(Sherry Larjani is one of the winners of the 2024 Canadian Women in Real Estate Awards, presented by Connect Canada CRE. To read about all of the winners, go to our special CWIRE Awards section.)

Sherry Larjani is the president of Spotlight Development, which specializes in acquiring properties for high-density residential, commercial, and mixed-use redevelopment projects.

She began her career as a designer at a luxury architecture firm in Toronto before creating Spotlight in 2010.

In 2019, Larjani collaborated with Urban Capital to create Reina, Canada’s first all-female development team project, aimed at highlighting gender inequality in the commercial real estate industry and promoting the diverse roles that women can fulfill.

That same year, she founded the Aria Foundation, a charitable organization that partners with non-profit housing groups to empower lower-income families to become homeowners. She also co-founded The Inclusive alongside the board of Inclusive Housing Not for Profit, of which she is a founding member.

The Inclusive is an affordable condominium series designed to offer sustainable and accessible homeownership opportunities.

The Inclusive model is the first of its kind, an affordable multi-tower housing complex with that contains poverty-reducing wrap-around services. These services include a 24-hour daycare, a medical centre, skilled-trades training,and food bank access..

The complete communities will also feature planting gardens, solar panels, and geothermal technology. The first complex will be built in Kitchener, Ont., at the corner of Block-Line Road and Courtland Avenue. The second project is slated to be constructed in Toronto at Black Creek Drive and Lawrence Road.

The Kitchener project is slated to comprise 1,300 suites in the first phase and 2,300 altogether, while plans call for the Toronto complex to contain approximately 2,000 units.

In 2022, Larjani joined the Veterans’ House Canada Fundraising Cabinet to help provide supportive housing for soldiers. In 2023, she joined the Humber River Hospital Foundation’s board to address healthcare shortages, became a member of the University of Toronto’s Real Estate Advisory Committee, and joined the BILD Principals Advocacy Advisory Committee.

By 2024, she had joined the BlackNorth Initiative’s Homeownership Bridge program steering committee to address housing barriers faced by people of colour and the SE Health Housing Advisory Committee, which focuses on reducing barriers for seniors aging in place.

The Aria Foundation supports The Inclusive project, which also collaborates with partners with the Waterloo, Ont., and Greater Toronto Area chapters of Habitat for Humanity, Trillium Housing, the BlackNorth Initiative, WoodGreen Community Services, Good Shepherd Non-Profit Housing, and the Dream Legacy Foundation. 

As Larjani and Spotlight’s many projects and other endeavours demonstrate, she is a strong advocate for inclusivity and collaboration, championing a team-based approach to real estate development.

These are just some of the reasons why she was selected as a Canadian Women in Real Estate Award recipient.

(To read about all of the winners, go to our special CWIRE Awards section.)