE MARKET AREA, TORONTO / - When
Claudio Aprile was ready to open his own restaurant, after six
years at Senses (three as executive chef after its move to the
SoHo Metropolitan Hotel), he wanted to create something
unique. Not that he didn’t have the freedom to explore at
Senses, just that it was time to interpret an entire experience,
and one he wanted unmistakably to be Toronto in character.
“I know a lot of restaurants open with owners talking about
how it has a Manhattan feel, but in my business plan I stated
we would never say we are trying to be something else,” says
Aprile, the owner and chef at Colborne Lane, who is known
for his progressive modern cuisine style, which uses alternative
methods to create innovative reactions in food.
LANDMARKING A ‘Toronto’ restaurant, he explains, is one
in a landmark building such as this, where the food and the
attitude draw from a global palette, says Aprile.
One of a recent spate of restaurants to open on this block,
the front space’s focal point is a 60-foot long onyx bar with a
macro print of a painted fence decorating the wall behind it.
The dining area features custom-made communal tables
and eclectic, high-tech light fixtures and modern art installations mix with the bare brick and solid wood beams to give
the overall space a stylishly raw appearance. In looks and
taste, it is something other than its predecessor, Café du
Marché, a successful eatery run by a husband and wife team
for 35 years before they chose to retire.
“That was great karma,” says Aprile of the former business’s
longevity, “I didn’t feel like I was going into some failed
restaurant.”
PROGRESSIVE WITH A PAST Although he admits to originally
having some trepidation about opening East of Yonge Street,
he was taken by the aesthetics of the space itself, its historic
character and how this fit with his agenda of finding a place
that could be progressive without ignoring its past.
COMMUNITY CHRONICLE • 14
“Because the concept here at Colborne Lane is ironies,”
says Aprile, whose kitchen adopts a very open experimental
style to its creations.
A lemon tart, for example, will feature curds frozen into
little pearls using liquid nitrogen. “So there’s an emphasis on
texture and temperature, and a visual aspect to what we do,” he
explains, hesitant to use any one term to describe his cuisine.
LOOSE INTERPRETATIONS Rather than following a food
trend (highly progressive cuisine often entails following a
lot of rules, he says) Colborne Lane offers a very loose
interpretation of modern food.
“Here, you can do what you want,” he says. “Have one
dish and a glass of wine, whatever. We have a tasting menu
that changes every day.”
Where Colborne Lane is about changing and enhancing
food, Aprile’s newest project, slated to open in the summer,
will be something entirely different. The concept is still
in development, but more news on it will be available in
coming issues.
colbornelane.com
About Aprile...
2007 En Route Magazine names Colborne Lane one of
the top 10 new restaurants in Canada.
2006 Toronto Life names Aprile one of the top four chefs
in Toronto.
2003 Aprile was one of 25 chefs selected from around
the world to take part in the annual James Beard awards
in New York City.
2003 Sara Waxman names Aprile Chef of the Year.
2001 Vancouver Magazine names Aprile best chef in
Toronto “and the one to watch”. In the same year,
Toronto.com awards Aprile six out of five stars.
New web service IOU Central an ‘e-Bay’
for borrowing and lending
ST. LAURENT, BLVD.
MONTREAL / – People shop
for everything online now,
so why not get money too?
That’s the rationale that
helped launch Canada’s first
Internet-based peer-to-peer
lending and borrowing
platform, IOU Central.
It is essentially an online open
market where borrowers can
post loan requests onto a loan
listings board and lenders can place bids on these loan requests. Using IOU Central,
a borrower can apply for a personal loan in the amount of $1,000 to $25,000 and
for a term of up to three years. The lender, on the other hand, can bid on a loan in
amounts ranging from $25 to $25,000. IOU Central facilitates risk diversification
by allowing lenders to bid small amounts on many different loans.
WHERE BORROWERS AND LENDERS WIN Likening it to an eBay for
loans, Mayco Quiroz, the firm’s VP Finance, says the service has appeal to both
borrowers and lenders. On the one hand, borrowers benefit from competitive
interest rates. On the other hand, IOU Central empowers lenders to be their
own banker by giving them a platform to lend money to whomever they want.
It’s no longer just the local bank that can earn interest on your deposited money.
The site is the brainchild of company President Philippe Marleau, a former
VP of equity research at Merrill Lynch in New York whose strong financial
background helped him identify this growing trend.
IOU Central, which launched in February, is starting by servicing the Canadian
market before implementing plans in other countries.
GETTING MONEY The website is very easy to use. Someone who needs a small
loan posts his loan request on the loan listings board. The loan request includes
his credit score, which is retrieved from a third-party credit agency in a matter of
seconds. Borrowers, Quiroz explains, can apply for a loan without going though
the lengthy procedures common at traditional financial institutions.
“All loans are unsecured” says Quiroz, adding that steps are in place to collect
unpaid balances (the escalation of which sees the loan go to a collection agency),
but that ultimately, as a peer-to-peer exchange, it is the lender’s decision as to the
degree of risk he is willing to accept.
IOU Central, “le eBay”
des prêts d’argent
BOUL. ST. LAURENT, MONTRÉAL / – De
nos jours, on trouve tout ce qu’on veut
sur Internet, alors pourquoi pas des
prêts financiers? C’est cette idée
qui a permis de lancer la première
plate-forme de prêts de particuliers à
particuliers au Canada: IOU Central
Créé par Philippe Marleau, président
de la société et ancien vice-président
chez Merrill Lynch, ce marché en ligne
est un lieu où des emprunteurs peuvent
mettre leurs demandes d’emprunt
en enchères et des prêteurs d’argent
peuvent analyser et placer des offres
sur ces prêts. Les prêts peuvent varier
entre $1,000 et $25,000 pour une
durée de 1 à 36 mois. Bien entendu,
l’identité des participants est
complètement confidentielle.
Le comparant à une sorte d’eBay
pour prêts financiers, Mayco Quiroz,
vice-président du service financier
d’IOU Central, explique que ce service
attire autant les prêteurs que les
emprunteurs. IOU Central permet
aux emprunteurs de profiter de
taux d’intérêt intéressants et donne
l’occasion à chaque prêteur d’agir
comme s’il était son propre
banquier et d’empocher de solides
rendements.
MAKING MONEY Lenders, i.e., people with extra funds to invest, browse the
loan listings and bid on the loans by stating the amount they are willing to lend
and the rate they are willing to accept. As a do-it-yourself investment vehicle,
Quiroz expects most lenders will try to build a balanced portfolio of loans to
try to get a better return than they would in a GIC or money market fund.
From its studio-style offices at the Balfour, IOU Central hosts half a dozen
employees, with plenty of expansion space as the start-up prepares to staff up as
the service grows. IOU Central adheres to strict privacy policies and uses the
highest levels of online security to protect each users account. IOU Central
is TRUSTe-certified to have industry-leading privacy protection, and uses
bank-level data security and SSL 128-bit encryption, one of the best commercial
methods available today.
ioucentral.com
15 • HIVER 2008
MONTRÉAL
On the Money
QUÉBEC
Bureaux…
1 Québec
2 Shawinigan
3 Trois-Rivières
4 Victoriaville
5 Drummondville
1
2
3
4
5
Le réseau Absolu
Le seul réseau d’agences de publicité de la
province, présent pour les clients de toutes tailles.
BOUL. CHAREST EST, QUÉBEC/ - Travailler en tant que
spécialiste du marketing au Québec, hors du plus grand centre
urbain qu’est Montréal donne à Jean-François Ermel une
perspective bien différente. Et c’est justement ce que ses clients
attendent de lui.
En 2001, Jean-François Ermel ainsi que quatre associés ont
ouvert le bureau de la ville de Québec d’Absolu Communication
Marketing, seul réseau d’agences de publicité de la province.
Et plutôt que d’être une grande firme sur un petit marché ou
une petite firme sur un grand marché, Absolu a choisi de se
positionner au milieu et d’être une agence de taille moyenne
oeuvrant pour des clients de toutes tailles.
Un client international comme Cascasdes Inc., basé à Kingsey
Fall, fera par exemple appel à Absolu parce que c’est une agence
locale, avec laquelle il a une relation bien établie, mais il lui
confiera des projets qui pourront être régionaux, provinciaux
ou internationaux.
Par ailleurs, des entreprises ayant des besoins publicitaires
locaux, comme Télébec, Cablevision, Les Galeries Chagnon,
etc., viennent chercher Absolu spécifiquement pour ses
compétences sur les marchés régionaux.
Responsables de projets d’impression de 2 000 $ comme
de campagnes publicitaires d’un million de dollars, les cinq
bureaux d’Absolu comptent des clients à la fois sur les marchés
régionaux et dans les grands centres urbains de la province.
« Grâce à nos bureaux régionaux - répartis au Québec –
nous pouvons proposer les services qu’offrent les grandes agences
en jumelant les forces de chacun de nos bureaux », affirme
Jean-François Ermel pour expliquer comment fonctionne le
réseau d’Absolu fondé il y a 20 ans à Victoriaville et qui totalise
aujourd’hui quelque 50 professionnels au service de 350 clients.
Outre Québec et Victoriaville, le réseau compte des bureaux
à Trois-Rivières, Drummondville et Shawinigan. Ces agences
sont gérées de manière indépendante en termes de prévisions
de croissance et de revenu, mais elles partagent leurs ressources
et peuvent ainsi proposer à leurs clients tout ce qu’une grande
agence peut offrir : publicités dans les magazines et à la télévision, projets Web, projets à la radio et à la télévision ou stratégie
de communication et relations publiques.
Comprendre les marchés locaux est un atout précieux pour
Absolu lorsque des clients nationaux ont besoin de s’adresser à un
public local. Dans le domaine des achats-médias par exemple :
savoir dans quels coins sont reçues les diverses stations locales et
qui sont les auditeurs des stations régionales de Montréal ou
Québec exige des compétences et une grande connaissance des
comportements démographiques locaux.
« Le fait que nous soyons présents dans ces régions fait que
nous sommes mieux équipés pour
servir les petits clients. Nous
Les associés d’Absolu
avons une connaissance approau Québec
fondie des marchés sur lesquels
• Bruno Fréchette
nous oeuvrons - et comme nous
• Carl Provencher
couvrons tous ces marchés, nous
• Jason Monfette
avons une bonne connaissance
• Jean-François Ermel
du Québec dans son ensemble »,
• Jean-François Lauzier
conclut Jean-François Ermel.
• Marc-André Lauzier
absolu.ca
www.alliedpropertiesreit.com
CHRONIQUE COMMUNAUTAIRE • HIVER 2008 • 16
Avez-vous une histoire à raconter? Écrivez-nous au news@alliedpropertiesreit.com