Ron Arnold admits he didn’t know much about building houses in 1969 when he and his father, Oscar, built the first Dalron home in Hanmer.
“Thank God I didn’t know much about it, I wouldn’t have got into it,” the reserved company president says. “I didn’t know what I was doing...but for that reason I did the right thing.”
He saw an opportunity to purchase 75- and 100-foot lots for $1,000 each in “the Valley,” just as the oldest baby boomers were starting to marry and settle down. He put his career as a teacher on hold, sold his camp and borrowed some money. Thirty-eight years and about 3,000 homes later, Arnold remains enthusiastic and involved in the company operations, including the future development of Dalron Group of Companies.
One might spot him talking with homebuyers at a Sunday open house.
“I make it a point to spend a couple of hours at various model homes, listening to people, and finding out who they are, where they are coming from, who they’re working for, and which parts of the economy are expanding,” he says.
Dalron Construction Limited has invested its money, its expertise, its people and its faith in Greater Sudbury in good times and during lean years.
As the company approaches its 40th anniversary, the future looks bright. But Arnold estimates he’s seen at least five boom and bust cycles. During periods of slow growth, Dalron was one of the few companies that was investing and building.
“We were able to take advantage of the cycles in the sense that we were able to buy land at low prices during recessionary times, then be able to take advantage of the land appreciation and sell off in the good times. Then
during the next recession, buy more land.”
Leader in home building
Dalron Construction Limited is a leader in the Canadian home building industry. The company is the largest residential builder in Northern Ontario and is currently developing condominium projects. In addition, the company has diversified and expanded into retirement communities (Autumnwood Lifestyles Inc.) and leasing commercial properties (Dalron Leasing Limited).
The company, which has a staff of 107 people, has an office at 130 Elm St., in the former Gardner Motors building. It is a family-run business: vice-president Frank Arnold is the office administrator; vice-president Dave Arnold, a professional engineer, looks after new homes in the south end of the city; and vice-president Phil Arnold looks after new homes in the city’s north end.
Kristi and John, Ron’s children, are the third generation of the family at Dalron. Kristi is the sales and marketing director and looks after planning.
John is the commercial property manager.
Another key member of the company is partner Joe DePietro, general manager of Autumnwood Lifestyles.
DePietro, a young engineer, did research about the future of the retirement industry and the potential for growth in this area, explains Arnold. This convinced the company to establish the Autumnwood Lifestyles division, which includes The Breezes on Regent St. The former Carrefour Francophone building was renovated for Red Oak Villa, an assisted living seniors building in the downtown core.
The division also developed and built Meadowbrook Retirement Village in Lively and Southwind Retirement Home on Paris St.
Arnold explains, “Sudbury has huge opportunities and a real need for senior’s buildings as the population ages.
Sudbury is very central in terms of northeastern Ontario. Our experience at Meadowbrook is that we are attracting people as far away as British Columbia and Florida. People are moving back to the north to be with their families.”
Opportunities in seniors’ housing
In the past year, Dalron Construction has been planning leisure-living communities for young seniors (50 plus).
Dalron is also developing projects in other communities such as North Bay, Barrie and Kincardine, but Sudbury will always be home.
“I was born and lived here all my life. We’ve had some tough times, but every time we get into a recession, whether it’s because of great business people or great leaders in our community, we seem to pull out of the recession in a much stronger way,” says Arnold.
Dalron’s leasing division has more than 600,000 square feet of leasing space including retail plazas, office buildings and properties constructed for specific clients, such as Swiss Chalet (adjacent to Algonquin Square), Tim Hortons and the LCBO downtown, and the Algonquin Square complex.
The Day’s Inn property was acquired to be turned into seniors housing. After it was renovated, the hotel’s occupancy rate increased, and the decision was made to continue to operate it as a hotel. This was accomplished with the hard work of Phil Arnold, manager Nadia Pilon and the great Day’s Inn team.
Dalron has been investing in downtown Sudbury and will continue to do so.
The company has 14 downtown properties. These include several heritage properties. The former Bell Canada building was renovated to house Canada Brokerlink. The former city hall building next door is student housing.
“I think revitalizing the downtown this way is very important,” say Arnold. “It’s very economically viable, and opportunities to develop increase when things become financially viable. People we talk to about relocating downtown are very excited about it.”
New home developments include Dalron’s Sugarbush neighbourhood in Walden, the South End neighbourhoods at Vintage Green called Trailridge and Willow Ridge, Foxborough in Garson, and Saddle Creek on Dominion Dr. in Hanmer.
Dalron is working on a number of other planned neighbourhoods and these include Twin Lakes and Nickeldale in Sudbury.
The company is also part owner of a proposed development on McCharles Lake, with 2,800 feet of water frontage that will have about 200 residences.
Ron Arnold is modest about his achievements, but says he is proud of the Mallard’s Landing development in the city’s south end, which was developed around a marsh to protect wildlife, and he would like to develop more like it.
“I am most proud of my great partners and the people I work with,” he says.
In 2005, Arnold won the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Dalron won the Ernest Assaly Award: the Ontario Builder of the Year in 1991 and 1998.
The Arnold family and the Dalron family have a commitment to community.
Arnold is past president of the Sudbury & District Home Builders Association and has served on the boards of the Sudbury & District Chamber of Commerce, Science North and the Sudbury Regional Development Corporation.
Frank Arnold is a long-time member of the Lions Club.
Company employees support the annual Dragon Boat races. The Dalron/Canada Brokerlink team has raised about $80,000 for good causes over the past six years.
The company also supports projects such as Habitat for Humanity and the Heart and Soul campaign.
Ron Arnold says he has never counted the number of houses his company has built. But he smiles as he says the first Dalron homes sold for $13,500. They are now selling for about $175,000. He is optimistic about the future of the city; the future of Dalron.
But he doesn’t take success for granted. The company’s slogan is Famous for Service.
“We feel that the area of customer service is one that we want front and centre in the minds of our staff. Everybody is enthused about it. This is a refocus for us to make sure we treat our customers to the best of our ability with a renewed effort to do an even better job of total customer service and satisfaction,” he says.
