The 100 apartments Mainstreet Equity Corp donated to Fort McMurray fire evacuees got snapped up in hours, so CEO Bob Dhillon is offering 100 more—and urging other industry leaders to do their part.
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“Witnessing the devastation in Fort McMurray, how can you not be impacted?” Bob tells us. “It’s almost like a movie.” Folks are losing their homes, jobs, belongings—“and all in one shot.” Alberta, where Mainstreet is based and owns hundreds of apartment buildings, was already going through tough times economically. So by offering 100 apartments rent-free for three months to Fort Mac evacuees, Bob says he's "stepping up to the plate to try and soften the blow." He wants to inspire fellow Albertan and Canadian businesses “to do what they can here.”
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Bob says within hours of his initial apartment offer, people were relocating to Mainstreet's buildings in Edmonton, Calgary (one seen below) and Saskatoon. But need for emergency housing is growing, so Mainstreet’s task force is pledging an additional 100 apartments in Edmonton, where demand is greatest. These apartments will be rent-free for May, with immediate move-in, security deposit waived, plus a $500 IKEA gift card, notes Bob. “We stand together with other Albertans in helping the citizens of Fort McMurray. We admire their strength in the face of adversity.”
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In 2011, Mainstreet donated 50 Edmonton apartments to victims of the Slave Lake forest fire. The company recently offered 200 apartments across Western Canada for Syrian refugees (to date 165 units have been occupied by 700 people). That was much different, though, says Bob, whose parents were economic refugees from Liberia following its 1970s civil war. His team had loads of lead time in dealing with Syrian refugees. “With Fort Mac we were bombarded. It happened instantaneously—90,000 people just packed up and left and needed places to stay right now.”
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Alberta's down, but Mainstreet is keeping the faith. Bob notes the firm has bought back 12% of its outstanding shares, for $44M. He’s not predicting Alberta will roar back just yet (thankfully Mainstreet’s BC portfolio is thriving; the company recently bought the 321-unit Villa Christina in Abbotsford, above, for $3.13M). But he sees Alberta's recession and GDP contraction easing. “So this was an opportunity to take advantage of the selloff we got caught in the crossfire of. We’re buckling down and doubling down.”
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