subscribe to our RSS feedRobert Fung profiled on Citizen’s Bank website: Member Spotlight
February 15th, 2009
Robert Fung was profiled on the Citizen’s Bank website, featured in a member spotlight. You can also see this member profile featured in the Q3 edition of the Citizens Statement newsletter.
Robert Fung: Building the future on the past
Robert Fung was an anthropologist before he was a developer and that explains everything. “There’s a strong link between my degree in anthropology and my current urban renewal work,” says the much-lauded 42-year-old Vancouver-based president of The Salient Group. “I’ve always had a strong interest in how people live and how they form healthy communities.”
Raised in Toronto, Fung spent seven years with Concord Pacific—during which he was responsible for the rezoning and redevelopment of the Expo ’86 lands. He launched Salient in 2000 with a focus on “niche urban residential and commercial projects.” Fung is “passionate” about protecting the city’s remaining historic stock: “That cultural and architectural record ties us to our city and shapes our civic identity.”
In less than a decade, Fung has, with Citizens Bank’s lending support, repurposed more than a dozen heritage buildings in BC’s Lower Mainland and helped restore “social, economic and aesthetic health” to several struggling neighborhoods.
“Citizens Bank’s support of our vision has been fantastic,” he says. “They take a genuine interest in the health of the city and believe in what our work can achieve in the big picture.”
He points to the recent restoration and renovation of the 1899 Flack Block, near Victory Park in downtown Vancouver, as a model of positive transformation: “By the time we took it on, it had deteriorated into a grow-op and a couple of illegal pawn shops. Now all the office space is fully leased to a group of companies that focus on socially responsible investing.”
You can see the original post on the Citizen’s Bank website here.