Sam Kolias did not have much choice in the matter when it came to grabbing a hammer for the first time as an eight-year-old. His father would pick him up from the playground and they were off to work.
Those are the earliest memories the CEO and chairman of Boardwalk REIT, the largest apartment landlord in Western Canada, has of the commercial real estate industry.
"As immigrants from Greece, my parents really came with nothing after the second world war," said the 61-year-old Kolias, who founded now publicly traded Boardwalk in 1984 with his brother. The Calgary-based real estate investment trust now owns more than 32,000 units in four provinces.
His parents started in Canada by buying a home and converting it into three units, using that formula to create more housing from two-storey single-family homes.
"Our first job as children was to go in and help clean up scraps," said Kolias. "It was tricky to avoid getting scraped by nails, and we learned how to use a hammer early on."
He was always working with his dad, but Kolias does remember one incident of skipping out and playing at the park with buddies.
"My dad found us pretty quickly and said, 'hey, we have work to do, hop in,'" said Kolias with a laugh." As kids, we loved using tools and doing what grownups did. My father was a cement layer, so we poured new sidewalks together. We did lots of neat stuff."
By his teens, Kolias got involved in the financial side of the family business and learned how to do bookkeeping on the rental properties.
When he graduated school with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Calgary, Kolias didn't see many jobs at the time. With a loan guaranteed by his parents, the brothers used their early construction knowledge to start a business.
"We started with a small four-storey walkup just down the block from where he grew up," said the executive. "It was a challenging time. We had to renovate and then rent with a double-digit vacancy rate. We did the tile work, plumbing and painting."
That's when the executive learned that every job is important in the business and every task matters and adds up to the product his company provides.
"It all has to be done in a great way with your heart in it, and when it is, it works out," said Kolias. "We still put our coveralls on. All work is great work. It's a great experience to know certain tasks."
He said that understanding of the commercial building industry also undoubtedly helped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The culture of safety first put us in a headstart when the pandemic started," said Kolias. "The more we do things, the more we know what others do. It also means the more success we will have. "
R É S U M É
Sam Kolias | CEO and Chairman of Boardwalk REIT
Hometown: Calgary
Current city: Calgary
Years in industry: 40
Education: Bachelor's in civil engineering from University of Calgary, fellow of the Real Estate Institute of Canada
Hobbies: Reading, weight training, kick-boxing, cycling, running, volunteer work, skiing, snow boarding, swimming, guitar, yoga, golf
Advice to those starting out in the industry: "Love always."
Everyone in commercial real estate had to start somewhere. First Job explores where careers began.