Albert’s empire would likely never have existed if it weren’t for his wife. Temmy Latner was raised near Dundas and Spadina, just a few blocks from her future husband. In the early 1930s, Arthur Weinstock, Temmy’s father, founded Delight Dress, a womenswear factory on Spadina Avenue, the heart of the garment district. Delight Dress boomed and he made a tidy profit, but in the ’50s business began to slow down and Arthur decided to try another line of work. He teamed up with his friend Lipa Green in a new real estate development company they called Greenwin Properties—a loose portmanteau of the co-owners’ names.
Temmy and Albert married in a small ceremony in June of 1949 at Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue, then on St. Clair West. Afterward, they drove to Miami for a budget honeymoon. Temmy quickly became pregnant, and Albert, a dutiful young man, dropped out of university to support his new family. His wealthy father-in-law set him up with a job on a Greenwin construction crew. Arthur mentored Albert in the business, helping him work his way up the ranks. With Lipa’s sons, Al and Harold Green, Albert would help grow Greenwin into a Toronto construction behemoth.
He picked an opportune moment to join the construction industry: mid-century Toronto was undergoing a massive expansion. Greenwin built much of Don Mills, one of the city’s first suburbs, as well as dozens of condominiums in the downtown and subsidized social housing complexes in the inner suburbs. All told, the company would erect more than 15,000 residential apartment units and over six million square feet of commercial space in the GTA, eventually expanding into developments across the country.
The first of Albert and Temmy’s four children was Steven, born in 1950, a bright, gregarious boy with a love of books, followed swiftly by the diligent middle brother Michael, then Elise, the lone girl who, from the beginning, preferred the company of her mother to anyone else, and finally, after a gap of six years, Joshua. The family lived in a tiny, sparsely furnished house on Khedive Avenue near Bathurst and Wilson, but soon moved to a house in Don Mills—one of the first houses in the subdivision, it was surrounded by farmers’ fields. As Albert’s fortune grew, the family moved to bigger digs in swankier districts of the city: a modern split-level at Lawrence and Bathurst, a mock-Tudor mansion on Warren Road in Forest Hill, and eventually a sprawling farm in King City.
Friends who were close to the Latners in those years describe a tight-knit household dominated by confident boys with healthy intellects and egos to match. Family dinners—particularly Friday night Shabbat—were a sacred ritual. Latner gatherings, according to one regular house guest, were “dominated by loud, liberal chat among the men that would escalate into an uncontrollable cacophony of excited expletives and arguments.” Temmy and Elise, by contrast, would retreat into the sitting room to knit and do needlepoint in peace.
Temmy was always cooking, sewing, knitting, sketching, ironing, decorating or doing needlepoint—when she wasn’t playing piano. As a girl, she studied under the legendary concert pianist Boris Berlin (he held a needle under her wrists while she played to keep them from sagging). Her favourite piece, Rachmaninov’s Prelude, no. 2 in C-sharp Minor, could often be heard throughout the house. “She was an incredibly gracious lady who made everyone around her feel good,” remembers Tsion Avital, a family friend who first met the Latners in 1972 while on a visit from Israel to research his PhD at U of T. One night, when he was ill, a pot of homemade chicken soup arrived at his apartment, delivered by Temmy’s chauffeur. Many years later, when Avital’s first son was born, Temmy, on a visit to Israel, presented him with a handmade quilt. “This is a woman who could have bought a million quilts,” he said, “but she chose to make one instead.”
Those who knew Albert and Temmy in their heyday describe their marriage as a great love affair, one that provided a bedrock for their children. Temmy was Albert’s best friend, the only person he fully confided in and trusted.
Shame on this family. They are all a bunch of “LOSERS”.
July 12, 2011 at 1:18 pm | by CDI love this article, it is such a great summer read! Thanks Leah!
July 12, 2011 at 2:22 pm | by PedroFinally! A toronto life article with some actual personality and bite. Ditch the 15 page articles on zoo elephants and feature more of this!
July 13, 2011 at 6:18 pm | by BalmoralI agree , its a great read , but there are all greedy and their wonderful parents do not deserve this
July 14, 2011 at 9:46 am | by Denise CNo Respect
I can appreciate that the wealthy have different problems from us “normal folk”, but this is crazy. Suing your family over every grievence, every disagreement, sounds like the behaviour of an immature, self-entitled baby. It’s as if they’ve got nothing better to, so they amuse themselves by suing each other. And that lawyer should be ashamed of himself – he’s an enabler, not legal counsel.
July 14, 2011 at 10:27 am | by LaurenI can appreciate that the wealthy have different problems from us “normal folk”, but this is crazy. Suing your family over every grievance, every disagreement, sounds like the behaviour of an immature, self-entitled baby. It’s as if they’ve got nothing better to, so they amuse themselves by suing each other. And that lawyer should be ashamed of himself – he’s an enabler, not legal counsel.
July 14, 2011 at 10:28 am | by LaurenIf this was the way the family business was run, this was taught.
July 14, 2011 at 10:52 am | by LizThis article is disgusting. Leave people alone. No one cares about this gossip. Crappy journalism at its best.
July 14, 2011 at 10:55 am | by JamesJames,why so nasty? Disgusting article? Really?? I for one love to read about the problems of the very rich especially as I am currently un-employed and counting every penny. Family means nothing to these people, to be that greedy deserves no sympathy from me, these siblings are disgusting. To be given a house would be more than generous for most of us, to have no mortgage would make me positively giddy!
July 14, 2011 at 11:48 am | by Julie CiracoWhy don’t they do a reality TV show – and it’s Canadian…
July 14, 2011 at 1:05 pm | by JoJoFantastic Article..The bottom line is that even with all the millions and millions of dollars that these people have, there is no happiness..There is a tremendous rift that I am sure has Temmy spinning…Personality clashes happen, but to create a “them vs us” mentality in a family is sad….Leah has written an article that is a cautionary tale..It is important to have money, but family means much, much more..Albert is not a young man, he is a Grandfather and to ignore a Grandchild is ridiculous…I hope these people realize what is important in life before it is to late…It would be nice to read at some point in the future that they all sat down without their lawyers and discussed what needs to be fixed, yell, laugh, cry and talk not sue and remember what family is all about..I hope they do it for Temmy and future generations of the Latner family..
July 14, 2011 at 1:54 pm | by Jeff BlackAn example of the bottom-feeding antics of a family with no moral compass … mama dies and it’s to hell in a handbasket … the old lady must be spinning in her grave …. or laughing her fool head off!!!!!! Bwaahaha
July 14, 2011 at 3:21 pm | by R0MAwow,even with money this is white trash at it’s finest…just with nicer trailer homes
July 14, 2011 at 9:53 pm | by nicoleI just finished rading this terrific article and kept wondering why the family even bothers to retain homes in Toronto. They would be better off somewhere in the miiddle east having tribal feuds as they collect their monies hourly. Being wealthy and having class is never a certainty.
July 16, 2011 at 4:40 am | by victor*yOr a guarantee.All the money that they have is eclipsed by their pitiful attitudes towards each other. What their parents had was self respect. Something that their money appears to be wilfully ueless in attaining. Their moral compasses are bankrupt and their sense of self worth is counterfeit. Thankfully Toronto Life chose to avoid having their names on the front cover and instead chose a skewer of meats and vegetables. Something that will be barbequed long after the bad taste of this family has left our memory.
Your mother would be so proud of what you’ve become…..shame on all of you.
July 28, 2011 at 10:05 pm | by Darlene