The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 10

The International News Weekly back page
September 01, 2017 | Toronto 24
How Patiala's Steve Gupta became
Canada's biggest private hotel owner
The Canadian Parvasi
TORONTO : Patiala-born
Steve Gupta is Canada’s most
successful private hotelier.
He left Patiala in the early
1970 after finishing his MA to
see the world.
Gupta stayed in the UK
for a couple of months and
then landed in Toronto. He
says initially some people
discouraged him about settling
in Canada. "But I applied
for immigration and got
it within 20 days,’’ he says.
Then he went back to India
and get married by wife. "We
started our life here in 1973,’’
says Gupta who runs the
Easton’s Group of Hotels and
real estate company called
the Gupta Group. The man
who came with just a few dollars
today runs 29 flagship
hotels under the brands of
Hilton, Marriott, Holiday Inn
and Starwood across Canada.
Gupta says he used to dream
about owning hotels when
he was young. "God has been
kind. We have worked very
Steve Gupta and his family with Modi and former PM Stephen Harper
hard to build this group from
the grass roots."
He started his life in Canada
as an insurance agent. "I
was good at math because I
had done my MA and I was
good at English. So I started
selling insurance by knocking
on doors. However, I
alway wanted to be in real
estate," says Gupta.
In 1978 he bought a truck
stop and gas bar in Port Hope
which is about 100 km northeast
of Toronto and he has no
looked back since.
"It was a $3 million deal.
I had just $15,000 in cash. But
I threw everything into the
truck stop to make it a success.,"
says Gupta.
He started buying properties,
renovating them and
then selling them. Then he
started buying apartment
properties and eventually
went on to own thousands of
apartment units in Toronto.
Gupta’s break into the
hotel business came in 1997
when he bought an old police
building in the heart of Toronto
and built it into a hotel.
Today it is the famous Hilton
Garden Inn Downtown.
"Three of my four children
have MBA degrees covering
all aspects of business and
they are in our family business
now. My eldest daughter
Reetu Gupta, who is the chief
operating officer, has just
been named among Canada’s
Top 40 under 40," says Gupta
who has been conferred a
doctorate by Toronto’s Ryerson
University.
"My son Suraj was among
top 10 in his MBA from Columbia
University and he
wants to do something different
- build life-style hotels. My
wife looks after finance,"says
Gupta.
Apart from the hotels,
his family-run real estate
business under the name of
The Gupta Group has also
become top developers in
Canada. "We are a 52-storey
building in Toronto. And
we are building two tallest
condo buildings in Vaughan
(just north of Toronto)," says
Gupta. He believes that once
you are committed to something
with a passion, the sky
is the limit.
“We are well aware of
the incredible potential of
this region (of Vaughan) as
our hotel development company,
The Easton’s Group
of Hotels, owns three successful
hotels in Vaughan,”
says Steve Gupta, Chairman
and CEO of The Gupta
Group and President and
CEO of the Easton’s Group
of Hotels. This project will
proudly “contribute to the
already phenomenal growth
of this area.” The Easton’s
Group and the Gupta Group
are now touching the sky as
their condominium and hotel
buildings are doing.
There’s no limit to Gupta’s
success and growth. He
launched the Gupta Group
for condominium developments
only in 2012. Since
then he has launched a dozen
multimillion dollar projects,
like the successful King
Blue (later the entire project
was scooped by a Chinese
company), followed by Dundas
Square Gardens, The
Rosedale on Bloor, and Yong
Park Plaza, a mixed-use, four
star hotel and office building,
all in Toronto. Today, the
Easton Group of Hotels is a
big name in the hospitality
and service industry.
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Up to $3 per mile in gross revenue
Fleet fuel discounts
Steady miles
Lease to own & rental
program to become
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