Industry Profile: Gary Bensky of Wycliffe Homes

“The one flaw that Wycliffe has, we do what we say. Everyone’s moving on and making money faster than us, but we’re not complaining. We’ve built a reputation in delivering what we say.”

- Gary Bensky

The NewInHomes.com team sat down with Gary Bensky and Jared Bensky of Wycliffe Homes to learn a little bit about Wycliffe’s history and some of their exciting new projects!

NewInHomes (NIH): First of all, tell us a little bit about Wycliffe Homes. You’ve been around for a while!

Gary Bensky (GB): Wycliffe’s been around 61 years, I’ve been here 38 years, and my son’s with me. My partner, Al Sandler, is an 82-year-old; my other partner, David Art, has been here 20 years. The bookkeeper, who’s been here 25 years, is the son of the lady who was here 25 years before that. The guy in the field, his father was a super here, he was the carpentry contractor building the houses.  There’s no 65 here. We keep them until they want to go. We have generations of trades. We have a legacy with our trades, and pay a great attention to detail with every project.

NIH: You’re selling at Fairground Lofts in Old Woodbridge Village, tell us how that’s going.

GB: We’ve come to the realization that there are young people that may not have heard of Wycliffe, which means that we’ve been through two generations, and now there are third-generation buyers out there. So, now with our town lofts, we’re building entry-priced projects for single, young people in Woodbridge. We just finished in Kleinburg, building $1.5 million homes on large lot singles. So now, people are leaving Woodbridge to buy a nice home in Kleinburg. These kids, they can’t afford new Kleinburg or Woodbridge resale.

We're doing a funky project with two-storey spacing, interior bricks, high ceilings, exposed duct work when we can – it’s not on King Street, it’s not on Queen Street. The kids who moved to King and Queen said, ‘Who’s going to do my laundry?’ They want to come back, but where are they going to go? This is a loft town in an atmosphere that is walking distance to a fabulous little downtown core. Young professionals are right up our alley. This whole “generation” thing is about kids coming back to Woodbridge. They went to high school in Woodbridge, and now they’re coming back to be with their families.

NIH: What has been the initial feedback for Fairground Lofts?

GB: Fairground Lofts has been well received by singles, young and middle-aged. We’re selling some small, some big, some of the very small were picked up right away. It’s not an investor product; it’s an end-user product. People are moving home, back to Woodbridge.  There is some beautiful open space, some mid-rise buildings are going up, the Humber River runs through it, it’s what people are looking for.

We have two heritage homes at Fairground Lofts. We moved them! The Heritage Committee wanted them preserved, so we did it. They’re now on either side of the entryway – they’re the gateway to the community. We’re doing renovations, and they were sold opening weekend!

NIH: How does Fairground Lofts differ from your other communities?

GB: We’re predominantly a single-family home builder, and this is a little bit more than a townhouse. It’s a mid-rise building, four storeys, with two-storey townhouses, bungalows, and the lower levels are the small singles. It’s something we haven’t done before — others are doing it, but it doesn’t look like our product. We don’t just build expensive homes; we might be a little more price-wise where we’re building towns and others are building towns, but it’s not because we’re making more money; it’s because we put more into it.

NIH: What is this “more” that you put into your communities?

GB: My background is in architecture, I have a passion for what I do. We try to make these communities look their best. We go to the architect and we say to do things that make them kinda smirk and say, ‘Other guys tell us to cut these out because it costs too much.’ So it’s attention to detail. Our product has a little extra pizzazz. I have to have the granite, I have to have the right size tile, and I have to have the right hardware.

We do a lot of outside detailing, especially around the upper part of the house. Who doesn’t like aluminum? Everyone likes aluminum – it’s maintenance free – but it doesn’t look so good. So what’s happens is, the four colours turns into 14. Then, the controlling architect comes around and says, ‘Can you put a little piece of wood underneath it?’ I get engaged in these conversations. So, everyone takes a 1×6 and paints it the right colour, but we take a 1×6 and put a shingle mold on it, put a cold cut in it, and it costs me a dollar more a foot. If I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t notice, but you don’t know why you’re looking and thinking, ‘Why does that house look better?’ It’s attention to detail.

NIH: Luxurious, high-end homes usually require a lot of maintenance. Do you ever have issues with selling to people who don’t want to deal with that kind of responsibility?

GB: We have a couple of projects that are high-end townhouses, one in Midland and one in Richmond Hill, with a special program we started just a few years ago. They’re freehold townhomes with condo maintenance. It comes with a landmark agreement, which means that we’ll shovel the snow, cut the grass, create a fund for a new roof, and we’ll paint the outside. It’s all a little extra, but we do it to maintain the community, to take away the fear from people who are living in multiple residences who can’t maintain all their properties.

NIH: Is this program available at any future Wycliffe communities?

GB: We have a site at York Mills and Bayview; not near York Mills and Bayview — at York Mills and Bayview. It’s got location, location, location, and now it’s got a good builder. It’s a valuable site, and we’re going to put something there that’s worthy of the location. It’s two big buildings, but really, it’s four units and four units – “8 on Bayview.” This will be the third project with the maintenance program. We’ve sold two of eight, and we’re underway!

NIH: What does the future hold for Wycliffe Homes?

GB: We have a little bit of a land bank and we’re constantly trying to buy things. A lot of them may turn out to be infill. We’re about to embark upon 10 houses with 60-foot lots, on Houghton Boulevard at Albert Street, just east of Main Street Markham. This is probably the last great piece of land in downtown Markham. They’ll be looking over a huge ravine, a huge, thick, thick, thick ravine that’s not going anywhere. They’re gonna be over 3,000 square feet, starting at just over $1 million. It’s gonna be a really nice product.

We have this new one, Hendon Park at Yonge and Finch, right by the subway. There’s going to be about 123 units, ranging from roughly 700 to 900 square feet, with the prices starting just under $400,000. The submission has been made, we had a public meeting, and we’re accepting priority registrations.

We’ve also been working in Sharon with our greenfields. That’s what happens when Newmarket’s full, you go to Sharon. We and six or seven other developers – like Yorkwood Homes, Greenbaum Brothers, Thornridge Homes, Sundial Homes, Great Gulf, Mosaik Homes – own a greenfield proposition and we’re part of a large development group – that’s the way it’s done these days. It’ll be around 1,700 homes, and we have a small site for a seniors centre.

Thanks to Gary Bensky and Jared Bensky for taking the time to sit down with NewInHomes.com to discuss their past, present, and future. We look forward to watching all of Wycliffe Homes’ communities come to life.

For additional info regarding any of Wycliffe Homes’ future projects, email Jared Bensky, directly at jbensky@wycliffehomes.com