Last week, prominent Vancouver-based real estate developer Westbank welcomed Darren Tangen as its new President, the company tells STOREYS.
Tangen comes from American global asset management firm Oaktree Capital Management, where he served as Managing Director, Head of Real Estate Business Development from April 2023 to March 2025. (Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management acquired 61.2% of Oaktree in 2019.)
While with Oaktree, Tangen was based in California, where Westbank has also been very active and is undertaking several ongoing development projects. In San Jose, Westbank, its long-time partner Peterson, and Canadian pension fund OPTrust are currently undertaking a master-planned project called Westbank Campus.
Prior to Oaktree, Tangen led Colony Capital Inc. from August 2002 to April 2020 while simultaneously leading his own investment and advisory services firm Black Tusk Partners, according to his LinkedIn. Both companies were also based in California.
Although he has spent most of his career in the United States, Tangen is local to Delta, spent some time with commercial real estate brokerage Colliers in Vancouver, and graduated from McGill with a Bachelor of Commerce, focusing on Real Estate and Management Information Systems. He also received a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Pennsylvania's The Wharton School.
"These are unusual times," said Westbank in a statement provided to STOREYS. "Our industry is evolving rapidly, and the current pace of disruption brings both significant challenges and unique opportunities. From the beginning, we have taken pride in being more of a creative practice than a traditional real estate business. Our ability to develop innovative real estate solutions has always helped us navigate uncertain waters and differentiate ourselves in the marketplace."
"Today, Westbank is recognized for our architecture, design, and large-scale city-building initiatives," the company added. "As part of our ongoing evolution, we are now applying our experience owning and managing a district energy system in Vancouver, BC to expand into the realm of urban digital infrastructure — merging our expertise in city-building with the growing need for low-carbon AI infrastructure. While we will continue to pursue residential, hospitality, retail, and everything else that has defined us, we are broadening our horizons."
The district energy system the statement alludes to is Creative Energy, which was founded in 1968 as Central Heat Distribution and was rebranded in 2014 after being acquired by Westbank. Earlier this summer, Creative Energy named Mike Crawley as Executive Chair of the Board and Kieran McConnell as its President & COO.
Westbank itself has also been going through a series of changes over the past two years, including embarking on an extensive selling spree. Since Spring 2024, sales Westbank has made include The Pendrell to CAPREIT, The Zephyr to Crombie REIT, M2 to Spear Street Capital, as well as Deloitte Summit, Toronto House, and M4 to Allied Properties REIT. Most recently, Westbank also sold its stake in Sen̓áḵw. Together with Peterson, Westbank has also sold The Lauren and the Shangri-La Vancouver.
In that same time, however, Westbank has also continued to advance both existing and new projects. The Raven at 3709 W Broadway and Joyce II at 5055 Joyce Street are both nearing completion, while upcoming projects include the three-tower Commercial-Broadway Safeway redevelopment, the three-tower East Village project in the Downtown Eastside, and a 14-storey condo project near King Edward Station.
Like many other real estate companies, Westbank has seen personnel changes in recent months. Notably, longtime Head of Partnerships, Acquisitions, and Development Ian Duke left the company in June after more than 14 years. Duke played a critical role in establishing many of the aforementioned relationships and has since joined Aquilini Group as Executive Vice President.
