A home-building and renovation company is excited to get to work in “booming” Orillia.
Alair Homes partners Ryan Johnson and Albert Donadio, who own the company’s Barrie office, recently acquired the Orillia operation.
“There’s so much positivity and so much growth here. We’re super-excited to be in Orillia,” Johnson said Wednesday at the Quality Inn and Conference Centre, where industry and city reps were invited to take part in a networking event.
Mayor Steve Clarke welcomed Johnson and Donadio to town and said their “timing is terrific.”
“Our building permits over the years have increased to historic levels,” the mayor said.
That was music to Johnson’s ears.
“That’s super-positive news for our industry. (Building permits) have actually declined in a lot of communities,” he said, pointing to Innisfil as an example.
Alair Homes has about 100 offices in North America, including 25 in Ontario. The company uses local labour whenever it can. That includes lumber suppliers and tradespeople.
“We want to be as local as possible. Local trades are very important to us,” Johnson said.
With Alair having offices in Barrie, Midland, Collingwood, Huntsville and elsewhere in the region, Johnson said it made sense to purchase the Orillia operation, which has been around since 2014. He is in the process of finding an office in town.
As winter slowly gives way to spring, “this is a busy time of year for planning,” Johnson said.
“A lot of people are starting to think about their projects now.”
Alair does custom home building, but for Johnson and Donadio, custom renovations account for most of their work.
“A lot of the best lots have already been developed,” Johnson said.
He believes Alair will do well in Orillia, which is attractive to people in the Greater Toronto Area and other regions because it is “one of the last affordable cities.”
“There’s a great number of people looking to sell their properties in the GTA and they want to move up here,” he said.
More information about Alair can be found in its website.
