Food aroma may be the lure for Calgary hot property

A modest mid-rise office building on 17th Ave. in southwest Calgary is suddenly drawing some of the city's noteworthy financial players.

Located in an area undergoing a renaissance, the brown brick edifice is headquarters to investment firm Shaunessy Investment Counsel and to developer Guy Turcotte's Stone Creek Resorts. The former is onetime Bay Streeter Terry Shaunessy's firm; the latter is building a $1.5-billion resort in Canmore, Alta., called Silvertip.

Now comes word that Calgary entrepreneur W. Brett Wilson has purchased the property and is moving his Prairie Merchant Corp. offices to the seventh floor.

As well, we hear, another prominent, well-heeled Calgarian is considering an office there.

Why is this eight-storey building on 17th Ave. the home of some of Calgary's new guard? In Mr. Wilson's case, it may be because it's just down the street from his restaurant Brava Bistro. For others, perhaps it's the allure of the food across the street at the hip eatery Farm, run by food doyenne Janice Beaton.

She's no 'rainmaker'

A TV anchor in a long-ago life and currently the chairwoman of Ottawa's recession-beating panel, the Economic Advisory Council, Carole Taylor started her first day of work yesterday at the Vancouver law office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

She's not a lawyer, but she will serve as a senior adviser on public policy, corporate governance, and economic and trade matters. Ms. Taylor's career stops have been many and varied. She has been chairwoman of CBC/Radio-Canada and, in 2005, she was elected to the B.C. legislature, subsequently taking the post of finance minister for the province. She tells Nobody's Business that she has been weighing her career options during the past year since she decided not to run again for office.

We asked her whether she would be a "rainmaker" for the firm - someone who uses her extensive contacts to bring in the big clients.

"No. My role will be different. I am bringing my experience."