Quebec's billionaire hermits: that was the theme of an article I wrote for a big Toronto business magazine a couple of years back. One of the publicity-shy entrepreneurs I profiled was Marcel Adams, who has never offered an interview with media.
Even photos of the guy were non-existent.
Marcel Adams has a hell of a story though. At 94, he's still apparently in good shape in spite of living a tough life.
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Marcel Adams was born in Romania, survived Nazi work camp, fled to Israel and then came to Canada in 1951.
He worked in a Quebec City tannery when he lucked into a the first stages of a real estate fortune - now worth about $2B - by investing in a Quebec City housing project.
It turns out that his son Sylvan - who has been running the family business for a couple of decades - is far more open to media.
In an new interview with Immobilier Commercial magazine Sylvan Adams talks openly about the family and the biz of shaping development around Quebec.
Sylvan Adams, like myself, is a Westmount boy who went to the same elementary school and high school four years before me (Roslyn and Westmount High) and like myself has three daughters and one son.
Unlike myself he's a competitive bicycle racer and quite wealthy too.
Adams, 56, notes that his brother Julian, now 60, didn't take over the family business because he was devoted to chemistry and has invented some important medication called Velcade. He also has a sister who is a lawyer and another who is a nurse.
Adams tells the magazine he - at the helm of Iberville Developments - purchased the land around the 10-30 project in 1990 for 18 cents a square foot in 1990.
He thought of building a shopping centre on the site but the Champlain Mall was stiff competition and only Cineplex signed a lease.
So he went against his dad's philosophy and simply sat on the land.
It was a good strategy. Thirteen years later sold part of the property at a big profit.
In 2003 Adams sold off 20 percent of the property to Devimco at $5.83 a square foot, for a total of $35 million. They went on to build the 10-30 mall at the site.
So Adams bought the property from Trizec $4 M and sold it for $50 M, keeping a little more for their own development.
Iberville Developments also sold malls in Quebec City and Sherbrooke in 2005, among 17-or-so properties the company sold for over $1 B between 2000-2005, because the offers were just too high to refuse.
The company has upcoming developments in Candiac, Pincourt and Sherbrooke, Adams reports.
But their plan to build something big in the east end RDP/PAT area was - he says - scuttled by corruption at Montreal city hall.
Adams lives in Westmount with Margaret Cornwell, his England-born wife of 30 years, in a house on the second-highest built property in the city only behind the oratory.
Even photos of the guy were non-existent.
Marcel Adams has a hell of a story though. At 94, he's still apparently in good shape in spite of living a tough life.
Marcel Adams was born in Romania, survived Nazi work camp, fled to Israel and then came to Canada in 1951.He worked in a Quebec City tannery when he lucked into a the first stages of a real estate fortune - now worth about $2B - by investing in a Quebec City housing project.
It turns out that his son Sylvan - who has been running the family business for a couple of decades - is far more open to media.
In an new interview with Immobilier Commercial magazine Sylvan Adams talks openly about the family and the biz of shaping development around Quebec.
Sylvan Adams, like myself, is a Westmount boy who went to the same elementary school and high school four years before me (Roslyn and Westmount High) and like myself has three daughters and one son.
Unlike myself he's a competitive bicycle racer and quite wealthy too.
Adams, 56, notes that his brother Julian, now 60, didn't take over the family business because he was devoted to chemistry and has invented some important medication called Velcade. He also has a sister who is a lawyer and another who is a nurse.
Adams tells the magazine he - at the helm of Iberville Developments - purchased the land around the 10-30 project in 1990 for 18 cents a square foot in 1990.
He thought of building a shopping centre on the site but the Champlain Mall was stiff competition and only Cineplex signed a lease.
So he went against his dad's philosophy and simply sat on the land.
It was a good strategy. Thirteen years later sold part of the property at a big profit.
In 2003 Adams sold off 20 percent of the property to Devimco at $5.83 a square foot, for a total of $35 million. They went on to build the 10-30 mall at the site.
So Adams bought the property from Trizec $4 M and sold it for $50 M, keeping a little more for their own development.
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| Marcel Adams, patriarch, seen in rare family photos |
The company has upcoming developments in Candiac, Pincourt and Sherbrooke, Adams reports.
But their plan to build something big in the east end RDP/PAT area was - he says - scuttled by corruption at Montreal city hall.
Adams lives in Westmount with Margaret Cornwell, his England-born wife of 30 years, in a house on the second-highest built property in the city only behind the oratory.