
Windmill Newcomer Hussey Holds Rare Job Title
Few private real estate development company executives hold the title of director of affordable housing.
Graeme Hussey is an exception.
Hussey joined Ottawa-based Windmill Developments late in 2024 after rising to the role of president with non-profit developer Cahdco. He transitioned to Windmill after developing about 1,000 affordable rental-housing units over the course of 15 years with his previous company.
In this interview, Hussey discusses his new role and Windmill’s strong desire to develop a housing type that many other development firms avoid.
Why did you decide to move to Windmill?
It just came to a point where I felt like, after that much time [at Cahdco], I was ready to move on to a new opportunity. I was really interested in, obviously, continuing in the development of affordable housing. But what I was looking for, and the Windmill opportunity worked well, was to work with a private developer, where you have the chance to work on larger projects.
Larger projects have a bigger impact. AIso, I had known Windmill, the company and many of their staff, from some of their other projects that they had worked on. We had worked with them a bit on the Zibi [mixed-use] project in Ottawa, and then we unsuccessfully did a joint-venture bid on a federal piece of land. We didn’t win it, Windmill and my my previous non-profit, Cadhco, but it gave us the chance to know each other well. So when I was looking to make a move, [Windmill] was one of the first groups I contacted.
How do you think your previous role fits this one?
In a lot of ways, it’s a similar focus. It’s just using different resources. At Cahdco, it was a lot like working on a number of different types of projects at the same time with different partners. And, that’s kind of the same with Windmill. They have a pipeline of projects. There’s a number of different partners, particularly when it comes to the affordable housing side. And, my role previously was a lot around the partnership development and the funding and financing to build the affordable housing. So, that’ll be a similar focus in my role now, bringing together different partners.
We’re working predominantly in Ottawa and Toronto, so there’s different non-profits and groups that might work in those areas, and then trying to, as the projects are getting created, find viable financing to pay for the project construction, which is a combination of sometimes government support and conventional mortgage financing.
What is Windmill’s approach to affordable housing development?
Their approach, in a lot of ways, is grounded in partnerships and many of the projects that they created have involved one type of affordable housing or another.
When people say affordable housing, it often can mean different different things to different folks, in terms of focus, level of affordability [and] demographic focus. But the other thing about Windmill is: It’s a developer who’s always really focused on an environmentally sustainable product. Whether it’s rental or ownership, they’ve always done LEED Platinum as a certification to all of their projects since they started 20 years ago.
A couple years ago, when they created a Zibi project, they expanded that to a building certification called One Planet Living. so it’s a little bit like the lead certification. But in addition to like environmental criteria, there’s other broader social impact criteria. There’s basically 10 broad criteria, and one of them relates to equity. And so, affordable housing has become part of that focus on how they create their projects.
They’re creating all their projects to do this One Planet Living standard. And as part of that, it encapsulates the idea of incorporating affordable housing into your project. It’s baked into the organizational DNA, and it’s always been part of what they’ve done as well, but mostly it’s been in partnership with other groups.
Now, as time passes, you know whether it’s different levels of government or faith groups, these are often land partners that Windmill’s worked with before, and they’re looking for affordable housing even more and more as part of projects. So [the approach] is a response to all of that,
How do you see Windmill expanding its affordable housing projects and services under your leadership?
I think there’ll be more opportunity to expand. It’s something that they’re already doing. So, I’m coming on at a time where they had quite a bit of interest, and they need somebody to focus on that predominantly. They have a number of projects. There’s one in particular in Toronto on Kennedy Road where it’s over 600 units of co-op non-profit housing, of which over 50% of that is going to be affordable rental housing that they’re creating, starting in construction next year. And that’s just just one of a number of projects. There’s a couple in Ottawa as well that have about 1,000 units between the two of them, and several hundred units will be affordable rental housing as part of that. So as they’re expanding and scaling up the number of projects that they do and the size of them, what I’m able to do is come in and help identify the right partners to help realize the affordable housing vision, and then it’s lining up the financing to pay for those aspects of the project.
How do you see affordable housing in terms of its business case or its business opportunity?
very project, I always want to break it down into components. Every project needs land, money and then the expertise to put the two together. Affordable housing is such a big government priority that a lot of land opportunities that are government-based, particularly here in Ottawa and Toronto as well, are becoming available. But one of the criteria is the creation of affordable housing. By incorporating affordable housing and being comfortable with it and doing a good job of it, it gives you more land opportunities that you wouldn’t have otherwise had.
Then what’s important is to figure out: How do those projects create the affordable housing. But also, [you have to] find the opportunity to create your market housing and then to have it all holistically work together and financially. You can’t, obviously, create affordable housing at the expense of the market housing in terms of getting everything to pencil out. So there’s a lot of government incentives as well to help on that side of things, whether it’s government grants, mortgage financing or waivers of various fees and charges.
So, I think the business sense is the land opportunity, but then you have to figure out how to do it well so that you don’t just take advantage of what you think is a good land opportunity just to not have a project.
A lot of developers seem to shy away from affordable housing. It’s fairly evident, I think, in Montreal, where some developers would rather pay municipal fines than do affordable housing projects. But here, Windmill is embracing that sector. So, so why is windmill embracing it?
Good question. Well, I’m going to kind of repeat myself, but part of their corporate values are driven by this One Planet Living framework, and that One Planet Living framework embraces equality.
And as part of that, the interpretation is: When you’re creating the real estate project, you’ll have market and affordable housing. Why have they signed up for the One Planet Living framework? That’s maybe a further question to answer in terms of your question. But they’re not going to shy away from affordable housing. That’s why they signed up to the framework. But why the owners ofthe company signed up to the framework is because they really believe as a company that we need to treat the earth and the people who are on it in a way that it’s going to be there for a long time in the future.
So, these these One Planet Living principles are really guided by that idea of: If you only had one planet, what would you have to do to make it continually available? It’s not just about making energy-efficient, zero-carbon buildings.
Those are important, but you have to think about things like quality and affordable housing on top of them.
Photo: Housing Services Corporation
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