Starlight Investments
Starlight is a privately-held real estate investment and asset management company and is currently one of the biggest landlords in Canada. Due to significant building acquisitions and rapid expansion, Starlight will be the largest landlord in Canada by the end of 2020 with nearly 60,000 apartment suites. At present, Starlight owns 30,000 suites but has recently acquired, with partner KingSett Capital, the 26,723-suite portfolio of Northview REIT. Starlight also has 10,000 suites in the United States and 7 million square feet of commercial property. The company manages a total of $14.0 billion in housing and commercial assets. These are held in a combination of funds, joint ventures, and club deals. Starlight also manages assets on behalf of publicly-listed vehicles, institutional and family office partnerships, and retail investors.
Daniel Drimmer, the CEO and founder of Starlight Investments, is now the third generation of Drimmer to profit off real estate investment. The Drimmer dynasty began in Germany with the Prajs & Drimmer Group run by Norma Drimmer and her brother, Sruel Prajs. Daniel Drimmer, Norma Drimmer and Sruel Prajs entered the real estate market in Canada in 1994. Within 2 years of graduating from Western University with a BA in German, a 22 year old Daniel Drimmer was made the CEO of TransGlobe Property management with his brother Leonard. Transglobe controlled 11,000 apartments and four million square feet of office space.
Starlight now owns and manages the vast majority of rental units in Yellowknife and are expanding quickly throughout the GTA, Vancouver and Montreal by purchasing properties from other large real estate firms like Akelius, the Wynn Family and Northview REIT. In the span of only 8 years, Daniel has expanded the Drimmer dynasty significantly through the completion of over $30 billion of real estate-related transactions.
Daniel Drimmer, CEO
CEO of Starlight
Founded in 2011 by Daniel Drimmer, Starlight was launched from a precursor company founded in 1995. While now a sophisticated asset manager, the company got its start as TransGlobe Property Managements Services Inc., a notorious slumlord which grew to become Canada’s third largest landlord by 2009, with 26,500 suites. From 2010-2012, TransGlobe was restructured into a publicly-traded REIT, and then taken private, amassing a 60% return to investors in only two years. TransGlobe REIT’s properties were sold to Starlight and a number of other large Canadian real estate investment firms and vehicles.
Daniel Drimmer is known for buying his own companies through his other companies. When TransGlobe dissolved, Starlight acquired its properties. He formed Northview from his companies True North and Northern Properties. In February 2020, Daniel’s company Starlight bought Northview. An investment analyst noted how “conflicts of interest are raised” when Drimmer does these deals.
Norma Drimmer
Norma Drimmer is the second generation in the Drimmer real-estate dynasty. Norma and her brother, Sruel Prajs owned the Prajs & Drimmer Group, a Berlin-based parent corporation to 21 companies. Norma and Sruel began the Drimmer family’s move to the Canadian housing market with the purchase of properties in Mississauga in December of 1994 through Badenhurst Properties Limited. Bradenhurst and Daniel Drimmer’s Transglobe shared a business address. Daniel Drimmer, fresh out of university, was immediately made Badenhurst’s vice-president.
By 2005, TransGlobe had become a major player, and the Globe and Mail called it “the Canadian colony of a worldwide, Berlin-based real-estate empire”.
[pictured: Norma Drimmer (left), Eliezer Sandberg, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Norma’s brother, Sruel Prajs.]
Leonard Drimmer
Leonard Drimmer, a co-owner of Transglobe with his brother Daniel, has moved on to running a software company called Property Vista Inc. Property Vista Software is now used by all of Starlight’s property management companies including Cogir Real Estate, Devon Properties, The DMS Group, Gateway Property Manager, Greenwin Corp, MetCap Living, and Sterling-Karamar Property Management.
Like his brother Daniel, and the co-founders of Timbercreek Blair Tamblyn and Ugo Bizzarri, Leonard went to Western University. Leonard Drimmer has been Daniel’s business partner since the beginning of Transglobe.
[pictured: Norma Drimmer making a sizeable donation.]
Labour costs have gone down in the US via investment in new technology and reduced wages and benefits [...] Canadian salaries and benefits have remained much the same or have actually grown. Can it be that the Canadian workforce is that they have got complacent and use to the comfortable life? Now is the time to tighten our belts and copy the US. Canada must become more efficient.
-Daniel Drimmer
Tenant Testimonials
“Starlight and DMS have been harassing tenants with general unit inspection notices, calls and constant rental repayment plans shoved under their doors. They have consistently ignored our efforts in organizing.”
- 295 Dufferin St.
“We have had maintenance issues and peace disruption problems that have been ignored for months by Starlight. They are pressuring us into “case-by-case” rental payment plans AKA pay it all back with what additional income?”
- 3015 Queen St. East
“Dishwasher has been broken for 3+ months. Counter was damaged by super and they refuse to fix it now. Cracked bathroom sink and leaks, been waiting on that for about 3 months as well. Refuse to fix caulking problem in tub (super redid it terribly - after months of asking - and it started peeling a week later). Heating rad is broken and refuse to fix it and insist that we aren’t bleeding it properly (we definitely are as water has stained my couch from doing it so frequently and with great intensity but still no heat)”
- 3015 Queen St. East
Buildings Owned by Starlight
2450 & 2460 Weston Road
205 & 207 Morningside Avenue
1596-1598A Bathurst Street
65, 65A Hillside Drive
5, 7 & 9 Stag Hill Drive
6 Auburndale Court
2175 Avenue Road
2177 Avenue Road
2181 Avenue Road
125 Bamburgh Circle
1637 Bathurst Street
1639 Bathurst Street
1641 Bathurst Street
1643 Bathurst Street
1645 Bathurst Street
1650 Bathurst Street
1660 Bathurst Street
1862 Bathurst Street
3311 Bathurst Street
3575 Bathurst Street
3888 Bathurst Street
3890 Bathurst Street
3892 Bathurst Street
3894 Bathurst Street
3896 Bathurst Street
3905 Bathurst Street
4141 Bathurst Street
4190 Bathurst Street
4222 Bathurst Street
4340 Bathurst Street
4866 Bathurst Street
4900 Bathurst Street
4979 Bathurst Street
4981 Bathurst Street
6151 Bathurst Street
2278 Weston Road
210 Wychwood Avenue
570 Birchmount Road
1255 Birchmount Road
778 Broadview Avenue
3 Broadway Avenue
50 Burnhill Road
189 Cedarvale Avenue
5 Cheviot Place
327 Chisholm Avenue
91 Cosburn Avenue
100 Cosburn Avenue
145 Cosburn Avenue
25 Cougar Court
9 Craigton Drive
15 Craigton Drive
19, 23 Craigton Drive
32 Craigton Drive
40 Craigton Drive
1 Crown Hill Place
74 Curlew Drive
1320 Danforth Road
1330 Danforth Road
1340 Danforth Road
1350 Danforth Ave
1360 Danforth Road
338-342 Donlands Avenue
99 Dowling Avenue
115 Dowling Avenue
150 Dowling Avenue
295 Dufferin Street
15 Dundonald Street
1065 Eglinton Avenue
2040 Eglinton Avenue West
2701 Eglinton Avenue West
15 Eva Road
286 Finch Avenue West
2292 Weston Road
166 Wilson Avenue
2220 Weston Road
2222 Weston Road
2397 Finch Avenue West
25 Fisherville Road
65 Forest Manor Road
45 Forty Second Street
55 Forty Second Street
260 Gamble Avenue
1636 Gerrard Street East
2 Glenhaven Street
130 Gowan Avenue
35 Greenbrae Circuit
90, 92 James Street
25 Villa Road
2801 Jane Street
3390 Keele Street
1080 Kingston Road
1150 Kingston Road
1200 Kingston Road
2737 Kipling Avenue
2757 Kipling Avenue
1465 Lawrence Avenue West
3967 Lawrence Avenue East
190 Lees Avenue
12 - 24 Leith Hill Road
1915 Martin Grove Road
750 Morningside Avenue
67 Parkwoods Village Drive
70 Parkwoods Village Drive
77 Parkwoods Village Drive
860 Pharmacy Avenue
2367 Queen Street East
2402 - 2406 Queen Street East
3000, 3015, 3017 Queen Street East
2240 Weston Road
2263 Weston Road
120 Raglan Avenue
130 Raglan Avenue
1 Rannock Street
2 Regal Road
200 Ridley Boulevard
77 Roehampton Avenue
12 Rusholme Drive
14 Rusholme Drive
1450 Sheppard Avenue West
5600 Sheppard Avenue East
65-99 Silver Springs Boulevard
18 Skipton Court
20 Skipton Court
50 Spadina Road
66 Spadina Road
70 Spadina Road
31-35 St. Dennis Drive
765 Steeles Avenue West
340 The East Mall
350 The East Mall
555 The West Mall
580 The East Mall
71 Thorncliffe Park Drive
75 Thorncliffe Park Drive
79 Thorncliffe Park Drive
14, 18, 22, 26, 30 Tichester Road
1531, 1535, 1539 Bathurst Street
35 Tobermory Drive
55 Triller Avenue
24 Tyndall Avenue
35 Walmer Road
82 Warren Road
77 Wellesley Street East
80 Wellesley Street East
155 Wellesley Street East
Recent Financial Transactions
Feb 2020: Northview Apartment REIT, 26,723 suites
The REIT agreed to be taken over by its top shareholder (Starlight had a 13% stake in the REIT). The REIT held approximately 27,000 residential suites and 1.2 million square feet of commercial space. The acquisition is being undertaken jointly with private equity firm Kingsett Capital, and the assets will be open to investors in a publicly-listed, newly-formed, high yield multi-residential fund.
Nov. 2019: Continuum REIT portfolio, 44 buildings (6,271 suites)
Starlight Investments acquired the $1.73 billion multi-residential portfolio held by Continuum REIT (CEO Dan Argiros of Q Residential). It includes 44 highrise concrete buildings in the GTA, and a total of 6,271 rental suites.
Sept. 2019: Akelius GTA portfolio, 19 properties (626 suites)
Akelius put 19 properties (not all of their holdings) up for sale in Toronto and Starlight was the winning bidder.
In The News
Tenants of Starlight —
Organize with your neighbours
Share your Starlight stories with us.
Tenants across the city are organizing together against rent increases, disrepair and disrespect. Tell us about your experiences as a Starlight tenant and join your neighbours.