Red Brick Lofts – Lakefield

Red Brick Lofts is currently fully leased out, and all of our fabulous tenants love everything this unique property offers. We are also excited to announce we will be adding a new phase with the addition of the Red Brick Lofts Barn scheduled for completion in the fall of 2024.

Harry James is a certified real estate junkie. He fell in love with Rosemere Manor many years ago as he drove into town from the family cottage. He’d often stop on the side of Young’s Point Road to stare at the majestic building nestled on 25 acres, wondering what the history was and what it looked like inside. He noticed a private For Sale sign on the property and started a labour of love that is now Red Brick Lofts. Red Brick Lofts has twelve renovated funky, hard loft type rental apartments ranging from 1 to 3 bedrooms.

Business Partner & General Contractor, Joe Ferrara of Napa Valley Contracting, fell in love with the project. They both describe it as one of the most complicated, expensive ventures they’ve tackled. “Every apartment is a custom build; every bathroom, kitchen and layout is unique. When you are tackling a 100 year old building there are always surprises,” says Joe. Taken down to the studs, every aspect of the building has been completely replaced. Additional enhancements include a sprinkler system throughout the building plus separate heating and air conditioning for each unit. Exposed original brick and spiral duct work add beautiful character, while the 11 foot ceilings with large windows give a breathtaking view from every unit. A large elevator services three floors with a walk up to the attic suites.

Previously a Seniors Home, some have concluded that this is a senior’s building. But that is most certainly not the case. Harry James Enterprises’s projects on the waterfront in Cobourg Ontario have been incredibly successful and their philosophy is refreshing. Harry says, “Frankly, we are not fans of lumping one age group into one project. We want to build something that appeals to all ages, which is why we are incorporating a variety of apartment sizes. We think this creates a richer more authentic environment. If you are excited about life, fully engaged and you treat others with respect, you’ll be a great neighbour no matter how old you are.”  With this theme in mind, Harry & Joe’s future plans include walking trails, plots for vegetable gardens assigned to each apartment, a BBQ area with large outside cabana and a pickle ball court. Security cameras and Passkey entrance are all part of the package when you call Red Brick Lofts home.

Red Brick Lofts are Now Renting

Contact George Nagy to find availability at gnagy@harryjamesenterprises.com.

Follow us on Facebook 

 

Red Brick Lofts ad April 2021

Cloud 9

At Harry James Financial we were very early adopters of cloud services. A very expensive albeit leading-edge technology called thin desk was presented to us which leased the hardware while all of the servers were hosted offsite. Our rationale was simple, we wanted the best for our clients in order to protect their information while ensuring we could be up and running the next day after a catastrophe like a robbery or fire. It was an excellent service and worked very well so when my close friend Paul Hubert was moving into this space I was happy to partner on our new company called Cloud 9. Again I focussed on marketing while Paul (truly one of the smartest guys I know) worked his magic on developing, streamlining, and packaging the services. It was never my intention to hang in for the long haul so Paul bought us out early in the game. His company is thriving and I am proud to have played a small part.

Visit Cloud9 website

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 targeted for late 2024.

Clearly, we love Cobourg but what’s not to love? Quaint main street and probably one of the best beaches and Marina’s in Ontario. We’ve been investing here for more than 20 years and we plan on being here for many more. We had a number of people that were disappointed they missed out on our very successful Beach Walk Place project so we decided to do a follow-up with Beach Walk Flats. Different concept but the same quality in the same vibrant beach community. We maintain that Cobourg is still one of Ontario’s best-kept secrets but the word is definitely spreading faster these days.

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 born out of the ashes of our restaurant Marca on Main. After we shut down operations, I was close to renovating this space into offices. I had a hard time thinking about ripping it out though because the space simply has an incredibly warming embrace and almost magical feel. Everyone that enters the factory has the same experience which I put down to my wife and Joe’s build and design talents.

One night I was reflecting on the next chapter of my business journey which involves workshops on work-life balance as well as one called retirement’s a lie that breaks down the myths & preconceived notions that aging must mean decline. I hopped into bed and a few hours later woke up with the epiphany that I should convert the kitchen of the restaurant into a stage and that I should rename Marca on Main the live real factory.

The purpose of the new space is to celebrate, educate, inspire and motivate everyone at every stage of life and to recognize that time is our most valuable asset, the only asset worthy of being locked in a vault. Thankfully the vision has been embraced and the live real factory continues to share the philosophy with all those that enjoy being in the moment.

Take a 360 tour of the Live Real Factory

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.