Larry Waters

Life started in Dundee, Scotland. I was the fifth of five children born to Dr. John Waters and Gladys Mogridge. In 1953, we emigrated to Canada where my father established a medical practice and a maternity home in Cape Breton. He died in a car accident in December 1956. My mother had to work to support us and moved to Sept-Iles, QC in early 1957. I followed her there about ten months later.

I would return to Nova Scotia almost every summer until I was 18. At first, the summers were spent with the MacDonalds who had bought our former home that was located between Judique and Port Hood. Later, I spent most of my Scotian summertime in Antigonish. I remember the ten years spent in Sept-Iles with summers in Nova Scotia very fondly.

Leaving Home

For all intent, I left home at the age of 17 to attend school in Québec City. There I completed my first year of university at St-Lawrence College. Credits were granted by Université de Laval. I had been accepted to attend Ecole d’Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland. As there is always a waiting period to get in, the school opined that if I couldn’t work in hospitality at a facility run by one of its graduates, that I should work in a bank. I then met the woman who was to become my wife and my stop-gap job lasted 43 years. When I finally made it to Lausanne I was 45 and I had missed my start date.

I spent much of my long career in finance working within the real estate development community. Since retiring in 2011, I have had the privilege of maintaining business relationships and friendships with many of Canada’s best developers. Writing is something that I have wanted to do for some time now and the Covid-19 pandemic provided the kick-start that I needed to write my newsletters and start this web site.

I hope that you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing.

Professional Notes:

I provide general advisory services to clients in real estate and other industry groups. I worked at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for forty-three years. When I retired in 2011, I was responsible for CIBC’s relationships with many of its most sophisticated property company clients. I have designed and arranged financing solutions for many landmark projects including:

  • The Montréal World Trade Centre and Intercontinental Hotel mixed use project
  • Bell Canada’s head office on Ile des Soeurs – Montréal 
  • Quartier Dix30 – Brossard, 
  • Aura condominium project in Toronto
  • EDC Head Office, Ottawa

In addition to my 30 years experience in real estate banking, I had various other positions in commercial and corporate banking. These posts included responsibility for Commercial Banking in Eastern and Northern Ontario. 

I have been a member of:

  • Concordia University’s real estate planning committee
  • Vice-chair of the board of governors at John Abbott College
  • Chairman of the Advisory Council on Neurosciences, Ottawa Neurological Institute
  • A director of the Ottawa General Hospital Foundation.

I graduated from Concordia University (https://www.concordia.ca) in Montreal where I taught Finance as a part-time instructor.