brownfield centres.” Jacob sees Royop as having “three pillars” of growth. He calls those kinds of ‘bread and butter’ retail centres “pillar one.” In that sector, since they are already so experienced and they are already recognized as industry experts, they are looking at expanding beyond Alberta. “Pillar two is brownfield, innercity mixed-use,” he explains. “We have a number of those projects on the go right now ranging in size and scale. Most of those are here in Alberta. In that sector, we’re sticking closer to home, where we have some really strong relationships and connectionswithmunicipalities, which helps push projects through.” The “third pillar,” lastly, is what they call their “investment portfolio.” There, they are focused on acquiring existing shopping centre assets – particularly ones “that need a bit of love,” Jacob describes – and then using their expertise to redevelop them and help them better realize their potential. When it comes to all three pillars, Jacob believes Royop’s persistent success is a result of the same factors. The number one factor, he says, is the relationships they build with their tenants – he calls that “the foundation of our business.” “We pride ourselves on learning and understanding our customer and knowing them better than they know themselves,” heexplains. “That’s really how Royop has built its business, by understanding its customers better than anyone, and by custom designing each project to suit those customers.” Another key factor behind the company’s success, according to Jacob, is that unlike many developer-builders, Royop typically builds “to own and hold.” “Because of that, a Royop project always has that next level of quality and we always spend the extra dollar to get there,” he explains. “We’re not one of those groups that go out to build something and then try to get rid of it right away. We don’t churn and burn. Our projects go into an investment fund. They are projects we hold long-term. We design and build them so they’re going to last.” “We’re property managers, too,” he continues. “That’s an important part of our business. So in our building division, we want to make sure we hand our property management division a really well-built, thoughtful product that they can take care for the next 20, 40, or 60 years – however long it is before we redevelop it and do something new with it. That’s definitely one of the things that set us apart.” OCTOBER 2022
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