It’s not just land. It’s not just a building. It’s not just a design. For Forum, every project is designed to bring the community together.
Although Forum is celebrating 25 years in 2026, the roots of the brand started growing in 1988 when Paul Schachter launched a real estate company.
“Paul’s business grew into three regional businesses,” says Jay McMartin, founding partner. Today, Jay leads the Western Canada team and projects while Dean Mendel leads the Quebec operations and Toby Singlehurst leads Ontario.
McMartin continues, “When I joined in early 2001, our defining approach took shape: strong regional businesses, each led by their founding partner, all sharing the same hands-on philosophy. That’s the 25-year legacy we’re celebrating today.
“Over the past 25 years, we’ve built a reputation here in Western Canada as a nimble and resilient local expert. For us, being a true local developer means earning the trust of our partners every day, building lasting relationships and following through on our commitments to the community. Today we’re a national developer that still runs on local expertise, with offices in Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto and properties coast-to-coast. It allowed us to build a single, robust platform that brought our signature slogan to life: Local Expertise. National Reach.”
In 2018, the businesses united under the Forum banner, and the name was chosen with a strong purpose.
“Forum means a place of gathering,” shares McMartin. “We pair the reach of a national platform with the true local expertise of our employees. Our team is hands-on, relationship-driven and in it for the long-term, strengthening and growing the communities we serve.
As McMartin reflects on the past two and a half decades, he understands that the challenges were part of the foundation for growth.
“The biggest change is scale,” he says of how Forum overcame its most urgent issues and turned them into opportunities. “In the early days, each of us ran a regional business, close to every deal. Today we operate as one integrated national platform that manages the full lifecycle in-house (acquisition, due diligence, planning, construction, leasing and property management) and we’ve grown well beyond retail into mixed-use and residential.”
However, some things remain the same.
“What hasn’t changed is how we work: nimble, entrepreneurial, relationship-first and led by people who know their local market. We’ve added national reach without losing the local instincts with which we started.”
With more than 85 employees across Canada, the relationships-first vision paired with being the owner, developer and manager of the properties has contributed to consistent growth.
“When you have the same company that develops the properties also managing them, day to day, for the long-term, the tenants have a direct relationship with the team fully invested in the property’s success,” McMartin says. “Because our involvement continues long after construction, our designs are driven by long-term performance and the daily needs of the people using the space.”
There have been many notable projects for Forum over the years that clearly demonstrate the commitment to community and quality, including:
The
Shoppes
and
The
Elm
at
Legacy
Park
(Spruce
Grove)
Located at Highway 16A and Jennifer Heil Way in the fast-growing corridor between Spruce Grove and Stony Plain, this mixed-use community pairs retail and rental housing in a single, connected neighbourhood. The Shoppes plans to open its first phase in late 2026, delivering roughly 36,000 square feet across five buildings and scaling to approximately 139,000 square feet at full build-out. Early tenants include Burger King, Popeyes, Chipotle, Firehouse Subs, Tim Hortons, Supplement World, Medical Imaging Consultants and Blush Me. The Elm adds 186 rental suites in early 2027 on the way to 372 apartments, complete with underground parking, a fitness centre, a lounge and an outdoor patio with fire pits. Forum’s Legacy Park developments are expected to be completed by 2030.
Resource
Landing
(Grande
Prairie)
Set on 12 acres along Resources Road in one of Grande Prairie’s fastest-growing areas, Resource Landing is a Loblaws grocery-anchored retail centre built to serve a regional trade area of nearly 300,000 people. Anchored by No Frills and Shoppers Drug Mart, the centre brings together close to 100,000 square feet of retail across food, service and medical tenants. National names including Dollarama, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons and A&W have already secured space. The shopping centre is anticipated to open late 2026.
Griesbach
Village
(Edmonton,
AB)
Griesbach Village is a high-profile commercial development designed around a built-in customer base. Five residential properties on site strengthen its foundation, with more than 470 rental units – placing residents steps from prime retail and service offering. Anchored by Shoppers Drug Mart, the project will feature 109,000 square feet of prime retail space at full build-out. National tenants including Tim Hortons, Co-op and Carl’s Jr are joined by local favourites, creating a balanced tenant mix well suited to the surrounding community.
The pairing of residences and retail receives careful attention.
McMartin says, “Grocery and pharmacy-anchored shopping centres are built around everyday needs, making it highly resilient and consistent through market cycles. As people will always rely on having essentials close to home, these centres generate steady foot traffic that ultimately supports the entire development. Our strategy is to curate a dynamic mix of pairing national brands with independent, local businesses and retailers.”
He continues, “Since we intend to hold our projects for long-term, we design spaces for the people and businesses occupying those spaces. That means making deliberate decisions to bring retail and residential together. We design spaces meant for gathering, ensuring that our projects offer a balanced mix of everyday essentials and local favorites that will serve the neighbourhood for years to come.”
From humble beginnings to celebrating 25 years, Forum is proud to reveal its growth since Jay McMartin’s leadership: 1,700,000+ square feet developed or under development since 2002, 1,100+ residential suites developed or under development since 2022, 1,200,000+ square feet currently under management and 180+ commercial tenants.
They don’t stop there.
Building communities includes helping everyone within them thrive. Across the communities in which Forum builds, they also support local food banks and organizations that support mental health initiatives and advocacy.
On behalf of the founders and team across Canada, McMartin says a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped Forum on its mission to bring people together in the communities it serves.
“Thank you. You are the reason we’re here. Forum has grown alongside the people and organizations who chose to partner with us, and every one of them helped shape the company. Relationships have been at our core from the beginning, and they always will be. Thank you to our tenants and clients; providing spaces where your businesses thrive is our greatest privilege. Thank you to our vendors, suppliers and partners; your collaboration is the foundation of our developments. Thank you to our community stakeholders for partnering with us to shape vibrant neighbourhoods. We’re grateful for your trust, and we’re looking forward to the next 25 years together.”
He adds, “I also acknowledge my fellow founding partners, whose regional businesses and shared vision made the national platform possible, and here in Edmonton, partners Kyle Braithwaite and Steven McPhee and our entire team of talented professionals across Canada, whose day-to-day commitment and work drives our growth. It is the dedication, insight and hard work of our employees across every office that truly bring our properties to life.”
The future sees more the same – growth.
“What we’ve built over the past 25 years gives Forum a strong foundation to keep growing,” McMartin concludes. “We’re excited for what lies ahead: expansion across Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and adding more mixed-use and residential properties to our portfolio. As we evolve, we carry forward the entrepreneurial mindset and hands-on, relationship-first approach that started it all, committed to developing spaces where businesses and communities thrive. We will continue building on our national legacy from local roots, and we can’t wait to gather in person to celebrate this milestone with the people who made it possible.
“Twenty-five years is a reflection of our employees, partners, clients and tenants who chose to grow alongside us. Reaching this milestone is about the people who’ve been part of the journey, and the chance to keep working with them. This milestone belongs to everyone who has shaped Forum’s story.”