Leon’s Furniture CEO on retail, real estate, running a Canada icon

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Leon’s Furniture Ltd. revealed in January that it intends to develop a master-planned community that would include 4,000 residential units on a large tract of land it owns near its corporate head office in Toronto. It may seem like a stretch for a furniture retailer to get into the housing game, but Leon’s chief executive, Michael Walsh, doesn’t see it that way. Unlocking the value in the publicly traded company’s vast real estate portfolio — it has 303 stores across the country under banners that include Leon’s, The Brick, Brick Outlet and The Brick Mattress Store, many on land that it owns — is one of the chief executive’s key priorities. The Financial Post’s Denise Paglinawan spoke to Walsh recently about the company’s plans. The following interview has been edited and condensed.