Leading with Greatness | Garry Sangha

A crowning achievement of the club was implementing the Mayor’s Cup annual soccer tournament, which grew to be one of the largest not-for-profit tournaments in Canada, drawing teams from across the country and the US. Garry graduated from leadership in community soccer to joining the provincial board, taking on key roles in governance and advocacy for inclusion.

Similarly, Garry is open, generous, and inclusive in sharing knowledge and opportunity with entrepreneurs keen to make headways in their careers. This support can extend to partnering and investing in a business or taking a chance to become an early anchor customer for a company that shows promise. His advice to entrepreneurs is to believe in themselves and make sure that they build a support network of business professionals aligned with their business path.

“Something I learned along the way is that to be the best, you must always seek out and associate with the best. I am so lucky I learned this from my father early on,” Garry says. “Working with my immediate family and my brother-in-law Kuldeep Singh Chohan to build our enterprise has been an amazing journey, and we are still only in our early days. We have taken great care to work with people we respect and build a team of outstanding people in their fields. Many hands and minds working in unison achieve greatness.”

Inspirational Leadership

According to Garry, a key business lesson is honesty and integrity pay. “Every business must also pay attention to the bottom line, but the bottom line cannot prevail in your thinking. A business makes many promises to its customers, and the price is not always the most important one,” explains Garry. “In my experience, I have found that schedule cannot be compromised and that your business partners will come back to you consistently if you deliver as promised when promised. The assumption is that you always deliver quality. I am very forthright on how long and at what cost quality can be delivered, and I won’t compromise or make promises that I know will compromise quality.”

For Garry, success is always measured at a point in time. “I believe that I have always been successful and able to achieve what I wanted at the time I wanted. When you are younger, how you define success is simpler and might be measured in many ways,” elucidates the steadfast leader. “For me, it was to be amongst the best and overachieve. It was my attitude in school, and in sports, and it was also true when I started working with my father in drywall. My father has always been a leader in the community, and I learned from him never to compromise on values or work ethic. My advice to young people is to live for today fully but also make sure that your dreams for the future are big and specific.”

Building A Brand

The Kanin Construction Management team consists of senior industry practitioners who are well-known and respected for their construction knowledge. These people have repeatedly proven that they can construct the most complex projects on budget, on time, and with the highest quality and safety.

Garry and his team provide turnkey and headache-free construction. It is not about the product they sell, but rather that when a developer hires Kanin Construction Management, they are confident in the fact that Garry and his team are problem solvers and that any service being offered, whether it is framing, drywall, fixtures, or overall management will be the best. “We take pride in being a trusted partner and take on our client’s vision. Vision is an important thing, and consistent delivery of vision makes us stand apart,” says Garry. “We are very good at building complex and iconic hi-rise towers. A testament to our strength is the number of times we have been brought in after the fact to take over a project that has gone sideways from a schedule, cost, and quality perspective and tasked with bringing the vision back to reality.”

Westbank’s historic Blood Alley Development Project

Kanin Construction Management Inc. (KCM) recently completed a most anticipated and big project for the Blood Alley mixed-use development project at 33 West Cordova Street in Vancouver’s Gastown. The project as awarded by Westbank Projects Corp. (Westbank) to be the Construction Management firm. Kanin is part of the Crystal Consulting Group of Companies (CCI) specialized in construction services.

Blood Alley, also known as Trounce Alley, has historical significance to Vancouver; it was the City’s first Alleyway. The new development will revitalize the region and feature a striking public gathering space. The site area is 19,072 sq ft with 116,713 sq ft of gross floor area and balcony area of 2,295 sq ft. There will be 62 market units and 80 social housing units.

Garry Sangha, CEO of KCM and the CCI stated that “Our company appreciates the trust that Westbank is placing in our construction management capability and all of our construction family looks forward to maintaining our reputation of delivering excellence. Blood Alley is an exciting project for Vancouver that we feel meets the changing needs of our evolving city and honors the historic past”.

KCM emphasizes the need for quality and safety and respects the promises it makes to be on time, on budget and as specified. This high visibility project includes unique challenges including preservation of the historic Cordova Street facade and the mature trees lining Blood Alley.

The building plan was conceptualized with the contributions between Westbank, the Portland Housing Society and BC Housing with input from the City. Westbank is known for its skyline defining projects across Canada and KCM is proud to have served Westbank on many of those projects. Nelson Mok, President of KCM said, “It is a great pleasure for Kanin to work for another new project for Westbank’s new Blood Alley project. Kanin always delivers quality work to satisfy our client, as promised”.

Towards the Future

Kanin Construction Management’s specific business purpose is to encapsulate the extensive experience and access to resources of the Crystal Consulting Inc. (CCI) Group of Companies as we serve our clients’ end-to-end construction management needs. As a builder’s builder, KCM understands what it takes to achieve success during all phases of the project, from preconstruction, to construction and project closeout. With an immense portfolio of projects in hand, KCM has the necessary experience to undertake large-scale complex construction projects. Clients can put their trust in KCM and their team of experts

One of Kanin Construction Management’s most prominent achievements at this moment is the almost unfathomable amount of involvement we have had in the BC building industry over the relatively short life of the company. Garry measures their contribution in millions of square feet and thousands of floors. When he looks at the downtown Vancouver skyline and the almost surreal nature of all those glass towers with unnatural angles and curves, he can say that Kanin Construction Management is an enabling partner in realizing the vision of those developers. “We see the same coming for Surrey, and we again will be a huge part of the transformation. We don’t flash our name about, but the role we play is critical,” he adds.

For the days to come, Kanin Construction Management is focused on continuous improvement. As they improve and formalize their methods for construction management, their clients will see that they are constantly evolving to achieve their architectural and community vision more effectively. “Right now, we are working on the 10-acre Oakridge project by Westbank. We are currently working on Buildings 1 and 2,” states Garry. “This development is unique in scale in North America and is a great example of how much it can take on massive construction challenges. We will increasingly be involved with projects of scale that transform neighborhoods.”