The sun shines on Point Grey as students and staff make their way along Wesbrook Mall. On one side of the boulevard, research facilities welcome workers; on the other, residents enter and exit snug residences and sunlit courtyards.
The blend of living, working and studying blooms towards the south end of the mall in the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Wesbrook Village, the centrepiece of UBC Properties Investments Ltd.’s ambitious bid to transform the campus into an integrated community. The sole trustee of UBC Properties Trust, which manages UBC’s extensive property endowment, UBC Properties plays a key role in guiding and managing development on campus.
And, after19 years, it’s poised for a change of leadership that promises to set the stage for the next chapter in one of the most successful, and contentious, urban development plays in the Lower Mainland.
Al Poettcker, a veteran of the local real estate sector and a founding director of the trust, is set to step down as president and hand the reins to a successor who will also serve as COO. Poettcker will remain CEO and a director.
Self-effacing, Poettcker doesn’t see anything special in his role, preferring to credit the board assembled to oversee and execute the vision of founding chairman Robert H. Lee.
“I think it’s very unfair for one person to get any kind of shout-out in terms of what role they played,” Poettcker said during an interview at the trust’s offices in the heart of Wesbrook Village. “I find it very difficult to say, ‘What did I do?’ compared to what so many other people have done behind the scenes. … And it started with Bob Lee – he’s the one who convinced the university that they should try to use the endowment lands to generate an endowment.”
Since the establishment of the trust in 1988 and the development of its first project, Hampton Place, in the 1990s, UBC Properties has built a portfolio of 2.1 million square feet of residential and commercial space on 3,000 acres the province granted to the universityin 1920 to support its growth.
Whatever critics say about the rapid transformation of the university’s Point Grey campus, Poettcker has a clear conscience about its management.
“We’re not here to add to UBC’s risk; we’re here to add to their endowment, and I think the board has done a fantastic job in managing that,” he said. “[They’ve] probably been the glue that’s held it together.”
Binning Tower under construction at the University of British Columbia’s Wesbrook Mall. UBC Properties Trust president and CEO Al Poettcker has helped oversee development of 2.1 million square feet of residential and commercial space on university land | Chung Chow
But if Poettcker shies from the spotlight (he declined to be photographed by Business in Vancouver for this profile), his experience makes him a linchpin in the operation and one of UBC’s top-paid executives, with annual compensation of approximately $420,000.
UBC is Poettcker’s alma mater, and he says the liberal education fostered at its business school was the solid foundation on which he built his career.
“You were encouraged to take a lot of non-business courses,” he said. “I wasn’t schooled just in finance. It was urban land, and we had lots of economics. We were encouraged to take psychology. … It was quite a holistic look at what made cities grow and what made developments successful.”
Studies for an MBA followed his graduation with a bachelor of commerce degree in 1969, but Poettcker began working for Marathon Realty Corp. around the same time and it wasn’t long before work trumped study. He was promised time off, but, having married in his final year of university, he soon had a family to support, too.
Time was short, but he didn’t stop learning.
A grounding in commercial real estate at Marathon, Redekop Properties Inc. and Bentall Development Inc. laid the foundation for his work overseeing UBC Properties’ work with residential builders, from fostering relationships to guiding development.
“I had some knowledge, through a previous company, of residential, but nothing compared to what we learned here about residential. But we’ve had fabulous partners,” he said.
Poettcker’s openness to learning underpins his belief that the best CEOs start as company directors, allowing them to anticipate the organization’s needs.
“You get a very good feeling for what the board wants and needs,” he said. “[Because] you can’t wait for the board to tell you what they want to do.”
His own board experience includes terms with several income trusts, including Royal Host, IAT Air Cargo Facilities and Art in Motion (all now defunct), appointments that tapped and broadened his expertise.
The experience has made Poett-cker a key element of the industry’s brain trust, said Gordon Harris, who has known him for 30 years.
“I’ve always been impressed by his incredible grasp of not just the issue before him, but where it fits into the bigger picture,” said Harris, who ran his own consulting firm prior to his current role as president and CEO of SFU Community Trust. “He has a wonderful perspective on the work he does and the impact it has, both on the institution and on the larger community.”
Not only is Poettcker sought after for his advice on housing issues – he served on Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Task Force on Housing Affordability and is a past president of the Urban Development Institute – he’s also been a mentor to many.
“He probably doesn’t get a lot of acknowledgement of that,” Harris said. “We all look to him, whether it’s something specific to the UBC lands or, more generally, what’s going on in the region. His has always been a really important voice.”
Poettcker, who turned 69 in September, stays sharp by reading newspapers and magazines, and doesn’t stint on his health, either. Pilates is a weekly discipline, while tennis and golf keep him nimble.
“You have to invest a lot of personal time if you want to keep working,” he said. “You’ve got to stay healthy, so I just consider it a good investment.”
But having grown up in East Vancouver, Poettcker is proud of the investments made at UBC that have transformed it from an outpost on the city’s edge to an integral part of his hometown.
“We’ve put a high priority on top-notch public realm,” he said. “It’s what I’ve probably enjoyed the most – working with the university to collectively move the campus forward.” •
