Klara Serjani and President Jerome Freiburger thank guest speaker Joseph Puopolo of Polocorp.
Minutes of Rotary meeting May 29, 2019
Announcements:
No birthdays or anniversaries this week. Tony Giovinazzo was awarded his Sapphire Paul Harris award, congratulations Tony!
Motion by David Barth, seconded by Ed Simon, to donate $10,000 to the St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation for patient lift and vital stats monitor. Vote was passed with one abstention, Julie Powell since she works for the Foundation.
No winners of 50/50, Brandon, John Rose and Marc Engel tried their luck. The pot grows starting at $489 next week.
Speaker today was Joseph Puopolo, CEO of Polocorp. Joseph spoke about the development trend in Waterloo region.
Polocorp has been involved in land development and community building for 40 years
The Region has 1,100 startup businesses/1,000,000 people compared to Silicon Valley’s rate of 500/1,000,000
LRT expected to have a transformative effect on the region
A 39 storey building going up as part of intensification in the downtown core, helped by the LRT
Expect an additional 5,000 residential units soon in the KW cores
Retail and cultural elements will follow residential growth
We are seeing empty nesters starting to embrace the urban lifestyle with interest in condos
Seeing a demographic buying shift. Young adults are finding it difficult to afford their first home, particularly the traditional detached home in the burbs, so are leaning towards non-traditional housing like condos, townhouses
Shift of GTA workers moving down the 401
The “downsizers” are controlling the majority of the capital, developers need to create projects they want; this will be very pronounced in the next 5-10 years
Barra on Queen project was started 8-10 years ago and is now in construction with occupancy in early 2020. 80% sold, 110 units
Forbes Estate project in Hespeler will preserve heritage and develop around it. Trying to mix demographics in same community
Have to embrace changes in our communities, not being afraid to develop up instead of out
Options include use of existing inventory, e.g. empty bedrooms with empty nesters realty, use of Air B’n’B, shared ownership
President Jerome presents Tony Giovinazzo with a Sapphire Paul Harris award.
