Steve Assaff grew from a hardscrabble youth on the streets of 1960s Collingwood into the developer of some of the region’s most visionary building projects.
Steve Assaff, the founder and president of Charis Developments Ltd., grew up as a self-described “street kid” in the rough-and-tumble Collingwood of the ‘60s. But those humble beginnings, and a rough patch in his late teens and early 20s, are far behind him now. Since founding his company in 1983, Assaff has completed 11 visionary projects—nine in Collingwood, one in Midland and one in Alliston—and has two more in the planning stages, including the Gateway shopping centre project at the corner of Poplar Sideroad and Hurontario Street. But when asked what he’s most proud of, the father of three simply says, “My kids and grandkids.”
“I love this town and what it has evolved into. I have always believed that this town is a wonderful place and have raised my family here.”
Steve Assaff
Dianne Rinehart: Welcome to On The Bay magazine, Steve. You were born and raised in Collingwood. What was it like growing up here in the ‘60s?
Steve Assaff: It was a really blue-collar town, a shipyard town. So, it was rough-and-tumble. I’m not proud of saying I quit school when I was in Grade 10 to go work in the shipyard. I was in the cleaner-up gang. You had to sweep all the welding rods and stuff from the bottom of the boat and shovel them up. But it only took a few months and then I was laid off. I never did go back.
DR: What happened next?
SA: I had a bit of a checkered youth. There was a lot going on in those days with drugs and music. My dad did his best and raised me as a single parent while working seven days a week. He was loving but gave me a lot of freedom. At 16 I smoked my first joint and lived the hippie life with long hair, and had the anti-establishment attitude of the day. I got in trouble, it’s no secret. I got arrested and paid my dues.
DR: How has Collingwood changed since then?
SA: I remember when Intrawest was coming to build [Blue Mountain] Village. I was a member of the Georgian Triangle Development Institute and there was all this doom and gloom and worry that it was not going to be good for the town, and it’s going to cause all these various pressures. Some of the concerns were true, like a lack of affordable housing and workforce housing. I remember when Walmart was coming to town, people said that was going to destroy the downtown. All the little stores were going to end up closing. But as a developer, I’m always pro-growth, and so I have to say that all these things have turned out to have been good for the town.
DR: How do you feel about Collingwood now?
SA: I’m really proud of how it’s all developed. I’d like to see the waterfront continue to get filled in behind the [Charis-developed] Rexall and the Bank of Montreal buildings where Fram + Slokker’s new building, Collingwood Quay, is going up. And [local developer Larry] Dunn has a chunk there. We sold the piece we owned to Les Mallins [Owner of Streetcar Developments] to do Harbour House Condos. That’s nearing completion and we will own and manage the ground-floor commercial. We have another project in the works down at our courthouse property beside Sobeys, which will be a mixed-use building with commercial on the main floor and waterfront condominiums. Most importantly, we own the five acres that runs behind Sobeys and the courthouse on the water that we will be donating to the town to connect the waterfront trail system between The Shipyards and Sunset Point. We intend to have a very, very nice waterfront restaurant and hope to have a spa in there as well. That’s a few years out but we’re going through the planning stages with the town.
DR: And you also have a major development in the works for the northeast corner of Poplar Sideroad and Hurontario?
SA: Yes, the Gateway Centre project is 9.3 acres. We had always envisioned a neighborhood shopping centre, but the zoning only allowed for certain things at the time, like a gas station and fast food. Since then, the town has updated their official plan. So now it’s going to become a grocery store-anchored shopping centre which will provide much-needed shopping in the south end of town. With the announcement of the new hospital around the corner, the area is only going to get busier and busier. The town also wanted us to include a residential component to the project so now we have included a building on the property that is commercial on the main floor and residential above. I envision this to be a wonderful seniors complex rather than just regular residential, because of its proximity to all of the shopping on-site and the new hospital.
DR: How did you first get into development projects?
SA: My dad was born and raised in Halifax. He joined the navy in the Second World War. Collingwood Shipyard was building Corvette warships. He came up to Collingwood with the navy to pick up a ship and liked it so much that he decided to come back up here after the war was over. He was an entrepreneur by nature and opened Charlie’s Fish and Chips across from what is now Sporting Life. That store kind of morphed into a variety store. Then in 1968 he purchased the store at the corner of Third and Birch streets, Charley’s Variety. When he passed away in 1977 I took it over and ran it like he did, seven days a week till midnight! It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was a lesson in owning a business. I knew I didn’t want to do that, so I ended up selling the business but keeping the property, and I started renovating houses and selling them. There was a two-storey red-brick townhouse at the corner of Pine and Second streets where the Loblaws parking lot is. I opened a little wine bar called La Cantina, because I was into wines. It drove me nuts, having to deal with staff and the kitchen and food. I always say to people that the restaurant business is the toughest business in the world. I ran that for a couple years. I had spent quite a bit of money renovating the space. Then the guys that owned it—they had a hair salon—had financial difficulties, and the bank put the building under power of sale. I bought the building from the bank to save my own interests in the wine bar. And that was my first commercial building.
DR: And what came next?
SA: The old Arlington Hotel was closed and under power of sale with the bank, and me and another fellow ended up buying it with the idea of putting stores on the main floor and apartments above. We investigated how much it was going to cost, and I said, “Oh jeez, we can’t make that work.” So, we put it up for sale and got a deal signed for a couple hundred thousand more than we paid, which was good in those days, 40 years ago. In the meantime, some local kids had been getting in the building and playing, and one day they started a fire on the third floor. It burned the roof right off the place. The fire department put so much water in there that the whole building was ruined. We ended up having a three-year battle with the insurance company because we had a $750,000 policy on it to do our development work. We had only paid about $375,000 for it, so they did not want to pay. And this kind old gentleman called us up and represented us as an adjuster. We got just under $500,000 and we still owned the land, so it ended up being magic. And that [Arlington Shoppes & Offices], was the first big building that I developed and built. If you look at that building today, you’ll see the architectural elements from the town hall that we tried to carry across with the arches, etcetera. We always spend more to make our projects look the best that they possibly can and in character with the town.
DR: Did you have a business mentor?
SA: Don Vancise was my mentor. Donnie was a local boy who lived out on the Fourth Line. His dad, Arnold, was the reeve of Collingwood Township, which is now Clearview Township, and his mom, Jean, was the head nurse at the Collingwood Hospital. They were a prominent family, and Don was the oldest boy, and he went away and ended up in the meat business in Toronto for many years. When he retired, came back to town, he started opening these Tim Hortons. He came into my wine bar with his wife, Anne, and we became very good friends. Don taught me a great deal which I now pass along to my son Chris, who I have had the pleasure to work with and mentor for the past 14 years. He runs the company day to day and this lets me focus on the new projects—and of course my golf game!
DR: How do you feel about your impact on this town you grew up in?
SA: I love this town and what it has evolved into. I have always believed that this town is a wonderful place and have raised my family here and I am proud to have been part of the development process. I believe that you can’t change the world but you can help change your community. I am proud to be able to give back to the Collingwood community and am a major supporter of Hospice Georgian Bay and the Humane Society. Now that the new hospital has been approved, we are looking forward to making a significant donation to that project as well. I like to think that I’ve remained humble. I came from basically nothing. So, you keep that in mind as you carry on in life. But I am proud. I’m proud of our town, and I think our projects have been integral pieces of the growth of our town, and there are more to come!
