Alkarim Devani — developer and founder of mddl — is in good traffic this week for a conversation on how Canada's housing realities compare/contrast with that of the U.S., and how we can better prepare developers to address our continental crisis.

Timeline:

00:00 Alkarim Devani is in good traffic.

02:47 Canada's housing crisis.

04:36 Cities not sharing solutions with each other.

05:14 The competitive silence in real estate development.

05:51 Al's background as a developer in Calgary.

06:43 The Plus 15 downtown system and its failures.

07:31 Downtown office conversions and retrofitting.

08:23 Starting infill development with his brother.

09:14 From luxury duplexes to more attainable housing.

10:16 Realizing the market sucks and social impact matters.

11:33 Founding Roundsquare to bring families back.

12:43 The first fourplex proposal that no one had done.

13:39 Meeting resistance and finding city support.

16:54 Why missing middle isn't happening at scale.

25:31 The regulatory framework problem.

28:27 How to make economics work for missing middle.

31:15 Building at the right price point.

34:12 The slow-growth lesson from setbacks.

37:00 Sometimes you don't get the outcome you want.

40:15 Iterative change and incremental progress.

43:03 Solving for community impact.

46:33 A 350-square-foot cafe.

49:21 Revenue-sharing lease structures.

52:24 Building a heated vestibule for winter survival.

55:12 Doubling revenue per square foot through design.

56:01 The General Block and Village Ice Cream.

58:04 Why the right tenant anchor matters.

59:35 University District and the 99-year lease model.

1:01:23 Inglewood and Calgary's coffee culture.

1:03:02 The commute question and river path biking.

1:05:26 Wrapping up.

Links:

mddl.

mddl U.

Mddl, on Instagram.