Real estate giant remembered for shaping city core
A prominent Calgary businessman who left his footprint on the city’s core is being remembered as a pioneer in making Calgary a home for corporate headquarters.
Harold Milavsky was the lead hand that helped build downtown staples Bankers Hall, Western Canada Place and Calgary Place, among many others as the president of real estate company Trizec Corp.
He was 81 when he died Tuesday night.
“Harold was one of the most genius, creative person I’ve ever met,” said Martin Cohos, a close friend and colleague who knew Milavsky for 50 years.
Born in Limerick, Sask., in 1931, Milavsky moved to Calgary after graduating from the University of Saskatchewan to take a job with Mannix Co., where he worked with future Alberta premier Peter Lougheed.
Over the next 20 years, he worked with Mannix and Power Corp. Developments, before it was eventually taken over by Trizec. He was named president in 1976, growing a company worth $900 million to more than $12 billion when he retired in 1994, Alberta Venture magazine reported.
During his time, he started what became a trend of moving company headquarters to Calgary.
The owners of Trizec wanted Milavsky to head east to run the company, but he refused, and Trizec instead became one of the first companies to set up their main headquarters in Calgary.
“He helped establish Calgary as a place for headquarters to be,” said colleague Ric Singleton.
But he left his greatest mark in Calgary’s downtown. He pulled off one of the most creative business deals in Canada, in which two banks — Royal Bank and CIBC — both invested in what would become Bankers Hall.
“Trizec, in my mind, created the core of downtown,” Kohos said. “Bankers Hall is the centre core of business. More business goes on in the elevators of Bankers Hall than most buildings, and he was responsible for that.” Outside the business world, he showed his philanthropic side with Tennis Canada, where he served as president.
“He was instrumental in Tennis Canada in getting the major tennis facility out in Toronto at York where we play the international tennis championship,” said longtime friend Ron Ghitter. “It was his ingenuity and drive that was able to work and make that facility happen.”
He was also a major supporter of the Progressive Conservatives.
His funeral will be held at Beth Tzedec Congregation located at 1325 Glenmore Trail S.W. on Thursday at 2 p.m.