Creating anything from scratch is more difficult than working from an established base. This is absolutely true when it comes to starting new neighborhoods and communities. What do you build first? What will be the anchors? And how do you balance hard and soft infrastructure to make it an attractive place before a critical mass is achieved?

I was thinking about this over the weekend while walking around Whistler Village, so I tweeted this out. If you've been before, you know it's packed with people all throughout the day. I would characterize it as a successful place.

But the responses I got on Twitter were along the lines of: "Are you joking? It's a fake utopia. It may be busy, but staff are forced to live on the outskirts of the village in dorms."

These comments are not entirely wrong. Resort villages are typically a kind of Disneyland. Attainable workforce housing is a major challenge for resorts, and it's typical to make the building of it a precondition to development. You can't run a resort without staff.

But none of this changes the fact that it is still very difficult to create successful places from scratch. There are lots of ski resorts that don't have the energy of Whistler, and lots of new planned communities that don't have the foot traffic of older neighborhoods. The Canary District in Toronto comes to mind as a place that is still settling in. That is how you know it's challenging.

Creating successful places from scratch requires the right strategy, careful design and programming, patience, and probably the ability to subsidize the right tenants to seed activity early on. It's also helpful if you can avoid going broke before the neighborhood comes alive.

Cover photo by Peter Robbins on Unsplash

I arrived in BC yesterday for ICSC Whistler. This is my first time here for this conference. I came around this time several years ago for a Slate investor day, but I never participated in ICSC activities per se. So, I’ve come to realize that I don’t really know the proper protocols. I’m an ICSC newbie. Most people I know don’t attend the actual conference. My loose understanding is that you wear Patagonia, ski and snowboard all day, après at Longhorn, and then real estate deals and capital get thrown at you from all angles. I’ll try this and see what happens.

If you’re around, drop me a text or email me at brandon.donnelly@globizen.com.

I’m in Whistler right now and I went heliboarding for the first time yesterday. It had been on my bucket list for maybe 10 years and so it feels fantastic to check it off. 

Here’s what I can tell you: WOW. It did not disappoint. 

It was easily one of the greatest life experiences I have ever had. We also got lucky with a crystal clear bluebird day.

I don’t do many photoblog posts here on this blog, but I’m going to do one today, because I think the occasion demands it. But of course, even these photos don’t do the experience any justice.

View from the helicopter:

View over the pilot’s shoulder as we were about to land:

Sampling of the terrain and conditions:

Shot of our helicopter when we broke for lunch:

Greatest turns:

I also posted a video of the above to my Instagram.

Regular scheduled programming will resume tomorrow.

Creating anything from scratch is more difficult than working from an established base. This is absolutely true when it comes to starting new neighborhoods and communities. What do you build first? What will be the anchors? And how do you balance hard and soft infrastructure to make it an attractive place before a critical mass is achieved?

I was thinking about this over the weekend while walking around Whistler Village, so I tweeted this out. If you've been before, you know it's packed with people all throughout the day. I would characterize it as a successful place.

But the responses I got on Twitter were along the lines of: "Are you joking? It's a fake utopia. It may be busy, but staff are forced to live on the outskirts of the village in dorms."

These comments are not entirely wrong. Resort villages are typically a kind of Disneyland. Attainable workforce housing is a major challenge for resorts, and it's typical to make the building of it a precondition to development. You can't run a resort without staff.

But none of this changes the fact that it is still very difficult to create successful places from scratch. There are lots of ski resorts that don't have the energy of Whistler, and lots of new planned communities that don't have the foot traffic of older neighborhoods. The Canary District in Toronto comes to mind as a place that is still settling in. That is how you know it's challenging.

Creating successful places from scratch requires the right strategy, careful design and programming, patience, and probably the ability to subsidize the right tenants to seed activity early on. It's also helpful if you can avoid going broke before the neighborhood comes alive.

Cover photo by Peter Robbins on Unsplash

I arrived in BC yesterday for ICSC Whistler. This is my first time here for this conference. I came around this time several years ago for a Slate investor day, but I never participated in ICSC activities per se. So, I’ve come to realize that I don’t really know the proper protocols. I’m an ICSC newbie. Most people I know don’t attend the actual conference. My loose understanding is that you wear Patagonia, ski and snowboard all day, après at Longhorn, and then real estate deals and capital get thrown at you from all angles. I’ll try this and see what happens.

If you’re around, drop me a text or email me at brandon.donnelly@globizen.com.

I’m in Whistler right now and I went heliboarding for the first time yesterday. It had been on my bucket list for maybe 10 years and so it feels fantastic to check it off. 

Here’s what I can tell you: WOW. It did not disappoint. 

It was easily one of the greatest life experiences I have ever had. We also got lucky with a crystal clear bluebird day.

I don’t do many photoblog posts here on this blog, but I’m going to do one today, because I think the occasion demands it. But of course, even these photos don’t do the experience any justice.

View from the helicopter:

View over the pilot’s shoulder as we were about to land:

Sampling of the terrain and conditions:

Shot of our helicopter when we broke for lunch:

Greatest turns:

I also posted a video of the above to my Instagram.

Regular scheduled programming will resume tomorrow.