Greg Sorbara family enterprise: from ruins to hospitality hot spot

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From real estate and politics to farming, fintech, teaching, architecture and film production, Greg and Kate Sorbara’s family came together via a wide variety of backgrounds to restore a farm and rebuild a ruined hotel in the eastern part of Ontario.

Originally meant as a family retreat, Edwin County Farms follows the farm-to-table trend, providing products for The Royal Hotel in Prince Edward County.

Greg Sorbara, a former lawyer, Member of Provincial Parliament of Ontario and chancellor at York University in Toronto, is advisory board chair of Vaughan, Ont.-based The Sorbara Group, a real estate development, construction, and investment/management group started by his father, Italian immigrant Sam Sorbara, that has more than 80 years of family history.

Greg Sorbara has two brothers, Edward and Joseph Sorbara, and a sister, Marcella Tanzola, who have variously been involved in the family business, and in philanthropic initiatives.

Kate Sorbara comes from a farming background, and is involved in writing.

Here, Greg and Kate Sorbara discuss how their multigenerational food and hospitality business is rooted in family.

Tell us about your family history and your current enterprise.

Greg Sorbara: “My wife, Kate, and I have a large family: six kids, their partners and altogether 18 grandkids.

Kate comes from a farming background She is the inspiration for the farming part of our next generation family business: Edwin County Farms.

My father built the foundations for a very successful real estate enterprise in the [Greater Toronto Area] – The Sorbara Group of Companies, now managed by my brother Edward. That business has provided the resources to fund both Edwin County Farms and The Royal Hotel, our recently completed destination hotel in Picton.

The adventure began in 2008 when, as a family, we decided to purchase a 650-acre farm in Prince Edward County some 200 kilometres from our home base in Toronto.

The arable fields on the farm had become overgrown with cedar trees and the house and outbuildings were in serious need of repair. There was no particular business plan at that time. We simply imagined a place which would become a compound for all of us. Within 18 months or so we began the work of rehabilitating the land and restoring the farmhouse and barns. A local farmer was hired to bring the 250 acres of arable land back into production.

The farming operation began in earnest when Kate’s brother John and his wife Cathy moved to the County to help get us into farming in a serious way.

We purchased a small herd of Black Angus cows and began to produce maple syrup each spring. We completely renovated an old schoolhouse, which became part of the farm compound and a place for John and Cathy to live.

With that, Kate and I became part-time residents in the restored farmhouse along with whoever among our kids and grandkids could join us from time to time.

In 2014 we acquired the old Royal Hotel which lay in ruins in the very centre of Picton. Our initial hope was to restore it in three years to be part of our county enterprise. As it turned out, it took nine years and a ton of money to restore and reimagine The Royal.

In the meantime, in 2018, [son] Nicholas and [spouse] Claire moved to the County and added a market garden component to Edwin County Farms. And our son Lucas and his family moved to the farm to participate full-time in farm operations in 2021.

We now had Kate, our two sons, their partners and a number of farm hands working the farm while our son-in-law Sol Korngold was overseeing the rebuilding of the Royal.

At the same time, Cathy was doing all the work associated with getting everything we produce on the farm to be certified organic. The produce now includes beef, chickens, pork and eggs, as well as a host of organically grown vegetables.

The Royal finally opened in January 2022. And it became the lead customer for products grown and produced at Edwin County Farms. We had realized the vision of a magnificent, restored hotel whose kitchen was a true ‘farm to table’ operation.

Meanwhile, our daughter Ginger, an architect, not only contributed to the hotel design but designed and oversaw the reconstruction of the original farmhouse. And with the addition of another large house in Picton close to the Royal, we can now almost accommodate in Picton the whole family on celebratory occasions.

All of our children – and now our grandchildren – have their fingerprints on the adventure we’ve undertaken in Price Edward County. It combines a history in real estate with a commitment to regenerative organic farming.”

What is it like creating a multigeneration enterprise and how did the next generation’s leadership roles evolve?

GS: “Our kids never cease to amaze us. Ten years ago, Sol was working in fintech, Lucas was a full-time teacher and Nicholas was a film producer. Today, they are here full-tilt in the County growing our businesses. The others, while not here, participate in unique ways. Much of this is driven by Kate’s commitment to the notion of family and extended family.

The opening of the Royal was a triumph for all of us. The risks involved in taking on the restoration of a 140-year-old building were substantial. All the more so in that we had never ventured into the hospitality business beforehand.

Our kids have been involved since we purchased the farm 16 years ago. There was no particular business plan at that time. As our activities developed, their involvement grew. We had endless family meetings together after we bought the hotel building. We needed to determine how we could rebuild it and operate it as a going concern.

Eventually we agreed to have Sol take the lead on realizing our aspirations for The Royal. As the farm property developed into a true operating organic farm, our sons saw it as a better place to live and raise their families. And as they saw their parents age, they assumed the leadership roles that must be occupied if a family business is to move to the next generation.”

How did you get through the pandemic?

GS: “The pandemic had less of an impact on our enterprise than it did on so many other businesses. Certainly, it slowed the reconstruction of the Royal and delayed its opening. But for Kate and me and for Luc’s family and Nick’s family, it kept us together on the farm in what can only be described as a big – and porous bubble. There was no place else to go. The farm was our best source of entertainment.”

Any advice for next gens who want to take on more leadership within their family enterprise?

GS: “Blood is thicker than water. The bonds that bind a family enterprise are stronger than the articles of a shareholder agreement among non-family business partners. There is nothing like the sense of fulfillment that comes from an enterprise that grows from one generation to the next.”

How did your love for the countryside inform your decision around the farm business?

Kate Sorbara: “I was in my late fifties when we found this farm. I decided I wanted to make it a working farm.

I didn’t know where to begin but I knew it was up to me to bring this place back from decay. […] The man we bought it from, the late John Kerr, pastured his cattle [here]. I’d say John was around seventy-five when we bought it from him, but he’d had a heart attack and he wanted to sell the farm so that his wife would not have to deal with it after he died. He was quite a guy.

We bought this farm just before the prices in Prince Edward County rose. We got all six hundred and fifty acres for $700,000. Which, according to the price of land here now, was a steal.

John told us when we bought the land that it had the best water in the county, and it turns out that was not much of an exaggeration. Many people we know who live in the county run out of water in the summer or have stinky sulfur water. We have lots of beautiful, sweet water for our market garden and our cattle, but that’s letting the story run ahead of where I am now.

So many things have happened and been undertaken. It’s hard even to remember how it was back in the beginning. First thing that happened is that my ex-son-in-law found a woman to rent the wreck of a house and over the winter she and her man and their dog ruined what was left of it. They put their old dog down in the basement to do his business along with all their garbage.”

With the help of a neighbor, we cleaned up the basement and found someone to renovate the house … our first but not last try at fixing up the old house. My brother Dave said, ‘Tear it down and start again,’ and I probably should have but I didn’t want to be the one who tore down another old Ontario farmhouse. So, over the years, it has become a beautiful old over-renovated house that is too close to the road.

The barn, too, was falling down, and we decided to try to keep it. This is not something I can advocate for. It cost a lot of money to remake the barn. It’s now an event center and the silo is bedrooms and a small kitchen. Our farm interns lived there this year and loved it. Greg and I lived there one summer.”

How did you consider wealth management as your plans unfolded?

KS: “If this all sounds like money, it is. Greg has money from his family business and luckily was willing to put some of it into the farm. I felt OK about that because much of the money that comes to us is made by taking farmland and turning it into subdivisions. So, some of that money has been used to reconstitute a historical Ontario farm.”

How is the farmland special to your family history?

KS: “Greg wanted to fix the old farm roads that ran through the acreage (he has Roman roots), and someone told him the best way to get the material for that was to produce it on the farm.

There was a boggy field next to the barn that had been punched up over the years by cattle. It was so rough you couldn’t walk it. We decided to make a pond there and use the aggregate from the hole to fix the roads. I really had no idea what that meant at the time I agreed to it.

It turns out it meant blasting the limestone which is under most of the topsoil on this farm. One summer they blasted and ground the stone and carted the gravel to the back roads. It was terrible. Noisy and dusty.

By then, I was living in the renovated old house and working on my gardens. I could still do that in those days. After I arrived, I started to worry about what I would do with the cleared land.

There were 350 acres of hardwood bush and 300 acres of more or less cleared farmland. More or less because much of it was sprouting cypress – the weed tree around here.

I found a local farmer to come and work the land. The deal was he’d work it and plant it and we’d share the profit, but the truth was that it cost so much to clean it up and plant it that I got no money from it, and it cost quite a lot. I did get quite a bit of the land cleaned, though. It felt great to be bringing the land back. The question was still what I was going to do with it.

I grew up on a dairy farm near Aurora, Ont. That farm is now a subdivision, like many farms in that area.

To be fair, that is a farmer’s retirement fund. He has no unemployment insurance and no pension plan. He has probably lived most of his life in near-poverty. He has become a jack-of-all-trades by the fact that he must fix his own plumbing, mend his own electrical problems and repair his machines. At least that was true when I grew up. Now the machinery is computerized and complicated.”

How has your family become involved in the managing of the farm over the years?

KS: “Around the time that I was wondering what on earth I would do with this big farm, my brother John spoke to me about his wish to retire from his cabinet-making business. He was tired and it wasn’t making him enough money to live off.

One night when we were staying at Greg’s parents’ house in Florida, I lay awake worrying about the farm, which I did often in those days. I thought of John. He’d grown up on a farm, as I had. He wanted a new life.

I was really excited. I woke up Greg, who almost always sleeps well without worry, and he sleepily said he thought it was a bit of a long shot.

The next morning, I phoned John. He was quiet for a minute then he said, ‘Let me talk to Cathy.’ I had spoken to her recently and she was fed up with the way things were going, as well. A few days later, he phoned and accepted my invitation for him to come and help me run the farm.

I was overjoyed. I had bought an old schoolhouse next door because it was originally part of the farm. We were in the process of fixing it up to rent. So, we fixed it up for John and Cathy.”

How did you personally stay involved in the working of the farm?

KS: “Before John arrived, I had asked a friend to help me get started. He suggested we put cattle on the land and produce their fodder on our own fields. To that end we had put up a few fences and a small hay barn.

So, when John arrived, things had already begun. His farm boy immediately clicked in. He went to auctions and bought cattle, and machinery. He reached out into the community to find other farmers who could give him advice and tell him what tools and machinery were available. It wasn’t long before we had a herd of cattle and some hay and grain growing in the fields.

I moved into the farmhouse in October of ’09 I believe. The guy who was renovating then told me it would be done by Thanksgiving, so I ran around to junk stores and antique stores and [thrift stores] and bought kitchen stuff and beds and furniture and dishes. I put the whole thing together the week before Thanksgiving, pushing the construction workers out as we moved in.”

Have your children remained interested in the farm?

KS: “Getting the farm was a dream come true, even though I was too old to be starting farming life.

It worked out because there was enough money for me to get some help now and then. I hired someone to cut the grass and I hired the guy who was working the field to rototill a large plot for a vegetable garden.

The next year, I told my kids who were all living in and around Toronto that what I wanted for my birthday, which is in May, was for them all to come out and help plant the garden. That was one of the best decisions I ever made out here.

They came to help plant and then they came at Thanksgiving to help harvest and some of them found they had a real interest in farming.

Luc and Amanda lived near us in the city. Luc taught full-time at the Waldorf School and Amanda had gone back to school to study and had become a midwife. But they were interested, as I had been, in providing organic produce for their family, so they came when they could and helped plant and weed and harvest. After the cows arrived and I had manure to put on, that garden was a wonder.”

How did your siblings continue to contribute?

KS: “After John arrived, he would call our brother Dave when he needed help and Dave would arrive with his son Alex to build fences, and fix buildings and drain our wetlands.

Dave talked us in to buying a backhoe and we’ve never regretted it. Until then, whenever we needed clearing done or ponds dredged or drains, it was costly. From that time on, Dave did all that work with our backhoe.

We bought some older tractors and plowed and disked and planted but our equipment has always been secondhand and less than state of the art. The reason we have been able to do that is because Dave and Alex can fix almost anything. We had an old tractor from around 1954 I think, and I remember showing Dave how to get the manual online. He was awed by that. He went home and bought himself a computer.

We have a harvester that is almost as old as I am, and it works for our small amounts of grain. We plant spelt for the cattle and red fife wheat for ourselves.”

And now your son, Nick, is part of the farm. Can you share how he became involved in this aspect of your family business?

KS: “About five, maybe six, years ago my youngest son Nick, who had a pretty successful postproduction company in Toronto, announced that he wanted to do a market garden here. I couldn’t believe it.

Even though he’d lived beside my organic gardens, he’d never shown any interest in them. I didn’t really believe that he would do it. The first year, he planted a bunch of greens and harvested them and sold them to a friend in the restaurant business in Toronto. He harvested it by hand washed it in my sink, dried it with my salad spinner, and bagged it on my dining room table.

That winter, he went to a farm in Arizona that had training classes for market gardeners, and he met Jan. That was a life-changing meeting. He said, ‘I met a friend, Mom, who is going to help us with the market garden.’”

How did that sit with you?

KS: “I must confess, my heart sank. I still didn’t believe it would happen and now some guy I didn’t know was going to come and what? So, Jan came, and he turned out to be an unbelievable farmer.

Even my brothers, who grew up on a farm, could not believe what Jan and Nick could do in a day. The place went from cattle farm to market garden in a few months. Equipment arrived, tarps arrived, rows of lettuce and cabbage and broccoli and chard and kale appeared as if by magic. One-hundred-foot rows! That’s what they wanted. Even my dear vegetable garden was elongated to one hundred feet. Every day something new.”

And how did the hotel evolve from the garden?

KS: “In the meantime, Greg had bought an old decrepit hotel in the heart of our local town of Picton. It was really, literally falling down, hole in the roof, pigeons in the attic. It was certainly against all my good advice that he bought it.

But he was excited about it, and it seemed to me that it would help him relocate from the city to have a project here. I thought I would help but it soon became evident that my method of second-hand equipment and furniture from [thrift stores] was not going to cut it.

Greg and my son-in-law Sol took on the job and Sol, who is a perfectionist with a touch of OCD, took on the role of managing the project. He is now manager of the hotel and it’s a perfect role for him. The hotel is a marvelous success – much to my surprise. And it is beautiful.

With my ‘encouragement’ they decided that the farm would provide the hotel restaurant with produce. It’s been a little bit difficult to co-ordinate but it’s a great marriage of farm and restaurant.

During this time, my son Luc and his wife decided to leave their beautiful home in Richmond Hill and their jobs. They had spent summers working in the garden and watching John with the cattle and Nick with his market garden and they decided they wanted to help.

With Nick, they have become the strong center of this farm. They run it now and I am mostly watching.

We have beef and organic produce for the restaurant. The marriage of the hotel restaurant and the farm has inspired us all toward producing quality food. The Royal hotel is becoming famous for its great food and its great chef, [former chef of Le Sélect Bistro in Toronto] Albert Ponzo.

When I look back at how this has happened, I am still awed by the unfolding of this project. I live next door to my sons and their families. I eat the most amazing produce, have a perfect egg every morning for breakfast and a high-end latte every Saturday morning while I read the [newspaper] in the diner of the Royal.

I feel like the luckiest 75-year-old on the planet.”

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

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