History - Armour Development

A History of Excellence

Building Communities since 1968

Building on a Legacy

Armour’s Founder, Douglas Meharg, built his first home in the village of Markham Ontario in 1947. Since then, Armour has built business complexes, apartment buildings, subdivisions, community centres, country clubs and has earned a reputation for delivering outstanding real estate development in southern Ontario. For 50 years, Doug made the Village a better place to live and work.

Land – and deals – were aplenty in Doug’s day, but the real estate investment supply has diminished in Markham. Investment returns are less, while costs have increased. While our roots are in Markham, Armour’s strategy has re-focused on Eastern Ontario where profitable land deals can still be made and urban sprawl can be capitalized on by investors. From 2016-2026, Armour specializes in building new multi-residential apartments in villages and towns within an hour commute to Ottawa.

Armour History Timeline

1947 - The First House

At the age of 16, Doug builds his first home for his brother, and another one for his parents, which still stand today. Doug goes on to be a carpenter tradesman, building hundreds of homes in the region.

1962

Under his own real estate development corporation monikers, Doug expands his interests to develop real estate in the region and becomes involved in real estate selling and brokering.

1963 - Multi Residential

With the growing Markham economy, Armour begins building high-density multi-residential properties. Markham begins growing upwards.

1966 Subdivisions

Armour is among Ontario’s early subdivision developers. Doug develops Markham’s Sarah Jane Court, named after his daughter. The seeds are planted for Sarah to continue the family tradition in real estate development.

1968 - Community Development

1974 - Commercial

Armour develops mixed-use commercial malls across the region, supporting growing business demand.

1976 - Cultural

Armour supports the local initiative to create a living heritage museum in Markham, now an innovative and award-winning historical preservation project recognized nationally.

1977 - Real Estate Broker

Doug is welcomed into the Century21 Real Estate franchise, and owns and operates Canada’s top grossing C21 offices.

1977 - Training

Doug, a lifelong learner, becomes a supporter of the human potential industry and gives his Agents access to the top motivational trainers. His Century21 Agents continue to break North American sales records and Doug involves his daughters in human potential training.

1985 - Agriculture

Armour plans, negotiates and brokers the sale of the former Markham Fair Grounds in the old town of Markham, and inspires the Fair Board to move to a bigger rural property near the north side of the region. The Markham and East York Agricultural Fair continued its expansion and is now recognized as the most successful fair in Canada.

1988 - Waterfront Development

Doug plans and builds waterfront estates and condos north of Markham in the Lake Simcoe area to provide access to recreational lifestyles for city commuters.

1998 - Recreation

As a retirement project, Doug purchases, redevelops, and modernizes Ontario’s oldest private ski resort, Skyloft Ski & Country Club. Both of his daughters work to successfully achieve the infrastructure and programming modernization.

Armour President Sarah Jane Meharg, Ph.D.

Into the Future

Under the leadership of Doug’s daughter Sarah Jane Meharg, Armour carries forward Doug’s land development legacy in Eastern Ontario. Small towns and villages in this region have never undergone a facelift, and rental housing stock comes at a premium, yet with anything but luxury amenities for tenants. With Sarah’s professional degree in Landscape Architecture and years working in international development and reconstruction, Armour now contributes to a much-improved village lifestyle for mature residents living in our new apartments that have condo-like feel.

2015 Re-Brand

Armour Development is re-branded and launched online.

2016 6-Plex Apartments

Armour works with Dustin Design and Drafting and Tim Moore to create a traditional – yet modern – 6- unit apartment building for the residents of North Dundas. The design will be duplicated throughout the towns and Villages in this region of Eastern Ontario.

2017 Breaking Ground

Armour and partners break ground on the first of five 6-plex apartment buildings in North Dundas. Armour develops modern multi-residential apartment buildings and mixed-use communities in select growth in Eastern Ontario. These projects are investor focused.

2018

Armour recognises its role in developing prosperous communities and begins a campaign to raise $50MIL (CAD) to expand its influence.

2020 The Armour Rural Awards are Launched

Armour launches the Rural Awards to celebrate forward-thinking townships, architects, landscape architects, designers, and developers who are reshaping the rural communities of Ontario.

2022 ArmourVentures.com is launched

ArmourVentures.com is launched to connect and strengthen the real estate industry with the growing tech and startup investment market in Canada. Armour Ventures supports Armours Business Incubators and Investment Centres.

2025 ArmourVentures.com is launched

ArmourInvestment.com launches to support international investing in Canadian real estate as well as Canadian partnership investments into fast growing international real estate development projects and markets.

2028 ArmourInternational.com is launched

As a respected leader in post-conflict reconstruction, Sarah Jane Meharg focuses Armour’s international philanthropy to support the rebuilding of communities after armed conflict and natural disasters.

The activities of the Italian Red Cross during the Central Italy earthquake.

Click for Our Investment Strategy

For over 50 years, Armour has focused on land acquisition, development and management. Like in our early years, we still employ a build and hold strategy today and will do so at least until 2037.

Armour focuses on building small to medium sized apartments that hold between 6-12 tenants. This class of real estate is less volatile than other real estate sectors (such as commercial buildings), which having a good upside plus built-in inflation protection.

We used to build large apartment buildings and subdivisions but the markets show a saturation of this type of lifestyle and a need for smaller apartment units within commuting distance to Ottawa. We have adapted our strategy to suit the needs of mature tenants who seek condo-like apartments in towns with a higher quality of life than urban centres.

Our experts actively researched and analyzed small and medium sized towns within an hour commute to Ottawa with strong regional economies that, or economies expected to be strong in the coming 5-7 years.

We purchase specific lots and acreage, typically through private sales.
We use one financing company to make our purchases and one construction financing company to complete our projects.
Armour increases the value of assets by offering condo-like rental apartments in places that have never had this type of housing, this supports our zero vacancy rate and higher rents.
Armour increases value of assets through expert property management, further supporting zero vacancy and higher rents.
We allow time for local economic growth/in-migration/tightening vacancy rate to increase market value of assets.