Beach Walk Suites is part of our first major development in Cobourg Ontario. This waterfront development changed the face of Cobourg and has help to make this beautiful beach town a major destination for both tourists, investors and developers.
Month: January 2021
102 Brock – Whitby
Both our restaurant properties of 102 Brock are fully leased by happy tenants and their businesses are doing well.
Obviously, we like the east end of the city and Whitby is no exception. Downtown has great potential and we decided many years ago to be part of what is going to happen in this vibrant up-and-coming town. These two buildings were stripped down to the studs and brought back to life and now house some great restaurants in the core.
Beach Walk Flats – Cobourg
Beach Walks Flat is in full steam build and fully sold out with occupancy for 2026
Beach Walk Flats – The newest installment in our decades-long work that has shaped and defined the Cobourg waterfront. After our hugely popular preceding projects, Beach Walk Suites and Beach Walk Place, Beach Walk Flats was designed to complement the scale and character of the surrounding heritage district. This all-brick collection of 10 freehold triplexes reintroduces a traditional live/work concept, offering commercial space at street level, with residential living above. Each commercial unit provides fabulous exposure for tenants to local and tourist clientele, and all 20 2-bed + 1 bath units feature outdoor spaces + parking spots. The rockstar rooftop terraces with million-dollar views of the lake are defined by the greenspaces. We have created a neighbourhood-defining development here, and are proud to have successfully achieved what we set out to do – building a versatile product for our investors and end-users while adding to the vibe and character of this very special place.
McCallum Block – Cobourg
6 funky loft apartments with lake views, we can’t wait!
We have always loved old buildings, and McCallum Block is no exception. Perfectly situated on the south side of Cobourg’s King St in the heritage downtown, this 3-storey 1800s building was the perfect fit for our portfolio! Featuring 4 commercial units on the main floor, currently occupied by sophisticated retail tenants, we have recently completed 6 brand new, luxury loft apartments above. In the spirit of providing accessibility and ease of everyday living for our tenants, we’ve added a lift to the back of the building. Providing character that can’t be replicated – these units have views of Lake Ontario, soaring ceilings and original arched windows. Steps from shopping, dining, the farmers market, and the famed Cobourg Beach & Marina – McCallum Block now has a new chapter, one which we are proud to be a part of!
Beach Walk Place – Cobourg
Beach Walk Place commercial units are fully leased out and the beautiful condos are desired by many, but unfortunately, none are available for resale.
We believed a vibrant beach setting deserved a building with substance and class. Certainly not cookie-cutter and built to create a living experience that didn’t exist at the time. All the suites have a different design, none of the balconies are covered and very large rooftop patios grace the penthouse suites. It was really nice when one of Canada’s top architects took notice and paid us a compliment. Yes, it felt good, we are human…
Live Real Factory Markham
The Live Real Factory was a luxury boutique event space which was born out of the ashes of the Marca on Main restaurant. The factory was created to be Markham’s exclusive destination for top-level entertainment and corporate and private events. It had an incredibly warm embrace and almost magical feel. Everyone who entered the space had the same experience, thanks to the build and design talents of Lynn James and Joe Ferra.
The Live Real Factory was created as a space for Harry James’ workshops on ‘work-life balance’ and ‘retirement’s a lie’, which break down the myths & preconceived notions that aging must mean decline.
The purpose of the state-of-the-art space was to celebrate, educate, inspire and motivate everyone at every stage of life and to recognize that time is our most valuable asset. That vision was embraced, and the live real factory shared the philosophy with all those who enjoyed being in the moment.
Sadly, we recently dimmed the lights of the factory to start a new chapter; thankfully, the great memories remain.
Marca Restaurants
While our restaurants were a failure, Marca continues to hold a very special place at harry james enterprises. We owned a beautiful commercial location overlooking the Cobourg Harbour. My wife and I always thought it would be a great place for a wine bar or boutique restaurant. We were real estate investors not restauranteurs so when builder / developer / restauranteur Joe Ferrara walked into our lives and saw our vision we were happy to have him sign a lease. He however had other plans, he wanted us to partner with him. “Partner with you? we don’t even know you and we are not in the habit of marrying people we don’t know. If you like the space lease it but no thanks to the partnership”. Well Joe, who’s personality is best described as a combination of red bull and double espresso, wouldn’t let up. “Just come and visit my Mara restaurant in Whitby, we are different” I was thinking you are different all right. Regardless we visited Whitby, got to know each other, opened Cobourg and two other restaurants and proceeded to lose a lot of money over the next 6 years.
How could I let that happen? It’s much easier than you think, somehow you always convince yourself next week is going to be different; this Chef is going to be different; we just need to persevere and build a loyal clientele. Finally, you break out of your delusion and start to make some sane business decisions. The reality is however as we were losing money in the restaurants, we were making money in our true sweet spot, real estate. We were building, renovating and innovating left, right and center. Maybe we had to be successful at real estate to feed our cash hungry restaurants but regardless the partnership worked.
With Joe’s incredible talent and creativity in building, my pretty good skills at finding value and negotiating deals and my wife’s incredible gift of decorating and design we literally built a real estate dream team on top of three sinking restaurants. Marca was eventually changed to harry james enterprises and the rest as they say is history.
Padgett Business Services
I took a step of faith and bought out a client’s business because he said he wanted to retire. As time went on I noticed the clients were leaving, apparently retirement didn’t agree with him so he got a cheque from me as well as the clients I bought that continued to do business with him. It was a small deal and I simply put it down as bad judgement on my part. I didn’t sue him or make a big deal about it because it would have taken too much time and energy from my main gig. Everything doesn’t always work out and sometimes people take advantage but it shouldn’t you stop from doing deals. Also for those of you thinking well you should have had everything in writing, you can’t legislate or mandate character and integrity. When trust is involved, If someone wants to rip you off, they’ll find a way.
Play It Again Sports
Many years ago a very successful executive shared his dream with me to own his own sports store, he was passionate and sincere. I jumped in and suggested a partnership to make it happen. At the time it wasn’t clear to me that the skills to be very successful in the corporate world didn’t necessarily give you what you needed to excel in the very ambiguous and unstructured entrepreneurial world. He tried to tell me numerous times but I didn’t listen and paid the ultimate price of having to shut it all down. By the time I tuned into the real problem and what was needed it was simply too late. Always be aware that employees and entrepreneurs exist in two different worlds. Two very different skill sets in my humble opinion. One path isn’t better or superior than the other, they are simply vastly different. Both can offer incredible rewards but assuming one skill set can be seamlessly transferred from one side to the other can be a financially fatal mistake.
HJ Group
When I sold Harry James Financial I didn’t think that any of my kids would want to come into the business. Regardless I was a big believer in letting them create their path and their own success before they would entertain coming into anything that I started. I think if the perception is kids are handed something it ultimately becomes a burden for them. My son Justin ended up going into and focussing on an aspect of the business that wasn’t my main forte, employee benefits. He worked in the west end of the city where nobody knew me, my reputation or practice. His work ethic and single minded focus on becoming an expert in this area attracted a lot of attention and it wasn’t long before some of the top brokers in the city were seeking him out to join their team.
We met for lunch one day as I was helping him analyze the exciting opportunities laid before him when he casually asked me “why don’t I build my business under the HJ Group banner instead?” To say I was honoured would be an understatement but I quickly warned him the perception would be that I brought him into my business other than the reality that he was bringing me into his. Thankfully that didn’t deter his vision to bring HJ Group to a new level.
Visit HJ Group website