RE #184: Kendal Harazny - Co-Founder of Wexford - Developing amazing urban projects in Canada & USA

Kendal Harazny is a Principal and Co-founder of Wexford Developments, a real estate development, investment and management company. Wexford has completed over $500 million of development, currently has $500 million in assets under management, and has an upcoming development pipeline exceeding $400 million, including over 900 units breaking ground in 2022. Focused on Western Canada and the Southwestern United States, Wexford is primarily involved in urban mixed-use residential projects, but has also developed substantial land, retail and industrial assets.

In this episode, Kendal and Chris discuss an array of topics such as the differences in Canada vs. the United States and what it takes to develop a generational asset. They also chat about how Wexford identifies and selects projects to work on and why design matters and how to communicate to neighboring stakeholders and much more! 

Follow Chris on Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris
Follow Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/
Learn more about Chris Powers & Fort Capital: https://www.FortCapitalLP.com
Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

Listen & Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oIeNSaSJ4zkTQOXiedyOr?si=dEM48cSPQ9OIQ1HiD8sjrg

Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fort-with-chris-powers/id1410549811

0:00 - Kendal’s Background and Career

02:02 - What are the top things that create bad deals in development?

04:02 - More on Kendal’s Background

08:35 - What are the biggest differences between Canada and the United States?

10:54 - Getting Project Approval in Canada

13:17 - How do you handle emotional opinions from the community when doing development?

15:47 - Incorporating Feedback from the Community & Rezoning

17:40 - How long is the process from submitting to the city to approval?

19:35 - Is everything you do for rent or do you have for sale opportunities?

20:04 - How do you capitalize deals and think about debt?

21:53 - Why don’t you bring US debt into Canada?

22:58 - Cultural Differences in Lending

24:45 - How is recourse structured?

26:20 - How do you think about parking for your projects?

29:27 - Thoughts on Building EV Stalls

31:41 - Is a lot of your equity coming from Canada or is it global?

32:42 - The Toronto & Vancouver Real Estate Market

34:45 - What experiences are you having as it relates to building and the supply issues we’re seeing?

38:24 - What do you look for in markets before entering?

41:16 - How do you know you’re going into the best location?

43:08 - How do you think about hiring architects?

46:50 - The Importance of the Cohesion Between Architects, GC’s and Engineers

50:04 - What matters to you when picking General Contractors?

52:41 - What is ‘Crystalizing The Promote?’

58:08 - Kendal’s Hunt for An Acquisition Manager

The FORT is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts