
Canada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...

The bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
The story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...

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Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.

Canada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...

The bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
The story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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>4.2K subscribers
First, the why. The why is to build better cities. And it's as simple as that. I love cities. The team loves cities. And we all feel a great sense of responsibility when it comes to doing our part to make them more prosperous, more beautiful, and overall better places to live and work.
It is for this reason that Globizen refers to itself as a city builder. We obviously didn't invent this moniker, but we do take it seriously. And our specific intent is to be both a city-building company and a city-building community.
What this means is that we do the things that most companies do, including trying to make money. But in parallel to this, we also aspire to create a community of like-minded city builders.
City building isn't just about real estate development. It's also about the artist that just painted a mural, the local restauranteur that just opened up a new concept, and the individual that just did something, whatever that may be, to improve their community.
We would like to do our part to celebrate these actions and support more of them. This is how we want to build.
As for what we actually do, we are developers of creative mixed-use infill projects. Currently, we are developing and managing projects on our own account (we invested our own equity) and on behalf of great partners. But in all cases, we have a consistent investment philosophy and approach to development:
Focus on fundamentals
Search for overlooked assets and opportunities
Embrace non-consensus views
Create value by innovating with design, culture, and technology
Execute with discipline and passion
Think long term
We are actively looking for new development opportunities. We are also exploring/underwriting a number of income-producing asset strategies. If you'd like to pitch us a site or project, or you just want to grab a coffee somewhere cool, please feel free to send me an email (brandon.donnelly@globizen.com).
First, the why. The why is to build better cities. And it's as simple as that. I love cities. The team loves cities. And we all feel a great sense of responsibility when it comes to doing our part to make them more prosperous, more beautiful, and overall better places to live and work.
It is for this reason that Globizen refers to itself as a city builder. We obviously didn't invent this moniker, but we do take it seriously. And our specific intent is to be both a city-building company and a city-building community.
What this means is that we do the things that most companies do, including trying to make money. But in parallel to this, we also aspire to create a community of like-minded city builders.
City building isn't just about real estate development. It's also about the artist that just painted a mural, the local restauranteur that just opened up a new concept, and the individual that just did something, whatever that may be, to improve their community.
We would like to do our part to celebrate these actions and support more of them. This is how we want to build.
As for what we actually do, we are developers of creative mixed-use infill projects. Currently, we are developing and managing projects on our own account (we invested our own equity) and on behalf of great partners. But in all cases, we have a consistent investment philosophy and approach to development:
Focus on fundamentals
Search for overlooked assets and opportunities
Embrace non-consensus views
Create value by innovating with design, culture, and technology
Execute with discipline and passion
Think long term
We are actively looking for new development opportunities. We are also exploring/underwriting a number of income-producing asset strategies. If you'd like to pitch us a site or project, or you just want to grab a coffee somewhere cool, please feel free to send me an email (brandon.donnelly@globizen.com).
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