Partnership seizes on the chance to strengthen firm's dedication to responsible stewardship
ESG has long been at the heart of Avenue Living's choices and operations as a responsible private real estate investment management.
The company is experienced in the social and governance aspect of the equation due to its emphasis on managing and running worker housing. This is in addition to its monitoring through its primary investment vehicle, the Avenue Living Real Estate Core Trust.
The business, however, saw a chance to strengthen its dedication to prudent stewardship a few years ago.
“It was the environmental impact [aspect] where we wanted to find a way to do something sustainable and feasible,” Jason Jogia, chief investment officer of Avenue Living Asset Management, said in a recent round table session.
In order to meet that goal, Avenue Living approached Canada Infrastructure Bank. The collaboration that ensued from that chance encounter gave rise to the largest investment CIB has ever made in the residential industry in western Canada.
Through the partnership, Avenue Living sought to engage in capital projects that would increase the lifespan of its multi-family residential assets while reducing GHG emissions. Meanwhile, CIB recognized an opportunity to broaden its reach beyond commercial structures, mostly in bigger urban areas, to multi-family residential properties in the Prairies.
Although it is still in its early phases, Avenue Living's collaboration with the CIB is already starting to emerge as a possible blueprint for the future of sustainable residential real estate.
Jogia drew attention to the success of company's pilot program for energy retrofits two years prior for its buildings, whose architectural form mirrors "the bulk of multi-family as we know it today."
“There are certain build forms where it just will not allow it from a financial feasibility standpoint under today's technology. That could change as time goes on,” Jogia said. “But it would be our objective to do [retrofits for] a majority of our assets in Canada.”
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