FIXATIONS

The CEO and co-founder of Adi Development Group Inc. on the joys of making music and inspiring others through art and real estate

Adi Development Group’s Tariq Adi on the joy of making music.

How did you get into music?

Before I got into real estate development in my early 20s, I was in the music space, doing production and actually engineering. It got to the point where I was running a $2-billion enterprise and sitting in a studio for 14 hours at a time mixing a song wasn’t making too much sense, but then it kind of stabilized and I’m back at it again.

Does music help your business? Music is a great escape, but if you look at what happens in music, you can apply it to business. It turns on a different part of your brain, which I think you need when you’re a business executive. The engineering end of music production uses both your left and right brain — getting that alpha brain wave going.

Do you have a studio?

I have a setup at the house, nothing extravagant, because most of it is in your computer now. I’ve definitely scaled it down since the technology has improved. Most of what you hear on the radio has literally been done on a laptop and mixed in very small spaces with very little analogue gear.

What’s your goal with music?

As I get older, I get better, which is why you see the engineers who make the hits today are a bunch of 55-60-year-old dudes with long hair who probably had a band in the 70s. Who knows? Maybe I toss Drake a beat or something and it ends up on the radio.

Is developing real estate an art, like music? Absolutely, 100%. It’s so similar to music. We’re modern-day Picassos or whatever. Just because you can walk into the painting, so to speak, or the piece of art, doesn’t mean it isn’t art. It’s the highest form of art. Art is emotion. Art is a feeling. It’s interpretation. It’s no different in our spaces.

What sets Adi Development apart from other developers?

One of the things that got my brother and I into this business was really the architecture that we were so passionate about. We’re creating these things from our imagination. How do we translate that into what we’re doing now? We went from building a building to building a company. In a very simple form, it’s to deliver spaces that inspire people.