As the CEO of Colonnade BridgePort since 2008, Hugh Gorman has guided the firm to the pinnacle of the local real estate industry.
The company, with roots stretching back to 1985, is now Ottawa’s largest privately owned commercial property manager with a total portfolio of more than 13 million square feet in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
But Colonnade BridgePort is more than a professional landlord. Under Gorman’s guidance, it has evolved into a multifaceted organization that is building some of Ottawa’s most anticipated multi-residential developments while raising tens of millions of dollars to finance those projects and others through its burgeoning asset and investment management business.
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Forty years after it was born, the firm is still energetic and visionary, with plans to expand into other jurisdictions and raise two new funds to bankroll future development.
For those reasons and more, Gorman is the 2025 CEO of the Year as selected by OBJ and the Ottawa Board of Trade. The Carleton University alumnus is the 26th recipient of the award, joining a prestigious group of past winners that includes Minto Group’s Roger Greenberg, Shopify co-founder Tobi Lütke and Kinaxis CEO John Sicard.
“It’s almost impossible not to admire Hugh for all that he’s accomplished in business and for his contribution to his community,” said Anne Howland, OBJ’s editor in chief. “What he and his team have delivered will leave a real legacy for the city for decades to come.”
Ottawa Board of Trade president and CEO Sueling Ching, who first got to know Gorman when he joined a committee of CEOs that tackled issues arising from the pandemic, describes the longtime real estate executive as the “epitome of being both a visionary but also a kind and thoughtful leader in a way that inspires others to be the same.”
Those traits have served Gorman, 57, well in his current role as chair of the Ottawa Board of Trade’s economic development committee. In 2024, he was instrumental in enlisting partners such as Invest Ottawa, Ottawa Tourism, BOMA Ottawa and the National Capital Commission to launch the Downtown Ottawa Action Agenda, which detailed 60 steps needed to bring new life to the city’s downtown core by 2034.
But Gorman’s biggest contributions to the community he loves have come in real estate.
The man who began working at property manager Canderel as a teenager has forged a remarkable career that includes stints as a senior executive at some of Canada’s biggest firms. After just a few years in the business, he was in charge of leasing some of the capital’s most prestigious office buildings, including Constitution Square.
His decision to strike out on his own in 2008 marked the turning point in Gorman’s career. The firm originally known as BridgePort Realty Partners took a few years to find its footing, but it eventually made a name for itself with bold, visionary moves like redeveloping a parcel of contaminated former industrial land at McRae Avenue and Scott Street into a thriving mixed-use project that included blue-chip tenants Farm Boy and Alterna Savings.
In 2016, Gorman was a key figure in orchestrating perhaps the most important transaction in the firm’s history – its merger with family-owned real estate developer Colonnade Management, a dominant player in the local industry with clients including companies such as Investors Group.
Since then, Colonnade BridgePort has evolved into an undisputed local leader in three fields: real estate services, property development and capital management.
In nearly a decade since the merger, the company has extended its reach into the Greater Toronto Area and the East Coast, where it set up offices in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Meanwhile, Colonnade BridgePort’s capital arm continues to grow. The company is in the midst of raising two new funds worth $50 million each – one aimed at financing new projects in the Ottawa area and the other targeted at “value-add” real estate in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. On the development side, the value of its multi-residential pipeline now exceeds $2 billion.
Yet even as the company he leads has risen in stature, Gorman is still the same old Hugh, his friends say, the guy who isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the job done. And he believes the best is yet to come for the community he’s helped build.
“I think Ottawa’s got so much potential,” Gorman said. “There’s no city like it that I’ve travelled to. But I just think sometimes we’re not vocal enough about what we’ve got and what we’re capable of. I think we’re at this tipping point. We’ve just got to get out there and tell the story.”
The CEO of the Year award is part of the Best Ottawa Business Awards – better known as the BOBs – which are presented annually each fall.
Gorman and other notable local business leaders – including the Newsmaker of the Year recipient and the CFO of the Year – will receive their awards in a gala at the Westin Ottawa on Friday, Nov. 28.
