Adam Davis -Making You Feel Like You Are His Only Customer

In a place just off the Trans Canada Hwy in St-Laurent, Qc, a few miles from downtown Montreal, lighting is about more than input voltage and photometrics.

Every morning Foresight Lighting’s Inside Service Representative, Adam Davis, starts his day by making breakfast for his two toddlers.  His next priority of the day is to make sure his co-workers have started their day on the right foot, so he checks in with the guys in the back of Foresight’s assembly and distribution facility. Adam believes in team spirit and practises it daily.  Before landing at Foresight he worked in his family clothing business; he still acts like he works with family.

Adam didn’t know a thing about lighting when he was hired to assemble fixtures at a much smaller Foresight five and a half years ago.  He credits the patience and “team” attitude of Foresight’s father and son team, Murray and Jonathan Saxe, for teaching him the business and helping him to be successful. “An order had to get out that day and so on my first day I learned how to wire and test a ballast in a light fixture,” remembers Adam. “I didn’t even know what a ballast was before that.” Even today he’s still learning the business from the wealth of experienced lighting folks that make up the Foresight team.

Adam has a lot more insight into the business now and recognises that meeting customer’s expectations for price and delivery are at the heart of it.  For his part, Adam also believes that respect and creating a relationship with his customers are important.  He’ll know your favourite team and ask you how your kids or parents are doing.  That’s who Adam Davis is.

Adam says he hopes each day brings more orders than Foresight knows what to do with and he digs into orders and quotes because he says, “Getting a quote out to a customer quickly brings in the orders and shows the customer we’re conscientious.”

“Because of folks like Adam and his customer service attitude, the statement “We make you feel like you’re our only customer” isn’t just a tag line,” says Jonathan Saxe.

York Heritage Shows Off Historical Beauty With Amsterdam and Hong Kong

York Heritage Properties acquires, renovates, retrofits and manages architecturally interesting older buildings in Toronto to provide a dignified, sophisticated alternative to costly, conventional office space.  When Michael Cruickshank, Robert Eisenberg and their team take on a new building or a restoration/remodel of one of their existing properties, they use good sense, an eye towards aesthetics and their highly tuned intuition to make choices in materials.  The lighting is a key component of any space and they carefully choose the type of fixture based on the look, the cost and the efficiency.  York Heritage discovered Foresight Lighting in 2010 and has been putting Foresight architectural fixtures like the stylish Amsterdam in their buildings throughout Toronto ever since. “Foresight has been great to work with.  When I call, I get immediate attention from Adam in inside sales, and Juergen and the rest of team provide me with everything I need to make lighting decisions and get the job started.  I can quickly take the numbers to leasing which keeps our business moving,” praises Marc McKenzie, Senior Property Manager for York Heritage.

161 Liberty is one of York Heritage’s recent acquisitions in Liberty Village, Toronto’s most wired community. It’s a three storey, brick and beam structure with towering operable windows and high ceilings. When YHP decided to turn the lower level into a prime office opportunity, they were faced with a complete remodel and restoration.  The space offered great natural daylight so their lighting solution was designed around the optimal use of that natural light. 

There was no existing lighting to speak of so the lighting layout was wide open.  “The space has great wood beams in the ceiling, and features like that are always a focal point for the York Heritage group,” states Marc McKenzie, Senior Property Manager at YHP. “So we knew we wanted a lighting solution that provided an up-light component to highlight the beauty of the wood, while providing an urban/industrial look that is consistent with the style of the building and the area.”

York Heritage had installed the ForesightLighting Hong Kong fixture in a space on one of the upper floors.  The lighting layout and fixture were well received by tenants and offered a cost efficient solution for the restored lower level space.

10 Alcorn is a stylish building in a safe, residential environment. Located near the Summerhill Subway Station in Toronto Midtown, the property offers lots of space and an open atmosphere.  When nearly 20,000 square feet were vacated, York Heritage property and leasing teams had some decisions to make.  “The vacated space was very institutional with drop ceilings and bland open spaces where cube-farms once stood,” commented McKenzie.  The YHP team decided to divide the space.  They preferred dry-wall ceiling over the drop ceiling but found they had to maintain the drop grid to accommodate wiring and networking for the new tenants.  In a 7000 sq ft space, they were able to get rid of the grid 15-ft in from walls and windows around the perimeter of the space.  This added 3-ft to the ceiling height. 

The goal with their lighting selection was to create a modern look, and to have bright cool light shining up to reflect off the newly white drywall ceiling.  The Foresight Lighting Amsterdam fit the bill.  The Amsterdam offered contemporary styling with the up-light component.  As a T5 fixture, the Amsterdam is also an energy efficient solution that allowed York Heritage’s energy rebate specialist to apply for utility rebates on the project.

Overall the Amsterdam was used in over 15,000 square feet of the remodeled space with an average per square foot cost of $2.25.

3 Church Street is a carefully restored building, constructed in heavy timber at the turn-of-the-last-century featuring the warmth of wood columns and beams, with brick feature walls, operable windows and high ceilings in a lively environment.  The building has not seen much turnover in recent years, so when the top floor tenant vacated 3000 sq ft after 35 years, a complete overhaul was required.  The new tenant, a high-end clothing importer, had their own decorating concepts that reflected a modern flair and high-end styling.  For this space, York Heritage again chose the Amsterdam to compliment the proposed new décor.   The up-light of the Amsterdam highlights the high ceilings and the glare-free down-lighting is in perfect harmony with the new glass entryway and other elements added by the tenant.

“We have the choice of any major brand on the market, but when you find a fixture that works great, is economical and the supplier provides great customer service, you stick with it,” states Marc McKenzie.