For even the most successful developer, a really spectacular building site comes across once in a career. That once has arrived for Henry Man.

As president and CEO of the Vancouver firm Magellen 20/20, Man purchased one of the last remaining residential sites on Vancouver's best known thorough fare — Robson Street. Now, on Robson at Homer Street, kitty-corner with Library Square, he's building a high-end, mostly residential complex called Atelier on Robson.

"This site is as good as it gets. It's once in a life-time," says Man at his elegant, loft-style offices in the adjacent Yaletown district.

"This is one of those locations that if someone is building a portfolio, it would be the key asset. A location like this gives you the ingredients to mould a flagship building."

A University of B.C. chemical engineering graduate, Man, 47, was recruited in 1982 by British Petroleum (now Talisman Oil) in Calgary. He spent eight years with BP,and earned an MBA from the University of Calgary.

Back in Vancouver, Man joined Concord Pacific Developments, and between 1994 and 2002 was involved in there development of the industrial north shore of False Creek in to a dynamic residential community, now approaching 9,000 housing units.

Man served as Concord’s senior vice-president and chief operating officer (COO). And from 1997, he was simultaneously COO of Concord Adex Developments in Toronto, builder of the similarly massive City Place complex.

Then in 2002, seeking more repose in his life (and with a personal portfolio to manage), Man decided to retire. "I was doing 15 to 20 trips a year to Toronto, as well as between five and seven trips a year to Asia," says the father of three, now aged 11 to 15.

"I was basically every week heading to the airport or heading back.

"He wanted to spend more time at home, coach soccer and play tennis, and support the likes of UBC's Corpus Christi and St. Mark's colleges, and the St. Paul's Hospital Foundation, of whose boards he remains a director.

"But after a year of retirement people would come to me and say, 'Henry, I have this site, help me out.' Then I'd look at the building and say, 'No, no, that's not how you do it...' You get dragged in. "In 2003, he established his own firm, Magellen 20/20.

And while residential projects continue to roll out most recently the Freesia, a luxury tower a few blocks south of Robson they are chosen and developed with care. "I'm not the gungho developer, "Man adds. "It's important I work with the right people, and that I feel comfortable. Balancing one's career and family is a process. You learn as you go along."

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