5 Conversations With Leaders I Admire That Stuck: Jill Wanklyn

Five years into building PUBLiSH, I wanted to mark the milestone by sharing a collection of five honest conversations with people I admire.

A conversation with Jill Wanklyn, Senior Development Manager at Bosa Properties

A builder. A systems thinker. Someone who understands that development isn’t just about buildings, it’s about long-term stewardship of cities.

Jill has worked on complex residential and mixed-use projects, navigating the intersection of policy, partnerships, and community impact. Her perspective on what the industry needs more of, and what it needs less of, challenges the transactional mindset that can sometimes shape development, instead pointing toward a more collaborative, long-term approach to city building.

Max: What does the industry need more of right now, and what does it need less of?

Jill: The two things that come to mind are more innovative partnerships and less transactional thinking, especially with Indigenous and community-based organizations that focus on economic reconciliation through development. Projects like Cohen Block and Sen̓áḵw are great examples of partnerships anchored in long-term stewardship and shared values rather than purely transactional relationships.

The industry is being forced to shed its “build it and they will come” mentality, and there’s an increasing focus on long-term city building and projects designed around the end user. Mixed-use development that isn’t formulaic is especially exciting to me, pairing uses like hotel, rental, cultural programming, and community-serving spaces in ways that respond to the context of the neighbourhood. I’m also optimistic about the future of small-format, community-serving retail, which really contributes to the vibrancy of neighbourhoods and downtown cores.

Max: From your perspective inside development, where do you see the biggest gap between how the industry talks about itself and what actually happens in practice?

Jill: I think there’s still a disconnect between the industry’s desire to drive innovation and urgency, and the policy frameworks that can sometimes undermine both. We consistently come up against policy frameworks that are at odds with one another which can limit the ability of the industry to execute with urgency and or innovation. We have seen a lot of progress around sustainable building materials and delivery practises, however building codes are cumbersome and slow to change so we have yet to see widespread integration of these new practises.

Max: Are there behaviours or habits you think are holding the industry back right now?

Jill: I think the industry tends to get stuck in terms of how things have always been done – even when the context has changed. Given the long lead times for these projects, the industry is often making design or customer decisions with data that no longer fits the market you are delivering into.

Max: Where do you feel the industry still relies too heavily on “how things have always been done”?

Jill: Some obvious ones are legacy assumptions around parking, unit mix, and technology. Demographics and technology have rapidly changed, but those assumptions still underpin many early design decisions. It's been interesting to see how certain companies are starting to embrace AI platforms to help test some of these assumptions early and really drive design decisions based on end user demands and customer feedback.