Riaz Mamdani

Riaz Mamdani is the chief executive and founder of Strategic Group, a real estate investment and development company located in Calgary, Canada.[1] In the 1990s, Mamdani gained recognition in Calgary as a financier of various startups before shifting his business efforts in the early 2000s to real estate. In part as a result of Mamdani's success in real estate, he is considered "one of Calgary’s wealthiest men".[2]

Riaz
Born
Uganda
CitizenshipCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Calgary, University of Manitoba
Occupationreal estate executive
Known forFounder and CEO of Strategic Group

Early life and education

Riaz Mamdani immigrated with his parents and younger brother, Alykhan Mamdani, from Uganda to Canada in the early 1970s when he was very young. His family was involved in various businesses in Calgary and in East Africa; they owned stores and real estate.[2]

Mamdani graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy in 1992 and from the University of Calgary law school in 1996.[3] In a 2012 interview with Alberta Venture, he said that he had taken a "roundabout" way to get to his true calling, business.[2]

Early career

From 1992 to 1996, Mamdani served as a pharmacist at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, while studying law at the University of Calgary. After obtaining his law degree, he was a barrister and solicitor with Beaumont Church, a Calgary-based law firm, from 1996 to 1998, focusing on corporate, commercial, and securities law.[2]

Transition to company finance

Beginning in the late 1990s, Mamdani's professional interest and energy moved increasingly from practicing law to involvement in the financing of companies, especially early-stage startups in and around Calgary.[2] He has said that it was these businesses' need for more office space that originally introduced him to real estate.

Strategic Group

In 2001, seeing that the real estate side of his businesses was growing the fastest, Mamdani formed Strategic Group as a way to further invest in commercial real estate in and around Calgary. Strategic Group is a fully integrated real estate company. Mamdani began the company with two properties in its portfolio.[4] The company also owns businesses in industries that include construction, building services, oilfield services, hospitality, pet care, agriculture, technology and corporate finance.[5]

In 2015, partially as a result of the weakened Alberta economy, Strategic Group announced that it would shift its concentration from commercial properties to building rental apartments.[6] In a 2019 letter to stakeholders, Mamdani wrote that "much of the growth of our company will be in our multi-family residential rental business, and approach that is directly linked to our strategic focus on sustainability and recurring revenue."[7] The company is building UPTEN, a 38-storey mixed-use building with 379 rental residences in the Beltline community near downtown Calgary. In 2019, the company completed Marda, a 6-storey mixed-use building with 65 rental residences. Under Mamdani's leadership, Strategic Group is repurposing former office buildings into residential buildings in Calgary and Edmonton.[8][9] This includes repurposing the historically significant Barron Building from office into a residential rental building with 93 suites and ground-level retail.[10] In 2019, the company completed its first office-to-residential repurposing projects including Cube in Calgary and e11even in Edmonton. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi called Cube "an exciting next step for innovative development in our city."[11] Upon the opening of e11even in October 2019, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said "saving thousands of tons of waste from going to the landfill while adding critical green housing options for Edmontonians is a great accomplishment.”[12] On the 11th of December 2019, Strategic Group announced that it had received court ordered creditor protection for 56 of the 171 properties that it owns. This judgement prevents creditors from taking action against the company as it attempts to restructure. [13] Strategic Group is in the process of restructuring its real estate organization to adapt to the high office vacancy rates in Alberta.[14]

In 2020, Strategic Group completed two major building projects: Capital in Edmonton and UPTEN in Calgary. The latter represents an "unprecedented" building boom of residential rental towers in Calgary which is driven by a lack of supply, changing demographics, and increasingly positive attitudes toward rental living.[15]

Mamdani is an investor and shareholder in a number of other business ventures.

Philanthropy

Over the years, Mamdani has made contributions to various charitable organizations and causes. Mamdani has supported the Make-a-Wish organization,[16] Project Warmth Society of Alberta.[17] and Alberta Women Entrepreneurs,[3] and is on the Board of Directors of Theatre Calgary[18] and Alberta Champions, an organization dedicated to recognizing outstanding Albertans.[19] Since 2012, Mamdani has worked with the Calgary Food Bank to raise food and cash donations for those in need.

Mamdani entered into a multi-year partnership with Calgary Opera to support its transition to a new location. As a result of Mamdani's contribution, Calgary Opera changed the name of its building to Mamdani Opera Centre.[6][20]

In 2015, Mamdani offered his support of Syrian refugees coming to Canada, saying that Strategic Group would be prepared to open its properties to them.[21]

Since 2013, Strategic Group has been the title sponsor of Calgary's Mayor's Lunch for Arts Champions. In 2018, the company co-funded the creation of the Mamdani Arts Leadership Award—an annual award for volunteer board members of arts organizations in Calgary.[22] In 2020, the award was given to Meg Van Rosendaal and Bob Chartier of Calgary's Music Mile.[23]

In 2019, Mamdani collaborated with the Canadian Mental Health Association - Calgary Region and the Lucas Fiorella Friendship Bench to unveil the first publicly accessible Friendship Bench to support mental health awareness and wellness.[24]

Shooting

On December 19, 2016, Mamdani was the target of a shooting while he sat in the driver's seat of a Rolls-Royce Phantom in front of his home in Upper Mount Royal, Calgary. Moments following the shooting, explosions were reported in the 3800 block of 6th Street S.W. The Calgary Fire Department stated they found an empty car on fire in an alley which caused the explosions, leading to speculation that the incident was connected to Mamdani's shooting. Mamdani sustained serious injuries and has since fully recovered.[25][26][27]

gollark: How does that work? You only have 3 things in a row.
gollark: My message was eaten by bees somehow.
gollark: https://contentauthenticity.org/how-it-works
gollark: Well, this is intensely horrifying.
gollark: I can forward SSH at some point.

References
  1. "Calgary developer plans to build 32-storey tower on neighbourhood eyesore". Financial Post. May 26, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  2. "AUDIO: Meet Riaz Mamdani". Alberta Venture. November 1, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  3. "And Now…A Word From Our Sponsors". Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. March 23, 2015. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  4. "Annual Review - Our Future: 2019 and Beyond" (PDF). Strategic Group Annual Review 2018. March 2019.
  5. "Strategic Group earns 50 BOMA BEST certifications". RENX.ca. October 28, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  6. "Strategic Group switches focus to commercial properties". Alberta Venture. November 12, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  7. Mamdani, Riaz (June 20, 2019). "A letter to our stakeholders".
  8. "Strategic Group to repurpose empty Calgary office space". RENX - Real Estate News Exchange. 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  9. Orland, Kevin (June 10, 2019). "Oil Woes Have Calgary Landlords Turning Empty Offices Into Apartments". Bloomberg.
  10. Bell, David (Jan 12, 2019). "Iconic Calgary building can be read like a swanky and hopeful history of our city". CBC News.
  11. "Calgary's first modern office-to-residential building is now open".
  12. "Strategic Group opens Alberta's largest office-to-residential repurposed building in Edmonton". Strategic Group.
  13. Hudes, Sammy (11 December 2019). "Strategic Group granted creditor protection for 56 properties, citing poor economy". The Calgary Herald.
  14. "Strategic Group reorganizing real estate portfolio in response to Alberta economy". Strategic Group.
  15. Fieber, Pamela (July 8, 2020). "Discerning renters driving force behind upscale rental apartment construction in Calgary". CBC News.
  16. "Tossriaz.ca". Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  17. "Stampede City Sessions". Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  18. "Theatre Calgary". Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  19. "Alberta Champions". Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  20. "Calgary Opera". Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  21. "Calgary landlords preparing for refugee influx". Metro. November 18, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  22. "Mamdani Arts Leadership Award Calgary". Strategic Group. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  23. "Cultural Leaders Legacy Artist Awards Announced". Calgary Arts Development.
  24. "Riaz Mamdani unveils first public Friendship Bench in Canada".
  25. Rumbolt, Ryan (December 19, 2016). "Millionaire developer Riaz Mamdani likely targeted in Mount Royal shooting". Calgary Herald.
  26. Boushy, David; Perri, Aurelio (December 20, 2016). "Riaz Mamdani heralded as philanthropist with 'big heart' as he recovers from Calgary shooting". Globalnews.ca.
  27. "Riaz Mamdani breaks silence on Mount Royal Shooting". Calgary Sun. June 23, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
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