Alkarim Devani — developer and founder of mddl — is in good traffic this week for a conversation on how Canada's housing realities compare/contrast with that of the U.S., and how we can better prepare developers to address our continental crisis.
Timeline:
00:00 Alkarim Devani is in good traffic.
02:47 Canada's housing crisis.
04:36 Cities not sharing solutions with each other.
05:14 The competitive silence in real estate development.
05:51 Al's background as a developer in Calgary.
06:43 The Plus 15 downtown system and its failures.
07:31 Downtown office conversions and retrofitting.
08:23 Starting infill development with his brother.
09:14 From luxury duplexes to more attainable housing.
10:16 Realizing the market sucks and social impact matters.
11:33 Founding Roundsquare to bring families back.
12:43 The first fourplex proposal that no one had done.
13:39 Meeting resistance and finding city support.
16:54 Why missing middle isn't happening at scale.
25:31 The regulatory framework problem.
28:27 How to make economics work for missing middle.
31:15 Building at the right price point.
34:12 The slow-growth lesson from setbacks.
37:00 Sometimes you don't get the outcome you want.
40:15 Iterative change and incremental progress.
43:03 Solving for community impact.
46:33 A 350-square-foot cafe.
49:21 Revenue-sharing lease structures.
52:24 Building a heated vestibule for winter survival.
55:12 Doubling revenue per square foot through design.
56:01 The General Block and Village Ice Cream.
58:04 Why the right tenant anchor matters.
59:35 University District and the 99-year lease model.
1:01:23 Inglewood and Calgary's coffee culture.
1:03:02 The commute question and river path biking.
1:05:26 Wrapping up.
Links:
mddl.
mddl U.
Mddl, on Instagram.
