Antonio Bellano has joined Avison Young as a principal and practice leader, BC, project management. He will focus on expanding the firm’s project management service line offering throughout B.C. and beyond. He brings more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young, most recently as vice-president of property development with Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd.

During his career, Bellano has overseen the project management, development, planning and delivery of resort, hotel, restaurant, retail and casino properties in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, including tenant-improvement and new-construction projects. Prior to joining Gateway, he held executive, construction, project management, asset management and real estate development management and consultant positions in Metro Vancouver and Washington state with SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts, Joey Restaurant Group, Wyndham Worldwide, New Generation Construction Ltd. and Intrawest Resort Club Group. Before entering the commercial real estate industry, he was a principal with his family’s ceramic-tile importing and wholesale sales business.

“We are excited to have Antonio on board as he will help strengthen our project and property management service lines across our Western Canadian markets, enhance our offerings for national portfolio clients, and add scale to our growing BC project management operations,” said Mark Fieder, Avison Young principal and COO, Canadian Operations.

Bellano holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in construction management from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), and a Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management Certificate from Cornell University.

“I look forward to the exciting opportunity to work with a great team to further develop Avison Young’s B.C. project management practice, build it into an industry leader, and offer our clients and business partners unparalleled attention and service that will contribute to their overall success,” said Bellano.