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Q&A on US tariffs, declining housing starts and more with Edward Geric of Mike Geric Construction

Edward Geric, President, CEO and COO of Victoria-based real-estate development and general contracting firm Mike Geric Construction discusses the company's latest projects and timely issues impacting the Capital's real-estate development industry.  Citified.ca

commercial, condos, rentals, Saanich Peninsula, Urban core

Q&A on US tariffs, declining housing starts and more with Edward Geric of Mike Geric Construction

Ten on the 10th

Published March 10, 2025

Citified's Ten on the 10th is a monthly question-and-answer segment connecting our readers with the insight and knowledge of Victoria's top real-estate and business professionals.

Ten on the Tenth's March, 2025 segment features Edward Geric, President, CEO and COO of Victoria-based real-estate development and construction contracting firm Mike Geric Construction.

Asking the questions is Ross Marshall, Senior Vice President of the Victoria offices of commercial real-estate brokerage CBRE. As a leader in facilitating large-scale commercial real-estate transactions throughout the Capital Region – which include apartment complexes, industrial retail and office properties, and land/development opportunities – Ross and his team are at the forefront of market-leading real-estate transactions on Vancouver Island.

Would you like to be featured as part of a future Ten on the 10th Q&A? We'd like to hear from you.

What is the history of Mike Geric Construction and what has your company done to navigate these last few years in an uncertain market

Mike Geric Construction was founded more than 55 years ago as a single-family home builder. We’re known for having taken our custom home approach to quality and finishing into multifamily development. When my dad began building spec homes in Gordon Head they used to say that the best ‘custom house’ you could buy was a spec home by Mike Geric. While we have worked to honour the craftsmanship of our roots, we have continued to grow our scope to deliver a significant number of multifamily communities throughout Gordon Head, Broadmead, Royal Oak and now in the Midtown District in the City of Victoria.

Like all developers, we face a housing market that includes numerous complicating factors such as labour and supply chain shortages, rapidly changing government regulations and standards, municipal approval delays and now more uncertainty with the introduction of U.S. tariffs. The only way we have been able to continue to develop homes is our laser-focused commitment to understanding the needs of our future homeowners, building benchmark-setting quality and nimbly managing changes to this very turbulent market.

Your project, The Rise on Fifth, in Sidney is adding 36 new homes in a steel and concrete building to that community. What’s the timeline for people moving into that development?
We are incredibly proud of this project that is adding homes to this location in Sidney. I fundamentally believe that this is one of the best and most desirable downsizer locations on the South Island and we are building a condominium that will stand apart for decades to come. The Rise has been built to a top standard in steel and concrete that increases the building’s longevity, and we have had an excellent response to features we have included such as energy efficient heating and cooling, folding glass walls and gourmet kitchen appliances which come standard. We are wrapping up construction this month and we will be welcoming our new residents this spring.

Last fall your company made a change to your Tresah West property, converting it from a market condo to rental due to rising construction costs and changes in the market. How do you feel about that decision now?
Changing Tresah West from condo to rental was an extremely difficult decision but in the face of the current market it was the right decision. In January of 2024, we successfully delivered our Tresah East phase which was 68 condominiums. The next phase, Tresah West was deemed no longer viable in today’s condo market and in order to finish construction and deliver much-needed rental housing in the City of Victoria, an informed change had to be made.

The most important aspect is that we will be able to deliver these new homes to the community. Although this is now a rental project instead of market homes, we know they are badly needed. Construction on the project is expected to be completed construction in July of this year which will allow us to begin pre-leasing as early as this April.

You currently have two project proposals in James Bay, what made you choose that neighbourhood?
We felt fortunate to acquire the two locations for redevelopment in James Bay: one on Menzies Street and the other at the corner of Quebec and Montreal Streets. This is a community that is walkable to all day-to-day amenities, to the ocean and a natural choice for those who want to feel connected to the downtown core.

There are a handful of unique locations in Greater Victoria that feel like a small town within a city and James Bay is one of those. With these two sites, we were able to put forward two very different proposals, one for car-free rental condos at Menzies and the other for townhomes and condos for home ownership. Both locations are close to much-loved local businesses with close access to the water making them premium communities to live and work.

Your proposal for the corner of Quebec and Montreal streets features market homes in the form of condos and townhouses at a height that is new for that area. What went into the decisions for that proposal and who do you have in mind when you designed it?

What we saw in the site is an underutilized surface parking lot in a key area of the community surrounded by similar forms of housing in condominiums and townhouses. Our proposal includes more than 100 residential units in a 14-storey mixed-use building with townhouses at the ground level. The mix aims to provide a variety of housing types to accommodate different family sizes and lifestyles.

Included in the plans are a childcare centre with up to 50 spaces, a café and commercial spaces which aim to enhance the neighborhood's livability by providing essential services and social spaces within walking distance for residents. The proposal emphasizes creating an exceptional public realm by integrating active frontages, public seating, gathering spaces, landscaping, and a AAA cycling lane. We are still in the rezoning stage with the City of Victoria however, we have already had significant interest in this project from potential buyers, some of those are downsizers and some already living nearby in established family homes.

What effect are tariffs going to have on the development industry, in their totality, in terms of your retail sales to homebuyers, construction costs and other impacts?

The recent implementation of tariffs between the United States and Canada will impact the development industry in Victoria through increased construction costs, mainly through materials like steel, aluminum, and lumber, which leads to a potential rise in home prices. While these changes are out of our control and I always want to focus my attention to items I can control, the projected impact of further increased costs and market uncertainty will certainly ensure we apply a greater degree of scrutiny when evaluating our decisions to proceed on new projects, determining project feasibility, and when determining our development approach.

Like I am sure many of my colleagues are doing, Mike Geric Construction will take this current tariff situation as an opportunity to inventory our current building material procurement programs to do whatever we can to lead by example on a ‘build Canada’ approach. We feel that the best thing we can do for our active projects is to give our trades, our purchasers and our communities a pride that we are doing whatever we can to support Canadian jobs, Canadian resources and the local / Canadian economy.

How many hard-cost materials in a typical wood-framed and/or concrete construction project in Victoria would be made in Canada, versus imported materials? Among the imported materials, are there Canadian alternatives available?

Determining the exact proportion of domestically produced versus imported materials in typical wood-framed or concrete construction projects in Canada is challenging due to variations in project specifications and sourcing practices. However, several key materials commonly used in such projects are manufactured locally or within Canada such as wood, concrete and cement and steel. For each wood and steel there are manufacturers in B.C., but most concrete and cement comes out of Quebec and Ontario.

Will the uncertainty around tariffs change the way you under-write your construction projects and calculate your proformas, given what you know, in today's uncertain economic environment?

While it is straightforward for us to account for the one-time cost implications from tariffs on imported building materials such as steel and aluminium, the bigger challenge is determining the longer-range impact on consumer confidence, migration patterns throughout Canada and the overall inflation that tariffs are known to spur.

The concern for us - and I believe the overall construction industry - is that tariffs are layering on top of already high construction costs and government taxes related to new construction. Although inflationary pressure on construction costs has stabilized over the past year, costs remain significantly higher than they were pre-pandemic. For instance, MGC has found that the cost of building low-rise housing to be nearly double the cost it was five years ago.

These are tricky times for developers. Despite so much provincial and federal support for housing, housing starts are declining. Why do you think that is?

My impression of the current rental and market condo housing market is that all levels of government remain to be a day late and a dollar short when it comes to taking steps to address the real challenges facing the new build real estate market. The fact is that all levels of government do not effectively speak to one another when trying to provide favourable terms to incentivize laudable objectives such as affordability, sustainability and accessibility. While every politician may think they are doing the right thing, none of their measures are aligning with bank finance requirements or the consumer demands and it is this misalignment which is consistently costing us more money, causing delay and ensuring that home builders like me are unable to do the only thing we want to do: build.

If you could change one or two local building regulations or restrictions that would make development in the communities you work in easier, what would it, or they, be?

I’m not sure if I would call it a regulation but the number one local issue, we need to change is to create genuine collaboration between municipal departments to ensure that policies are enforced holistically, and policy-objectives do not trip over one another. This is a common theme we see on all projects through various municipalities, and I believe it is the single most significant factor in delaying our project permits and costing hundreds of thousands in consultant fees and delays.

From a policy standpoint, I wish local governments and specifically planning departments would seriously accept and evaluate their support and feedback based on the economic factors tied to densities. So many sites become rendered unfeasible due to the over-analysis of planning departments and the lack of appreciation for the fact that compounding costs have meant they are not buildable in today’s climate. Municipalities need to take a more measured approach in ensuring that densities, building costs and affordability requirements are archivable in this extremely challenging marketplace. C

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2018
- October, 2018: Reed Kipp of Devon Properties talks about Victoria's rental housing industry
- November, 2018: Business Development Bank of Canada's Chris Boissevain talks about interest rates
- December, 2018: Aryze Development's Luke Mari and Ryan Goodman talk about real-estate development
2019
- February, 2019: Phung Horwood's My Phung talks about real-estate appraisals
- March, 2019: Luke Mills of Megson Fitzpatrick Insurance talks about the insurance industry
- April, 2019: Greg Damant of Cascadia Architects talks about architecture in Victoria
- May, 2019: Real-estate development with Robert Fung of The Salient Group
- June, 2019: Rental housing industry Q&A with David Hutniak of LandlordBC
- July 2019: Harris Green redevelopment Q&A with Mark Chemij of Starlight Investments
- August 2019: Land remediation Q&A with Harm Gross of NEXT Environmental
- September 2019: Business banking Q&A with Raj Wirk of Coast Capital Savings
- October, 2019: Real-estate development Q&A with Mike Miller of Abstract Developments
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- December, 2019: Interest rate and commercial mortgage brokerage Q&A with Dave Ganong of Canada ICI Capital
2020
- January, 2020: Real-estate development costs Q&A with Doug Foord of Invictus Commercial Investment Corp.
- February, 2020: Private lending and the mortgage industry Q&A with Len Shorkey of Shorkey Mortgage Corp.
- March, 2020: Strata insurance premiums Q&A with Luke Mills of Megson FitzPatrick Insurance
- April, 2020: Rental housing and COVID-19 Q&A with David Hutniak of LandlordBC
- June, 2020: COVID-19's impact on Victoria's real-estate Q&A with Jordan Milne of GMC Projects
- July, 2020: Multi-unit residential and commercial building fire safety services Q&A with Tim Lindsay of the Vancouver Island Fire Protection Association
- August, 2020: Royal Beach Q&A with Georgia Desjardins of Seacliff Properties, developer of the 134-acre Colwood project
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- November, 2020: CRD affordable housing and CRD parks services Q&A with Stephen Henderson of the CRD
- December, 2020: Real-estate values, wine and housing market Q&A with Johnathon Sipos of Cielo Properties
2021
- January, 2021: Mass timber construction, the Mayfair District and junior hockey Q&A with Edward Geric of Mike Geric Construction
- February, 2021: Excavating industry, sewage treatment pipe and COVID economy Q&A with Trevor Mann of Don Mann Excavating
- March, 2021: Victoria industrial sector investment opportunities Q&A with Brent Sawchyn of PC Urban Properties
- April, 2021: Northern Junk, Capital Iron lands and Victoria real-estate development Q&A with Jon Stovell of Reliance Properties
- May, 2021: Victoria housing delivery and affordability Q&A with Adam Cooper of Abstract Developments
- June, 2021: Institutional investment in Victoria's rental housing market Q&A with Alex Messina of Nicola Wealth
- October, 2021: Mortgage products, interest rates and inflation Q&A with Gagan Lalli of CMLS Financial
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- December, 2021: Commercial real-estate market recap and a look to the future with Jason Kiselbach of CBRE Vancouver
2022
- February, 2022: Downtown Victoria's largest rental development, and more, with Andrew Browne of Starlight Developments
- March, 2022: Alberta developer shifting gears to build in Victoria, with Namrita Rattan of Aquila Pacific
- April, 2022: Post-COVID Victoria office market and development outlook, with Robert Jawl of Jawl Properties
- May, 2022: Residential housing market and supply, with Island Realm Real Estate's Tony Zarsadias
- June, 2022: Meeting community and municipal expectations of new housing with Chris Bradley of TLA Developments
- July, 2022: Changing mortgage rates and the 2022 lending environment with Peter Fast of ICI Capital
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2023
- January, 2023: 'Parking-free' missing middle housing development in Victoria with Julian West of Urban Thrive
- February, 2023: Victoria's 2023 market outlook and success in the real-estate industry with Ross Marshall of CBRE
- April, 2023: Citified's Mike Kozakowski on BC's new housing policies and overcoming supply roadblocks
- May, 2023: Royal Beach's Georgia Desjardins on the project's future homes, parks, a ferry to Victoria, and more
- July, 2023: Victoria's housing market history and an outlook with Deane Strongitharm of CitySpaces Consulting
- August, 2023: 'Missing middle' housing, clean streets and the City of Victoria's future with councillor Matt Dell
- September, 2023: GMC Projects' CEO Jordan Milne discusses Victoria's housing prices and the Capital's rental market
- October, 2023: Astria Properties' David Basche chats light industrial development in Victoria, and the R-E market
- November, 2023: Government policies impacting Victoria's housing supply with Casey Edge of Victoria Residential Builder Assoc.
2024
- January, 2024: Provincial housing measures and their impacts with Langford-JDF MLA Ravi Parmar
- February, 2024: Real-estate appraisals with Scott Humphreys of D.R. Coell & Associates
- May, 2024: Downtown Victoria street issues, crime and disorder with Councillor Stephen Hammond
- June, 2024: Interest rates, lending opportunities and what's in-store for borrowers with Impact Commercial's Alan Haigh
- August, 2024: Abstract Developments' Adam Cooper talks housing market, missing middle homes and build code changes
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- November, 2024: Ovis Group's Sébastien Leboeuf discusses the company's projects in Victoria, and its rise to big-time development
2025
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