The leader who oversaw Avison Young’s rise from a one-person shop to one of the largest commercial real estate brokerages in the National Capital Region is stepping away from the top job. Michael Church will vacate the post of managing director of the firm’s Ottawa operations on May 1. The move comes a little more […]
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The leader who oversaw Avison Young’s rise from a one-person shop to one of the largest commercial real estate brokerages in the National Capital Region is stepping away from the top job.
Michael Church will vacate the post of managing director of the firm’s Ottawa operations on May 1. The move comes a little more than 17 years after he established Avison Young’s first office in the city following a decade-long career as an executive at Cushman and Wakefield.
One of the most recognizable faces in the capital’s close-knit commercial real estate community, Church says he plans to stay on with the firm as a broker for the foreseeable future, while devoting more time to charitable causes and other pursuits such as travelling and golfing.
“I’m not quitting,” the 69-year-old Montreal native told OBJ in an interview on Thursday morning at Avison Young’s headquarters in the World Exchange Plaza.
“I’ve got some great relationships in this community, and I want to keep them. It’s just the management – it takes a fair bit of time and there’s always a little bit of stress involved with it. Budgeting, personnel, staffing, recruitment, the whole nine yards. It’s a lot of fun, but at my age, I’m at the point where I’d sort of like to step back a little bit.”
In a real estate career spanning more than three decades, the University of Ottawa alumnus has been involved in more than his share of major deals. Some of his favourites include helping to lease Telus’s Ottawa head office at the corner of Bank and Slater streets and finding a home for television station CHRO’s studio in the ByWard Market, a building now occupied by CTV Ottawa.
Over the years, Church has helped countless clients navigate challenges such as government downsizing and the rise in remote work triggered by the pandemic. And while he plans to scale back his involvement in the management side of the business, he says the thrill of the deal still gets his blood flowing.
“I’ve been doing this for 37 years,” he said. “I’ve seen a fair number of different scenarios over time. There's always a way to get the round peg in the square hole. I want to keep doing that, but I want to do a bunch of other things too.”
Those other things include spending more time volunteering.
