🤝 Meet Adrian Rocca. He’s the founder and CEO of Fitzrovia, the largest purpose-built rental developer in Canada, and has overseen over $20 billion in real estate transactions and investments over his career. We sat down with Adrian to talk about Canada’s rental market, in-residence pet spas, and the stigma around renting vs. owning.
How did you get into the real estate business?
I graduated from the University of Western Ontario 22 years ago. I played football there and loved the school. I was always passionate about real estate, capital markets, and entrepreneurship. In business school, someone suggested real estate private equity as a mix of those interests. I looked into it and thought it was incredible.
At the time, it was difficult to break into real estate private equity directly out of school, so investment banking was the best route. I joined a Wall Street firm — Credit Suisse First Boston — in their mergers and acquisitions group. I spent four years there, two in Toronto and two in London.
Then I came back to Canada in 2013 to join Tricon Capital. I started their multifamily group in Canada, built out development and asset management teams, and ended up managing about $500 million in development.
How did you end up starting Fitzrovia?
I’ve always been entrepreneurial and wanted to start my own business. I launched Fitzrovia about nine years ago. I saw institutional capital entering the market, but very few developer-operators that could cater to it. So I built a vertically integrated platform to fill that gap.
There’s been a lot of talk about converting unused office space into residential units. Why is that harder in practice than it seems?
The biggest issue is floor plates — they’re too large. Office floors are much bigger than residential ones. That means either oversized units, which reduce rent per square foot, or long, narrow units with poor natural light, which don’t lease well. There are other complexities with conversion costs, but that’s the main reason. First impressions matter, and natural light is a big part of that.
What’s one lesson from your time playing football at Western that you’ve carried over into the business world?
Resilience. Teamwork is important, but resilience stands out. You’re going to get knocked down in life, and you have to get back up, be creative, and find opportunities. You can’t stay down or you’ll get run over. We look for that when recruiting. Resilience is something we test for through personality and cognitive assessments. I’m obsessed with it. When we’re hiring we’ll look for athletes or people from the military — those backgrounds often bring resilience.
The Ontario and federal governments recently cut development fees. Do you think that’s going to be enough to kickstart more development?
It’s a step in the right direction, but it only improves costs by about 3.5%, so while it helps marginal projects, it won’t drive a massive surge in development. It will help bring more supply to the market. For investors making a contrarian call on rent growth, given the supply-demand imbalance coming in 18 to 24 months, it can be compelling to build now.
But a lot of institutional capital isn’t looking at it that way. They’re focused on current market conditions, which are soft. They’re worried about catching a falling knife, so they’re conservative in their outlook. New starts are down 50–70%, so we’re heading toward a supply cliff. It takes about four years to build, so we know there’s going to be a serious supply crunch that could last several years.
Do you think Canadians need to adjust expectations around renting vs. owning, similar to European countries?
Yeah, I mean in some countries like Germany, 70% of people rent. In Canada, homeownership is part of the identity, which is fine, but the stigma around renting shouldn’t be there. That’s changing generationally. The quality of rental housing is improving, and we see part of our role as helping eliminate that stigma. Renting is actually a very healthy and often smarter economic choice — it’s about 25–30% cheaper than owning. That includes maintenance, taxes, and debt service.
Your buildings have an emphasis on amenities like rooftop pools, ski simulators, and pet spas. Is there one amenity that has proven to be the biggest draw?
It depends on the building and neighbourhood. Our basketball courts are very popular. Our gyms are commercial-grade performance centres with studios and reformers. Our spa facilities — the sauna, cold plunge, steam room — are also very popular. We also have things like bowling alleys, speakeasy karaoke rooms.
But the two I’m most proud of are our schools and our healthcare platform. We’re building out a private school network for preschool through senior kindergarten. We already have two open and more coming. The other is our healthcare platform with the Cleveland Clinic. Residents can see a nurse practitioner within minutes through virtual care. About 25% of residents use it annually.
Is there a way to incentivize developers to build more purpose-built rentals instead of condos?
Yes. A full waiver of development charges would help, but the biggest lever would be a 20-year property tax waiver. That has a much bigger impact on value than development charge reductions.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
