The Rise of the Shopping Centre
Ignat (Iggy) Kaneff was a young Bulgarian immigrant the Shipps hired to work on Applewood Acres not long after he arrived in Mississauga in 1951. After building his own house, Kaneff mortgaged it to buy two more lots and built houses on them. This was the beginning of the Kaneff Group of Companies. By 1957, Kaneff was managing his growing development company. He built his first apartment building in Mississauga in 1957 and his projects have ranged from subdivisions like Huron Heights to plazas and office buildings.
According to Mayor Bonnie Crombie, “Iggy Kaneff helped plant the seeds that would see Mississauga grow from farm fields and fruit trees into the vibrant, prosperous, and thriving place we now call home”.
During a slump in the building industry during the 1980s, Kaneff built his first golf course on land he had bought earlier for future development and now owns some of the most prestigious courses in Southern Ontario.
Mr. Kaneff and his wife “Didi” are great believers in giving back to the community and in addition to various philanthropic gifts both in Canada and abroad, they set up the I. Kaneff Charitable Foundation in 1986.