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A
graduate of the University of Toronto School of Architecture in 1961,
Jerald Silverberg practiced
architecture both on his own and for various
firms before becoming a founding principal of Whitehall Development Corporation
in 1965. With Whitehall until 1976, he was personally responsible for
the company’s reputation for innovative design in residential housing
including the imaginative Bala Kynwyd town-home development. |
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Mr.
Silverberg formed his own company, The Iona Development Corporation,
in 1976. Iona was an
integrated
real estate company, which developed residential
and commercial properties, both in the Greater Toronto Area and the U.S.
Sunbelt. Iona’s projects include: 101
Yorkville Avenue in Toronto
(a 55,000 square foot retail and office building), 500 residential units
in Erin Mills, Iona Square shopping
centre in Mississauga, 40
oceanfront villas and 700 retirement condominium units in Florida,
and numerous single and multiple family residential communities in the
Greater Toronto Area. |
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In
1980 The Cadillac Fairview Corporation purchased The Iona Corporation
in order to acquire management
expertise in their troubled Land and Housing
Division. Mr. Silverberg became Senior Vice-President of that corporation’s
residential division with responsibility for all Canadian land development,
including high-rise and low-rise construction in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton,
and Calgary, and the 11,000 acre New Town development of Erin Mills in
Mississauga. At Cadillac Fairview, Mr. Silverberg was chiefly responsible
for the marketing success of Erin Mills through the development and introduction
of an innovative and exclusive mortgage insurance plan (which protected
homeowners’ mortgage payments in the event of job loss) and the
creation of a unique mortgage funding arrangement. This resulted in the
company
successfully selling and closing 1800 residential units with a profit
in excess of twenty million dollars during the severe recession of 1981-1982.
Additionally, Mr. Silverberg was responsible for the construction and
sale
of over 800 high-rise residential units in Metro Toronto. |
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After
a Cadillac Fairview board decision to divest itself of its residential
holdings in
1983, Mr.
Silverberg repurchased Iona. Building on its Erin
Mills experience, Iona devoted its efforts primarily to integrated community
development. It purchased the raw land, completed the land planning and
servicing infrastructure to create an innovative community theme, and carried
this through to the marketing, construction, and sale of the housing units,
while strictly maintaining its own carefully imposed architectural and
streetscape controls. The company built and sold 1500 units between 1983
and 1992 including Credit Pointe in
Mississauga, Avalon in Markham,
and
Tamarac in Aurora. In 1992,
having disposed of Iona’s
inventory, and with an economic recession increasing its grip on the industry,
Iona
temporarily suspended operations. |
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NEXXT
Development Corporation was established in 1999 by architect/developer
Jerald Silverberg and Leonard Barkin, a retired senior partner at Deloitte & Touche.
The company's mandate is to focus on unique and innovative approaches
to urban development proposals and to employ the best planning and architectural
services for each project. Through shared knowledge and expertise, NEXXT
has quickly shown it's proficiency in reaching consensus with community
groups, ratepayers, city politicians, and planners in order to achieve
desired and appropriate changes in building form and density. NEXXT continues
a storied tradition detailed in our News
section of this website. |
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