Ontario Construction News staff writer
Arnold Strub has joined the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario (ACMO) as executive director with a mandate to advance continuing education programs and expand the association’s membership beyond the GTA in regional centres across the province.
Strub, who came on board on July 2 with the retirement of the ACMO’s previous executive director Paul MacDonald, has a background as a director for organizations including the Stoney Creek Chamber of Commerce, as a management consultant identifying business opportunities and in food processing and packaging following sale of the family business, Strub’s Pickles in 2008.
A married father of three grown children, he joins the Condominium Managers Association at a time when construction of high-rise condominiums has slowed dramatically due to elevated interest rates and declining sales. He has also started his new role amid a shortage of experienced condominium managers after many left the industry in the wake of new provincial regulations in effect last year requiring every condominium manager to be licensed.
Established in 1977, the ACMO says it is working to expand its professional community, improve the experience of its more than 2,000 members, increase awareness of the association, and continue to lead in condo management education.
In an interview, Strub told Ontario Construction News that “It’s been a real thrill for me to step into Paul’s shoes and hit the ground running.”
Ontario Construction News — What are you goals for the upcoming year and beyond?
Arnold Strub — The previous executive director did remarkable work in transforming the organization to the point where today we’re on a new strategic plan where we’re offering free continuing professional education for all of our members to earn points toward the renewal of their general license. This is a community of professional condominium managers who really appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded individuals. They cherish the opportunity to compare, contrast and to find the best practice opportunities so they can make their buildings a happy place and a safe place and a good place for their tenants. The board has given me a mandate to expand on that to try to get more members. There are about 4.500 licensed condominium managers in the province and only about half of them are members. It’s a mandate to expand regionally; to expand our reach to as many of the managers as possible to see the benefit of a gold standard in continuing education. We’re a provincial association but because of the concentration of buildings and managers of condominiums in the GTA it tends to be seen as GTA-centric so were going to be trying to create regional events in the different regions where there are other concentrations of buildings and condo managers –southwestern Ontario, eastern Ontario and a little bit of northern Ontario. We’re trying to do some regional events, luncheons with an educational session. We’re going to try and replicate that in a few different areas to get everybody to a higher level of success.
OCN – There are obviously challenges in the market these days. Can you tell me how you will handle those challenges?
AS — There are 13,000 buildings and counting but you’ve only got 4,500 condominium managers in the province. We’ve lost over the last couple of years a lot of long-time managers. We’ve lost that experience. The average level of seniority has shrunk so we re trying through continuing education to get back to that level. They were very successful and accredited through our association, but they didn’t want the hassle of getting a license. A large number of these senior people were already near retirement age, so they just decided to go. The real estate market is separate from the condominium management market but there’s a connection in the fact that a corporation is required to have a board of directors. In 99 per cent of cases the board decides to hire a professional to help them run the corporation. The number of new starts at least in the GTA has kind of stalled mainly because of interest rates and the prices of the market. But as interest rates fall, we expect that there are going to be starts of new buildings at a pace similar to what we saw over the past few years and once those are complete, they’re going to need condominium managers.
OCN — Do you think the condominium market will bounce back?
AS – I think so. I look at the provincial government which is trying to increase supply of affordable housing and also when you look at what the municipalities are trying to do. They’re trying not to have urban spread but urban density for environmental and sustainability reasons so when you put the two together it adds up to condominiums. Not necessarily high-rise condominiums. It could be low-rise condominiums — it could be townhouse condominiums. Typically, when you think of condominiums you think of higher density housing that’s typically more affordable than detached homes.