Senior Commercial Property Manager

Job Description

Summary: The Senior Commercial Property Manager is accountable for the overall performance, financial results, and client satisfaction of a portfolio of third party-owned commercial properties located in the Greater Toronto Area. The portfolio is primarily retail and office with a complementary industrial component.

This is a senior, client-facing role that combines strategic asset advisory with hands-on operational leadership and, critically, deep construction and capital-project management expertise. A substantial portion of the mandate is the planning, procurement, and delivery of construction and capital works, and the successful candidate must bring extensive, demonstrable construction management experience as a core qualification rather than a peripheral skill.

The incumbent serves as the senior point of accountability to property owners, leads a team of property site staff, and personally directs the full construction lifecycle of capital projects — from scoping, design coordination, and competitive tendering through contract award, site mobilization, construction administration, and close-out. Representative projects include building envelope and roofing replacements, window and curtain wall programs, parking lot reconstruction and paving, structural and garage rehabilitation, mechanical and electrical equipment renewals, base building upgrades, and tenant and common area renovations. The Senior Commercial Property Manager is expected to bring strategic judgment, financial discipline, hands-on construction management capability, technical depth, and mature client management skills to the portfolio.

Salary Range: $100,000 - 110,000 per year plus a monthly car allowance

What you'll get to do:

Client & Owner Relationship Management

• Act as the senior relationship lead for assigned property owners, including institutional investors, private owners, and asset management groups.

• Develop and present annual property business plans, multi-year capital plans, and asset strategy recommendations aligned with each owner's investment objectives.

• Deliver monthly, quarterly, and annual owner reporting packages with variance analysis, leasing activity, capital project status, market commentary, and risk-and-opportunity items.

• Lead owner meetings, asset reviews, and site tours; translate owner objectives into operational priorities.

• Identify and pursue opportunities to expand the management relationship and grow the assignment within existing client portfolios.

Financial Performance & Budgeting

• Lead preparation, review, and presentation of annual operating budgets, CAM/TMI recovery models, realty tax estimates, and re-forecasts.

• Drive NOI performance through revenue optimization, expense management, and recovery accuracy.

• Review and approve invoices, purchase orders, and contracts within delegated signing authority; oversee adherence to authority limits across the team.

• Oversee accounts receivable, collections strategy, and bad-debt mitigation in coordination with accounting and legal.

• Manage CAM/TMI year-end reconciliations, tenant audit responses, and recovery defensibility under net leases.

• Provide input into property valuations, hold/sell analyses, refinancing requests, and lender reporting where required.

Tenant Relations & Lease Administration

• Build and maintain executive-level relationships with national retailers, anchor office tenants, and key industrial occupiers.

• Oversee administration of complex lease obligations including rent commencement, escalations, percentage rent, recoveries, insurance compliance, exclusivity, co-tenancy, and use clauses.

• Coordinate with the leasing team on renewals, expansions, tenant mix strategy, and landlord work commitments.

• Lead resolution of escalated tenant disputes; engage legal counsel where required and manage notices and remedies under the lease.

Operations, Maintenance & Service Delivery

• Direct building operations across HVAC, electrical, plumbing, life safety, elevators, roofing, building envelope, landscaping, snow and ice management, security, janitorial, waste, and pest control.

• Establish preventive and predictive maintenance programs and ensure consistent execution across the portfolio.

• Lead procurement strategy for major service contracts including scoping, tendering, award recommendations, and vendor performance management.

• Conduct regular property inspections; review on-site teams' inspection reports and corrective action plans.

• Oversee emergency response and business continuity programs; act as senior on-call escalation point for major incidents.

Construction & Capital Project Management

• Lead the full lifecycle of capital projects, including building envelope and roofing replacements, window and curtain wall programs, parking lot reconstruction, asphalt and concrete paving, lobby and common area renovations, washroom

modernizations, mechanical and electrical equipment replacements, lighting and energy retrofits, and base building upgrades.

• Develop multi-year capital plans for each property informed by building condition assessments, reserve studies, and life-cycle analysis.

• Engage and manage consultants (engineering, architectural, building science, roofing, environmental) and general contractors; review designs, specifications, and tender documents prior to issuance.

• Govern project budgets, schedules, change orders, deficiency lists, holdbacks, and warranty turnover in accordance with the Ontario Construction Act.

• Coordinate construction sequencing to minimize tenant disruption and ensure site safety compliance under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

• Lead post-completion reviews, lessons-learned, and warranty enforcement.

• Serve as the senior construction management lead for the portfolio, providing day-to-day, hands-on direction of construction activity across multiple concurrent projects and acting as the owner’s primary representative on site.

• Prepare and administer construction contracts, including CCDC and stipulated-price, construction-management, and cash-allowance forms; negotiate terms, supplementary conditions, and bonding and insurance requirements with owners and

counsel.

• Manage the construction tender process end to end: prequalify general contractors and trades, issue RFPs and bid documents, run site walkthroughs, level bids, analyze pricing, and prepare award recommendations for ownership.

• Control construction cost and schedule across the project lifecycle, including budgeting and estimating, baseline and look-ahead schedules, critical-path tracking, progress draws, and earned-value reporting against approved budgets.

• Administer the works on site through regular site meetings, review of shop drawings and RFIs, evaluation of change orders and contemplated change notices, certification of progress payments, and management of substantial performance,

deficiencies, and total performance.

• Administer lien holdbacks and payment certification in strict accordance with the Ontario Construction Act, including statutory and finishing holdbacks, holdback release, notices of non-payment, and prompt-payment and adjudication obligations.

• Own construction site safety and constructor/owner obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, including verification of contractor health-and-safety programs, WSIB clearances, notices of project, and ongoing site-safety oversight

throughout construction.

Compliance, Health & Safety, and Risk

• Ensure portfolio-wide compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Ontario Fire Code, Ontario Building Code, AODA, TSSA requirements (elevators, boilers, fuel handling), Technical Standards and Safety Authority inspections, and

applicable municipal by-laws.

• Maintain documentation for ESA inspections, fire system testing, backflow prevention, anchor point certifications, and other statutory compliance items.

• Lead insurance claim management and act as primary liaison with adjusters, brokers, and owners.

• Maintain an active portfolio risk register and present mitigation strategies to owners and senior management.

Leadership & People Management

• Directly manage property managers, assistant property managers, property administrators, and on-site operations staff assigned to the portfolio.

• Provide coaching, mentoring, performance management, and professional development for direct and indirect reports.

• Champion best practices, standard operating procedures, and consistency across the team.

• Contribute to departmental initiatives including technology adoption, ESG/sustainability programs, and process improvement.

Who you are:

Education & Designations

• Post-secondary degree or diploma in business, real estate, property management, engineering, finance, or a related discipline.

• Industry designation required or actively in progress: RPA (BOMI), FMA (BOMI), CPM (IREM), or CSM (ICSC) for candidates with significant retail exposure.

• A construction or project-management credential is strongly preferred, such as PMP (PMI), Gold Seal Certified (GSC), Professional Quantity Surveyor (PQS), Certified Engineering Technologist (C.E.T.), or a degree/diploma in construction

management, civil engineering, architecture, or building science.

Experience

• Minimum 10–12 years of progressive commercial property management experience, with at least 5 years at a senior or portfolio level.

• Demonstrated experience managing third-party portfolios on behalf of institutional or private owners.

• Minimum 7 years of direct, hands-on construction and capital-project management experience is required and is a primary screening criterion for this role — candidates without substantial, demonstrable construction management experience will not

be considered.

• Proven track record personally leading commercial construction and capital projects from concept through close-out, including individual projects in the multi-million-dollar range and concurrent management of multiple projects within an annual

capital program.

• Hands-on experience with the full construction delivery process: scoping, estimating, tendering, contractor prequalification and award, contract administration, change management, scheduling, progress-draw certification, deficiency and close-out,

and warranty turnover.

• Demonstrated experience administering construction contracts (CCDC and equivalent) and applying the Ontario Construction Act, including holdbacks, prompt-payment, and lien requirements.

• Experience directly managing general contractors, trades, and design and engineering consultants on occupied commercial sites, including construction site-safety oversight under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

• Direct experience delivering building envelope, roofing, structural/garage, mechanical and electrical, paving, and base-building or tenant-improvement construction is strongly preferred.

• Direct experience across retail, office, and industrial asset classes within the Greater Toronto Area.