James Keating Construction celebrates 70 years in Centre Wellington next year

ELORA – It’s a tough time to be a builder, Tom Keating acknowledges, with inflation, the rising cost of building a home and the affordability crisis on the purchasing side of the equation.

But builders are neither  the cause nor the solution to the housing crisis, he said.

“We’re not in the business of building poor quality products and the price (of a home) relates to quality,” said Keating, president of James Keating Construction.

The Elora-based family business has been operating locally for almost 70 years.

“We’re not set up to mass produce houses … The market will dictate prices and the market provides the correction,” he said.

Keating sat down with the Advertiser for an interview that spanned the company’s humble beginnings, some of the company’s key projects, his hopes for his son, who will likely take the reins one day, and the current crazy and unpredictable times.

Keating, 53, said he’s proud of the way the business has helped shape Centre Wellington over the company’s history, and he stated many times his conviction that the company will remain local and invested in the community.

His grandfather was a builder, and he passed the passion on to son James, who started James Keating Construction in 1957.

Tom Keating was born with a hammer in his toolbelt and an entrepreneurial spirit, and he built his knowledge and understanding of the business world under his father’s tutelage.

The company offers home renovations, one-off home construction for clients, and also builds small subdivisions in Centre Wellington.

Diversifying in this way has allowed the company to keep going all these years, he said – to ride out the volatile housing market and economic downturns.

“The industry is cyclical,” Keating said, noting home builders who only build large subdivisions are having a hard time keeping afloat these days, despite a shortage of housing.

James Keating Construction can maintain a steady pool of staff because of the renovations and single-home builds, he said. The company is currently renovating the Fergus Grand Theatre, for example, as well as completing some other private jobs.

“The key is you have to diversify in good times and bad,” he said, adding you can’t become known as a developer and then expect business to boom just because you’ve hung out a renovator sign.

Because the company is  local – and only local – relationships are important, Keating said.

“I feel we have good relationships with the (Centre Wellington) building department and planning department,” he said. “We bring proposals we feel are good for the community and that we feel staff will support.

“Some (developers) might ask for 100 and hope for 50. We come forward with projects we actually want to do.”

Keating spoke to the Advertiser a few days after a public meeting for a housing proposal on South Street in Elora.

James Keating Construction proposes building 25 townhouse units on the infill site. Some neighbours objected to the loss of trees, too little parking, and too much density, which they say would contrast starkly with existing homes on the street.

Keating said he thinks the proposal is fair, but he understands residents who did not support it.

“People are skeptical. There’s fear of the unknown. Change is difficult,” he said.

He talked about Station Square, a development his father oversaw back in the 1990s that’s now a point of pride in Elora. 

Indeed, Mayor Shawn Watters held it up as an example of good planning and execution at a public planning meeting regarding an unrelated proposal in Fergus on Feb. 25.

The train went through Elora but didn’t stop at the station, Keating said. While the rail line did well in other communities, “it never thrived in Elora,” Keating said.

It was vacant for many years and when CN put the land up for sale, James Keating snapped it up.

“It came with complications,” Keating recalled, namely contamination from the rail service.

James Keating’s vision was an adult lifestyle community with an apartment building in the centre and townhomes around it.

Though the Village of Elora council approved it, (before Elora and Fergus amalgamated into Centre Wellington) it was a controversial project, and a neighbourhood group took the company to the Ontario Municipal Board hoping to have the decision overruled.

But it stood, the development was built, “and it’s hard to imagine Station Square not being there now,” Keating said.

Many other Keating subdivisions are dotted throughout the township. Keating is currently finishing a development in Beatty Hollow that backs onto the Sorbara development in Fergus.

Keating is a member of the Guelph and District Homebuilders Association and the Centre Wellington Contractors Association.

He belongs to the Elora Rockers Sports Association, is still involved with the Bissell Park committee hoping to refurbish the outdoor pad there, and recently presented a cheque to organizers of the future Aboyne Hospice.

He lives where he works which may make him more invested in the projects he undertakes than someone from out of town.

“There are only so many aisles in the grocery store,” he joked about trying to avoid people who don’t approve of a project. 

“But if you’re confident in the product you build, it stands for itself. 

“It’s a balancing act for sure. But I’m proud to say I’m from Elora.”