know what’s happening on a daily basis – and we don’t want that to happen to us. We want to make sure we continue to keep our finger on the pulse, like we’ve had from the beginning.” As for the kind of work they want to be doing, Michael says the company has experience in all asset classes, but they intend to continue their focus on industrial and mixed-use residential. They also want to continue working on selective retail projects – but not ‘strictly retail,’ they want to do what they call ‘redevelopment retail.’ “Any retail that has redevelopment potential where we can add residential density to the site, we’re very interested,” Michael says. “We won’t do strict retail, but we will do redevelopment retail that has mixed-use potential, where we can add value and add density to the site.” Lastly, in all their projects in every sector, Michael says they are going to focus more on sustainability. “We’re going to try to get our buildings to the point where they have zero carbon foot print,” he says. “We’re going to work hard every day with our project managers and our building professionals to get there.” “The challenge everyone has, not just Bertone, is construction cost,” he continues. “But technologies are getting better and they’re becoming more affordable. So we’re always exploring new technologies and new ways of making projects better and more sustainable than they are right now. I think we have an obligation to society and to the environment to make sure the buildings that we put up don’t impact the environment more than they should.” OCTOBER 2022
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