Sam Mizrahi

Sam Mizrahi is the President and founder of Mizrahi Developments, a private Canadian real estate development company that serves the high-end, luxury real estate marketplace. The attention to detail and craftsmanship Sam places on each development project have been the hallmarks of his work for many years.

Sam Mizrahi is also President and founder of Northern Citadel Bancorp, a private company registered with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) as a Mortgage Investment Trust and Administrator (MIT).

Over the years, Sam’s entrepreneurial spirit has driven him to identify business ideas and opportunities and then execute strategies that lead to success. At the age of sixteen, Sam saw an entrepreneurial opportunity and started his first company called Unimax. The company imported and sold blank audio and video cassettes to independent electronic stores in Toronto and Montreal. Sam led Unimax for four years, acquiring the distribution rights for Sony and building Unimax’s annual revenue to roughly $18 million.

After success with Unimax, Sam moved into real estate and studied urban planning filings and zoning applications to identify opportunities in land acquisition for development. Identifying opportunities in real estate would be a theme that would recur during Sam's career as he continued to seek out unexplored land investment opportunities in the Richmond Hill and Oak Ridges areas of Toronto.

With Toronto’s real estate market facing a recession in 1990 and 1991, Sam moved away from real estate to pursue another idea in an unexplored niche market: luxury dry cleaning. He founded Dove Cleaners in 1992, a dry cleaning business catering to a high-end clientele. Within a relatively short period of time, Sam grew the company into the largest luxury dry cleaning operation in Canada, with more than 100 retail outlets and an advanced processing plant.

Sam’s belief in personal and business growth led him in 2008 to found Mizrahi Developments. Initially, Mizrahi Developments focused on the development of high-end, custom-built homes in Forest Hills and other neighborhoods in Toronto. Seeing greater demand for custom-crafted and designed condominiums, similar in finish and quality construction techniques as found in single-dwelling residences, Mizrahi Developments expanded into the development of luxury condominiums, mid-rise, mixed-use boutique buildings and high-rise developments.

Sam takes a very detailed, ‘hands-on’ approach to developing new properties and believes that every project that bears the Mizrahi name must reflect his exacting standards for top quality design and craftsmanship.

His standards, as well as successfully executed developments like 133 Hazelton and 181 Davenport, helped redefine what it means to build luxury condos in Toronto. The success of these projects also laid the groundwork for Sam’s largest, most prestigious development yet.

In 2014, Sam announced the development of The One. This mixed-use high-rise is located at one of the most sought-after real estate locations in Canada, namely the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets. Designed by British architectural firm, Foster + Partners, The One will be the tallest residential tower in Canada at 80 storeys and 304 meters and will feature an exoskeleton design with structural supports on the building’s exterior, thereby allowing for maximum light and interiors free of supporting pillars.

Outside of his career, Sam Mizrahi values participation in the Toronto community and has supported a wide range of charities in areas such as healthcare and the arts. Some of the organizations to which he has donated his time and effort include Hero Ride for Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, an After Breast Cancer organization, Toronto Zoo, and the West Park Healthcare Centre.

Sam is also a regular fundraising contributor in the Jewish community. In 2012 and 2013, he co-chaired the United Jewish Appeal’s “Walk with Israel,” the largest attended fundraising event in Toronto and he also co-chaired UJA’s “Run with Israel” event in 2015. He also serves as a board member of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSCC), an organization promoting tolerance and human rights around the world.

Sam lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.