HARRIS SQUARE
Harris Square, Bellingham, WA
Location Bellingham, WA
Harris Square, Bellingham, WA
Location Bellingham, WA
Andre Molnar, President of the Molnar Group of Companies, is a leader in the real estate industry in British Columbia, Canada. During a career that has spanned more than 45 years, Mr. Molnar has developed extensive expertise in residential real estate construction and management. He has completed and sold apartment and townhouse condominium projects comprising more than 5,000 units as well as approximately 200 single-family homes. In addition, he has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and special citations.
Mr. Molnar has held a variety of positions in industry and community organizations, including former President of the Canadian Home Builder’s Association of British Columbia, former Chairman of New Home Warranty, former Director of the Urban Development Institute, and former Chairman of Canadian Red Cross Finance Committee. Hungarian-born, Andre Molnar spent his early life in Europe, completing a business management program in Switzerland before moving to Canada in 1966 and settling in Vancouver. He has been the Honorary Consul General of Hungary for the Province of British Columbia since 1990. In 2015 he has received the highest award - the Knight of Cross from the Order of Merit - from Hungary for his 25 years of service excellence, as Consul General.
In the 1970’s, Andre Molnar specialized in building low-rise, wood-frame buildings in Vancouver, including the national award-winning West Park project. It was during this period that Mr. Molnar first gained recognition in Vancouver for projects encompassing unique designs, urban comfort, special detailing and quality finishes, while at the same time maintaining affordability and broad market appeal.
Beginning in 1980, Mr. Molnar began to assemble and manage investment properties including a portfolio of prominent properties in Montreal, Canada, including the Carrefour – Dorchester Hotel in downtown Montreal. He also began to diversify his building projects in the outlying areas of Vancouver, specifically the rapidly growing urban regions of Coquitlam, Surrey and New Westminster. He built several large high-rise projects such as Lakeside Terrace, Excelsior, Murano, The Frontenac and a 650-unit River Heights Masterplan subdivision. At the same time, he established a successful record in the single family housing industry.
Mr. Molnar has many years of experience building and managing shopping centres. In 1981, The Molnar Group built North Langley shopping centre and shortly after this pioneering construction, it developed an interest in shopping centre investments. Over the years, it successfully bought, managed and sold a number of shopping centres the likes of Fleetwood Town Centre in Fleetwood, Surrey, a large mall in Cherry Point, Surrey, Kingsway Centre at 1234 Kingsway, Vancouver, Oliver Place Mall in Oliver, B.C. and the Port Alberni Zellers centre in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, B.C. (which The Molnar Group still owns today). Recent acquisitions on Vancouver Island include a retail investment portfolio located at Parksville Plaza in the downtown core of Parksville, and Tyee Plaza in Campbell River, B.C.; also Whitecourt Valley Centre in Whitecourt, Alberta and Westgate Mall in Saskatoon, Sasketchewan.
Over the last decade, Andre Molnar has continued to expand his development business and also began to re-focus on the acquisition and management of commercial and residential investment properties. In addition to completing a series of large-scale projects in New Westminster, Coquitlam and Tsawwassen, The Molnar Group also acquired and built properties in the United States, such as Barkley Trails and Barkley Park in Bellingham, Washington State. It completed constructing a prestigious condominium project entitled “Harris Square” in Fairhaven, Washington State, costing $26 million and McKenzie Square in Fairhaven, Bellingham and a 103 – unit apartment complex in Lacey, Washington State. It acquired the prestigious Hotel Bellwether and Bayview Center located in the Bellingham waterfront in 2007. Mr. Molnar continues to actively invest in commercial and residential properties in Washington State as well as in British Columbia and Alberta. Presently, The Molnar Group is also developing several hundred rental units on Vancouver Island and in the city of Vancouver.
Julie is a Director of The Molnar Group and all related companies since 1982. Although she is involved in all aspects of the business, Julie is directly responsible for marketing and design. Working with architects, Julie designs interior specifications, floor plans and display homes for both commercial and residential projects. She is involved in overseeing these areas during construction and liaises with marketing groups to promote the projects upon completion.
Prior to the Molnar Group, Julie worked as an International Account Manager for IBM in San Francisco. A native of Tennessee, Julie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in Near Eastern Archaeology and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Julie has also done extensive charitable work in Vancouver, most notably the creation of the Canadian Craft Museum, which was the only national museum in Western Canada. She has also won awards for her interior design work in the United States and Canada.
Dak is the Managing Director of the Molnar group and is involved in all aspects of the business; he is primarily responsible for all of the Molnar Group’s business origination and raising of funds. He is directly involved in the Rental Construction side of the business and runs the Commercial Shopping Centre division of the Company.
Dak was born in Vancouver B.C. in 1975. Dak attended the University of Western Ontario, UVIC, and BCIT where he studied economics, commerce, and real estate. Dak first joined the Molnar group in 1995. After three years Dak decided to branch out on his own, and joined Colliers international where he worked as a broker for 6 years specializing in the acquisition and disposition of shopping centres and multi-family apartment buildings. Dak was a top performer during several of his years at Colliers ranking in the top 50 in Canada in 2003 out of over 1500 brokers country-wide. In 2004, Dak left Colliers and started Balmoral Shopping Centres Ltd, a shopping center investment company.
In 2005, Balmoral partnered with Wesbild Holdings Ltd and over a six-year period built a large retail portfolio that encompassed over 170 tenants and 1.2 million square feet of space. In 2011, the portfolio was split up and sold to Rio Can, Bentall Kennedy and Standard Life for over $250 million dollars.
In 2011, Dak re-joined the Molnar Group to expand the company’s rental apartment, and retail portfolio; Balmoral is still in operation and continues to invest in shopping centres with the Molnar group and other partners.
Dak was a licenced realtor in B.C. for over 20 years, and is a past Board of Director of Boys and Girls Clubs of the South Coast, a current Board Member of the NCIU at B.C. Women Hospital, and is an advisory board Member of the Odd Squad. He is also a member of the Urban Development Institute of Vancouver and Victoria.
During his career Dak has been involved in over $1.2 billion dollars in real estate transactions as a broker, developer and partner.
C.K. joined The Molnar Group in 2003 as an Investment Analyst. Since then, he has been actively involved in the management, financing, purchasing and sale of various projects in the lower mainland of British Columbia and in Washington State. Coming from a background in International Relations and Law, C. K. is a graduate of The London School of Economics and Political Science (B.Sc. (Econ) with First Class Honours) and Oxford University (Master of Philosophy, International Relations). He also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Law. Prior to joining The Molnar Group, C. K. worked as a consultant for Oxford Analytica, an international relations consultancy company. C.K. oversees the projects and investments of The Molnar Group and works closely with André Molnar.
Arthur Zhang received his designated CGA membership in Ontario and transferred his membership in B.C in 2013. Now he is an active member of Charted Professional Accountant in B. C. His accounting experience spans across different companies of different industries in Canada, US, Asia. He acquired solid accounting skills of setting up accounting system, preparing financial reports for extensive stakeholders, budgeting, evaluating operating results, implementing internal control, and teaching accounting software. He joined The Molnar Group in 2013 as accountant to prepare accounting information for the plan, internal control, operational assessment, and the purchase and sale of properties.
Greg Persanyi joined The Molnar Group in 2015. He is a development and project manager with the company and oversees all aspects of finding new sites and that the projects come to completion. Greg attained his Bachelor of Commerce degree in finance and international business at Concordia University in Montreal and his MBA from the Technical University of Budapest.
Maryam Amin Shanjani is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Certified General Accountant (CGA) and Payroll Compliance Practitioner (PCP). She has a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Business, and a Masters degree in Economics. She joined The Molnar Group as a professional accountant in July 2016. In her current role, she is responsible for accounting of holding companies and projects, reviewing current system and implementation of internal control system.Prior to joining the Company, Maryam worked for more than ten years as a controller for Canadian and Global public companies. Before her roles as Controller, she was the System Development Manager for over ten years for an audit organization in Iran, where she managed a staff of 17, and managed the design, implementation and training for financial and cost accounting systems.