When Harley Mintz and the management team at Elysium Investments decided to hire a new leader, one name kept coming up.

“The only person that I really wanted was Lorrie. (She) and I were partners at Deloitte since Deloitte merged with Mintz and Partners. I met Lorrie, that was 2008, and her credentials just tied perfectly into what we’re looking for,” Harley Mintz, co-chair of the Toronto-based real estate development firm Elysium Investments, said to RENX in an interview.

As he tells it, the idea was hatched during an event honouring King’s legacy.

“I did a speech at her retirement party," Mintz said. "(I) said 'we’re all excited to hear what Lorrie’s next journey is going to be', and then I thought, ‘Why don’t I get involved in that next journey?’

“So, I called her up and said, ‘Come work with us,’ and she, luckily for us, agreed.”

King joins 'perfect' situation

The former partner with Deloitte private audit and advisory, who spent almost 20 years at the consultancy before retiring earlier this year, initially didn’t have a plan when she left but “I’m not one that sits still very often, and so when Harley came to me with his proposition, I thought, ‘Wow, this is actually perfect,’” she said to RENX.

“Real estate is an area that I’ve spent most of my career in.”

Before Deloitte, King was executive vice-president with MyTravel Group for eight years, and was a partner with Arthur Andersen, where she spent 12 years.

Elysium Investments was started in 2023 and its success has prompted this move, according to Mintz.

“The business of Elysium: payroll, space, staffing issues, finance, etc. and the growth has really surpassed what our expectations were," he said.

"We sat down together and determined we really need somebody to basically run the operation. Lorrie’s coming in, going to basically manage our budget for us; make sure our reporting to our investors is top notch.”

King will also help the firm liaise with its stable of stakeholders.

“They require a lot of reporting because they’re sophisticated, and when we report to them, they give us ideas. Everything needs to be top-notch on the operational side to equal the quality of the properties that we’re getting,” Mintz said.

“We’re meeting regularly with CEOs of large companies, and you need executive presence to be able to sit at the table, and Lorrie brings tremendous experience and sophistication in that area.”

PBR and student housing

The company currently has six purpose-built rental projects on the go, all in the Toronto area. “The shortfall in rental units in Toronto and GTA is massive,” he said.

It is also focusing on another "underserved" area for development, according to Mintz.

"For student housing, we’re going to go where the delta between supply and demand is the greatest, and there’s lots of opportunity in Toronto still. But we like Hamilton; McMaster has shortages. We like Guelph, so that’s why we’re doing a second project in Guelph.”

“But we’re being very careful,” Mintz said.

While the real estate market is showing promising signs, investors are not out of the woods yet, he cautioned.

“A lot of people say we’ve bottomed, and the market is starting to turn. I see signs that the market’s starting to turn but then, you get a hit like the tariffs, and we all get scared again. My best word would be uneasy right now: watching, hopeful but uneasy.”

Growing pains for firm

King’s first big challenge will be to find a new space for the growing firm.

“We’re out of space and fortunately, our lease comes due in a few months. Her first assignment is figuring out what our space needs are, and then find us a place; negotiate a lease,” Mintz said.

For her part, the next few weeks and months will be spent learning all about the company.

“The first thing I need to do is spend some time really understanding the capital structure. This is a very successful business that has scaled, and so what I’m not going to do is walk in and tell everybody what they should be doing,” King said.

“I spent my whole career watching private businesses scale, and so that Sayf (Hassan, chief executive officer) and Jamie (Torpey, co-chair) and Harley can continue to do amazing real estate deals without worrying about the bills getting paid in the background.”

Her 40 years of business experience will enable her to help Elysium grow, including her time spent managing Deloitte's Canada Best Managed Companies awards program. It allowed her to see first-hand what makes a well-run business.

“I had a front-row seat to watching amazing companies across all industries and learning best practices from them by running that program, not only in Canada but I ran it globally," she said.

"I feel like I have this library of best practices that I’ve had the benefit of observing companies (use) over the last 20 years, and so I bring that knowledge as well.”