The Firm

A small book,
considered carefully.

Halcyon & Mercer is principal-led. We take on fewer than fifty mandates a year — never more than our two partners can handle directly. The firm has operated under this model since 2009.

Halcyon & Mercer was founded by Vivian Halcyon in 2009, with the simple proposition that the residential market for architecturally significant property in Canada was being represented poorly — by firms too large to give clients real attention, and by individuals too small to give them institutional execution.

For most of its first five years, the firm operated as a single-partner Toronto practice, taking on only what Vivian could personally close. Andrew Mercer joined as managing partner in 2014 after twelve years in M&A advisory at Scotia Capital. He brought with him an early thesis on the County and a long relationship with the lakes — and the firm extended outward from Toronto for the first time.

Today the firm continues to operate under what we call the two-partner principle: every mandate is the personal responsibility of one of our two partners, never delegated to it. Our three associates support, document, and prepare; they do not lead. The firm has never accepted more business in a year than the partners can handle directly, and we do not intend to.

We work in three regions because each of our partners has a clear and durable point of view in those regions. We do not expand into geographies we don't know, and we do not pretend to.

Our Approach

Three principles
we operate by.

These are not values statements. They are the rules we use to decide whether to take on a mandate, how to price it, and how we conduct ourselves with vendors and buyers.

  1. i.

    Discretion before reach.

    Most of what we represent is discussed before it is listed. Our job is not to maximize visibility; it is to find the right buyer for a vendor, often the one we already know. We do not run open houses on heritage residences and we do not market our off-market inventory.

  2. ii.

    Architecture-first underwriting.

    Our pricing begins with what the property is — its provenance, materials, and architectural seriousness — not with comparable square-footage data. This is why our valuations sometimes diverge from the market's, and why we have developed a reputation for getting heritage transactions right.

  3. iii.

    Long horizon, few mandates.

    We have turned down more business than we have accepted. We are not paid by transaction count, and we will say no when a property is wrong for a buyer or a buyer is wrong for a property — even when both sides ask us to proceed. Our annual book of forty-odd mandates is a deliberate ceiling, not a target.

Principals

The two partners.

Halcyon & Mercer is the two of them. Every client of the firm works directly with one or both.

Vivian Halcyon, Founding Partner

Founding Partner

Vivian Halcyon

Vivian founded Halcyon & Mercer in 2009 after a decade as principal at one of Toronto's oldest architecture-focused brokerages. She holds a Master's in Architectural History from the Bartlett (UCL) and an undergraduate degree in History from Trinity College, University of Toronto.

She serves on the board of the Toronto Heritage Foundation, has been a contributing writer to Canadian Architect and the Globe & Mail, and lectures occasionally at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Her clientele is largely private — she specializes in heritage residential acquisitions across Forest Hill, Rosedale, Lawrence Park, and The Annex.

Vivian lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

  • PracticeToronto heritage
  • EducationUCL · Trinity, U of T
  • BoardToronto Heritage Foundation
  • LanguagesEnglish, French
Reach Vivian directly →
Andrew Mercer, Managing Partner

Managing Partner

Andrew Mercer

Andrew joined Halcyon & Mercer as managing partner in 2014, following twelve years in M&A advisory at Scotia Capital, where he led the consumer products coverage team. He oversees the firm's Muskoka and Prince Edward County practices.

Since 2018 he has personally closed in excess of $480M in transactions, with a particular concentration in Muskoka lakefront and PEC heritage agricultural property. He is a graduate of Queen's University (Commerce, 2002) and INSEAD (MBA, 2011), and is a member of the Greater Toronto Real Estate Board and the Quinte & District Association of Realtors.

Andrew lives between Toronto and a working farm near Hillier with his wife and three children. The farm is not for sale.

  • PracticeMuskoka · PEC
  • EducationQueen's · INSEAD
  • PriorScotia Capital, M&A
  • LanguagesEnglish
Reach Andrew directly →

Associates

Three who do the work.

Our partners are the principal point of contact for every client. Our associates research, document, prepare, and accompany — they do not lead transactions. We hire deliberately and slowly.

Senior Associate · Toronto

Margaret Chen-Volpe

Architectural research, transaction preparation, and heritage documentation. M.Arch (U of T), prior at ERA Architects.

Associate · Muskoka

Owen Brackett

Lakefront property research and on-site coordination. Joined 2021. Lives in Port Carling year-round.

Associate · PEC

Sasha Korovin-Greene

Heritage agricultural property and architect-led contemporary builds. Joined 2023. Based in Wellington.

Memberships & Accreditations

Registered, regulated.

Inquire

Begin a conversation.

If you are considering a sale, an acquisition, or a long-horizon move into one of our regions, we would be glad to hear from you directly.

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