Carma Developers, founded in 1958, is a Canadian residential

land developer Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways, such as: * Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing * Subdividing real estate into lots, typically for the purpo ...

with master-planned communities throughout

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and the

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. Its head offices are located in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

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, where it is the largest residential land developer in that city. On March 31, 2011, Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. (NYSE, TSX: BRP) announced the completion of a merger that combines Brookfield Homes Corporation with the residential group of

Brookfield Office Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of commercial real estate firm Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of alternative asset management company Brookfield Corporation. It is responsible for the asset manag ...

consisting of Carma Developers and Brookfield Homes (Ontario) Limited.

History

The company was founded in 1958 by a group of 45 Calgary-based home builders including Tony Usselman, Albert Bennett, Ralph Scurfield, Howard Ross, and Roy Wilson who got together to purchase bulk quantities of land to be used for

housing developments A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throug ...

in the booming young city of

. Usselman and Bennett were the largest initial shareholders with each holding 20%. In the 50 following years the company built close to 60 communities in Calgary, the first being the community of

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where

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

s sold for between $18,000 and $22,000. The company grew rapidly during the

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of the 1960s and 1970s, using the funds from sales to buy other pieces of land, soon expanding past Calgary, and into the United States as well. In 1970 Usselman sold his shares to Nu-West "with the stipulation that Nu-West would never take complete control of the builder/shareholder relationship." Other builders, too, sold or re-distributed their shares, and in 1972, when Carma went

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, the company had developed and sold more than 11,000 residential lots and developed 500 acres (200 hectares) of serviced land for multi-family or commercial development. By 1979, 75% of the company's shares were owned by Carma members, including Nu-West, which owned 48 per cent of the shares. In 1980, Carma bought Allarco Developments, a huge publicly traded holding company controlled by

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surgeon Dr. Charles Allard, and Carma instantly became a billion dollar company, active in everything from

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s and investments to auto sales. Things began to get tough in the early 1980s when the

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brought in the

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(NEP), which didn't allow Albertans to sell

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to the Canadian market at world prices. This policy decimated Alberta's

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. People left Alberta in droves and almost no one bought homes, with existing owners walking away from mortgages. Real estate prices plummeted and the industry collapsed. Carma had 500 employees in 1983, declining to just 17 by 1985. Carma was able to negotiate with the banks to keep certain assets to get rid of debt. They downsized, recapitalized, and under the direction of Murray Fox, who was hired in 1983 as

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, the company got back to the business of developing residential land. By 1987,

Brookfield Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of Commercial property, commercial real estate firm Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of Alternative investment, alternative asset management company Brookfield Corpor ...

, headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, bought into the company. Today Brookfield owns 100% of it. Carma bought Nu-West's Canadian operations in 1989.

Bibliography

* Max Foran, ''Expansive Discourses: Urban Sprawl in Calgary, 1945-1978'' (2008) * Susan Goldenberg, ''Men of Property: The Canadian Developers who are Buying America'' (1981) * Marie Morgan, ''From the Ground Up: A History of Carma Developers'' (1998)

References

{{Reflist
Calgary Herald, 16 March 2009San Marcos Record, 8 June 2006HistoryLink.org: Colman Building (Seattle)

External links

Carma Website
Real estate companies of Canada