Horizons Group (Lankor Horizons Inc.) is a real estate investment company currently focusing on condominiums and land development in Windsor and Essex County. Since forming in 2018, they have played a key role in the revitalization of the region. They have done that by diversifying the housing inventory with chic condos and trendy amenities, and by delivering some of the largest and most acclaimed residential developments the region has ever seen. Wing On Li, the company’s executive director and CEO, first migrated to Canada in 2006, bringing with him decades of experience in real estate investment in China and Hong Kong. He came to the country as a 50-year-old retiree, but he ended up being inspired by the potential of the Windsor area, and in 2014 he got back into the game. He started by scouting for distressed properties and turning them into high-yield long-term rental properties, which he then managed, mostly on behalf of family members. In 2018, however, he was approached with a development opportunity – there was a piece of land on Banwell Road in East Windsor, it was zoned for multi-residential, it was “shovel-ready,” the price was good. He was asked if he was interested. “At first I said I wasn’t,” Li recalls. “I said I was retired. I didn’t want to get back into the development business. But my nephew Jason was young and he said ‘Uncle, I am interested.’ So we agreed to start a development business together. Ultimately the land price was so attractive, and the location was so good that I couldn’t resist helping.” The first iteration of their Windsor development business – called Eastside Horizons Inc. – was responsible for the planning, financing, and marketing of that original project, which comprised 180-unit, spread across three sevenstorey condominium towers. They delivered the entire project in just two years – “which broke all the records in the history of Windsor, I believe,” JUNE 2024
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