Thursday, June 23, 2011

Avtar Bains, Equity Magazine, December 1990

In today's Vancouver Sun I read a section in  Malcolm Parry's Trade Talk that sent my flying to my photo files. I think I may have a rather unusual photograph of real estate man Avtar Bains which I took at the top of the Marine Building on Burrard!

SIGNING OFF: Real-estate brokerage whiz Avtar Bains will soon hang up his cleats. In a memo to colleagues Tuesday, he wrote: "After 32 great years, I will be leaving Colliers [International] upon completion of my existing commitments, expected by the end of this summer, to spend time with my family and determine my next venture."

Bains and wife Monika Deol, the former MuchMusic producer-host, have four children.

Bains came to Colliers as a summer-job student, never left, worked 12-hour days, and reportedly grossed $5.5 million last year.

He became the go-to guy for pension funds and institutions wishing to dispose of properties, and not only the shopping centres -including Marathon Realty-built, Larco-owned Arbutus Village Square -that were his specialty.

No one else in Canada likely matched his institutional relationships, although others will doubtless now try.

Avtar Bains by Philip Louis Pratley's original sculpture of the lion for Lionsgate Bridge