Sometimes I am lucky enough to catch up
with Thad Alston, the executive director of Larco, a private family
company who are the second largest owners of mini-warehouses in the U.K.,
own 15 hotels in London and in 2007 the purchased the Canadian
government's portfolio of office buildings then valued at $1.6+
billion.
He is
pictured here with his extremely capable wife who was Managing Partner of
Preston, Gates & Ellis - Bill Gates' Dad's law firm.
Both are Harvard Law Magna Cum Laude graduates, as are their
daughters...
>> MORE
I
met him when I sold the group 271 unit apartment complex and when they
purchased the former
Vancouver Stock Exchange building through me. The group
also has a significant portfolio of hotels and multi-family investments in
the U.S. It is a
honour for me to be in the company of such high-level minds and deal
makers.
At the recent celebrations of the Shangri-La
Vancouver's 5 diamond award, the 'King' of Canadian
Institutional Real Estate Avtar
Bains was photographed by yours truly with Larco executive
assistant/'gatekeeper to the bosses' Heather McCutcheon and public
relations maven Jill
Killeen who is married to CTV anchor Mike
Killeen.
Avtar's imprint on nearly
every single institutional real estate transaction in Canada for the last
2 decades is the result of hard work and dedicated
effort. We started real estate together at the same time
and while he focussed on Canadian real estate, I established similar
reputation for dealing with the largest tycoons of Asia when no investment
banker had any time for helping them invest into the west.
As a result, I got to act and travel with the owner of Omni Hotels, Laura
Ashley and others. How times change!! Now the GS ib's
[investment bankers] are paid huge as partners to know the same people who
have become my personal friends.
Avtar and I
travelled together with our respective parents to Asia in the 80's and
remain best friends to this day, professionally and personally.
Lucky us!
The late Canadian philanthropist Milton Wong
left another legacy before he departed, his niece and my good friend
Beijing -based Joanna Wong. She's the Asia Pacific
Foundations' Media Fellow ... >> MORE
I had the privilege to join Andrew
Bibby, the chief
executive of Grosvenor Americas over soup and sandwich as
he explained first hand their deal flow and
rationale. He is on the plane a lot to cover
Edmonton, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco and
Vancouver B.C., for the private holdings of the Duke of
Westminster, the largest private land owner in London
UK.
A Rhode
Scholar (Oxford), St. George's Head Boy (1975) who trained
as Tenant Liason person-on-the-ground under now
deceased, but famous, Rod Schroder, the team at Daon with
Bill Levine, Don Milliken, Mac Campbell...during those glory
days. Good foundations. A decent
fellow with a clearly thought out strategy. Lucky
Duke! >>
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/04/27/tidbits1.html?page=all
Recently I also dined with the Director for Hong Kong Trade and
Economic Office, a very capable Miss Gloria Lo who heads a
15 person strong representation in Canada. Ms.
Catherine Yuen is their representative in Vancouver and has
an office Downtown at Park Place.
>> HKETO
website
