INVESTING IN THE EVERYDAY // COVER
INVESTING IN THE EVERYDAY
ANTHONY GIUFFRE ON AVENUE LIVING’S STRATEGIC SUCCESSES BY MELANIE DARBYSHIRE
T
he real estate market is ripe with opportunity for every type of investor. From luxury single-family homes to industrial and commercial properties, to bare agricultural land, there are as many choices of real estate investment as flavours of ice cream; an investor’s preference depends on a variety of factors specific to the individual or institution and can change over time. For Calgary’s Avenue Living, the real estate investment of choice is workforce housing, a lesser-known subclass of the multi-family market that has proven to be a stable, often growing niche. The strategy has evolved over Avenue’s 16 years in business to make it one of the largest private real estate owners/operators in Western Canada. With more than $2.8 billion in assets under management, including 12,500 apartments in more than 450 buildings, and five mutual fund trusts, Avenue Living is a dominant player in its market. “We invest in the everyday,” says founder and CEO Anthony Giuffre. “Those low-density, multi-family buildings that you drive by on the way to work, that you may or may not pay attention to. Typically, in the 20- to 50-unit range.” Workforce housing tenants are gainfully employed, making between $15 and $50 an hour who, throughout the pandemic, were the essential workers. “They’re the folks that had to show up every single day, put their masks on, and brave it,” Giuffre says. “And they did an incredible job.” “This demographic needs housing affordability, not affordable housing,” he continues. “They are a cross-section
of those who want to own and those that might not, whether by necessity, need or desire. They’ve been incredible customers throughout the years.” A born-and-raised Calgarian and University of Calgary graduate, Giuffre and co-founder Carl Diodati started the business in 2006, with the purchase of a 24-unit building in Brooks. “I would love to say it was this grand plan that I came up with over 16 years ago, but that would be the farthest thing from the truth,” Giuffre laughs. “After 10,000 mistakes and a whole lot of pivots, we are here.” The pair had originally wanted to invest in the Calgary to Fort McMurray corridor (during the boom days of 2005/06) but lacked the capital to do so. “So we kept looking out in larger and larger concentric circles, to where we could find a diversified economy with non-sector specific biases that could last the test of time,” Giuffre recalls. “We landed on Brooks, Alberta.” With a large meat packing plant, Brooks also had a service sector and agricultural land sector, as well as serviced a large trading hub population. “We saw it as a diversified minieconomy,” he explains. “And when we looked at the multifamily buildings in the area, we very quickly determined it was those two- or three-storey walk-ups inhabited by the workforce housing demographic.” The interesting part, however, came when Giuffre looked at the significant difference in how much rent those tenants paid as a portion of income, compared to the primary
RIGHT: ANTHONY GIUFFRE, FOUNDER AND CEO, AVENUE LIVING. PHOTO SOURCE: BOOKSTRUCKER
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SEPTEMBER 2021 // BUSINESS IN CALGARY // BUSINESSINCALGARY.COM
