Andrea Delzotto And The Tridel Group Of Companies: Shaping Cities Is Shaping Lives

Analyzing the growth of one of Toronto’s most prolific development companies with Andrea DelZotto, a member of the founding family.

- Victoria Scott

For most Canadians, the ideal vacation, especially at this time of year, includes beaches and swaying palms. For Andrea DelZotto, director and executive vice-president of the Tridel Group of Companies, one of the largest and most respected real estate development companies in Canada, vacations involve buildings and urban landscapes.

“I have a love of architecture, so I often take urban and city trips so I have the opportunity to see some amazing buildings,” says DelZotto. “In Chicago, New York or Miami, I find not only some beautiful architecture, but also how it can create and enhance the social community, both for the surrounding environment and its residents.”

This passion for architecture and city building comes naturally to DelZotto; her grandfather, Jack, immigrated to Canada from northern Italy in 1927 as a stonemason and is seen as the pioneer of Tridel. His future wife soon joined him — they settled in Toronto and had three sons. The Tri in Tridel refers to these three sons. DelZotto’s father, Angelo, says of his education, “I graduated from the scaffold.”

The hard-working DelZottos started with single-family homes, graduated to full subdivisions, plazas, government housing and rental buildings, and eventually progressed to condominiums in the late 1960s. Today, Tridel is the largest builder of condominiums in the Toronto area, having built some 80,000 homes, under the direction of the four principals: Angelo DelZotto, Elvio DelZotto, Leo DelZotto and Harvey Fruitman. On the outside, Tridel might seem to be a textbook family business, but DelZotto has an interesting take on that perception: