The Building That Started Everything

In 1986, a North Vancouver commercial building was taking shape. Bill Berry was there from the beginning — involved in the physical development, managing the property through construction, and overseeing its early operations as it came to life.

In 1988, he took what he’d learned and founded his own property management company.
That building is still in our portfolio today.

Over nearly four decades, it has passed through three separate ownership groups. Each new owner acquired the asset and inherited the existing management relationship – and each one chose to keep it. Not out of habit or convenience, but because continuity in a commercial building isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s what protects the asset, keeps tenants stable, and ensures that decades of institutional knowledge about the building’s systems, history, and quirks don’t walk out the door when ownership changes.

The building has never been simple to manage. Five local shareholders are involved in the current ownership structure, each with their own perspective and priorities. Capital projects – mechanical replacements, exterior improvements, common area upgrades — require coordination, clear communication, and a management team that understands both the building and the people behind it. The financial reporting is extensive, built to support audits and integrate into a sophisticated ownership structure.

We know this building the way you can only know something you’ve watched grow from the ground up.

Today, Custom Realty’s North Vancouver office operates out of this building. When the current ownership group renewed our lease, they did so with a right to manage attached — a mutual commitment that reflects what this relationship has always been. Not just a contract. A partnership that has outlasted every other change this building has seen.