Vello Ehvert is the president and founder of Ehvert, an integrated engineering and construction firm that is advancing the use of technology in engineering, construction and facilities.

He has positioned his firm at the forefront of the engineering and construction industries, revolutionizing project delivery and disrupting the traditional fragmented construction process. Ehvert Engineering provides services for the full cycle of a facility from planning and advisory services to acquisition, financing, project and construction management, automation and facility operations. The firm also leverages advanced modelling tools and surveying equipment to drastically reduce risk, costs and schedules for complex capital projects.

Vello started out by working for his father Sven Ehvert who was vice president of construction for a couple of Canada's leading commercial developers. During his career, Sven developed Royal Bank Plaza, the original Olympia and York developments in Wynford Park, the Sun Life Centre, 390 Bay Street, the Richmond Adelaide Centre, the Foresters building (off of Don Mills), Parkway Place and many more. Vello’s mother Tiiu was a mechanical designer. As Vello says “I was born into the construction world and have worked in this area for most of my life.” With all the experience and expertise drawn from his parents Sven and Tiiu, Vello held a variety of positions over his own career working in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America. Going on and independently founding Ehvert Engineering, Vello’s firm now has offices here in Toronto, in Kharkiv, Ukraine and in Tallinn.

As a successful business owner, Ehvert was approached to make a cash donation to the proposed Estonian Cultural Centre (Rahvusvaheline Eesti Keskus). As a former scout, Eesti Kool student, and member of a fraternity, Vello continues to have close ties to his Toronto Estonian heritage and he believed he could provide the greatest benefit by donating his company’s resources to the community’s projects. Ehvert’s engineering, construction, international project management and development expertise could have helped early in this process. Instead much more cash has already been spent trying to make a smaller site work for a fewer number of us.

Ehvert saw an opportunity for our community to create its own development corporation that would partner with local finance companies and support re-development of our properties. Rather than sell Eesti Maja to an outside developer, an Estonian community redevelopment corporation could redevelop Eesti Maja and use the operating cash flow and/or development profit from Broadview to finance the purchase of land adjacent to Tartu College and redevelop that property on a smaller scale.

“I suspect that the reason that they (the 4 Orgs) did not take me up on my offer was likely because I indicated that the idea of selling the Broadview property to a developer was a bad idea” Ehvert said. Ehvert went on to explain: “I suggested that Eesti Maja be redeveloped… and we could build it using the same idea of service contributions from the community but now professional services and materials instead of talgud. I withdrew my offer when I found out that they were not interested in exploring other options.”

Having known Vello for over a half century I can attest to his sincerity, his interest in the Estonian community and reliability. Personally, it is staggering that his offer was rejected.

Vello echoed many comments others have voiced for almost 2 years, he said: “I have maintained that the Madison site is not suitable for the functions that are currently performed at the Estonian House - because of size, difficulty in access by car, parking, etc. Also, the cost of construction due to limitations of the site and the adjacency to the subway station make it an expensive location to build a large development.” From an engineering perspective Ehvert also indicated “that the design of the curtain wall in the shape of the country of Estonia (is) expensive and the U -shape created large surfaces which would be large heat loss surfaces and that there were other ways of bringing natural light into the space. Although I like the aesthetics, the design of the space appeared at first glance to be quite expensive.”

Our community is, alas, riven regarding this project. Note that the centre has been labelled international. The bulk of the financing is expected to come from the sale of the Toronto Estonian House, a deal that has to date not yet been finalized. And the monies expected will not finance a majority of the proposed Madison Avenue facility at its current estimated budget. Many support the idea of the proposed centre, but not at the cost of selling Eesti Maja. That is our local community centre, operated in Estonian, for local Estonians. Home to three ESTO festivals, it has been called, since Soviet occupation years, the bastion of Estonians abroad. The proposed new centre will not provide many of the facilities or services of Eesti Maja. Their meetings are conducted in English, indicating a lack of respect for our language and culture. There are aspects of the new proposal that are frightening, considering the domineering, almost manipulative way that townhall meetings to date have been conducted.

Thus it boggles the mind that we are not listening to experienced people in the industry. Is it a question of control? Or one of shortsightedness. Whatever the reason this incident from last year raises some serious questions about how the proposed cultural centre will be financed and built. While the Keskus project can go forward for that “international” purpose, Vello Ehvert strongly supports keeping Eesti Maja, investing in it and making it a place for future Estonian generations to use and enjoy.

TÕNU NAELAPEA

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