Council voted no last night. We are taking the file to the Ontario Land Tribunal. But before we talk about what happens next, we want you to hear the words Jeff said at that microphone. Read on.
PV, Mit & Jeff
A veteran. A Londoner. One of the visionaries behind this file. Speaking to a council chamber about 980 apartments that Londoners could actually afford to live in. This is what he said.
Council voted no on the Wellington land assembly last night. We saw the number of hands go up. We heard the motion pass. We are not going to spin the result. It did not go the way we asked it to go.
It is worth being direct about one thing right up front. We anticipated this outcome. We have been prepared for the next step of the process since day one. Given the nature of this file and everything it is designed to do for London, we did think there was a real chance council could approve it at the municipal level, and we owed the file our best effort at that path. But whenever anyone tries to build housing at this scale, on a corridor this visible, in a city already having this debate, there is friction at the municipal level. That is not unusual. That is normal. It is exactly why the province of Ontario has the authority to override a municipal refusal and approve applications of this nature, and it is exactly why the Ontario Land Tribunal exists as a body.
The Wellington file now moves into that phase. The immediate next step is that the file returns to City Council on October 14 for reconsideration. Realistically, we expect Council to reach the same conclusion on the same reasoning as last night. If that happens, we then move to the Ontario Land Tribunal, inside the applicable appeal window. Our lawyers are already preparing the OLT record in parallel. This is a legal process, not a fight. It is exactly the process this kind of file was designed to route through when the municipal answer and the provincial framework disagree.
We will write to you about the OLT timeline and what happens between now and the hearing in the letters that follow. But today's letter is not about the mechanics. Today's letter is about what happened at that microphone. Because before the vote came down, Jeff stood up.
If you have five minutes today, this is the one thing worth your time. Jeff, one of our three trustees and a former Canadian Armed Forces veteran who did two tours in Afghanistan as a close protection operator, spoke to the council chamber last night as a Londoner. The clip is on our Instagram.
Five minute clip on Instagram. Watch it once. Full audio, original speech, no cuts.
These are direct quotes from Jeff's applicant remarks at council last night, in the order he said them.
The vote outcome does not change the fundamentals of the Wellington file. The city still has a workforce housing gap. The Bus Rapid Transit corridor still exists and is still funded. The land is still zoned the way it needs to be zoned. The federal MLI Select mortgage insurance program is still there. The 980 Londoners who would eventually live in these apartments still need somewhere to live.
Let us be honest about one more thing. Building affordable housing in this city is what we actually want to do. It is the reason this file exists at all. Right now the plan sits at 10 percent affordable, which is the CMHC threshold that unlocks MLI Select financing. That is the floor, not the ceiling. We are actively working with government and non profit partners in London and at the provincial level to push this share as high as we can. 20 percent. 30 percent. 40 percent deeply affordable units, layered in as those partnerships come together.
That is the mission. Provide affordable housing in London, Ontario, at the scale London actually needs, using private capital as the engine and structured partnerships to deepen the affordability every year the file moves forward. The council chamber saw a version of the file with 10 percent affordability last night. The version that eventually gets built is going to be materially deeper than that. That is what we are quietly building toward. That is why we escalate.
What changed last night is the timeline. Not the file. Not the return math. Not the underwriting. Ontario Land Tribunal appeals typically take between 12 and 18 months to reach a hearing decision. That is the plan. It has been inside the Wellington model from day one. LP capital does not sit idle during that time. The land is held, the entitlement work continues, the settlement conversations that often accompany OLT hearings still happen.
This is exactly the kind of moment we underwrite for. It is also exactly why the Wellington file is structured with three ranked exit paths, not one.
Purpose Built Rental · Southwestern Ontario · Workforce Housing
Targeted: 20% compounded annually
Currently raising. $100K minimum. Accredited investors, existing FC investors, or FF&BA exemption.
Jeff is a Londoner. He grew up here. He joined the army at 16, served two tours in Afghanistan, and used his deployment money to buy his first investment property in this city. He then moved into that building and learned how to be a landlord from the inside out. Today he stands as one of the three trustees behind a proposal to build 980 apartments on the transit corridor his own city funded, for the workers, seniors, and veterans who need somewhere to live in London.
If anyone in that chamber had earned the right to speak last about what affordable housing means for this city, it was him. He was not delivering a pitch. He was delivering a mission. That is why we wanted today's letter to be about his words and about what we are actually trying to build here.
Tomorrow's letter will go deeper into what happens next. The October 14 return to City Council, what our lawyers are preparing on the Ontario Land Tribunal track in parallel, the settlement conversations that often accompany a file like this one, and the timeline through to shovels in the ground. But today we wanted to stay with Jeff, and with the mission behind the file. Everything else follows from that.
$10K Minimum · RRSP / TFSA / RESP / LIRA Eligible · Also Cash
Targeted: 15% Annualized (7% cash monthly + 8% appreciation)
FCPRET already operates in the workforce band Wellington is being built to add to. Fully income producing today. Distributions arrive whether council votes or not.
Talk soon,
PV, Mit & Jeff
P.S. If Jeff's words land for you, forward this letter to anyone who cares about the workforce housing conversation in this country. That is where this file lives now. Not in one council chamber. In the argument the whole country is having about whether private capital can actually solve the housing problem it says it can. We think Jeff answered that question at that microphone last night.
