Carla Guerrera, founder and CEO of Purpose Driven Development, is helping clients carry out transformational projects that enable communities to thrive over generations. Critically, she is empowering women in a male-dominated industry that needs talent in order to bring housing supply and affordable housing options to the B.C. market.
Founded in 2016, Guerrera’s company is focused on “triple-bottom-line” projects that achieve positive results in respect of people, planet and profit. The company is currently working on more than $2 billion in portfolio projects that include more than 2,200 affordable and mixed-income homes. Clients include First Nations, non-profits, churches and public- and private-sector institutions.
“I saw a niche to … create projects that were people- and planet-focused as much as they were financially viable or sustainable from a profit perspective,” Guerrera said.
“A lot of the private-sector developers were really just driving projects according to profit, and I saw an opportunity to flip that equation on its head and create projects that brought a lens of inclusive prosperity to not just investors but also communities where the projects would be built and to the planet over the long term.”
One of Purpose Driven’s notable projects is an $85 million intergenerational housing development at Cambie Street and Marine Drive. Intended to house elderly women, single mothers and workforce women, the project for Soroptimist International of Vancouver is understood to be the first such project in North America delivered by an all-female team.
“Everyone including the consultants and lenders have all been women, and even the site supervisor and project manager are women,” said Guerrera, who helped the client unlock significant financing to develop its land. “It’s the first of its kind delivering housing for women by an all-women team and demonstrating leadership of women in the male-dominated real estate development industry.”
Guerrera was inspired to go into real estate by her father, who immigrated to rural Ontario from southern Italy. He was a hairdresser who also bought and developed properties as a hobby. One of his projects had several lots on a cul-de-sac that he named “Carla Court.”
“Watching him untangle the complexities of these projects and solve them like a puzzle, the tenacity that he had to deliver these projects and all the components of bringing a real estate development project to life, it really fascinated me as a child, watching him do that.”
After studying law at the University of British Columbia and taking a leave of absence, Guerrera moved to Italy where she studied and worked before returning to Canada to earn a master’s degree in urban planning from Queen’s University. She then moved to Toronto and worked for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. doing research on sustainable development, city-building and affordable housing. She went on to join Waterfront Toronto, an organization formed by three levels of government in partnership with the private sector to redevelop 2,000 acres of formerly contaminated “brownfield” land.
With Waterfront Toronto, Guerrera led its West Don Lands project through significant phases of development, planning, design and approval. The climate-positive project was an 80-acre complete community with 6,000 residential units and 1,200 affordable homes as well as schools, community centres and 23 acres of parks and public space.
During the second phase of construction (an athletes’ village for the 2015 Pan American Games), Guerrera moved to Vancouver and had stints at several development companies including Wesgroup Properties. Among her projects was The Prescott, a vacant gas station site transformed into a head office and mixed-use development.
In 2016, Guerrera left an executive position to found Purpose Driven Development while her children were about three and six years old. Her company has since grown to a team of about seven full-time and four part-time staff and a “really strong and excellent” group of advisors to whom she gives tremendous credit.
“As a founder, starting from an idea or vision and growing that to where we are today, hasn’t been the most straightforward or easy path but it’s incredibly rewarding to alchemize that from nothing. It’s definitely a proud moment,” she said.
Last summer, Guerrera visited West Don Lands with her children, who are now almost teenagers. She watched them run through the streets and play in a park that she helped design in an under-utilized area below an overpass. She says it reaffirmed her belief that the built environment has the power to improve health, well-being, social connection, happiness and quality of life.
“Going back there and having my kids running through the streets and eating at the restaurants and playing in the park, which literally just used to be a deserted dirt field—that’s a pretty amazing highlight,” she said.
