Canada’s Humble Hotelier: Steve Gupta
This article originally appeared in the National Post. By Garry Marr.
Steve Gupta likes to think he has a pretty good voice, maybe even good enough for Bollywood.
The real estate mogul, whose interests extend from hotels to apartment buildings, might have tried his luck in India’s film industry but for one fateful trip from his homeland to Canada 34 years ago.
The then-20-year-old made his way here with $108 in his pocket and a dream of becoming a famous hotelier. When he landed in Canada, he knew immediately he wanted to stay. Friends and family told him not to bother, thinking he would never get immigration status.
“I got it in three weeks,” says Mr. Gupta.
“If I hadn’t gotten in, I probably would have tried my luck in Bollywood. I have a pretty good singing voice,” he says.
Instead, Mr. Gupta started selling life insurance door to door in Toronto. “I wanted to get a real estate licence but you needed to be here a year before you could get one. Selling insurance was a lot of hard work. [There was a lot of] knocking on doors in the evening,” Mr. Gupta says.
His big break came in 1979 when he decided to buy a service centre off Highway 401, east of Toronto. Although Mr. Gupta only had $15,000 in the bank and the service centre cost $1-million, he was able to close the deal.
“I knew I could make it work. As long as you believe in yourself you can make anything happen,” Mr. Gupta says about the project he got off the ground with little of his own capital.
He redeveloped the service centre and created the first Harvey’s/Swiss Chalet restaurant located on a major Canadian highway. The enterprise was the first piece of Mr, Gupta’s Easton’s Group of Hotels and Easton’s Group of Companies.
His big break came in 1979 when he decided to buy a service centre off Highway 401, east of Toronto. Although Mr. Gupta only had $15,000 in the bank and the service centre cost $1-million, he was able to close the deal.
Today, Easton’s consists of 2,000 apartment suites and six hotels, with another three under development, and annual sales in the $100-million range.
One of Mr. Gupta’s biggest coups is his partnership with Marriott International. He has built three hotels with the company under the Residence Inn by Marriott brand. The latest is a $50-million, 256-suite hotel in Toronto’s entertainment district that promises to fill the need of extended-stay travellers looking for an upscale hotel.
Michael Beckley, head of development of Marriott Hotels in Canada, says the company is ver careful about the people it chooses to do business with and looks for long-term relationships with partners. “When we choose a business partner, the assumption is we grow together. It’s not just a one-off deal. This is Steve’s third Marriott deal in the last two years. We don’t just take anybody,” Mr. Beckley says. “Steve is a straight shooter, trustworthy and, from our experience, he over-delivers.”
One of the remarkable things about Mr. Gupta is his ability to remain true to his humble beginnings. He grew up in a middle-class home in Patiala in the Punjab, where his father was a contractor for the government, building infrastructure such as bridges. “I guess you could say I had the business in my blood,” he says.
Even with that business background, Mr. Gupta says it comes down to someone giving you a chance. “The hardest thing in this country is to get a break. Break means opportunity, and if you recognize the opportunity, then you have to have the intellect, the ability and the vision to take advantage [of the break]. That’s the key,” Mr. Gupta says.
Today, Easton’s consists of 2,000 apartment suites and six hotels, with another three under development, and annual sales in the $100-million range.
He doesn’t just preach that lesson, he practises it and gives young people a break whenever he can. He remembers getting a call from an Indian hotel management student at Toronto’s Ryerson University. “She was a single mother. She tried and tried to get a hold of me. She had come here on a student visa and needed a job for a work permit. I offered her one and she still works for me.”
He has other stories. “The don’t have to be Indian for me to help them. If somebody asks me for help, I try to do what I can,” Mr. Gupta says.
Ravi Seethapathy, a past-president of the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, says Mr. Gupta is probably best known in the community as someone who will give a young person a chance. “He’s willing to act like a mentor. He’s done well for himself and now he wants to help others,” Mr. Seethapathy says.
Mr. Gupta has all the trappings of wealth: luxury cars, a custom-built home in Toronto’s prestigious Bridle Path, children in one of the city’s most prestigious private schools. None of these has changed his core values.
“I’ve met people at the Canadian Club who have made it and then become snobbish,” Mr. Seethapathy says. “But there is a humbleness about Steve that is different.”
It likely has to do with Mr. Gupta’s roots in India where he learned the value of hard work and respecting people from every walk of life. “I learned many values from India. There are so many religions and people – Sikhs, Hindus – and they are living in harmony,” he says.
Mr. Gupta adds that one of the great things about Canada is everybody espouses the same values. “I’ve dealt with all types of people here. I’ve never had anyone tell me they didn’t want to do business with me,” Mr. Gupta says. “I always approach people like a gentleman.”
More importantly, his business partners tell you he is always prepared. Mr. Gupta estimates he has squeezed the equivalent of 100 years of work into the past 30 year. “I always knew I would be successful, but I never knew how successful.”
Mr. Gupta may not have made it to Bollywood but he is closing in on another dream. “When I was in grade school, what I wanted to do was own a five-star hotel. I wanted a place where you could walk through and feel good,” Mr. Gupta says. “I’m getting there slowly.”