Case Studies Region: Canada

When Natashia Dunham joined Sobeys, she launched an extensive renovation program to improve the company’s facilities and bring them up to Canada’s new national standard. But for Dunham, that dovetailed nicely with her modus operandi. “Transformation, continuous improvement and real estate have always been themes in my career journey,” says Dunham, the director of corporate […]

It’s easy for residents and visitors in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to see how the 300 Main mixed-use high-rise is becoming a downtown landmark. After all, it’s the tallest building in the city. It towers over Portage and Main streets at one of the Canadian city’s most famous intersections. It offers 395 apartments with one, two and […]

Chuck Morris may be new to Gold Trail School District 74, but he comes with over 40 years of experience in Canadian public schools. Since 1980, he’s worked at six districts throughout British Columbia and only diverted once, giving four years to the private sector. His love of schools has prevailed, though, and in October […]

The hospital might be of fairly recent build, but diagnostic equipment doesn’t last forever. So Jenn De iuliis explains while overseeing the replacement and upgrade of one of the most sensitive and expensive facilities at Woodstock Hospital in Southwestern Ontario. “It’s all about how you and your team take the hospital’s mission to heart and […]

Usually when a Canadian company expands its geographical footprint, it goes from the more populous eastern provinces to the west. But not with Chatters, which since 1991 has grown from a sole hair stylist in Red Deer, Alberta, to being Canada’s largest salon and retail products chain.  The growth had been prolific with 116 locations […]

There are few guarantees in life, but aside from death and taxes, Terry Sim says you can always guarantee the need for more healthcare services as populations grow. And that need is exactly what he’s dealing with now as the director of facilities and development for Humber River Hospital in one of the fastest-growing areas […]

It takes some doing to earn the designation of Canadian Certified Healthcare Facility Manager. Bryan Wakefield reckons that everybody who has the certification, along with his experience, would fill a modest room with seats to spare. He garnered that certificate in 2019 while finishing a 14-year stretch at Ontario’s London Health Sciences Centre in facilities […]

It’s not a “Tale of Two Cities” as much as a tale of two stores about 90 miles apart. The first is a Garage clothing store that opened in April 2022 in a five-story, mixed-use commercial and residential building in New York City’s historic SoHo neighborhood. Catering to the tastes of women ages 18 to […]

It’s a concept Phil Johnston reckons is catching on in Canadian retail and maybe elsewhere. Indeed, he assures, the early feedback has been positive from consumers at a new and condensed Best Buy location at the Sherwood Park Mall just outside the Alberta capital of Edmonton. “We could be trend-setters,” he tells Blueprint in November. […]

A 2022 article in Bloomberg magazine emphasized how recent labor shortages have led to women smashing past the concrete ceiling in the construction industry. Meticulously charting her path through the similar and adjacent boy’s club of corporate real estate, Andrea Wolf spent the past three decades firmly ignoring ceilings. Instead, she developed her guiding philosophy […]