A day in the life of Mr. Bright Side

It’s June 1, 2023, and it’s hard to ignore the fact that everything in Atlantic Canada’s biggest metropolis is on fire. Perhaps not literally, but it sure feels that way.

The summer sun is a pale orb behind the greasy, brown haze that hangs over the Bedford Basin. A radio station warns everybody to stay home—unless they live in the woodland neighbourhood of Hammond’s Plains where “everybody” should get the hell out. Meanwhile, online sales of air purifiers just exceeded COVID-outbreak levels.

But Doug Doucet isn’t rattled.

“We were evacuated from our house, the golf course and our office building,” says the founder, president and CEO of Bedford-based Doucet Developments. “But everybody’s safe and sound.”

When he’s not negotiating the perils of suburban wildfires, Doucet handles overall corporate planning, development and management at his mid-sized conglomerate, which includes rcs construction, Mill-Right Woodworking, Tier Too Properties, and PMco Inc. That’s real estate development, construction services, property management, leasing and maintenance, plus retail and hospitality.

His clients describe him as “solid, calm, stable… proactive, diligent, and safe,” which is, of course, how you’d like to be described if you’re in construction.

Halifax power couple Stephanie and Maurizio Bertossi—who once owned a lot of restaurants in the city—offer the following testimonial: “The teams [Doug has] put together were able to move heaven and earth (and a lot of restaurant equipment) to meet our incredibly tight schedules so that we could always open on time with the most beautiful custom-built award-winning restaurants. It’s such an amazing feeling to have complete trust in knowing that the job would be finished to the utmost degree, because of the unprecedented amount of caring from everyone at rcs.”

 

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