I got a call from the president of Expo 86,
who told me to get down to Vancouver
right away. So I went down, we talked for a
couple of hours and he said he wanted me
to buy a house in Vancouver and be here
in two weeks to take a job as the vice-pres-
ident of planning, design and engineering
for Expo 86. I talked to my wife, she agreed
and we did it.
What was it like being on the ground
floor of Expo?
It was really exciting. I started my career in
engineering then went into planning and
then business school. So it was an opportu-
nity to learn more about how you do a proj-
ect at that scale. The story was that they
had the land for Expo 86, but they didn't.
It was 225 acres, 150 or so titles. We had to
negotiate each one of those. There was an
active railyard, we had to take it out and
find a place in South Vancouver for the rail.
I was responsible for everything perma-
nent. Expo 86 was one of the few world's
fairs and most of them did it with tempo-
rary roads, sewers, water and all that stuff.
We said, Look, we've got 225 acres in False
Creek, so we did all permanent utilities,
roadways, built [BC Place], built the Cam-
bie Street Bridge. The intent was that at
the end of the world's fair all the tempo-
rary stuff would be removed, and all of the
permanent stuff would be services for the
future development.
After Expo, you co-founded Concert
Properties. How did that come about?
We partnered with the telecommunications
workers' pension plan and created a public
company with private owners with myself,
David Podmore has more than
a few stories. The co-founder
and long-time CEO of real estate
developer Concert Properties
officially retired at the end of
September (though he still holds
the chair emeritus title). We met
at Concert's Downtown
Vancouver office to talk
Expo 86, the Olympics and
other tales from over three
decades in the real estate
industry in Vancouver.
by Nathan Caddell
You're from
Vancouver but were
living in Edmonton
before you came
back to work on
Expo 86. What's the
story behind that?
