Le magazine des locataires du Fonds de placement immobilier Allied Properties

Q U É B E C • M O N T R É A L • T O R O N T O • W I N N I P E G • K I T C H E N E R

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À L’AVENTUREWindigo fait vivre l’aventurecanadienne aux Européens1010 GNOCCHI POUTINE?

Montreal’s Macaroni Bar delivers a fun take on bistro classics

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ÉCOLE DE THÉNouveau livre et classes dedégustation auNouvo St-Roch

Winnipeg’s Rescue Response Training Centre

PLUS • Toronto Resto BUCA• Inside the CFL’s

Instant Replay Centre• Copies Ressources

au Balfour

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ST-LAURENT, MONTREAL / – Au 2e étage du 3575, boul. St-Laurentsuite 100, une formidable machine vient d’élire domicile : elle imprime 60 pages à la minute, reproduit des photos de très haute résolution (1200 x 1200) et rivalise même avec les imprimeurs offset.

« Elle peut tout faire : des cartes postales, des pochettes en carton, desrapports annuels », affirme François Bernier en décrivant les prouesses de sa toute dernière imprimante. Mais le président de Copies Ressources,nouveau locataire du Balfour cet automne, s’empresse d’ajouter que sonentreprise offre bien plus que des services d’imprimerie numérique. Elle se spécialise aussi dans les services de gestion de projets d’impression.

« Les logiciels dont nous disposons nous permettent aussi de proposer deplus en plus de services par courrier direct », explique cet ancien directeurde Logidec inc, aujourd’hui connu sous le nom de RR Donnelley.

François Bernier est le troisième propriétaire de Copies Ressources,imprimerie réputée dans le quartier pour la rapidité de ses services de pho-tocopie depuis 1989. Toutefois, depuis qu’il en a pris les rênes il y a cinqans, il a continuellement orienté ses efforts vers le service aux entreprises,un secteur qui représente aujourd’hui une part croissante de sa clientèle.

Son entreprise occupe aujourd’hui près de trois fois la superficie de ses anciens bureaux situés à quelques coins de rue du Balfour. Il prévoitprofiter de ses 3 000 pieds carrés pour investir dans des imprimantes supplémentaires, qui lui permettraient de réaliser davantage de projetsgrand format tels que les bannières et les grandes affiches publicitaires.

Toutefois, François Bernier souligne avec empressement que ce ne sontpas ses capacités techniques seules qui lui permettent d’élargir sa clientèle,mais également l’expérience et les compétences de son équipe.

Les sept personnes que compte son équipe travaillent à toutes sortes deprojets : un catalogue pour Quebecor, des rapports pour Desjardins, desaffiches pour la société pétrolière française Total et un projet d’assemblagede catalogue à la logistique complexe pour une entreprise de matériel de plomberie.

Pour les clients qui ont besoin,ou préfèrent tout simplementl’impression offset, CopiesRessources bénéficie de relationsde longue date dans le milieu del’imprimerie qui lui permettent deproposer des services d’impressionoffset à des prix concurrentiels.

« C’est quelque chose qu’uneimprimerie de quartier n’est pas en mesure de proposer », conclutFrançois Bernier. « C’est notreexpérience qui fait la différence. »

copres.com

There’s a machine at 3575 St. Laurent on the secondfloor that prints 60 pages a minute, reproduces photos at a very high 1200 by 1200 resolution andcreates documents that rival offset printing.

“It can do anything, postcards, pocket folders,annual reports,” says Francois Bernier of his newest digital printer. But the president of CopiesRessources, a new tenant at the Balfour this fall,says his firm’s specialty goes beyond digital printingto include full print project management and costconsulting.

“We’re also moving into doing more direct mailassignments with the software we have,” saysBernier who was a director at Logidec (now RRDonnelley), a large mailing house, before deciding to throw his lot in with Copies Ressources.

A catalog for Quebecor, reports for Desjardins,posters for French oil company Total and a logist-ically complex catalog assembly project for a plumbing supply company are just a few of the jobs that are keeping the team of seven on its feet.

And for clients who need, or simply prefer offset printing, Copies Ressources has long-standing relationships throughout the print industry that allow it to access offset work and still offer valuepricing to the client.

“That’s something a retail print shop won’t be able to do,” says Bernier. “And it’s what an experienced operator brings to the table.”

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Copies Ressources : imprimerie réputée dans le quartier

Buca: Authentic Italian flavours that come fromthe old country – but not at a carbon costKING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - When arestaurant produces authentic Italian fare, you can expectmany of the ingredients to be proudly imported from the old country. But Buca, from Gus Giazitzidis and Peter Tsebelis who launched Brassaii and Jacobs & Co.Steakhouse, takes a slightly different approach.

Instead, it seeks to minimize the imports and con-centrate on finding the freshest locally produced Ontarioingredients with which to make its very own pasta andeven cure its own prosciutto, on site.

“We’re balancing authenticity with being environmen-tally friendly,” says executive chef Rob Gentile who hasestablished his reputation with stints at both North 44 and Bymark.

“When you are a chef you pour so much time and passion into sourcing the right ingredients,” says Gentilewho has tapped into the growing network of local growers and producers that have made the supply of fresh ingredients all the more plentiful for Torontonians.

“More customers are into locally grown products and care about that stuff. It means a lot that people areappreciating things more,” he says, explaining that it isoften a matter of attending to details.

Take Buca’s water, for example. Rather then purchasingbottled water they will be doing all of their own purifyingwith special equipment on site, including making theirown sparkling water.

Meanwhile, a walk-in curing room in the back slowly dries prepared cuts in the Salumerie tradition to be fashioned, after so many months, into a number of artisanal meats from pancetta to prosciutto. Gentile’sstaff is also busy preserving and canning the summer’sfresh yields of peaches, cherries and tomatoes.

In terms of its menu, Buca promises to be very broadgiven that dishes are based on what product or ingredientis available at the time (menus will be printed daily).

For the more adventurous, some deeply traditional fare such as fried lamb’s brain and pig’s ear will recall truly

exotic travel memories, while the less urbane might becleanly satisfied with a Pizza a la Romana, a long pizzaserved in an oval on a wood palette, or a Pasta Carbonarathat Gentile thinks just may become a signature dish.

Gentile’s passion for food is obvious as he describes thesedishes. This is his first turn as head chef and he is drawingon recipes he learned growing up, like a traditional breadknot that his grandparents used to serve him and thatBuca clientele can expect to see it their bread baskets.

With exposed brick and wood throughout, the roomseats 50, has a spacious private function area in the back and takes advantage of the adjacent alley to form agorgeous outdoor patio.

And just as the food tries to keep it simple, the roomchannels old world tavern (or osteria) but without denyingits former industrial purpose (once a boiler room for thiscirca 1900 building).

“Preserving the integrity and simplicity of the roomhelps to compliment the integrity and simplicity of thefood,” explains Gentile.

buca.com

3 • FALL 2009

TORONTO

by Micayla Jacobs

Buca’s on-site curing room.

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Extreme Group’s Toronto office, theagency of record for companies likeGrand & Toy and Quizno’s, was namedone of Canada’s top ten agencies for2007 by Marketing Magazine.

ATLANTIC REACHExtreme Advertising’s easy-going east coast attitude sets it apartfrom the Toronto crowd

LIBERTY VILLAGE, TORONTO / - January 2nd

of 2007 started unlike any other day for Paul LeBlanc.He sat at his desk in an open office environment inToronto’s Liberty Village wondering what he’d gotteninto as the unseasonably warm day’s sun lit the fourteenempty desks and unmanned computers before him.

“I hadn’t a single client, no staff and I’d just moved my pregnant wife and two kids here from Halifax,” saysLeBlanc of Extreme Group Toronto’s inauspicious start.

Indeed there was no Eureka moment when businessjust started to roll in for the advertising firm, offersLeBlanc, reflecting cheerfully on two very tough yearsthat saw him grow the reach of his successful Atlanticregion agency deep into the heart of the Toronto market.

He and his fledgling team gradually won work withRIM, more with Proctor & Gamble, Sony, BDODunwoody and Cadillac Fairview’s Sherway Gardens.

“Pretty soon, 20 percent of the corporate revenue wascoming from Toronto,” says LeBlanc, adding that by the end of 2008, they had outgrown their space.

Now tidily ensconced on the second floor at 47 Fraser,Extreme Group has grown to 18 staffers, is the agency of record for companies like Grand & Toy and Quizno’s,and was named one of Canada’s top ten agencies for2007 by Marketing Magazine.

While he admits to having “a belly full of fear” in those early days, LeBlanc doesn’t appear to scare easily.

Back in Nova Scotia in 2000, he’d taken the growinggraphic design firm he started in his father’s Dartmouthcarpet cleaning facility and changed direction to form an ad agency, hiring experienced account managers before he had any real advertising clients.

Not certain how a graphic design firm would be different from an ad agency, LeBlanc took to the road in2001 to learn about office cultures and best practicesfrom leading Toronto firms.

Meeting Taxi’s Paul Lavoie prompted him to ditch the suit and tie (“When he walked in the room in jeansand a sweater up to his neck, I thought he was there to

bring us food or change the garbages,” he recalls) andform a work culture that was fun but also create anagency that had a relevance and a purpose.

Despite lacking a clear understanding of strategic marketing back then, LeBlanc became a player nonetheless, working contacts in Toronto to fill a jury of peers for the ICE Awards he founded in 2002 to celebrate the Atlantic region’s best advertising work, and to some degree, unhinge the old boys’ network thatwas keeping his team from growing in that market.

That same year saw him open Extreme Public Affairsand Extreme Interactive with partners and by 2005,Extreme had 70 people servicing clients like Bell,McCain’s, Atlantic Lottery Corporation, MooseheadBreweries, Workers Compensation Board and Anti-Smoking Nova Scotia.

Some thought was given to expanding to Boston at that point, but setting up shop in the U.S. proved more complicated than expected, so LeBlanc set his sights on Toronto, landing here in 2007.

Extreme Group’s reputation as a Halifax firm couldhave been a negative (“As in: What could an East Coastfirm know about national marketing, right?” explainsLeBlanc.), but he found it was often the start of a conver-sation, and that is where LeBlanc found his foothold.

Talking to potential clients and landing small one-offjobs allowed Extreme Group to expose companies totheir “great work, no ego” business philosophy.

“We don’t accept door-slamming drama. We’re hugeon making sure that people fit well in our environment.And clients like that,” he says, adding that another reason their workload is growing is because of the lifecycle stage they are in.

“Right now, it’s intimate. We’ve invested in staff members that were rockstars in their previous agencies.So when a client agrees to work with us, we’re puttingour best, most experienced people on that accountbecause we only have great, experienced people.”

extremegroup.com

5 • FALL 2009

TORONTO

RUE ATLANTIC,MONTRÉAL / – À l’èredu sans fil, BenjaminDesmarais voit lui l’avenirentouré de câbles!

« Il y a la voix sur IP[VoIP] et puis le tout IP[EoIP] et tout ça nécessitedes fibres optiques »,affirme le président de lasociété Fibrenoire, four-nisseur de service Internetinstallé au 400, rue

Atlantic à Montréal, qui propose des services de connec-tivité Internet et de création de réseaux privés multisitesexclusivement par le biais de la fibre optique.

Benjamin Desmarais et ses deux associés ont débuté entant que fournisseur de service Internet en 2007 en aidantleur premier client, situé dans un endroit reculé de larégion de Montréal, à se brancher sur un réseau à fibresoptiques. Aujourd’hui, leur entreprise compte plus de 200clients et elle offre la connexion la plus rapide du Québecet la deuxième au Canada selon l’agence de normalisationmondiale Speedtest.net.

DE GROS BESOINS D’INFRASTRUCTURE On sait acheminer la lumière via des câbles de verre depuis le 19e

siècle et les entreprises de télécommunication installent des câbles optiques pour les télécommunications interurbaines depuis les années 50. On en a aussi installébeaucoup dans les villes pendant la période du boomtechnologique au début des années 2000.

Aujourd’hui, des millions de kilomètres de fibre inutilisée s’entrecroisent tout autour de la planète et desentreprises montantes comme Fibrenoire se créent uneinfrastructure soit en installant leurs propres câbles là où il n’y en a pas, soit en louant de la « fibre noire », descâbles existants mais inutilisés.

« Il y a de la fibre partout », explique BenjaminDesmarais, « il suffit de savoir combien on est prêt à la payer et comment on peut la connecter à son infrastructure ». Fibrenoire a étendu son réseau de plus de 2 500 kilomètres de fibre au cours des deux dernièresannées, essentiellement dans la région métropolitaine de Montréal, mais également à Toronto et à Québec.

RAPIDE ET FIABLE Le monde des télécommunicationsest assez restreint et Fibrenoire, seule firme au Canadaspécialisée dans la connexion de fibre optique, doit

souvent créer des partenariats stratégiques avec les grandesentreprises de télécommunications comme Bell ouVidéotron pour pouvoir louer des câbles.

La fibre optique présente surtout deux avantages : elleest fiable et elle procure une bande passante symétriquehaute capacité. La fiabilité est bien entendu un gros atoutcommercial. Fibrenoire garantit une disponibilité de sonréseau dorsal à 99,99 %. Elle le surveille de très près,appelant ses clients à l’avance pour les prévenir d’une possible interruption.

Quant à la capacité de la bande, il s’avère que les entreprises en veulent toujours plus!

DES UTILISATEURS INSOUPÇONNÉS Lorsque BenjaminDesmarais et ses associés Rémi Fournier et Jean-FrançoisLévesque ont créé Fibrenoire, ils pensaient se tourner vers les secteurs du jeu et du divertissement, qui leur semblaient être les utilisateurs les plus probables de bandepassante de haute capacité.

« On s’était trompé! Nous avons des clients dans pratiquement tous les secteurs : des organismes publics,des cabinets d’avocat, des entreprises de construction, desusines manufacturières, des sociétés financières », expliqueBenjamin Desmarais en ajoutant que nombre de sociétésdeviennent des grosses consommatrices de capacité carelles doivent télécharger toujours plus d’informations surInternet pour leurs employés qui travaillent à distance ouqui effectuent des déplacements. Les lignes numériquesDSL et la technologie par câble, qui ont une vitesse detéléchargement limitée, ne leur suffisent plus.

SI ÇA MARCHE, ON N’Y TOUCHE PAS! Les services deconnexion de Fibrenoire sont de bien meilleure qualitéque ceux de Bell ou de Vidéotron car leur réseau estexclusivement basé sur la fibre optique, expliqueBenjamin Desmarais.

« Nous sommes en fait un fournisseur de serviceInternet offrant une technologie peu exploitée sur unmarché qui nous semblait être une niche commerciale »,ajoute-t-il en soulignant que l’équipe de Fibrenoire veille àne vendre ses services qu’à des clients qui ont un besoinréel de fibre optique ou pour qui le service Internet hautevitesse est insuffisant.

« Si ça marche, on n’y touche pas! C’est notre approcheet elle nous a toujours bien servis. Ainsi, quand nos clientssont prêts à passer à la fibre optique, ils nous rappellenttoujours », conclut Benjamin Desmarais.

Fibrenoire.ca

Un avenir tout tracéUne bande-passante qui attire bien plus qu’une poignée d’entreprises.

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 6

MONTRÉAL

7 • FALL 2009

RUE ATLANTIC, MONTRÉAL / – In a world gone increasinglywireless, Benjamin Desmarais sees a hard-wired future.

“There’s VoIP [Voice over IP] and EoIP [Everything over IP]and it is all being done using fibre optics,” says the president of Fibrenoire, a Montreal Internet provider based out of 400 Atlantic that offers Internet connectivity and multi-site private network exclusively over fibre optics.

Desmarais and two partners started the ISP in 2007 helping their first client connect a remote location outside ofMontreal to a fibre optic network. Since then, the firm hasgrown a roster of over 200 clients and offers the second fastestconnection in Canada and the fastest in Québec, according toglobal standard setter Speedtest.net.

BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE Transmitting light throughglass cables goes back to the 19th century and telcos havebeen laying fibre optic cables since the 1950s for intercitytelecommunications. In the early 2000s, even more of it wasput into place within cities during the tech boom.

Now, there are millions of kilometers of unused fibre criss-crossing the globe and up-and-coming firms likeFibrenoire, formed by partners Desmarais, Remi Fournier andJean-François Lévesque, are amassing an infrastructure by running their own cables where there are none and leasingcable from existing unused, or “dark fibre”, in other instances.

Fibre optics’ two main advantages remain its reliability andsymmetrical high-capacity bandwidth. Reliability is an easy sell.Fibrenoire guarantees 99.99% uptime on Internet backbone andproactively monitors its network to ensure functionality, callingclients ahead of time if the team suspects an interruption.

As for bandwidth, well, it turns out almost everybody wantsmore bandwidth.

NEED DETERMINES MOST LIKELY USERS WhenDesmarais and his partners launched their firm, they expectedto target the gaming and entertainment industries, i.e., the most likely high bandwidth users.

“Turns out we were wrong. Our clients come from almostevery industry. We have public organizations, lawyer firms,construction firms, manufacturing, finance,” says Desmaraisexplaining that many companies are becoming ‘content pushers’, that is, they have to move more information to theweb for their mobile employees. So they are looking for ways to get around the legacy DSL and cable technologies that have limited upload speeds.

Montreal fibre optic providersFibrenoire formed to serve aniche market. But now everybodywants big bandwidth.

““There’s VoIP [voice over IP]and EoIP [everything over IP] and it is all being doneusing fibre optics.”

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 8

Clockwise from top: Firefighting class in session; ambulance withERRS-designed graphics, and; Kevin Tordiffe in front of the choppedup Chrysler used to practice extrications.

EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / – If KevinTordiffe ever had the misfortune of calling 911 inWinnipeg, there’s a good chance he would know the firefighters who showed up. While not currently a firstresponder, he and his business partner Larry Tetreaulttrain them. More specifically, the team at EmergencyRescue Response Services (ERRS) at 250 McDermottdoes, and has been doing so for ten years.

“About 85 percent of our grads go on to work for the city of Winnipeg fire department, and some of ourparamedics end up working in the rural areas,” saysTordiffe, a veteran paramedic who worked in Ste. Anne,south of Winnipeg, as well as in northern Manitoba’sCross Lake.

ERRS started gradually in 1994 with Tordiffe andTetreault offering first aid and CPR training in their off time. Now it is one of the key training agencies forfirst responders in Manitoba. Its paramedic programreceives full accreditation from the Canadian MedicalAssociation and its firefighter program curriculumexceeds NFPA requirements (essentially a world standard).

Necessarily, ERRS’s exclusive status sees it graduatingonly a handful of firefighters and paramedics every year, but training is just one part of the business, whichtook on its current form in 1996 when the provincialgovernment sought lifeguarding services for its LakeWinnipeg beaches.

Until then, Tordiffe and Tetreault were mainly teaching first aid and offering aquatic safety. When they started supplying lifeguarding to Winnipeg Beach,things branched out.

“We were notified at 11 at night and told we neededto be active on the beach 11 days later,” recalls Tordiffewho quickly rounded up nine qualified lifeguards andbrought out-of-province experts to train them in openwater techniques.

“Back then, there was no provincial standard for open water lifeguarding, so we had to make one,” heexplains.

Now the company of six full-time employees managesa seasonal staff of 45 lifeguards covering both WinnipegBeach and Grand Beach beaches, which together haveseen close to one million visitors each year.

The two spaces ERRS occupies at 250 McDermot(one with a chopped up Chrysler used to practice extrications) may seem large for half a dozen employees,but every year close to 25 contract instructors lead sixemergency medical responder classes, as well as twoparamedic and two firefighting classes.

“We’re in a period of attrition with baby boomers and post boomers retiring from the [paramedic and fire]professions. And the demand for paramedics is huge inrural areas,” he says.

Beyond training, ERRS has also made its mark in the film industry, handily becoming the go-to people for shoots requiring water safety experts. Film creditsinclude A Haunting in Connecticut, New in Townas well as television productions such as Falcon Beachand Guinea Pig.

The ERRS partners are also prominent players in thefirst responder community. Tordiffe sits on the board for the Manitoba Lifesaving Society and consults as anexpert witness and fact finder.

Despite continually running full classrooms, Tordiffeis cautious about the school’s growth, not wanting tocompromise on the quality of the graduates it produces.And to applicants, he warns it is not be construed as an alternative to university.

“There’s just as much emphasis on academic performance here as there would be in any universityprogram.”

errs.org

With a growing demand for first responders, paramedics and firefighters, ERRS turned itself into one of Manitoba’s premier fire and paramedic training providers.

WINNIPEG

9 • FALL 2009

RESCUE RESPONSE

RUE ATLANTIC, MONTREAL / –Charles Frobisher has been takingEuropean clients on wilderness treks across Canada since 1996, but when he meets a fellow touroperator who’s been at it evenlonger, he still likes to offer the benefit of his wisdom. “After all,”he says with a smile, “the Frobisherfamily has been doing adventure for over 400 years.”

While explorer Martin Frobisher spent part of his careercharting Canada’s arctic, this entrepreneurial Frobisher has been steadily charting his own course with his companyWindigo, one of Quebec’s leading inbound adventure travel operators.

Its catalogue of 65 trips throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico brings mostly European clients to this conti-nent’s wilder places, including sea kayaking in Baffin Island,hiking the Rockies, snowmobiling in the Laurentians andclimbing a volcano in the Mexican jungle.

Besides his growing reputation in France and England asa solid supplier of wilderness experiences, Frobisher sets hisfirm apart by acting as his own outfitter, holding a stock of some 30 canoes and kayaks as well as 600 tents andthousands of other bits of gear, all warehoused in Montreal.

An avid outdoor enthusiast from a young age, Frobisherguided his first group of 10 French tourists in the summerof 1996 on a canoe trip through the Lac St-Jean area.

But his real start in adventure tourism came a year earlier,when while backpacking in Botswana he met a safari oper-ator in need of a French-speaking staffer. He was offered

a job as a driver/cook and soon connected with a French tour operator seeking guided adventure trips in Canada.

That’s when Frobisher raced back to Canada, put a business plan together, bought some equipment and established himself as a reliable supplier of adventure trips in Quebec and Nunavut.

In 1998, he opened a seasonal office in Canmore,Alberta, to support hiking in the Rockies; in 2000, a San Francisco office began support U.S. tours; and, twoyears ago an office in Mexico opened to manage trips down there.

Indeed, the world adventure travel market has grown steadily over the last ten years and Frobisher is seeing a shiftto organizing custom tours. (Windigo caters primarily togroups, but its partner firm, Toundra, with whom it sharesoffices, designs tours for individuals).

He expects the European appetite for North Americanadventures to continue to grow, but nonetheless wants toconnect with South American and Asian markets (“A lot of Mexicans come to Canada in the winter,” he says.)

To date, Frobisher’s biggest challenge has been a humanresources one. While he has a dozen staffers running theday-to-day operations, finding the right trip guides can be tricky.

“You have to find a person with all the proper guidingaccreditations and experience to do a trip – but they alsohave to be good with people,” says Frobisher.

To that end, he tends to train guides in-house, promotingfrom within to make Windigo an adventurous place to be –whether you’re an employee or a client.

windigo.travel

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 10

GOING WILDAdventure Tour Operator Windigo introduces Europeans to Canada’s wildest places

D’aventure en aventureWindigo fait vivre l’aventure canadienne aux Européens

MONTRÉAL

RUE ATLANTIC, MONTRÉAL / – Depuis 1996, Charles Frobisher faitdécouvrir l’immensité du paysage canadien à ses clients européens. Et quand il rencontre un voyagiste spécialisé dans son secteur depuisplus longtemps que lui, il ne manque pas de lui réserver quelques bons conseils quoi qu’il en soit. « Après tout, dit-il en souriant, chez les Frobisher on est dans l’aventure depuis plus de 400 ans ».

Tandis que l’explorateur Martin Frobisher a passé une partie de sa vie à découvrir l’arctique canadien, Charles Frobisher, lui, a mis àprofit son esprit d’entreprise en créant Windigo, une des premièresagences de tourisme d’aventure au Québec.

Son catalogue propose 65 voyages au Canada, aux États-Unis et au Mexique à des clients, européens pour la plupart, qui cherchentl’aventure sur notre continent. Il leur propose l’île de Baffin pour lekayak de mer, les Rocheuses pour la randonnée, les Laurentides pour la motoneige ou la jungle mexicaine pour l’escalade d’un volcan.

De plus en plus connu en France et en Angleterre pour la qualité de ses voyages, Charles Frobisher se différencie des autres parce qu’ilutilise son propre équipement riche de quelque 30 canots et kayaks,de 600 tentes et de milliers d’autres petits accessoires, le tout entreposé à Montréal.

Passionné d’aventure depuis son plus jeune âge, Charles Frobisher a emmené son premier groupe de touristes français visiter la région du Lac St-Jean en canot pendant l’été 96.

Mais ses vrais débuts dans le tourisme d’aventure il les a faits un an auparavant, lorsque, parti à l’aventure au Botswana, il avait rencontré un organisateur de safaris qui cherchait un chauffeur/cuisinier de langue française. Peu après il a fait la connaissance d’un voyagiste français à la recherche de voyages d’aventure accompagnés de guides au Canada.

C’est alors qu’il est reparti au Canada pour préparer un plan d’affaires, acheter du matériel et se lancer dans cette nouvelle aventurequi lui permet de proposer des voyages au Québec et au Nunavut.

En 1998, il a ouvert un bureau saisonnier à Canmore en Alberta,quartier général de ses randonnées dans les Rocheuses. En 2000, undeuxième bureau vit le jour à San Francisco chargé d’organiser les voyages aux États-Unis. Puis il y a deux ans, c’était au tour du Mexiqueoù un troisième bureau se charge des voyages locaux.

Le marché du tourisme d’aventure a connu une croissance continueau cours des dix dernières années. Mais les choses évoluent et lesclients recherchent de plus en plus des voyages personnalisés (Windigos’occupe principalement de groupes, mais Toundra, avec laquelle elleest associée et qui partage ses bureaux, organise des voyages pour les particuliers).

Charles Frobisher est convaincu que l’appétit des Européens pourl’aventure en Amérique du Nord continue de se développer, mais ilcherche tout de même à se positionner sur les marchés sud-américainset asiatiques (« Nombre de Mexicains viennent au Canada en hiver »,affirme-t-il).

Jusqu’à présent, son seul problème a été le recrutement des guides. S’il emploie une douzaine de personnes pour gérer les affairesau quotidien, trouver le bon guidepour chaque voyage est plus difficile.

« Il faut quelqu’un qui aittoutes les accréditations deguide et l’expérience néces-saire pour le voyage – maisaussi beaucoup d’entregent »,conclut Charles Frobisher.

C’est pour cela qu’il propose à sesguides des formations maison et qu’il arecours aux promotions internes, faisant ainside Windigo un lieu d’aventure à la fois pour sesclients et pour ses employés.

T O T U M T I P SSTICK-ON PAIN SOLUTION: Colourful elastic tape

another tool in sports injury treatment

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 12

Taping for rotator cuff issues orshoulder blade disfunction.

Tape is stretched unidirectionallybefore being applied.

In position, tape helps to keepshoulder blade forward.

Developed by a Japanese chiropractor some 25 years ago,Kinesio Tex Tape is a colourful elastic sport tape that gained real traction at the Beijing Olympics when U.S. volleyball starsstepped onto the court with pink, blue, black and beige strips of the stuff marking their bodies like tattoos.

Since then, the tape and its healing powers have quicklyfound a place in sports medicine cabinets around the globe. For chronic injuries, some pros have learned to tape themselves,

but generally, you need someone trained in its application to get the best results.

Mary-Catherine Fraser Saxena, director of Totum’s sport clinic,became certified when a few clients with shoulder injuriesweren’t progressing as well as she’d hoped.

“I was interested in learning how the tape could help them continue training,” she says, explaining that Kinesio Tex Tape isused as an adjunct to other treatment methods.

WHAT IS IT FOR?The Kinesio Tex Tape is used over muscles to reduce pain and inflammation,relax overused tired muscles, and to support muscles in movement.

HOW DOES IT WORK?Regular athletic taping restricts muscle movement by using pressure. Butmuscles also help with circulation. Kinesio Tex Tape adheres to the surfaceof the skin providing support to muscles without restricting circulation. Infact, it adheres with such traction that when applied in a specific manner, itimproves drainage in the area, which in turn reduces swelling.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT IT?It’s very adhesive and will stay on for three to five days – even if it gets wetshowering or swimming. Also, the tape stretches only along its length andthe adhesive is applied in ribbons on the cotton backing so that there’sspace for the skin to breathe.

WHO SHOULD USE IT?Although its inventors claim it has been used to address everything fromheadaches to foot problems, Fraser Saxena has used it to manage shoulderpain, knee conditions, post surgical pain (around scar area following anklesurgery) and even to help correct bad posture.

CAN I TAPE MYSELF?She cautions against taping yourself as it is important to have a professionalassess what is the cause of your injury and if indeed this treatment is appropriate. And if it is, you’re likely to only get taped two or three times over the course of your treatment. “That’s enough to provide support andhelp heal the area,” says Fraser Saxena, “by which time you’ll be over thehump. Then you can continue with your training.”

Totum.ca

URBAN EXPERTS

Toronto brokers managing Allied Properties’ east side portfolio see downtown core widening

13 • FALL 2009

TORONTO

YONGE STREET, TORONTO / - In terms of location,193 Yonge Street isn’t considered a traditional office node in Toronto. But Jeff Thomas and Mike Scace had a steadystream of professionals vying for space in the six-storey former Corby’s Distillery headquarters.

“There were law firms and financial services firms lookingfor space,” recalls Thomas, of Ashlar Urban Real Estate, the firm chiefly responsible for Allied’s leasing activity east of Yonge Street.

Along with Scace, the duo eventually put a unit of St. Michael’s hospital into the building’s top five floors.

GROWTH OF THE I-CLASS Ashlar Urban, and in particularits president Craig Smith, has held a long relationship with Allied. Smith and his team have worked extensivelythroughout the downtown to become experts in findingoffice space in historic buildings.

The firm now handles hundreds of transactions a year,provides real estate consultation to various professional firms and is seen as a growing force Toronto’s downtowncommercial real estate industry.

Ashlar Urban was also implicit in the growth of the I-classmarket, a term that describes the industrial quality of theexposed brick and beam space that makes up this category.

STRONG DEMAND FOR HISTORIC OFFICE In 1997, whenAllied’s executive team sought to buy a number of thesesuch buildings at King and Spadina, the work formed someof Ashlar Urban’s earliest deals.

“Whenever there’s a vacant space [in these buildings]there’s typically a tenant lined up to take it over,” saysThomas, who along with Scace has leased over one millionsquare feet of office space to date.

“In this market,companies want character options in theEast that are built-outand as close to move-incondition as possible.Fortunately, we havebeen successful in retaining growing tenants and attractingnew tenants by findingsuitable options within the Allied portfolio,” says Scace.

CHARACTER SPACE Scace, Thomas and Smith (picturedabove) have all worked extensively with product on the east side of Yonge and have seen how the shift to characterspace has changed the landscape there.

Value is one reason companies seek I-class, but Thomassays character is often a chief consideration.

“There are financial services firms that look for this type of space because it helps distinguish them from thecompetition. But they could easily afford a financial core address,” he says.

“Employee attraction and retention are also key issueswhen it comes to clients looking at downtown space,” adds Scace, explaining that one reason St. Michael’s hospitalliked 193 Yonge Street was for its proximity to the subwayline and existing facilities.

A GROWING DOWNTOWN As the market matures substan-tially and renovations and new builds help to infill the gapsbetween Toronto’s core addresses and those on the periphery,the I-class space comes to be a part of a larger downtown.

As such, addresses such as 193 Yonge Street come to mean more than just a nice office building in a once predominantly retail landscape. Rather, it is now consideredjust a few doors down from Google’s Canadian offices atYonge and Dundas. In other words, office is growing.

“And [office users] want to stay in or close to the core,and that’s where Ashlar is doing most of its deals,” saysThomas.

ashlarurban.com193 Yonge Street

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 14

CFL COMMAND CENTRE TO MAKE REPLAYQUICKER, MORE CONSISTENTVideo Review of Challenged Calls Moves to “High Tech, High Def”Centre at League Headquarters

15 • FALL 2009

TORONTO““By utilizing the latest technology in a central location, presided over by adedicated replay official, we intend to make a goodsystem that much better.”

– Tom HigginsDirector of Officiating

ST. LAWRENCE MARKET AREA, TORONTO / –CFL officials have been seeing things differently this season since the league set up a high-tech, high-definitionCommand Centre at its headquarters on WellingtonStreet West.

The new system for video review of on-field officials’calls challenged by coaches is designed to speed up thereplay system, and increase the consistency of officials’decision making.

The new process – with a replay official in theToronto office making the final call based on videoreview instead of an on-field referee – has been in placesince the league’s regular season began on July 1st.

“By utilizing the latest technology in a central location, presided over by a dedicated replay official, weintend to make a good system that much better,” saysTom Higgins, the league’s Director of Officiating.

It’s designed to be quicker because a dedicated replayofficial at the Command Centre can immediately startreviewing a play from various angles, instead of fans and teams having to wait for the on-field referee to reach a video booth on the sideline, Higgins explains.

And the calls should be more consistent because thereplay official can rely on the very best high-definitionmonitors. In the past, the quality of the standard

definition pictures reviewed by on-field referees couldvary from stadium to stadium, he adds.

Manning the Command Centre is Jake Ireland, whoretired as an on-field official following last year’s GreyCup after a distinguished career that spanned 30 yearsand 557 games, including 15 Grey Cups.

It’s important to note that Ireland sees the same TSNreplays fans watch from home, but he also has access to computer technology that allows him to slow downand isolate images to ensure the right call is made.Developed by DVSport, the technology is already beingused effectively by other high-profile sports includingNCAA football.

Under CFL rules, head coaches are allowed to challenge two calls made by on-field officials during eachgame. And starting this year, a third challenge can begranted if the first two are successful. Coaches can onlychallenge a prescribed list of calls, including catch/nocatch, down-by-contact, and whether the ball crossed theplane of the goal line. In fact, 85 per cent of challengeslast year fell into one of those three categories.

The 2008 CFL regular season and playoffs included 105 challenges. In 66 instances, the on-field official’s call was upheld, in 34 it was overturned, and in five thevideo evidence was deemed inconclusive.

cfl.ca

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 16

ST-LAURENT, MONTRÉAL / – Les mini burgers et la poutine aux gnocchis ne sont que deux des entrées originales qui ont propulsé le Macaroni Bar sur la scène gastronomique montréalaise. Mais sa déco chic et son inégalable terrasse y sont aussi pour quelque chose.

Installé à l’angle de Saint-Laurent et Mont-Royal, ce restaurant du Plateau réinvente des plats italiens traditionnels qu’il se plaît à proposer tant aux professionnelsaffamés des alentours qu’aux Montréalais en quête d’uneoasis de verdure pour casser la croûte après le travail.

En cherchant à attirer ces deux types de clientèle, lerestaurant, ouvert depuis novembre 2008, s’est en quelquesorte forgé une double personnalité. Outre cette nouvelleversion de la poutine, d’autres plats au menu comme lesbombes de thon, les suçons au porc braisé et le tartare desaumon témoignent d’une réelle envie d’amuser le client.Sans parler du soir, quand à la nuit tombée, le bar s’illumineet que le DJ fait tourner les mélodies d’hier et d’aujourd’hui.

Dehors, autour d’une jolie fontaine, une terrasse en rez-de-jardin de 4 000 pi2 avec des canapés en rotin garnisde coussins rouges accueille une clientèle branchée qui flânesur la pelouse – à quelques mètres du tumulte de la ville.

À l’intérieur, on retrouve les panneaux en merisier de l’ancienne grilladerie (Restaurant 55°), aujourd’hui recouvertsde peinture blanche, et les épaisses colonnes dont l’uneexpose une large photo – scène d’un dîner de famille tiréedu film « Roma » de Fellini. Plus près du bar, les panneauxdisparaissent pour laisser place à une structure de briques. La salle a une allure propre et moderne grâce à un ensembleflambant neuf de banquettes et de chaises et à un grand lustre composé de quatre grosses cloches de verre blanc.

« Nous avons tous travaillé dans des restaurants haut degamme », déclare Santo Buffone, fondateur du MacaroniBar avec Éric Petraglia, William Zorko, Angelo Cappuccilliet le cuisinier Sergio Mattoscio, une équipe qui a eu l’idéeoriginale de créer un lieu branché des nuits montréalaisestout en en y proposant une cuisine traditionnelle.

Alors, le Macaroni Bar est-il un restaurant ou une boîte de nuit?

« Les deux! », répond Santo Buffone. « Nos clients savent qu’on leur sert de la bonne cuisine, mais qu’ils peuvent aussi venir faire la fête en fin de semaine. »

Macaronibar.ca

Un restaurant décontracté pour qui le plaisir c’est du sérieux

17 • FALL 2009

MONTRÉAL

Plateau’s sleek and sexy restolounge a casual eatery that takesfun seriously ST-LAURENT, MONTREAL / – Mini burgers called Sliders, andGnocchi Poutine are just two of the innovative appetizers that haveput Macaroni Bar on Montreal’s dining map. But its stylish décorand unmatched patio have helped to keep it there.

Set where St. Laurent meets Mont-Royale, this Plateau diningroom offers solidly reinvented Italian classics to the destinationdiner, and is a welcome post-work oasis for the thirsty professional.

Opened since November 2008, Macaroni Bar’s aim to pleaseboth these audiences has given it a somewhat split personality.Beyond its new take on traditional poutine, other small dishes likeTuna Bombs, Pork Belly Lollipops and Salmon Tartar show thekitchen means to entertain. And entertainment is the watchwordafter dark here when the place lights up and DJs start to spin old and new mixes.

Outside on the 4,000-square-foot garden terrace, red-cushionedwicker sofas surround a gently flowing water feature while evergreen shrubs work to conceal the stylish crowd milling abouton the lawn – just steps from the city bustling all around it.

Inside, the cherry wood paneling of the former steakhouse(Restaurant 55°) is frozen in a coat of white paint. A few of thecolumns have panels framing parts of a large-format still – a familydining scene from Fellini’s 1972 film ‘Roma’. Closer to the room’smain bar, the paneling tapers off and more of the building’s brickstructure is revealed. New banquettes and chairs keep the placelooking clean and modern, as does the room’s main light fixture,a cluster of white glass bell-shaped pendants.

“My partners and I worked mostly at upscale restaurants,”says Santo Buffone, who along with Eric Petraglia, William Zorko,Angelo Cappuccilli and Chef Sergio Mattoscio, opened Macaroni Bar to combine their vision of how homestyle cooking can meet ahip urban nightspot.

Wednesday through to Saturday nights the DJ spins ’80s mixesfor the dining crowd, but late Fridays and Saturdays things move to ‘soulful’ house music.

So is it a club or a restaurant?“Both,” says Buffone. “People understand that we have a

focus on good food, but on the weekends, they can also come here to party.”

MACARONI BAR MACARO

TORO

NTO

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 18

Wealth Managers Newport Partners Creates Homefor Entrepreneurs on King West

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / – DouglasBrown sees his team as a kind of financial services pit crew for high net worth individuals.

“We help them fix issues, get better organized financiallyand optimize their performance,” he explains, adding that many clients to whom his firm provides investmentmanagement services are in fact entrepreneurs.

To that end, Newport Partners, which started in 2001,has developed a specialty providing investment manage-ment for the liquid assets an entrepreneur accumulates outside the business. It also provides wealth managementfor all of the ancillary and complex issues that come withsuccess, as well as corporate finance for the strategic andcapital issues relating to the business.

“You need to understand that [an entrepreneur’s] busi-ness and personal interests are highly intertwined and youneed to be able to offer best-in-class expertise on both,”says Brown, the firm’s co-founder and managing director.

And the entrepreneurial market is not to be underestimated.Small and medium-sized companies (that is with fewer than500 employees) make up 97 per cent of all Canadian businessesand employ 56 per cent of all workers, says a CanadianFederation of Independent Businesses 2007 statistic.

And while Newport Partners offers services to these successstories, it can also count itself among them. In just eightyears, the firm has grown from start-up to having close to $1 billion of assets under management and has helped entrepreneurs realize more than $300 million in value on the sale of their businesses and raise more than $600 millionin capital. (Euromoney Magazine recently ranked NewportPartners among Canada’s top 20 private banks.)

One reason for the firm’s appeal with the entrepreneurialclass is its investment approach. Rather than using an in-house team of money managers, Newport Partnersprefers to outsource this function through arrangementswith 12 top independent money managers with uniqueareas of specialization – from real estate to corporate bondsto commodities to equities.

“Hiring third party managers and participating in adiverse range of public and private investments is howmany of the world’s billionaire families have expandedtheir wealth – we’ve just brought the concept to individualswith more modest wealth,” says Brown.

As for its offices, since 2006, Newport Partners has occupiedthe 469 King Street West space between Spadina Avenue andPortland Street having re-locating from King and Bay.

“This location, this space is central to who we are,” explainsKelly Willis, Director of Marketing for Newport Partners.

“Not only does it make a statement about the entrepreneurial nature of our company, but the locationappeals to our clients’ sense of pragmatism. When theycome to visit, they love that they can park right on KingStreet and not have to pay $30 to park in the core,” she says, adding that, “Given we are in the business ofhelping people be smart with their money, it only makessense that it starts where we live.”

newportpartners.ca

Brown Willis

19 • AUTOMNE 2009

MONTREAL / – Notre bureau de Montréala participé à l’événement Roulons, de laFondation de la recherche sur le diabètejuvénile du Canada tenu, vendredi 11septembre 2009.

Les équipes se composent de cinq cyclisteset, le jour du Roulons, chaque membre del’équipe se relaie sur un vélo stationnairetoutes les huit minutes pendant une périodede 40 minutes. C’est un événement très motivant qui fait la promotion de l’espritd’équipe sous le signe du plaisir. Nous avons amassé plus de 5,000 $ endons.

Le nom et le logo d’Allied Properties FPIétaient fièrement affichés sur la bannière des donateurs pendant l’événement à la Plaza de la Place Ville Marie de Montréal. Pour de plus amples renseignements, visitez lewww.frdj.ca

VOICI LES MEMBRES DE L’ÉQUIPE QUI ONT PARTICIPÉ ACTIVEMENT À L’ÉVÉNEMENT:Team Captain/Nom du capitaine: Michelle TremblayCyclists/Cyclistes: Sandra Leavey, Cathy Dranfield,Pauline Cyr, Julie Couture.

A team from our Montréal office recently completed the Ride for Diabetes Research this fall.Teams consist of five riders, and on event day, each team member alternates riding astationary bike for eight minutes over the course of 40 minutes. Teams ride in one-hourintervals so it fits into any schedule. This year, we raised over $5,000 in donations. TheAllied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust’s logo and name was proudly displayed onthe donors’ banner. For more information please visit www.jdrf.ca

Consciente des efforts de location déployés par ses partenaires en courtage de Montréal, Fonds de placement immobilier Allied aorganisé cet été une soirée cocktails et huîtres et a offert une chance de gagner une toute nouvelle Vespa. Plusiers conseillersimmobiliers de la communauté étaient présents à l’événement mais un seul a quitté les lieux au Volant d’une rutilante Vespa LX150(félicitations au gagnant Eric Langburt de Cushman & Wakefield LePage!).

Le Fonds de placement immobilier Allied Properties remercie la communauté de courtage de Montréal...

Ça roule chez Allied

NOUVO ST-ROCH, QUÉBEC / – Chez Camellia Sinensis, maison de thé qui propose plus de 180 sortes de thés, les quatre propriétaires ont à leur actif des dizaines d’années de voyages à travers le monde en quête desmeilleures variétés de thé, une riche expérience qu’ils aiment partager.

C’est pourquoi, ces jours-ci, cette jolie boutique du 624 boulevard St-Joseph Est fourmille d’activité alors qu’elle s’apprête à sortir son nouveau livre Thé : Histoire, Terroir et Saveur. Elle vient aussi d’ouvrir, au 2e étage, un nouvel espace consacré aux dégustations, présentations et ateliers qu’elleoffre régulièrement.

« Nous proposons des dégustations et des ateliers éducatifs depuis toujours.Mais auparavant on ne pouvait le faire que quand le magasin était fermé. À présent, nous avons un espace réservé à cela et nous pouvons donc proposerdes ateliers le samedi après-midi par exemple », déclare Jasmin Desharnais,associé et responsable du magasin de Québec.

Conçue pour accueillir une dizaine de personnes, la nouvelle pièce estéquipée d’un écran de présentation et d’un espace de préparation du thé. Les ateliers Découverte et Initiation, qui permettent de goûter à dix variétésdifférentes de thé au cours d’une séance de trois heures au prix de 35 $, sont certes les plus demandés, mais les cérémonies du thé attirent de plus en plus d’enthousiastes.

Cette soif de connaissances du thé a aussi incité l’équipe de CamelliaSinensis à publier son premier livre Thé : Histoire, Terroir et Saveur. Cetouvrage, qui a demandé deux années de préparation, est basé sur les nombreuxvoyages qui ont permis aux quatre associés d’acquérir la connaissance des différents terroirs et de rencontrer des producteurs locaux. Le tout est condensé dans un tome éducatif sur l’art de cultiver et de servir le thé, sur sonutilisation dans les recettes et sur les effets de certaines variétés sur la santé.

Camellia Sinensis a d’ailleurs commandé sa propre étude sur les bienfaitsnutritionnels de plus de 50 variétés de thé.

« Nous voulons simplement apporter une réponse aux questions courantes.Par exemple, le thé vert est certes un anti-oxydant mais quel est le meilleurthé vert et pourquoi? » conclut Jasmin Desharnais.

camellia-sinensis.com

L’école de théDes ateliers et un livre sur le thé pour des amateurs de plus en plus nombreux

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • AUTOMNE 2009

QUÉB

EC

www.alliedpropertiesreit.comAvez-vous une histoire à raconter? Écrivez-nous au news@alliedpropertiesreit.com

FSC LOGO HERE

Growing interest in tea promptsworkshops and book launch for Quebec tea shopNOUVO ST-ROCH, QUEBEC CITY / – Things are particularly busy these days at 624 St-Joseph Blvd East as printer’s proofs are just in for the teasalon’s new book Thé : Histoire, Terroir et Saveur,and September began with the opening of an intimate classroom setting on the second floor for tea tastings, presentations and workshops.

Set up for a dozen students, the room has apresentation screen and a prep area to make tea.The introductory tastings, where you can sample10 different teas over three hours for $20, haveproven most popular, though workshops teachingtea ceremonies also have a growing attendance.

This thirst for tea knowledge has also led theCamellia Sinensis team to publish its first book.Two years in the making, Thé : Histoire, Terroir etSaveur leverages the experiences the four ownerslearning about terrain and meeting local growers,and condenses it into a comprehensive tome oneverything from how tea is grown and served to how it can be used in recipes as well as thehealth effects of certain varieties.