Joining Aaron and Adam in the office is Aly Damji. He is Managing Partner, Real Estate at Forum Asset Management. He’s all about multifamily properties in Ontario, so that’ll be what the conversation revolves around today.

Aly tells us about strategic decisions that Forum has made in the way it conducts business that allows them to have several advantages when taking on new projects. We also get his opinion on how housing affordability in Canada can be improved and what opportunities he sees in the current market.

Topics covered include:

• Looking at what your exit will be when developing a multifamily building.
  
• What Aly thinks needs to be done at the federal levels to get more rentals built.
  
• Small format housing and why it will be needed in Toronto and Vancouver.
  
• Why getting students out of traditional apartments will help with affordability.
  
• The decision that Aly made on the day that lockdowns were announced in Ontario.
  
• A brief background of Forum’s 25-year history.
  
• The unique aspects of the partnership at Forum.
  
• How much Forum is planning to grow in the next few years.
  
• Advantages of having individual LPs.
  
• Why Forum isn’t focused only on real estate.
  
• Opportunities that Forum has jumped on regarding land deals.
  
• Why Aly isn’t seeing a whole lot of opportunities right now.
  
• The changes expected to transpire on account of Bill 23 passing.
  
• 
  

More about our guest…

Aly is focused on originations and overseeing real estate investments. He leverages his exposure to a broad range of asset classes as an urban developer, institutional asset manager and operator of value add/opportunistic investments, to drive growth for Forum and its partners. Aly has transacted and managed on behalf of several institutional, UHNW investors, and believes transparency leads to the sustainability of partnerships.

Prior to joining Forum, Aly was EVP, Investments & Asset Management for Hullmark, a private urban real estate investor/developer in Downtown Toronto. Aly co-led direct acquisitions and led the firm’s asset management and operations functions. In his 7 years at Hullmark, Aly drove significant growth for the company, helping to increase AUM 15x to just under $1B, and co-led the development of partnerships with large scale institutional partners including a REIT, a Toronto-based university and one of Canada’s largest life insurance companies. Over the course of his tenure, Hullmark won several awards of excellence for various projects including two Toronto Urban Design Awards, an Architectural Journal (international) award as well as two NAIOP REX Awards for “Investment Deal of the Year” and “Mixed-Use Development of the Year”.

Prior to Hullmark, Aly spent over 5 years with Westmont Hospitality Group in Toronto, most recently as a Director, Investments. In this role, he was involved with various acquisitions across North America and the asset management of several trophy hotel assets in major markets including Washington DC, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Seattle.

Over the course of his career, Aly has been involved with principal investments valued at more than $4 billion, arranged debt financings of more than $500 million, and secured over 300 leases resulting in NOI of $40 million. Aly holds an MBA specialized in real estate and a bachelors degree specialized in accounting/finance, both from York University. Aly is also a board member of NAIOP Greater Toronto Chapter, one of the commercial real estate industry’s largest advocacy groups.

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