By Pepper Parr
December 5th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Committed is the word I came away with after a lengthy interview with Paul Paletta, the President of Alinea, the developers that are moving forward with plans for the 120-acre King Road site, the three hundred plus acre Bronte Creek property and other notable development projects in the region. Given the magnitude of their development projects and their impact on the city over the next several decades I felt it important to sit down with Alinea’s CEO to better understand his history and vision.
Paul Anthony Paletta, the third son in a family of four boys, attended high school in Aurora and chose McGill University for his post-secondary education beginning in 1987. He graduated four years later with a Bachelor of Commerce. He wanted to study law but his father wouldn’t hear of it and so he returned to the family business. When back in the family business his father put him to work on the management of a significant part of the sales and marketing operation.
His Father put him to work on the management of a significant part of the sales and marketing operation.
While at McGill he was invited to apply for the job of running the computer centre in the business school, an operation that employed forty students. The first sign of management skills was evident. Paul is the only one of the four boys in the family to complete a university degree.
“My Dad would call me a couple of times a week when I was at McGill asking when I was coming home – I had to explain to him that a university degree was a four-year undertaking.”
Paul is what they used to refer to as ‘a company man’ – the only organizations he has ever worked for are his family’s business. Beginning with Paletta Bros Meat Products Ltd. where he started as a nine year old boy answering the phone on Saturdays.
“They didn’t ring very often said Paul, “sometimes they didn’t ring at all and at times when they rang it was a wrong number.”
Pasquale Paletta, Pat, the name that everyone used, insisted that his children work for the company.
Pat was born in Spezzano dela Sila, Cosenza, in the very south of Italy. Like most of Europe, in 1949, Italy was struggling to recover from the Second World War. The family decided to emigrate to Canada and landed in Thunder Bay. Pat Paletta was then 18 years old; penniless, he worked at the local hospital, grain elevators and a Safeway store.
In 1951 the family moved to Hamilton where he worked in several of the local meat stores.
In 1953 Pat purchased his first cow: it was the beginning of what eventually became the largest privately owned meat packing company in eastern Canada. The first plant was in Hannon; in 1963 the family purchased property at Appleby Line and QEW in Burlington and opened a federally inspected meat packing plant in 1964.
In 1967 Pat started the real estate division which grew to become the largest employment and residential capacity in the Region and is now the single largest catalyst of economic activity in the region for the foreseeable future.
Paul was born in 1968.
The meat packing business was the foundation that allowed the Paletta’s to begin buying up property. Pat had the capacity to see over the horizon and had learned the art of identifying property that was a good long term prospect.
The Paletta’s were a Hamilton family; that is where Pat met his wife Anita; they married in 1961. The four boys, Angelo, Remi, Paul, and Michael – their sister, Gloria, who died at a very young age were raised in Burlington.
They moved to Burlington in 1964 and lived in south Burlington before eventually moving to north Burlington in 1979.
I asked Paul Paletta when he first realized his father was moving out of the meat processing business and into full-time land development.
From the left: Michael, Remi, Anita, Pat, Angelo and Paul
“It wasn’t a sudden decision, my father had decided many years before that land was where the growth was; the meat and poultry businesses were what created the profits that allowed us to buy land.”
And buy land they did. The organization is the largest land owner in the Region.
The first serious job with the company had Paul involved in the costing of cattle for the beef processing business. “This was the point in my career where I learned from the mistakes I made and learned that hard work and reputation mattered.
“I learned from my father the importance of knowing your client and meeting their needs.”
Paul Paletta – everything has to be thought through before he makes a decision.
In 2000 Paul was made President of Tender Choice Foods after serving as vice president for a period of time.
Tender Choice was originally a partnership known as Stoney Creek Foods . “We were silent partners at the start in 1984 and bought out the partners in 1985. The company added poultry to its product line in 1988.
Tender Choice Foods Inc. was sold to a private equity group in 2016. They did not purchase the buildings. The operated Tender Choice Foods rented space. Paletta International kept their administration offices in the building.
The company was now out of the meat and poultry business.
The offices and poultry production facilities on Paletta Court, then owned and operated by a third party, but which included the Paletta administration offices in adjacent space were totally destroyed in a December 2017 fire.
With nothing in the way of space to operate the poultry business the new owners of Tender Choice Foods declared bankruptcy.
Pat Paletta died in February of 2019
It was at this point that the direction of Paletta was in the hands of the four boys with Angelo and Paul leading; at the time Angelo was seen as the voice of the company
Differences cropped up and it became evident that a reorganization would have to take place. Paul and his brother Michael assumed ownership and control of the family business in 2021, rebranding it as Alinea with a new resolve to develop the family’s land holdings bringing new investment to Burlington.
Bound by the rail line to the south and Hwy 403 on the north – running from King Road to the Aldershot GO station – it is the largest piece of undeveloped property in Burlington.
Much of the land the Paletta’s owned within the urban boundary was zoned as employment lands. Burlington wasn’t building all that much in the way of factories or high-rise office towers at the time.
But when changes were made to the Ontario Planning Act that changed the definition of employment lands to permit much-needed residential development, the 120 acres at King Road and at its development site off Burloak could now be fully developed. Paul and his team, and it is very much a team with a significantly different operational approach to development than his brother Angelo, knew what they wanted to do but before they made any decisions they sought the opinion of the mayor and City Council, and a wide range of other potential stakeholders. They also travelled and looked at everything they could to see what worked and what didn’t work.
Paul and his team travelled to Europe, the Middle East and throughout North America to investigate other notable mixed-use communities; particularly those with an educational component. Paul and the members of his team wanted to see what had been done to create a Live, Work, Play community – a relatively new concept to the development world – it would become a focal point for the Alinea Land Corporation.
The development of the 120 acres at 1200 King Road will, in time, shift the focus from the downtown core of Burlington to the west – closer to Hamilton.
In advancing this project Alinea took a significantly different approach. Instead of making a development application Paul and his team met with the city and asked what they would they like to see; what did they think was needed?
The City had created the Burlington Land Partnership with the intention of working with the development community going forward.
Stakeholders, organizations that might become a part of how 1200 King Road was developed toured the site.
There were numerous tours of the 120-acre property. Groups from the Planning department toured the site; stakeholders and public interest groups walked through the property.
There are very solid working relationships with Mohawk College to look at post-secondary school opportunities.
I toured the site with Dave Pitblado, the Director, Real Estate Development – Alinea Land Corporation, and saw potential that was far beyond anything Burlington had ever seen before.
The Official Plan changes and the zoning issues had been resolved.
Alina and the city are at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Letters of Intent stage.
I asked Paul where the Bronte and King Road developments would be in a decade.
Paul Paletta is quick to say that decisions have not yet been made – they wan to listen and have created some renderings to get the conversation started.
“I think it is realistic to think we could have shovels in the ground in 2026. Build out will take 10 plus years.”
“The rate at which buildings are constructed will be determined to a significant degree by market conditions.”
Burlington is committed to creating 29,000 homes by 2030 Paul expects that there will be something in the order of 9,000 residential units at King Road site ultimately, which will have a different name at some point in the future.
Paul said he could see purpose-built rental housing on the site – again dependent on market demand. If the demand for housing is not evident then we are not going to be building.
Alinea expects there will be something in the order of 9,000 residential units at King Road site ultimately. The market will determine the rate at which construction will take place.
Paul makes a strong point when he says he is concerned that the people who are going to benefit the most from the development are not at the table – today’s high school, community college and university students.
Alinea rests on a solid foundation: the mission is to create a more xxx perception of what the corporation will be doing in the decades ahead.
Paul is very aware of the Paletta public perception. He knows too that the past cannot be changed – but the future is going to be much different.
The ownership and leadership changes of the Paletta family business, with Angelo taking a share of the holdings and going off on his own while Paul and his brothers creating Alinea and making Alinea the kind of company Pat had always wanted is well on its way.
The legacy is important said Paul. The family has been an instrumental part of what Burlington has become and with the 1200 King Road site getting to the point where decisions will be made public Burlington will enter a new phase of its growth.
Whatever happens with the King Road site it will bind Burlington even more tightly with Hamilton, a city that has shed some, certainly not all, of its steel-making past.
The port of Hamilton reaches out to the world which opens up huge potential for the landowners in the Region.
I closed the interview asking Paul if the hockey arenas shown in the architectural renderings suggested that an NHL level team might be part of the long-range plan. Paul had little to say other than that he is a shareholder in the Ottawa Senators, which makes it a little difficult because Paul has been a Boston Bruins fan for as long as he has been interested in the game.
He sits on several of the Senator’s corporate committees and its Board and has a working relationship with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He is in touch with Bill Daly, deputy commissioner and chief legal officer of the league on a regular basis. Make what you will of those connections.
It’s going to be both an interesting and exciting time for the Alinea operation.
Paul Anthony Paletta is totally committed to taking the deliberate yet cautious steps to making it happen.
Pasquale Paletta would be pleased
Does anyone else remember the bomb threats and successful attempts at Paletta Bros meat Co. in the late sixties? Had friends that worked there in the summers. Who knew there was this much money in beef etc? Fires, bankruptcy, burnt out structure left for years. There were others who would have liked to donate money to have the now named Paletta mansion named after their families. Guess it depends on who you know at cityhall. Our city council needs to be more transparent about who their developer friends are, and possible bias regarding any decisions in their developer friends favor.
I too think of the fires and the burnt out structure left as an eyesore for the community for years and years – until, just recently – what great timing!
And I remember this: https://burlingtongazette.ca/alinea-lands-lawyer-gets-councillors-galbraith-and-nisan-to-do-his-bidding/, where Alinea bizarrely sponsored the Bay Area Climate Council and had two of our councillors – Galbraith and Nisan – appear in a slick video traipsing through a forest where Alinea’s massive King Road development will be, saying things like “the sky’s the limit”.
And hot off the heels of that, today social media is full of posts of Alinea sponsoring/presenting the 2024 Mayor’s Luncheon, including photos of them sharing a table and big smiles with Councillor Galbraith. How is this not a giant conflict? Regardless, it goes against everything Meed Ward used to apparently stand for, back when she was proud to not accept developer donations to her election campaigns, for example.
I agree with you on the huge error in the renaming of the McNicol Property on Lakeshore Road in Burlington. This property should have maintained the family Heritage name as the “McNicol Property”. No question.
But, along comes the Paletta Family who donated “some money” towards it, and miraculously it is now renamed and known as the “Paletta Mansion” which means absolutely nothing to the property’s history or to Burlington residents!!!
To me, it will always be the “McNicol Property”!
Even money can’t change history!