Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | Farhi holdings to acquire Westmount Commons Farhi Holdings Corp. is acquiring the Westmount Commons (formerly known as Westmount Mall) from KingSett Capital, in a deal reportedly worth just shy of $40 million. Farhi said it is planning on a “mixed-use community” development that will continue a commercial and retail space (decidedly more commercial in recent years), plus add residential development to the site. “We want to create a more soft-city environment where there’s a combination of office, commercial and retail with multi-unit residential units enhancing the experience of the mall as a whole,” Jim Bujouves, president of Farhi Developments, told The London Free Press. Shmuel Farhi, interviewed by CTV News London mid-week, said the development would be “unique, because this is going to be live, work and play.” Farhi says he plans on starting with low-rise buildings around the mall. “We are going to build standalone buildings, but I like to start from the outskirts and build to the centre,” he said. The deal is expected to close before the end of August. Development proposals haven’t come forward yet. The upshot: What’s perhaps most notable about this deal is that it’s a little outside Farhi’s usual downtown focus when it comes to London property acquisition. There had previously been a 900-unit development proposed at the site by McCor Management, which was partnered with KingSett Capital, although Farhi suggested to CTV that project was on hold. Ward 10 Councillor Paul Van Meerbergen was singing an optimistic tune on the acquisition and Farhi’s vision for its future. “Westmount is in for a real renaissance. I think that’s what we’re looking at. Because it would be a real shame to see this property just drift into a boarded-up, abandoned state.” But speaking of boarded up and abandoned, the worry here is it goes the way of some of Farhi’s other acquisitions, such as the former downtown library building, although Councillor David Ferreira told the Free Press there has been “some movement” on Farhi’s downtown portfolio. Read more: CTV News London | London Free Press | | | The Mufflerman Inc. announces recapitalization and rebranding The Mufflerman Inc. announced this week that it had recapitalized and will rebrand as The Auto Service Group, following the exit of Toronto-based private equity firm Argyle Capital Partners. Argyle, which invested in The Mufflerman in 2021, helped lead the company through an aggressive growth phase that saw it acquire several additional auto service businesses, expanding its network to six brands and 29 locations across the province. “We are thrilled to be entering a new stage in our growth and evolution. Over the last 4.5 years, Argyle Capital Partners have provided tremendous strategic vision and leadership,” said Costa Haitas, president of the new Auto Service Group. Former Argyle partner Glenn Gatcliffe will stay on as the director of The Auto Service Group. “Along with our entire team of over 155 employees, Glenn and I would like to thank Argyle, and we look forward to continued success in building The Auto Service Group into one of the preeminent automotive aftermarket companies in Canada.” All individual brands, including The Mufflerman, will continue operations under their current banners with no changes. The upshot: The Mufflerman is a long-time London brand ― its first unit opened in 1964 in Sarnia, and then it expanded to the Forest City in the late-1970s, opening several units and establishing its head office here. The partnership with Argyle launched them onto a new growth trajectory with several acquisitions, such as the purchase of five EuroMechanic repair shops in the GTA in 2023 and the acquisition of nine Superior Tire & Auto locations. According to Argyle, this period of growth has seen The Mufflerman triple its EBITDA and turned the private equity firm a tidy 45 per cent return. “We’re incredibly proud of what was accomplished with Mufflerman,” said Argyle Capital’s managing partner Mark MacPherson. “This transaction is a clear example of Argyle’s ability to identify and scale regional leaders through thoughtful M&A.” Read more: Canadian Manufacturing | M & A Worldwide | | | Cintro expanding into former Beer Store on Piccadilly Local Asian fusion restaurant Cintro, which opened in early 2024 and quickly earned a reputation that landed it on Open Table’s top 100 restaurants in Canada, is expanding into the former Beer Store building at 250 Piccadilly Street ― just a few steps away from its location at 731 Wellington ― with plans to launch two new restaurants in the space. One will be a cafe called Lotus & Lime, while the other will be a higher-end, fixed-price tasting menu called Lanoa (architectural rendering pictured). Cintro says that the move made sense to meet the huge demand the restaurant is seeing. “We have reservations booked out almost until the end of October, with anywhere from 20 to 50 people on our waiting list for each night,” said Shauna Versloot, business partner of chef Joseph Tran. “We needed another space that we can use for another restaurant.” The company is putting around $2 million into renovations into the former Beer Store building, which is one of several in the region to have closed in recent years. “We’re adding a lot of landscaping and trees and a front patio with seating,” Versloot told CBC News London. “We are just completely transforming the entire space.” The goal is to open by early 2026. The upshot: The pandemic has certainly left the restaurant sector in London, and in the rest of the country, with deep scars, but there is growing optimism among London’s restaurant scene that things are turning a corner, with bookings up and more people coming to eat. “We’ve noticed more traffic at our restaurants. Once you see new residents coming in, it’s an incentive for new businesses to keep popping up,” said long-time food industry player Justin Wolfe, co-owner of Los Lobos. There are a few aspects to this. Population growth is one. The buy-local movement is probably another, and an overall cooling of inflation may have stabilized consumer spending somewhat. The result is a little bit more enthusiasm and optimism among restauranteurs like Wolfe. “I think we have a lot of great restaurants coming to the scene,” he told the CBC. “It’s good to see. There’s a lot of talent here.” Read more: CBC News London | | | New report highlights retention challenges in region’s nonprofit sector A report released this month by the Elgin Middlesex Oxford Workforce Planning and Development Board and Pillar Nonprofit Network says that regional nonprofits, while hiring, are struggling to retain staff. The survey of 76 local nonprofits found that while nearly 90 per cent of them hired new staff last year, many are struggling with staff turnover issues, primarily due to low wages. There are some bright spots, such as the finding that over half of the organizations surveyed hired entirely locally, and 56 of the 76 said that they had hired one person from a designated group (racialized individuals, women, young people, workers with disabilities, etc.). There are also some not-so-bright spots ― roughly 13 per cent of area nonprofit employees do not earn a living wage and only 56 per cent of nonprofits said they were able to pay all their staff at least $19.50 an hour. In addition, 64 per cent of staff losses were due to employees quitting, as opposed being laid off. “This year’s data clearly shows the sector’s dedication to inclusive hiring and local recruitment but also highlights ongoing concerns around retention and wage equity,” said the board’s executive director Petrusia Hontar. “Nonprofits are doing their best to support workers. They offer training, flexible work hours, and wellness programs, but for many, low wages are still a major concern. This shows that even with good support, fair wages are key to keeping people in the sector.” The upshot: This is nothing new, really. Locally, Pillar has been pointing out that nonprofits have struggled with retention and pay issues for quite some time; in 2022, for instance, 72 per cent of nonprofits surveyed by Pillar said that retention was a major issue for them. That’s not just a local issue, of course. Nonprofit work everywhere has earned a reputation for lower pay and long hours, and retention issues have turned many nonprofits into a revolving door of employees. This isn’t entirely their fault, of course — nonprofits are taking on increasing burdens, often related to growing social issues, with resources that are stretched ever thinner. But this is an issue that organizations like the Ontario Nonprofit Network say deserves more attention, suggesting that while compensation decisions often come from a noble intention ― spend less money on staff and more on the work being done ― it can be counterproductive, and ultimately sees more time and money soaked up by the hiring process. “There is a cost to having to keep hiring and rehiring and training and retraining because we cannot retain employees, since wages are too low,” they wrote in a report this past March. “Money that is spent on constant hiring due to turnover could go towards salaries, and by extension, retention instead.” Read more: Pillar Nonprofit Network | | | London is getting an app London is launching an app. Called MyLondon, the platform is a partnership between the LEDC, Tourism London, Western University and Fanshawe College, and is powered by Sarnia-based Welcome Platform. It’s kicking off with a launch event next Wednesday at Toboggan Brewing, and the creators say it “aims to improve quality of life, inform better decision-making and position London as a leader in innovation and community-building.” Screenshots from the app show that it offers features like a job board, event listings, bulletin board, local business deals, etc. (Like many other things in this city, you’ll have to be careful not to confuse it with the UK version, which is named, you guessed it, My London…) The upshot: The creators of this are kind of an interesting startup story of their own. The Sarnia company Welcome Platform Technologies dubs itself an “innovative social enterprise and software startup” that allows communities to quickly launch apps like this, and recently netted a $100,000 investment from VERGE Capital. The platform recently launched a similar app in Western Nova Scotia. The whole thing has a bit of an early 2010s, social-media-will-bring-us-together kind of vibe. “Statistics revealed that one-third of Canadians who feel a sense of belonging to the country do not share that same sense within their own communities,” the company’s president, Liwordson Vijayabalan wrote in a blog post. “Our vision for the Welcome Platform is to launch welcome apps in every community across Canada and beyond, connecting newcomers with locals, agencies, businesses, jobs, social groups, programs and much more, while continuing to offer all the great utility they need to make their transition smooth.” Read more: MyLondon App | | | City gets $1M to bolster STR crackdown efforts Armed with a million-dollar grant from the federal government ($1.08 million over a three-year period), London is looking to step up its enforcement efforts against unlicensed short-term rentals (STRs). The funding, announced early this week, will allow the city to hire additional bylaw officers, increase inspections and upgrade software. In 2022, the city instituted a bylaw that required short-term rentals to be licensed, collect hotel taxes and be located in the owner’s primary residence. “We’ve made good progress since the bylaw came into effect, and this additional support from the Government of Canada will help us go further,” said the city’s director of municipal compliance, Amanda Pheffer. “It will help us respond faster to complaints, carry out investigations, and work with platforms and hosts to improve overall compliance.” The upshot: Along with this funding, the city is looking at how it can reform its 2022 bylaw that sought to license and regulate the short-term rental sector. The city’s efforts to bring a bylaw into force were not easy, as they faced stiff opposition from local STR operators. But since then, the bylaw has come to be seen as somewhat toothless, and there have been constant challenges policing operators of unregulated short-term rentals. A total of 610 licenses have been issued since the bylaw came into effect, while the city has issued just under $150,000 in fines. Several councillors agreed that the penalties ― $500 for a first offence, which doubles for repeat offenders ― simply aren’t providing much of a deterrent. “It’s not a bad bylaw, it is positive ― the problem is, it’s dealing with the players that want to play by the rules of the game, and it doesn’t unfortunately address the ones that don’t,” said Councillor Jerry Pribil. “This needs to be revisited so we are not at the point when operators of these facilities, when they see the fines they take it as the cost of business.” Read more: London Free Press | | | Dispatch: August 15, 2025 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |