{"id":18402,"date":"2017-09-21T12:09:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T16:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18402"},"modified":"2017-09-27T17:54:48","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:54:48","slug":"hotel-and-conference-centre-part-of-stronachs-future-plans-in-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hotel-and-conference-centre-part-of-stronachs-future-plans-in-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotel and conference centre part of Stronach’s future plans in Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As thousands of people filled the marquee on the northern edge of his property for two nights of revelry, Frank Stronach looked on with pride.
\nAfter all, Friday and Saturday\u2019s Hoedown has grown from a relatively small barbeque in his back yard into York Region\u2019s biggest party.
\nBut no matter how much pride he takes in the exceptional success of the party \u2013 and there was over $530,000 raised this year alone to be shared between 20 community organizations \u2013 there is, in his mind, still so much more to do.
\nMr. Stronach, 85, the founder and former CEO of Magna International, marked the business\u2019s 60th anniversary last month. Joined by incumbent CEO Don Walker, Mr. Stronach met with current employees, talked shop and unveiled a portrait of himself which will take pride of place in Magna\u2019s head office in perpetuity \u2013 no matter where that head office happens to be down the road.
\nThe visit itself might have been just a few minutes\u2019 walk from his Aurora home, but it was a world away from the business founded all those many years ago in a small Toronto garage.
\n\u201cWhen you\u2019re able to create jobs, that gives you a good feeling,\u201d says Mr. Stronach. \u201cI think we have about 20,000 people in York Region and the spin-off effect is about three or four in the automotive industry. From there, you have gas stations, grocery stores, carpenters, and the spin-off effect is huge.\u201d
\nThese last 60 years have been a \u201cslow revolutionary process\u201d from those humble beginnings in the city but somewhere along the line Mr. Stronach says he began feeling York Region was the perfect place for a head office.
\n\u201cI am a bit of a farmer and there was more space here,\u201d he says, \u201cAround that same time, I acquired the farm and naturally I didn\u2019t want to travel too far for work.\u201d
\nIt is this very concept of living and working within the community that was a guiding force behind his development of Magna\u2019s corporate philosophy, still in force today, which commits two per cent of Magna\u2019s profits to be reinvested within the communities in which it operates.
\nLocally, the annual Wild, Wild West Hoedown is probably the most visible manifestation of this philosophy, along with the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex on Wellington Street East, Newmarket\u2019s Magna Centre, and the cancer centre at Southlake Regional Health Centre which bears his family name.
\n\u201cIt is a basic philosophy in me,\u201d he says. \u201cThe reason why we do well is we have good, dedicated employees and it also means we have to recognize that in management and make sure that if our factories are here there have to be some benefits for the employees. I have anchored that in our corporate constitution.\u201d
\nAs he divides his time between Aurora and Austria, Mr. Stronach says he has \u201ca nice feeling\u201d every time he drives out on Aurora Road to see his name on the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex knowing he made a contribution to something that is so enjoyed by the community.
\nDespite stepping away from Magna and focusing on his passion for horseracing and gaming through the Stronach Group, a company which now owns Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, and the Pimlico Race Course, which is home to the Preakness, Mr. Stronach remains very focused on the local community.
\n\u201cI have lived most of my life on a farm, and there is an old saying that we are what we eat,\u201d he says, \u201cand I think we eat a lot of chemicals. \u201cI want to produce food without chemicals.\u201d
\nTo that end, he is using his York Region farmland as well as his expansive farms in the United States to farm organic produce, which he hopes will be available in Aurora in the future.
\nPeople travelling on Wellington Street East might have noticed a freshly plowed field on the southeast quadrant of Bayview and Wellington. Mr. Stronach has a grand vision for this corner for a hotel and convention centre, a development which will also include one of his supermarkets on site.
\n\u201cYears ago, I hardly knew anybody who had an allergy 60 years ago or thereabouts,\u201d he explains. \u201cNow when you take a look, it is very difficult for the school boards to say what foods they should serve. I enjoy doing things which have a positive impact on society.\u201d
\nMr. Stronach is also looking at measures which have a positive impact on our environment as well, reiterating his idea to make his proposal for a 70 \u2013 80 acre \u201ceco park\u201d in southeast Aurora a reality sooner rather than later.
\nThe \u201cEco Park\u201d proposal has hit many snags along the way, but he says there is \u201cno question\u201d it remains a commitment of his, land which will be put into a trust.
\n\u201cIts primary purpose will be that the schools in York Region can have day trips and there will be some buildings there such as a learning centre where they can point out various things which are important to the ecosystem from the wildlife, to the trees and flowers. I think we should make young people aware of how important the ecosystem is. You have to be very careful about what is important.
\n\u201cWe want to highlight we have built a nice community, but it is ongoing work. We can always make things better yet, and that\u2019s the message we always want to get across loud and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir As thousands of people filled the marquee on the northern edge of his property for two nights of revelry, Frank Stronach looked on with pride. After all, Friday and Saturday\u2019s Hoedown has grown from a relatively small barbeque in his back yard into York Region\u2019s biggest party. But no matter how much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/2017-09-21-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4MO","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 12:01:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}