Building with focus on the future
For Cortellucci Group, sustainable building is the top priority
Developer Mario Cortellucci has always been a man of vision.
His son, Peter, recalls being a kid, visiting his dad’s office and seeing the detailed plans Mario had dreamed up for the creation of a metropolitan centre for Vaughan, a city that’s never actually had one.
“That’s when I learned what vision is, what it is to see ahead,” says Peter, the 24-year-old vice president of the Cortel Group, a subsidiary of the Cortellucci Group of Companies. “I would see the renderings and think it’s impossible, there’s no way; as a kid it’s hard to visualize.
“But now I look back and I understand that these kinds of areas take 20, 30, 40 years to develop. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Fortunately for Vaughan, it’s all happening now, and the elder Cortellucci deserves credit for that.
“I’ll bet you in 10 to 15 years Vaughan will win the award for best city in North America.”
MARIO CORTELLUCCI
The launch of Expo City — a master-planned community at Highway 7 and Highway 400 that will include condos, shops, restaurants and recreation facilities serviced by an extended TTC subway line — represents the realization of Mario Cortellucci’s long-standing dream for Vaughan, a project that promises to transform the way “the city above Toronto” lives.
Expo City is also an exemplar of his company’s commitment to building complete communities, areas where people can live, work and play all in one place.
“I’ve been up here for over 25 years trying to promote this, saying we need a city,” says Mario Cortellucci — referred to by his staff as “Mr. C” — in an interview at Cortel’s Vaughan headquarters. The office is adjacent to the Expo site, currently a barren swath of dirt and wild grass.
“I’ll bet you in 10 to 15 years Vaughan will win the award for best city in North America.”
Sustainable development has been a constant focus for Cortellucci over the 30 years he’s served as a principal of his family-run development giant, the Cortellucci Group.
A consortium that consists of several businesses, the Cortellucci Group has made significant contributions to the development of the GTA through the years, having grown from a small excavating and forming operation (launched in 1971by Mario and his eldest brother Nick), to become a GTA development industry juggernaut that Mario estimates sells 3,000 homes each year on average.
The Cortellucci Group includes Zancor Homes, Fernbrook Homes, Melody Homes, Pristine Homes and Brookvalley Developments.
The group also works in the land development business and has retained its concrete forming and grading and excavating operations.
The Cortellucci Group’s newest arm, the Cortel Group, is being overseen by Mario’s son, Peter, who began his career sweeping up his dad’s construction sites.
“No breaks there,” Mario says with a smile.
Terry Geddes, the former mayor of Collingwood, is eager to underscore the extent of Mario Cortelluc-
“Now I look back and I understand that these kinds of areas take 20, 30, 40 years to develop.”
PETER CORTELLUCCI
ci’s commitment to sustainable development.
Geddes is working for the Cortel Group as an adviser on a series of projects the company has planned for the town of Innisfil, south of Barrie.
The company is proposing to build a village with shops, restaurants and offices; it also plans to develop sections along the Highway 400 corridor for commercial and industrial use. The project will involve the upgrading of sewer systems and an expansion of a waste-water treatment plant. And Cortellucci has made this a top priority, Geddes notes, spending “a great deal of time and mon- ey” to make certain the waste water is filtered and returned to Lake Simcoe “in a better state than how it came out.” “And Mr. C was talking about (sustainable waste-water management) way before anyone else in our neck of the woods,” Geddes says. Cortellucci’s focus on sustainable development has been good for business, earning him favour among decision makers. “Any time the Cortel Group brings forward a project, the political body has such respect for (Mario’s) abilities,” says Geddes.
“Because he doesn’t just look at development in terms of today, but 50 to 100 years from now, and whether it’s still going to be able to exist.”
That’s how the Cortel Group has planned Expo City. After all, as Peter Cortellucci notes, creating a complete community in Vaughan is the key to ensuring a healthy future for the city.
“We envision an area where you don’t need a car, which sounds farfetched right now,” he says. “Highway 7 doesn’t function as a highway anymore, it’s so overcapacity that you won’t ever be able to improve it.
“The only way you improve it is by promoting walking and transit like Viva and the subway.”
Could other cities in the GTA follow Vaughan’s lead and take similar steps to create sustainable communities?
It all depends on political leadership — and vision, Mario Cortellucci says.
“You need the politicians to make it happen. The bottom line is that politicians tend to look at what’s in their interests, not what’s in the future interests of the people. And that’s where the conflict comes in.”