GRANT’S DESI ACHIEVER
A DEVELOPER WHO BUILDS COMMUNITIES
Entrepreneur-philanthropist Lata Champsee. “I enjoy being a businesswoman, making money, but I enjoy helping people more,” she says. “There’s a community aspect to anything I do.”
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
Lata Champsee ventured boldly into an area few women did and earned respect and goodwill in a male-dominated industry.
She supervised mega construction, renovation and sales of real estate, managing a real estate portfolio of over 100 million dollars.
Her husband, the late Moti Champsee, had founded Rainbow Realty and she ran Rainbow Management Services in tandem.
“I enjoy being a businesswoman, making money, but I enjoy helping people more,” she says. “There’s a community aspect to anything I do.”
They converted 1000 rental units in three buildings in Niagara Falls to condos, helping renters become home owners in the process.
“There were few opportunities for lower-income and middle-class families to own property there at the time, only expensive single-family homes,” she says.
These were buildings they managed. Periodically, their book-keeper would hand over information on upcoming rent increases to her, she’d give it to the supervisor to be passed on to the tenants. Over time, as Champsee got to know the tenants, many of them seniors on fixed incomes, she became aware of their life situations. She stopped the rent increases.
The journey from property management to renovation began one day when her husband asked if she’d like to accompany him to Niagara Falls where he was to meet contractors.
“I went because I loved going to the casino! So there I was, waiting, while they discussed the tiles they were going to use in the lobbies. Small tiles. I was going ‘No-no-no, this will never work, this is not practical’.”
Her claim was based on all the HGTV shows she watched, she admits, with a laugh. She found a designer who agreed and the project went ahead with larger tiles.
“I don’t have a fancy degree, but I am diligent. I am an extremely practical person, I am also intelligent, if I say so myself! I analyze and I apply.”
She took on more infrastructure work.
“I was renovating seven to ten units at a time, emptying another lot and selling the ones we’d completed.”
She created contractors from handymen and workers she hired, she says, opening bank accounts and showing them how to manage money. She acquired knowledge, she learnt on the job.
And she was a good judge of character. Loaning money to a painter so that he could pay his bills before he’d finished the job she’d hired him for. Or hiring a newcomer, a civil engineer from Romania who was working at a pizza place.
In the initial years, contractors and tradesmen were hesitant to work with a woman. “I’m not a tall figure, and there I was, calling the shots. It took time. But then one said, ‘You are all right, lady, you know what you are talking about!’”
Champsee had come a long way from the shy bride who came to Canada in 1969 to join her husband Moti. He came to Canada in 1965 and started a business selling handicrafts from India in flea markets while studying to be a CA.
The early years were difficult. Finding ingredients for Jain cuisine was the biggest challenge, she says, and language was another.
“Even though we study in English, and I had completed my BA. We read and write, we don’t really converse in English.”
Then one day she saw her husband borrowing money and convinced him to take her to a temp agency. After a few assignments, she was hired by Canada Life Insurance as a filing clerk. Soon, she was promoted to claims, and was processing the highest number from among the seventy women on the floor.
Having found their footing, the Champsees opened a real estate office in 1976. Just the two of them and two employees, including a secretary. That secretary didn’t work out and her husband suggested Champsee come in to help. He created syndicates or property partnerships – 126, with 15 to 20 partners each in the first few years alone – and those had to be managed, too.
“I am an ordinary person who has achieved beyond my imagination by being open to new ideas, to trying new things.” Lata Champsee, with her late husband Moti
There were mortgage payments, cheques to be signed, co-ordinating repair jobs. Champsee learned book-keeping and accounting.
At its height, they had 40 real estate agents and property managers, working with them. And a $350 million volume business. When recession hit in the 90s, they suffered big losses and she wanted to shut down. Her husband, however, wasn’t ready to retire, and ended up running a pharmaceutical company that he had helped a friend buy. Everything used to done manually those days, but computers were making an entry and she taught herself how to use them.
“Word, Excel...everything! I computerized accounting and data maintenance. I became friends with the employees in the union, I brought modernization and change.”
Herbal products were going mainstream and Champsee was excited to launch St John’s Wort and echinacea etc., in powdered form in capsules. A few years later, they returned to real estate as her husband “was tired of sitting in an office in a suit!” she says.
With her experience in real estate, she’s ideally positioned to advise young people tying to enter the real estate market.
Start simple, she says, with smaller, cheaper condos. If you buy property in partnership, draw up a legal agreement so that should you part ways after building equity, you do so without any problems.
Champsee is also active in the community.
There’s an interesting story behind her $1 million donation to help build a Jain temple.
The Jain Society had purchased land and an unfinished building on it in 2010 for $5 million raised from the community. To finish the building and build a temple, more funds were needed, but no new money had come in. In 2016, the board began asking for loans from members and pledges came in for around $1million.
“I was on the board but I didn’t pledge anything because I thought what’s the point of loaning money to an organization that doesn’t have the funds to repay it? It should be a donation.”
She began running figures in her head. Perhaps she could donate $100,000 or $200,000. Maybe $400,000? But that was nowhere near enough. She thought of donating $750,000 to mark her husband’s upcoming 75th birthday.
“I told Moti and he said, ‘Do what you want, it’s only money’.”
When she offered the money, they asked if she could up it to a million.
“I told them I would, but I wouldn’t write a cheque for the amount, I would make sure all payments for work done were cleared for up to $1 million.”
When others saw her standing there and getting the work done and learnt of her financial support, pledges were redeemed and new donations came in. Today, the Jain Cultural Centre is where young and old come together, join friends and celebrate holidays and traditions.
Champsee raised over $50,000 for underprivileged children in rural India, $30,000 for breast cancer diagnostic equipment for the Nargis Dutt Foundation and $125,000 for Latur earthquake victims.
The Toronto Calcutta Foundation (TCF) runs Sakhi Vocational Training School in Kushalgarh, Rajasthan, to help prevent the migration of tribal women to the city in search of work where they face challenges with health, safety and prosperity with donations from her.
At TCF’s last annual dinner, the Champsee Family Foundation matched donations up to $25,000.
“I was born and raised in Calcutta, my heart is Bengali, my brain is Gujarati,” says Champsee, who believes the best fund-raisers are those who donate to the cause themselves.
She joined Association of Women of India in Canada (AWIC) and rose to become president. During her tenure, she grew the membership from around 300 to 800. She launched many new centres in Ontario, encouraging women to become members of councils, boards and commissions of mainstream agencies and to become involved in the Canadian political process.
The South East Asian Seniors club – the first of its kind – that she founded with less than 10 individuals grew to more than 400 seniors, becoming a place that helped them deal with isolation and provided a platform to assimilate in Canadian culture.
She conducted seminars and workshops for women on how to adjust to life in Canada and how to manage finances.
“Even educated women, even those earning more than their husbands, had no idea about how to manage money when circumstances changed and they were forced to.”
In her individual capacity, she still reaches out to those she knows and offers help. They will manage, she assures them. And she advises them not to sign everything over to their children right away, to wait until they stabilize.
“It will all go to the children in the end anyway, but I tell them to put themselves first, to look after themselves.”
She is the recipient of many awards and honours including the Canadian government’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Volunteerism.
Her advice for newcomers seeking success in Canada is to work hard and work honest.
“Honour your word. If you can’t do something, be truthful about it. Keep your eyes open, learn. There’s so much you can achieve that you had probably never even thought of.
“I am ordinary person who has done some extraordinary things just by doing them, by being open to new ideas, to trying new things. I have achieved beyond my imagination. But remember, there’s a best beyond that which you can achieve.”
After the passing of her husband a few years ago, she continues to be active in the business, though in a limited role. And she continues to help where she can – advising and helping international students financially.
“They all work so hard, but many need that little extra help,” she says.
An international student was staying with her at the time of this interview.
“We learn from each other,” said Champsee.
• Grant’s is proud to present this series about people who are making a difference in the community. Represented by PMA Canada (www.pmacanada.com).