25 YEARS OF BUILDING HOMES AND A LEGACY
When shovels turned on a lot in Silver Springs in 1992, it wasn’t just the first step for a long-standing home builder in Calgary, but a company that would make its mark on a social level in the city, too.
This year Trico Homes — a company started by Wayne Chiu — is in its 25th year of business in Calgary and smaller surrounding centres, such as Airdrie, Cochrane and Okotoks.
“Reaching our 25-year anniversary has been so special for the entire team,” says Wanda Palmer, vice-president of marketing for Trico. “We tend to focus our efforts on planning for the future, so this milestone has given us an opportunity to look back at Trico’s accomplishments, big and small, and celebrate our journey and the amazing lessons that helped us become the company we are today.”
Over its years, the company — which is active in a wide range of housing segments — has constructed nearly 9,400 homes.
And it all started with Trico’s first. The 2,500-square-foot Silver Springs home sold for less than $200,000 at that time.
Chiu, who worked as a mechanical engineer, says selling that first home gave him “a lot of satisfaction at that time.”
His transition to home building came with valuable guidance.
“I had the opportunity to have great mentorship from some of the peers from our industry to make it to where we are today,” says Chiu.
This includes Allan Mar, who Chiu says was the first to provide him with the opportunity to purchase single-family lots and a multi-family site.
Chiu also singles out Len Schienbein and Sanders Lee, who were with Qualico and Hopewell Residential, at the time, as people who helped him through important milestones during his early days in this business. “In this business, relationships are so critical,” says Chiu. “You have to have that continued networking with people and create relationships with your peers, developers.”
Trico says the Capri and Kennedy are its first and second bestselling floor plans all time. The Capri, which has been updated over the years, inspired the Richmond model. And the Kennedy is onto its third variation, with the Kennedy III plan now part of the builder’s lineup. “I am very proud of our products,” Chiu says. “Not just the quality, but that our company (is able) to deliver a good customer experience for our home buyers.”
But to Chiu and his team, it’s im- portant that the company’s reach is beyond the construction site.
“I always believe that, we as a company, have to continue to try to do well, while at the same time, doing good,” Chiu says. “That we as a company don’t forget the community that we build in.”
It hasn’t forgotten. Neither has he.
In fact, in 2015, Chiu was appointed Member of the Order of Canada. A release from the Governor General says his contributions as a corporate leader, champion of innovation, and social entrepreneurship in Western Canada helped earn him the honour.
Wayne Chiu and his wife, Eleanor, launched the Trico Charitable Foundation in 2008.
“Our foundation is very much about promoting and encouraging the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship,” says Chiu. “I am so proud of creating this founda- tion and being able to make that impact.”
Trico started the PEAK (Public Essential And Key) Workforce program. Working with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the Government of Alberta, and Habitat for Humanity, PEAK provides first-time home buyers with a second mortgage for a portion or full down payment of up to five per cent.
For the first five years, the second down payment mortgage is interest-free.
The company has also been involved in causes such as building an affordable and accessible rental project, the Chiniki Nation Flood Restoration Project in Morley, and substantial donations to Bow Valley College, Trico Changemakers Studio, the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Mount Royal University, SAIT, and the Resolve Campaign.