Chronicle - Winter 2010

WINTER / SPRING 2010

THE ALLIED PROPERTIES REIT TENANT MAGAZINE

QUEBEC CITY

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MONTREAL

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TORONTO

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WINNIPEG

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KITCHENER

IN FIGHTING FORM

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Muay Thai gym teaches fitness to downtown workers and inner city youth

Plans to form massive innovation district in Montreal

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4

Winnipeg’s SGS labs a key part of Canada’s agri-food system

Inside Toronto’s last handrolled Cuban cigar factory

16 PLUS Montreal’s Graphiques M&H • Toronto’s ChickAdvisor.com • Kitchener’s MFX Partners • Winnipeg’s Nardella Photo

INCOMING...

Beverly St.

Bulwer St. N

Queen St. W. Richmond St. W. Camden St. Adelaide St. W.

John St.

Windmer St.

Peter St.

Spadina Ave.

Brant St.

King St. W.

Allied’s Queen Street West Acquisition to Help Form Future Queen-Richmond Centre ‘West’ QUEEN STREET WEST, TORONTO/ – With an eye to Allied expects to incorporate the surplus land into emulating the success of its Queen-Richmond Centres East the project by creating dedicated parking spaces using and South (also known as QRC East and QRC South parking-stacker technology. Plans are also being drawn respectively), Allied Properties REIT to incorporate the existing building finalized the December acquisition of into the intensification project and 375-381 Queen Street West, located on to create additional office space the southwest corner of Queen and Peter by building onto and out from “We’ve long believed that Streets. The main tenants here include the building. the intensification of The Gap and Payless Shoesource at the By incorporating 375-381 Queen 134 Peter Street would retail level and Red Bull Canada taking Street West, the intensification be a landmark project in up the bulk of the office space. of 134 Peter Street will now extend downtown west.”

While 375-381 Queen Street West along Peter Street all the way from will continue to function as a rental Queen Street to Richmond Street. property for the time being, the building For this reason, Allied has decided to – Michael Emory, Allied Properties REIT President & CEO and adjacent 4,381 square feet of surplus refer to the expanded intensification land are just north of Allied’s 134 Peter project as Queen Richmond Centre Street, where earlier this year, the West or QRC West. company received zoning approval for Not only is this name descriptive, it builds on the fact a large-scale intensification project. that Allied owns QRC, one of the very best Class I office “We’ve long believed that the intensification of 134 Peter complexes in Downtown East, as well as the neighbouring Street would be a landmark project in downtown west,” QRC South. said Michael Emory, Allied President & CEO. “With the Pre-leasing of QRC West has begun and the company integration of 375-381 Queen Street West, the project expects to find an appropriate anchor tenant in the next is destined to become one of the best mixed-use, urban 12 to 18 months. developments in the entire city.”

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Toronto-based product and review site for women organizes movie nights and shop crawls to make its virtual community into something real “I’ve always been a product junkie,” she confides. This habit combined with a pre-wedding realization that there were no user-generated reviews of local hair salons in her home town of Winnipeg, helped spark the idea for ChickAdvisor.com.

REACHING 2.5 MILLION PEOPLE A social media platform for women featuring user-generated reviews on the best products and local services across Canada and the United States, ChickAdvisor reaches over 2.5 million people across North America and has over 125,000 unique visitors a month.

It also has a Toronto feel mainly because its video content, ChickChat TV, is filmed throughout the city, and because of the local events organized by de Bold and her team of six from their offices at 96 Spadina. Beyond the occasional group movie night or cocktail reception, a popular event is the Shop Crawl, a group shopping experience organized in a specific neighbourhood on a given date.

Participants travel the circuit in teams working with stylists and getting 20 to 30 percent off their purchases.

The ticketed evening event features cocktails, martinis and swag bags from sponsors like Maybelline New York as well as an impromptu fashion show at a local restaurant (participants model their purchases to win prizes).

“We’re always finding ways to engage advertisers with this community,” says de Bold of the urban 18-to-40-year-old crowd that mostly makes up her site’s demographic.

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / – Ali de Bold isn’t afraid to pull back the curtain on her three-year-old social networking site to reveal that, a) it is Toronto-based, and b) it is the brain child of she and her web-savvy consultant husband, Alex.

“It’s important to be honest on the web and to show that you are real and accountable and not hiding anything,” says de Bold, a genial, 31-year-old brunette with a penchant for filling her bathroom vanity with half-used product bottles.

USER-GENERATED PRODUCT REVIEWS Acting as a facilitator between major brands like CoverGirl, L’Oreal and Garnier and their target audience is a key part of de Bold’s business model. Despite a close relationship with some advertisers, ChickAdvisor’s product reviews are user generated, providing a trustworthy place for women to share advice on everything from beauty products to restaurants and retailers.

Of course, given it’s a social site, there are plenty of chats following relationship issues, wellness and pop culture, but first-time users tend to find themselves here in search of product advice.

“Think of it as a way to save money,” offers de Bold.

“There are reviews on so many things. Before you go out and buy your 25th lipstick, go online and check out the reviews.”

ChickAdvisor.com

3 • WINTER / SPRING 2010

TORONTO

SHE SAID, SHE SAID

DEVELOPING CONNECT La Cité Multimédia deviendra un élément clé du nouveau Quartier de l’Innovation CITÉ MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / – Afin de supporter l’industrie québécoise du savoir qui continue à prospérer dans la grande région de Montréal, une nouvelle vision de développement immobilier voie le jour. Aussi sous le leadership de l’École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), les 6 000 personnes qui travaillent à la Cité Multimédia, ensemble d’édifices commerciaux abritant des sociétés de haute technologie et des agences de design situé à quelques coins de rue du vieux port, formeront avec la Cité du Commerce électronique et le Nordelec un vaste parc scientifique urbain qui regroupera des professionnels de la nouvelle économie. « Ce sera le nouveau Montréal », déclare Yves Beauchamp, directeur général de l’ÉTS, en expliquant qu’avec le réaménagement de l’autoroute Bonaventure et le développement de Griffintown, du Nouveau Havre et du projet Cadillac Fairview au sud du Centre Bell c’est plus de cinq milliards de dollars qui seront investis dans un rayon de deux kilomètres de l’intersection des rues Peel et Notre-Dame, où se trouve le campus de l’ÉTS. « Ce territoire deviendra le Quartier de l’Innovation, un site de grande qualité de vie, comme le district 22@Barcelone. »

20 000 PROFESSIONNELS DU SAVOIR « Lorsque l’ÉTS a emménagé rue Notre-Dame dans les anciens locaux de la Brasserie Dow en 1997, le quartier était désert », ajoute Yves Beauchamp. « Aujourd’hui, on y trouve plus de 20 000 professionnels du savoir qui y travaillent et de plus en plus cherchent à y habiter. » Étant donné le nombre d’entreprises technologiques déjà présentes et le fait que l’ÉTS souhaite accueillir un plus grand nombre d’étudiants et multiplier ses liens avec l’industrie, la Cité Multimédia fait en réalité déjà partie d’un pôle technologique naissant qui finira de prendre forme lorsque l’autoroute Bonaventure aura été transformée en boulevard et qui deviendra le Quartier de l’Innovation.

Pour améliorer la liaison entre la Cité Multimédia et le campus de l’ÉTS, le projet prévoit la démolition de l’autoroute aérienne et l’élargissement des rues Duke et Nazareth pour faire un boulevard avec des bureaux, un hôtel et des bâtiments résidentiels et commerciaux, tous situés entre les deux rues.

DES CONDOMINIUMS ABORDABLES Le Quartier de l’Innovation offrira également un grand nombre de condominiums abordables qui seront desservis par une ligne de tramway qui reliera le quartier à la ligne de métro existante.

Mais au-delà de ces nouvelles infrastructures, l’ÉTS offre aux entreprises technologiques un avantage plus immédiat et plus important encore : sa volonté de renforcer ses liens directs avec elles.

L’ÉTS est l’institution qui forme le plus grand nombre d’ingénieurs spécialisés en technologie de l’information et en conception de logiciels au Canada par le biais d’un programme axé autour de stages en entreprises. Elle a aussi la capacité de moduler ses programmes d’enseignement en fonction des besoins de l’industrie. Cette proximité lui permet également d’aider les entreprises de haute technologie, telles que celles installées à la Cité Multimédia, à se développer en leur faisant profiter de ses infrastructures technologiques uniques et de ses chercheurs. « Lorsque notre fiducie de placement a acheté la Cité, nous espérions voir les liens avec le centre-ville se renforcer », affirme Michael Emory, chef de la direction de Allied Properties REIT, propriétaire de la Cité Multimédia. « Et c’est justement ce qui se passe aujourd’hui avec un atout supplémentaire : l’accès direct à un campus universitaire dynamique. C’est un réel avantage pour nos clients des secteurs créatifs. » Cité Multimédia buildings

2007 tréal Mon e d e Havr té du Socié

Proposed and recent developments

MONTRÉAL

IONS Société du Havre de Montréal 2007

CITÉ MULTIMÉDIA, MONTREAL / – As Quebec’s knowledge economy continues to grow, developments are being planned to support it. The 6,000 workers in the Cité Multimédia, the cluster of buildings housing high-tech companies and design firms just a few blocks from the old port, will be linked, through the leadership of l’École de technologie supérieure (ETS), with the Cité du Commerce électronique and le Nordelec to create a massive geographic hub of knowledge-based professionals.

“This will be the new Montreal,” says Yves Beauchamp, CEO of ETS, explaining that with the planned development of Griffintown, le Nouveau Havre, the Cadillac Fairview project South of the Bell Center and the redesign of the Bonaventure Expressway, more than $5 billion will be invested within a two-kilometer radius of the Peel and Notre-Dame intersection, the centre of the ETS Campus.

“This area, known as the Innovation District, will offer a tremendous quality of life to users, much like the 22@Barcelona district, ” he adds.

Société du Havre de Montréal 2007

20,000 KNOWLEDGE WORKERS “When ETS moved to Notre-Dame Street in the old Dow Brewery in 1997, the area was a no man’s land,” says Beauchamp. “Today, there are more than 20 000 knowledge workers in this area and people are now coming to live here.”

Given the amount of technology companies already present and the ETS’s plans to grow its student population and industry ties, Cité Multimédia is effectively already part of a rough-hewn technology park that will begin to take on a more finished form as the Innovation District when the Bonaventure expressway is remade into a boulevard.

Modelisation de la rue Duke vue vers le nord (photo supérieure) et situation actuelle.

The demolition of the elevated expressway and the widening of Duke and Nazareth Streets into a boulevard with lots between the two streets for office, hotel, retail and residential developments will serve to improve the connection between the Cité Multimédia and the ETS campus.

ETS WORKING CLOSELY WITH INDUSTRY The Innovation District will also see a growing number of affordable downtown condos, and there is a plan for a tramway to link the area to the existing Metro line.

But beyond the coming infrastructure changes, a more immediate and significant benefit for technology companies is the ETS’ willingness to strengthen its ties with the industry.

ETS graduates the nation’s largest number of engineers in IT and software design in a coop program and can tailor its courses and curricula to the needs of the industry and share its unique technology infrastructure to support the growth of high tech companies, like the ones in Cité Multimédia.

“The Innovation District is exciting for us and for our tenants,” adds Michael Emory, CEO of Allied Properties REIT, which owns Cité Multimédia.

“When the REIT purchased the venue, it had hoped to see a greater connection to the city’s core and now that vision is coming true, in addition to providing direct access to a dynamic university campus for our creative tenants.”

5 • WINTER / SPRING 2010

Left to right: SGS Winnipeg receives as much as 25,000 grain samples that it stores for as long as a year. The Portage Street agricultural headquarters of this national testing firm. The sorting and testing area for grains and seeds.

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WINNIPEG

FIELD WORK

Multinational testing firm’s Winnipeg headquarters an important part of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food system

PORTAGE AVE., WINNIPEG / – Just east of Main Street on Portage you’ll find a seven-storey circa 1920s office building whose basement, and part of its top floor, are filled with grain. To be accurate, it’s actually thousands of 500 gram samples of grain. All individually marked and categorized like the evidence room of a police station, the storage areas are part of the agricultural headquarters of national testing firm SGS Canada Inc (affiliate member of the multinational Group of companies SGS), which tests and rates 75% of the grain nation wide, among other things.

A player in the country’s $88 billion* agriculture and agri-food system, SGS is the independent third party that verifies and certifies grain and seed quality. Essentially, a certificate from SGS authenticating the quality of the commodities is what will trigger one party to pay the other upon receiving a shipment.

THE FEED-FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN SGS works for companies in the feed-food supply chain, from the trading houses to purchasing agencies and final users, as well as food aid organizations, banks and insurance companies.

Grains and seeds need to be tested throughout their journey from the field to the processing plant to ensure their quality parameters meet specific standards. SGS gets involved throughout this journey, testing in the field as well as on rail cars and in the ports of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

This agriculture arm of a large multinational offers its services to all segments of the soft commodities market from grain to liquids, fibers, sugar, fruits, cocoa and even coffee.

FULLY ACCREDITED SEED LABS From this office, SGS coordinates the inspection, sampling, grading and

testing of a range of grain products for the Canadian Wheat Board (the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world) as well as for grain companies and smaller processing companies and traders.

SGS staffers regularly go out to sites to check qualities, and clients also send in samples to the headquarters’ fully accredited grain and seed labs, as well as its microbiology lab where grain can be tested for a number of visual (such as grade) and non-visual properties (like whether or not it would make good flour and whether it contains any mycotoxins).

Over a year, this facility can receive as much as 25,000 samples, which it is required to hold for anywhere from 30 days to a year.

INSPECTING, SUPERVISING AND CERTIFYING COMMODITIES Tracing its origins to 1878 France where its founders understood the need for traders to be represented at the loading and unloading of grain carrying vessels, SGS (Societee Generale de Surveillance) has a unique network of specialists and laboratories in 140 countries to ensure contractual terms are complied with. Agriculture is now just a small part of the company’s multi-billion dollar business, which has 10 areas of concentration, all of which have to do with inspecting, supervising and certifying commodities.

In fact, SGS first came to Canada in 1948 to serve the growing oil and gas industry. It was only 50 years later that it began grading and testing for non-regulated agricultural product such as peas, lentils and buckwheat.

In 2004, it began on-site grading for wheat rail cars on their way to the U.S., and the agri business began to grow. Now it is the largest of three players in the testing marketplace conducting 75% of the testing here.

www.ca.sgs.com

* In 2006, the agriculture and agri-food system contributed $87.9 billion (chained 1997 dollars) to the country’s GDP or 8% of the Canadian economy and employed 2.1 million Canadians. Source: Industry Canada.

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TORONTO

CONNECTIVITY 151 Front Street West is the city’s key data communications facility and Toronto’s other gateway to the world

FRONT STREET WEST, TORONTO / – It doesn’t receive planes, trains or even cars and its doesn’t make the grand architectural statements Pearson airport and Union Station are apt to, but 151 Front Street West is still a place where thousands of connections are made.

From the outside, this unremarkable 10-storey box at the corner of Front Street West and University would seem to hold nothing more than a tour bus operator, an East Side Mario’s restaurant and presumably some offices overhead. But this building’s true purpose lies a level below, in the basement where some 25 points of entry allow more than 7,000 strands of fibre-optic cable to penetrate its subterranean walls.

OFFICE PROPERTY SPECIALIZING IN TELECOM Originally built in 1954 to house telegraph equipment, the building’s location remains particularly relevant today as an office property specializing in telecommunications, given that a tremendous amount of cabling infrastructure was laid along Front and University from the 1960s to 1990s to serve the banking industry’s growing need for communications infrastructure and subsequently for business continuity. alliedpropertiesreit.com • 8

“Most of the buildings in Allied’s portfolio are good at accommodating people, but at 151 Front, the strength is accommodating technology,” says Michael Emory, Allied Properties REIT president and CEO of the building recently added to the company’s portfolio.

151 Front Street functions as a key part of every major Canadian Internet provider’s network and is home in some way to all facilities-based telecommunications carriers in the country, but also includes web hosting companies and storage service providers.

MEET-ME ROOM CONNECTS TENANTS And the beating heart of this facility is the Meet-Me-Room that offers 151 Front’s tenants a centralized place to access service providers and carriers.

“The thousands of cross connections made in the MeetMe-Room is essentially what makes 151 Front Street one of the country’s premiere technology centres,” explains Doug Riches, the building’s general manager.

TORONTO (Above) A mechanical room houses some 25 generators to run the building when no power is available from the grid and (left) deepwater cooling chills much of the space given the heat generated by tenant hardware.

(Opposite page) The Meet-Me room is where tenant data infrastructures connect.

With its focus on technology, it also provides colocation services (where customers of tenants at 151 Front Street can locate their network, servers and data storage gear in a place other than their offices) on a large scale. For example, one tenant might have a large suite in which it houses servers for several of its clients, including financial institutions, multinational corporations and web-based companies.

“Some of the largest tenants at 151 Front offer colocation services, so that a company will have their server located here, where it is a stable and secure environment,” says Riches.

BUILT FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY Indeed, one of 151 Front Street’s best assets is its ability to provide business continuity, not only when a tenant’s office infrastructure fails but when there is a major disruption.

Purpose-built for heavy machinery, 151 Front Street’s floor loading is 10 times stronger than the average building and able to support massive loads like the 25 generators in the mechanical rooms that are dedicated to running the facility when no power is available from the grid.

The deepwater cooling system chills the bulk of the facility which produces a large amount of heat generated by all the hardware. And many tenants bring in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) some as large as walls that use 27,000 pounds of batteries to stabilize the flow of power to a suite’s delicate equipment.

TIGHT ACCESS CONTROL Then of course there is security.

Entering the building is no simple matter. A large guard station scrutinizes visitors who enter via a two-stage glassed doorway. Video cameras everywhere and access controlled badges help to maintain the balance between customer technicians needing 24/7 access to their servers and the security each tenant demands.

Indeed, none of its immediate neighbours has the robustness and connectivity to deliver what this building has on offer.

And while the street outside hums with the traffic of the city, 151 Front Street West’s suites and halls hum with the Internet traffic of the world.

151frontstreet.com

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un partenariat d’affaires pour des projets créatifs sur mesure CITÉ MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / – Selon à qui vous vous adressez dans le monde de la publicité à Montréal, on vous dira que Graphiques M&H est un studio de graphisme de renom ou un imprimeur de pointe. « Dans l’idéal, on veut être reconnus pour les deux », déclare François Leclerc, responsable du service d’imagerie numérique de l’agence et vétéran du secteur avec 15 années d’expérience derrière lui. « Quand un client nous demande de créer et d’imprimer une image, nous lui proposons un service complet, de la conception à l’impression. »

GRAPHISTES M&H AU SEIN DES AGENCES DE PUBLICITÉ Graphiques M&H, qui s’étend aujourd’hui sur presque deux étages du 80, rue Queen au sein de la Cité Multimédia, est une agence de graphisme qui compte parmi ses clients nombre d’agences de publicité réputées, des firmes de design spécialisées et des entreprises de divers secteurs. Graphiques M&H offre aussi un service supplémentaire : elle implante des studios de graphisme au sein des agences de publicité.

Toutefois, le graphisme n’est que la première étape d’une gamme de services variés offerts par Graphiques M&H. Avec un service d’imagerie numérique et un atelier qui s’étalent sur 3 000 pieds carrés, Graphiques M&H s’établit de plus en plus comme une agence de production graphique se spécialisant... dans les projets spécialisés. « Nous faisons beaucoup de petits projets d’impression de haute qualité », explique François Leclerc en ajoutant qu’il compte parmi ses clients de grandes entreprises comme L’Oréal, Pratt & Whitney et Astral Media.

DIVERSES COMPÉTENCES EN IMPRESSION Les rapports annuels, brochures, design d’emballage, catalogues et autres présentoirs pour salons professionnels représentent une grande partie du travail de l’atelier. Mais là où Graphiques M&H sait se différencier depuis peu, c’est le développement de prototypes et la résolution de problèmes liés au matériel de promotion et d’exposition grâce à ses diverses compétences en impression et en menuiserie sur panneaux de mousse rigide.

Graphiques M&H a en effet créé des présentoirs grand format (jusqu’à 72 pouces) d’un genre nouveau, des affiches lumineuses destinées aux abribus, du matériel graphique pour stands dans les salons professionnels et des accessoires pour décor de télévision. « Le prépresse occupe une très grande place au sein de notre agence.

Nos épreuves respectent les standards internationaux de l’industrie», explique François Leclerc.

En comptant l’équipe de production qu’elle implante chez certains de ses clients et Hue Web Studio, son agence interne de design créée il y a trois ans, Graphiques M&H emploie près de cent personnes, mais elle continue d’offrir à ses clients le service personnel d’une petite imprimerie.

Mh.ca

Graphiques M&H proving a heavyweight on the creative service scale CITÉ MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / – Depending on whom you speak to in Montreal’s advertising world, Graphiques M&H is either a venerable graphic production studio or a solution provider for specialty print jobs.

“Ideally, we want to be seen as both,” says François Leclerc, a 15-year veteran of the print industry who heads the firm’s digital imaging division. “Basically, when a client wants us to create a printed image, we can offer a complete service, from design to print.”

For 35 years, Graphiques M&H, currently occupying the better part of two floors at 80 Queen Street in the Cité Multimédia, has been a graphic production service to many of the city’s best-known advertising agencies, boutique design firms and a number of corporate clients.

And to the advertising world, it also supplies and manages entire in-house design departments for agencies. But graphic design is just where Graphiques M&H’s services begin.

With a 3,000-square-foot digital imaging and workshop, Graphiques M&H is further establishing itself as a full print production firm whose specialty is, well, specialties.

“We do a lot of high quality, small print runs,” says Leclerc, adding they do a lot of work for large firms such as L’Oréal, Pratt & Whitney and Astral Media.

Annual reports, brochures, package design, catalogs, tradeshow displays can form a lot of the jobs that keep the workshop busy, but where they have distinguished themselves lately is in developing prototypes and solving display problems with a combination of print expertise and foam board carpentry.

Graphiques M&H counts almost 100 employees when you factor in its client-side production teams and its three-year-old web design firm Hue Web Studio, but in many ways it continues to serve its clientele with a small printing company feel.

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MONTRÉAL

GRAPHIQUES M&H

TOTUM TIPS

Does your New Year’s Resolution need a Spring tune-up?

Jorhdin Banner Professional development coach

Have the wheels fallen off your New Year’s Resolution to get fit, start running, lose 10 pounds or score a gold in the ski cross? Jorhdin Banner, PhD, a professional and personal development coach at Totum Fitness’s King Street West Studio has a 5-point inspection to help you get that resolution rolling again.

“By February or March, resolutions tend to lose their strength, so this is a good time to regroup, and review and maybe revise your goals,” says Banner, a psychotherapist specializing in positive change strategies who began working with Totum in the fall to complement the gym’s mind body balance approach to lifelong fitness.

Totum.ca

A 5-point inspection to get you back on track: 1. CHECK YOUR GOAL. “Ask yourself if this is really what you want,” says Banner.

Desire, she explains, is the first and most critical step in picking and sticking with a goal. One of the main reasons we fail is generally because the resolution has more to do with external factors, like exercising to look good without the accompanying intrinsic feel good factors, she says. Something you want and enjoy the benefits of will be easier to maintain than something you should do.

“Whether it’s diet, weight, smoking cessation or other activities we’d like to change, it requires that internal feel good component for change to stick,” says Banner.

2. CHECK YOUR MILESTONES. This is about celebrating your successes. OK, so maybe you didn’t drop the extra passenger you picked with your Holiday eating, but consider how many times you’ve been to the gym.

“Look back at what you have accomplished so that you can provide yourself with positive feedback as you achieve each step towards your goal,” Banner advises.

“And set specific time lines for each step so that you maintain positive momentum.”

Research tells us that for these steps to be successful they need to be specific, measurable, progressive, meaningful and achievable.

3. CHECK YOUR SCHEDULE. If you haven’t already done this, make an appointment with your better self, literally. Write down exactly what you are planning and then put this new commitment in your day timer in a time slot that you can keep.

Without the space for change, it is unlikely to happen, says Banner. Establishing a new routine or positive habit requires repetition and practice.

4. CHECK YOUR FLOW. Do you feel good when you workout? Process-oriented goals focus on the good feelings that are generated by doing the behaviour for its own sake rather than for a specific reward or outcome down the road. In other words, if you like working out, you’ll do it.

“Being in “the zone” or “flow” as it’s known in the sports world happens when you have a clear set goal and you’re tuned into feedback through enhanced concentration and awareness,” explains Banner.

“It is the optimal internal balance between the challenge of the goal and your own skill level. Don’t be discouraged if it’s not happening yet, flow grows slowly with time and practice.”

5. CHECK YOUR EXPECTATIONS. Be realistic and compassionate with yourself in what can be achieved initially and during those more difficult moments, says Banner.

“Every day is different in terms of the demands you must meet and energy you have available. So be kind and supportive rather than critical and judgmental when things are less than perfect.”

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AV. DU PARC, MONTRÉAL / – Juste au nord de la passerelle qui chevauche l’avenue du Parc, à l’intersection de la rue Beaubien Ouest, il y a du nouveau.

Malgré son trait d’originalité, l’immeuble de six étages situé au 6300, de l’avenue, construit vers 1927 et connu pour ses grands studios et ses loyers raisonnables, avait besoin d’un petit coup de jeune.

Son auvent rayé et fatigué le distinguait certes des autres édifices mais sans aucune distinction. La rénovation de la façade terminée à l’automne 2009 a permis d’ajouter du métal pour moderniser l’ensemble et d’installer un nouvel auvent flambant neuf.

Tout en offrant une protection contre les intempéries, le nouvel auvent en métal blanc confère à l’édifice un aspect plus contemporain et une présence plus marquée au coin de la rue.

L’adresse de l’immeuble est également utilisée comme un élément de design. Peinte en rouge pour faire contraste avec le blanc de l’auvent, elle est placée bien en évidence au-dessus de l’allée couverte, ce qui la rend très visible pour les automobilistes (et elle est éclairée le soir).

6300 Parc’s Frontage Gets a Facelift AVE. DU PARC, MONTREAL / – Just north of the railway overpass that crosses Avenue du Parc, at the corner of Rue Beaubien Ouest, something is different.

While 6300 has some street presence, the six-storey, circa 1927 building known for its large, studio spaces and value for rent, was in need of a refresher.

Indeed, the tired, striped canopy did make it distinguishable from its industrial peers, but not distinguished. Work on the street level façade of the building, which was completed in the fall of 2009, uses metal facing to give it a more contemporary style and features a new canopy structure.

Made of white pre-painted aluminum, the metal canopy gives the building a more prominent and modern presence on the corner while providing users with continued weather protection.

The building address is also a highlighted design element. Painted red to contrast with the canopy’s white, it is mounted prominently over the covered walkway, making it easier for drivers to read (it is also lit from below for easier nighttime viewing).

13 • WINTER / SPRING 2010

MONTRÉAL

Un coup de jeune au 6300, avenue du Parc

THE

MUAY THAI WAY

alliedpropertiesreit.com • 14

says Old School Muay Thai’s James Hines, though most of his students join to lose weight, increase endurance and strength, and manage stress.

New Richmond Street West gym’s Thai boxing training combines lifestyle discipline with fitness results RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO / – It’s a little austere, but six heavy bags, some punching stands and about 2,000 square feet of soft, matted floor is really all you need to teach Muay Thai, a form of kickboxing that has been around for about 2,000 years, though just under 20 in Ontario.

Known as the art of the eight limbs, Muay Thai, or Thai boxing as it is sometimes called, uses elbows and knees in addition to fists and feet to perform a range of combative techniques that make it one of the more aggressive martial arts.

But that’s not why James Hines’s Old School Muay Thai gym on Richmond Street West, just below nightspot The Fifth Social Club, is growing by over eight new members a month since it opened its doors last fall.

“I’ve had many students lose 50 pounds or more,” says Hines, whose grueling 60- to 90-minute classes focus on the classic fight training mix of cardio, strength and endurance exercises to teach beginners who can barely complete two push ups to become athletes who can run for a half hour before class begins.

MOST IN IT FOR FITNESS “About 10 percent of the people I train want to test themselves in the ring, but that takes a lot of dedication, courage and lifestyle changes,” says Hines, who has represented Canada in North American and World Amateur Muay Thai competitions in the U.S. and Thailand.

Known as ‘Kru’ (instructor) James, Hines’s fascination with Muay Thai and the lifestyle began in 1992 when he met Suchart Yodkereipauprai, a former Muay Thai champion.

In August of that same year, the future ‘Ajarn’ (Master) Suchart started teaching Muay Thai and James was his first student. Suchart now runs his own gym, Siam #1, in Woodbridge and has trained over 20,000 students.

As for Hines, his love of this Thai national sport helped him establish Muay Thai as a respected sport in Canada through the development of a number of programs in the GTA and his own gym as well as a not-for-profit division that supports at-risk youth within the community by giving a select number of students subsidized access to Muay Thai training.

TEACHING YOUTH DISCIPLINE “Muay Thai discipline has ties to Buddhist teachings that talk about preparation.

When you prepare for something you can be successful, and that success gives them confidence that moves into other aspects of their lives,” says Hines who hopes to create inroads with other youth-oriented organizations such as Big Brothers, Peace Jam, Pathways to Education and the Youth Assisting Youth program.

At Old School, classes (some starting as early as 6:30 am) are either 60 or 90 minutes and feature an aerobic warm-up, stretching, skipping and ‘old school’ conditioning with push ups and squats, plus a focus on core training.

The second half of the workout focuses on learning and practicing traditional Muay Thai techniques using heavy bags, Thai pads, and punching stands, as well as shadow boxing.

“People like it because they never get bored,” says Hines of Muay Thai’s learning component. “And if you’re not bored, you can stick to it and get good results.”

Oldschoolmuaythai.com

Success Training for At-Risk Youth Every year, Old School’s not-for-profit division trains at-risk youth, helping them learn the self-discipline, respect and focus that are a key part of Muay Thai training.

“Success here gives them confidence and that moves into other aspects of their lives,” says owner James Hines.

The 50 students in this division range in age from 13 to 24 and are a mix of male and female. Many are new to Canada (identified through WoodGreen Community Services) though some students are established Torontonians (connected through affiliations with Harbourfront and Scadding Court Community Centres).

Beyond learning about physical and emotional health through training, Muay Thai also teaches the control of impulses, good nutrition as well as alcohol and drug avoidance.

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“

“I train everyone as though they are going to compete.”

SMOKE SIGNALS North America’s last hand-made Cuban cigar factory keeps on rolling at King West Central

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / – From its speak-easy entrance in a downtown Toronto alley to the tobacco leaf press set amidst a half dozen worn rolling desks, right down to the accounting ledger from 1915 with an order for 9,000 cigars, everything about the Frank Correnti Cigars factory screams authenticity.

And it should. Authenticity is the hallmark of this family owned and operated firm that is the last place in North America to still make hand-rolled Cuban cigars.

As the smell of curing tobacco hangs in the air, and the light of a winter’s afternoon casts grey through the factory windows, Johnny Miller offers a crash course in cigar production.

CIGAR ROLLING A TIME-CONSUMING ART “No one has any comprehension of how much labour goes into this, and how much time. Just pulling the stem out of the leaf, it’s best if it is done by hand,” says the company’s elder statesman and father to Kris and Kelly who help to run the firm founded in Copenhagen in 1882 by their great grandfather Kristian.

“We make cigars for an exclusive clientele and those clients have been with us for 35 to 40 years,” says Miller who at one time criss-crossed the country keeping wholesalers, country clubs, hotels and retailers stocked with the latest blends mixed and rolled by the skilled hands of the dozen Cuban rollers his factory once employed.

But demand has narrowed to a very specific market, and the Frank Correnti Cigars’ operations have tapered to meet that demand.

CUSTOM HOLLYWOOD WORK A display near the front features a handful of framed movie posters hinting to the company’s film credits. It has made custom blends for the

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likes of Will Smith in Wild Wild West, Robert Duvall in Open Range (Duvall asked for tea leaves to be used. “I just about died,” says Miller of the taste), and for Brad Pitt playing the cigar smoking lead in The Assassination of Jesse James.

(Here, the firm rolled a special palma using 20-percent nicotine-free tobacco.)

“We’ve do a lot for film and television because we’re a custom operation,” says Kris Miller, “We can make any blend, size, shape. It’s what we do.”

Specialization is how an organization that rose from an era when more people smoked cigars than cigarettes adapts to change in the marketplace, that, and a sense of tradition, which is how Johnny’s parents, Kai and Ulla Miller persevered when they arrived in Toronto in 1956.

‘PEOPLE COME TO GET SOMETHING UNIQUE’ Back then, Kai was rolling as many as 500 cigars a day, seven days a week, just to stay in business. This was at a time when a Petit Corona sold for twenty cents, if you could find a buyer for the premium product against machine-made cigars at ten cents for a five pack.

Ulla would in turn press, band, cellophane, box and often deliver those cigars after putting in her regular shift as a bookbinder. With Kai at his roller’s table for fifteen hours a day, and Ulla working two full-time jobs, the task of selling the inventory fell to Johnny, who has been delivering, selling and smoking cigars since he was 12.

“At one time, there wasn’t anyone we didn’t sell to,” says Johnny Miller, “but now we don’t go chasing the market.

Besides, we’re so well known we get people from all over the world coming down this little laneway to get something unique.” correnticigars.com

TORONTO

NEXT GENERATION: Kris Miller and his sister Kelly Novielli carry on the family business at Frank Correnti Cigars, which counts celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen and Adam Sandler among its customers.

How K.A. Miller and Son became Frank Correnti Cigars An established cigar manufacturer and distributor in the 1970s, K.A. Miller and Son, then run by Johnny Miller’s parents Kai and Ulla, felt their international distribution lacked the personal touch that father and son loved about the business, so they purchased Frank Correnti Cigars Limited. They kept the Correnti name to maintain that company’s premium pricing.

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Partners in Culture Kitchener design and innovation group forms three companies to develop internal and external communications strategies “It’s about designing a long-term cultural change for and within a company, not greenwashing” says Hart, whose team re-named the client firm ‘Found Energy’ and developed both its branding, positioning and marketing materials.

“Normally in this business-to-business situation, the inclination is to talk about reducing operational costs, but our research found that senior level decision-makers were just as interested in talking about the green aspects of waste heat recovery and how it would influence the corporate image of their company within communities” says Short.

VICTORIA STREET, KITCHENER / – Given the warehouse-style windows and the post and beam structure that form the industrial backdrop for its modern workstation clusters, you might think this is a tactical design firm. But design is just a starting point for the 18 people here staffing MFX Partners and CoreCulture, two related firms that specialize in helping clients communicate with their external and internal audiences.

MFX Partners President John Short sees design as more than the tactical application of graphic design skill sets (although about 50% of the company’s work is that); in his view, it is also an integral part of the team’s much broader strategic activities, which address business challenges as well as social, community-type problems.

“The design process is well suited to tackling complex problems,” explains Brock Hart, the firm’s Creative Director.

BRANDING FOR A CULTURAL CHANGE When one client wanted to re-brand a waste heat recovery system for industrial processes, MFX Partners zeroed in on the fact that potential buyers were most interested in how this technology could be applied to their smokestacks and be seen as a symbol of efforts that are truly contributing to a greener community.

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FORMING MFX AND CORE CULTURE The firm’s principals, John and Rebecca Short, cut their marketing teeth working for BF Goodrich, Uniroyal and Conoco Chemicals and have long since followed their creative interests to form MFX Partners.

In 2002, the pair teamed up with Brian Scott, the founder of one of the most successful loss prevention and health and safety agencies in North America, to create CoreCulture.

Steeped in the notion that information is what builds a strong internal culture, particularly for the large U.S. retailers who form the bulk of its clients, CoreCulture seeks to identify the key cultural factors that are unique to each organization and can be leveraged to more effectively influence employee attitudes and consequently actions that will reduce internal loss.

“We do deliver loss prevention programs and we have had success working for companies like Weston, Loblaw, Marks Work Warehouse and, in the U.S., Borders and auto parts retailer Pep Boys,” says Scott, “but we’re also looking to improve employee experiences overall. We believe that if you treat employees well, they are less likely to steal and will be more engaged and committed to company policy.”

NEW PROJECT AT ACCELERATOR CENTRE To some degree, similar strategic investigations as the ones developed through MFX Partners are used at CoreCulture. They help to identify concepts that will resonate with employees in order to present ongoing training and awareness while complementing company culture.

In fact the outside-the-box thinking that goes on here is what also led to the development of a software product to help their clients.

Rebecca Short heads up this last entity, which is commercializing a corporate training platform called Just In Time Training ™. Recently accepted into the Accelerator Centre, a Waterloo incubator that looks to nurture revenue-generating technology start-ups, the new firm is just one more direction the team running MFX Partners and CoreCulture is following in its seemingly endless drive to innovate.

Mfxpartners.com | Coreculture.ca

DOWNTOWN, TORONTO / – For many who drive to work near Richmond and John Streets in Toronto’s Entertainment District, handing over their keys to Yonas Eqbe is a daily ritual.

He manages the handful of attendants who spend the mornings and afternoons shuffling luxury automobiles around the neighbourhood parking lot and now he’s adding office cleaning services manager to his resume.

This winter, Eqbe is launching Diana’s Cleaning Service, a five-person crew (including a floor wax specialist with 10 years experience) that will begin offering commercial after-hours cleaning services to a select group of area businesses.

A native Eritrean who was originally trained as a mechanic, Eqbe has lived all over the world but long ago began calling Canada home. For the last 15 years, he has worked managing downtown parking lots as well as completing some office cleaning contracts. Ever the entrepreneur, Eqbe is seeing a growing need for a reliable cleaning provider in the area and expects some of his monthly parking clients would like to work with someone they already know and trust.

Diana’s Cleaning Service (named for Eqbe’s daughter who manages the back office portion of the company) will focus primarily on offices less than 3,000 sq. ft. that require regular cleaning services. Fully insured and bonded, and with references available, Diana’s Cleaning Service can be reached at (647) 404-1398 or by writing to cleaningandmaintenance@hotmail.com.

TORONTO TENANTS GET THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT...

And a lucky 50 walk away with Team Canada jerseys DOWNTOWN, TORONTO / – From Jenn Heil’s silver-medal mogul run to Sidney Crosby’s defining-moment of a goal, these winter games certainly came with their share of excitement, not to mention some heart-wrenching tragedy.

It’s hard not to get drawn into it, particularly if you have to pass by a group of red and white clad fans clustered around a lobby television featuring live Olympic coverage.

But putting TVs in some downtown Toronto lobbies was just one part of the Allied Properties REIT’s Olympic initiative, which also featured Gatorade and Clif Bar giveaways as well as a host of site-specific activities organized by individual property managers.

Second only to hockey’s gold-medal game night excitement, perhaps, was the Allied Properties REIT draw to win a Team Canada Olympic hockey jersey.

Contestants entered the draw online filling out a ballot on the Allied Properties REIT web site and 50 winners were chosen February 25th. Just in time to don the colours for Sunday’s win.

96 Spadina Ave.

425 Adelaide St. W

500 King St. W.

47 Colborne St.

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New Office Cleaning Firm Built On Parking Lot Relationships

WINNIPEG

TRICK OF THE LIGHT

Winnipeg photographer Nardella ‘sculpts’ his photo images using 30 years of lighting expertise EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / – One of Tony Nardella’s latest photo projects is a series for a retail client featuring a stylish couple cavorting against a bright sunny background. While it’s the kind of rich light that makes you think of summer, none of it is natural, despite the overly large windows that light his Exchange District studio at 250 McDermot Ave. in which it was shot.

“Everybody has this conception that when shooting indoors natural light is best, and to the eye it looks like a lot of light, but for the camera it isn’t,” says Nardella who uses top of the line Broncolor lighting equipment in his 2,000-square-foot main floor studio to craft lighting for a range of photographic projects – from conceptual creative pieces, to portrait work through to industrial projects and fashion.

IMAGES VERY LARGE, VERY SHARP Shooting fashion for retailers like Winnipeg-based multinational Nygård requires images that can be enlarged for displays, and that means shooting something that is both very large, and very sharp.

Something you can only do with the proper camera and strobe lighting.

“The other problem with natural light is that you can’t rely on it, but I can make it look like natural light because I’ve been at it for 30 years,” says Nardella, a native Winnipegger

who spent 12 years in the advertising industry in Toronto before coming back in 1994 to raise a family.

At the height of his Toronto tenure as the photo department head at a large, but now no longer operating, ad agency, Nardella ran three in-house studios totaling some 6,000 square feet of shooting space. This is where he developed his talent for photographing on figure fashion, i.e., models.

FLEXIBILITY IS KEY The key to working in the Winnipeg market, he says is to be flexible. While he has worked on three-day fashion shoots with a crew of 21, he also works for large local firms, creating some award-winning photos for the Steinbach Credit Union, the University of Manitoba, the Canadian Wheat Board, as well as shooting progress photography for the new airport development and promotional shots for the Winnipeg Opera. And of course, he still shoots for advertising.

It’s a steady workload that keeps Nardella busy, but when he happens across a lull, he takes time to do some creative exploration, experimenting with lighting and the human form.

“Anything with a lighting challenge, I’d say that’s what I like to shoot most,” he says.

To see some of Nardella’s award-winning holiday cards, go to the self-promotion section at nardellaphotography.com.

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www.alliedpropertiesreit.com alliedpropertiesreit.com • WINTER / SPRING 2010

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