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Bob Rennie doesn't fit the mould of a big-shot real estate broker, much less one of the most successful in North America.

He shows up for a breakfast meeting in running shoes. He is addicted to his BlackBerry, but he doesn't own a computer at home or in his office. Ultimately, he'd rather be known for his international art collection than real estate. Granted, he eats almost all his three meals a day in restaurants, and takes the wheel of a flashy Bentley when his driver isn't around. But he is chatty, goofy and frank, given to hugs even if he hasn't met you before, and he has the youthful energy of a kid on a candy high.

Donald Trump he's not. But you'd be hard-pressed to meet a Vancouverite who doesn't know Bob Rennie's name. The 52-year-old's celebrity is more a statement about the character of the city than the man himself. With some Vancouver luxury condos now selling at more than $2,400 a square foot, real estate is sexy business.

And with sales of between $1.2-billion and $2-billion annually, Bob Rennie Marketing Systems represents Vancouver's biggest condo projects: the Woodward's building, the Shangri-La (in both Vancouver and Toronto), the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont Pacific Rim, and the Olympic Village. His company's projects have also spread to Edmonton, Dallas and Seattle.

Mr. Rennie has worked extensively with major Vancouver developers Peter Wall and Ian Gillespie. Businessmen, politicians and lobbyists want his ear. To consumers and developers alike, he is a name brand.

"But it's all about the consumer," he insists. "Without the consumer I'm out of business, my client is out of business. So as long as I keep delivering, then our brand gets insured, and that brand should help the developers."

Mr. Rennie, who lives in a 3,000-square-foot condo penthouse in the hip downtown False Creek neighbourhood, also personifies what distinguishes the Vancouver real estate market from other North American cities. Vancouverites have made urban condo living a way of life, not merely a means to owning property.

"We have been, for the last 10 years, the fastest-growing residential downtown in all of North America, regardless of size," says Larry Beasley, former director of planning for the city.

"And that in part is because of the realization of an extraordinary opportunity by people like Bob Rennie to create a residential downtown. And for me and him, that's condos and rentals and everything that comes together to get as many types of people downtown as possible."

Mr. Rennie sells entire buildings, which works out to between 1,000 and 2,000 condo units per year. He makes a point of buying a suite for himself in each building — a little something for his three grown children's inheritance.

"More than 80 per cent of all sales west of Main Street are condos, so I picked the right industry," he says with a laugh.

"Condos became socially acceptable quicker here than in other cities," he adds.

Hemmed in by ocean and mountains, rapidly growing downtown Vancouver has nowhere to go but up. And with 2.5 million residents in the Lower Mainland, and the 2010 Winter Olympics about to push Vancouver further onto the global stage, the city is quickly developing urban areas outside the downtown core.

Mr. Rennie has long maintained that the only other direction for development is eastward, which means making the beleaguered Downtown Eastside district livable.

"Larry Beasley and I stood on a pedestal back in 2000, 2002, and said, 'The city's moving east,'" he recalls. "It didn't take a genius. It had nowhere else to go."

Mr. Rennie believes the province and the city will revitalize the gritty, crime-ridden Eastside in time for the Games, and if he believes in something, the public is sure to follow. When he threw his name on the project to turn the historic Woodward's department store on Hastings Street into a condominium, for example, 356 units were presold in a single day — an event credited with sparking the real estate boom in that area of the city.

Mr. Rennie comes from a working-class background (his father delivered beer) and grew up in a modest bungalow on the east side. He dropped out of high school just before graduation and began selling houses at age 19. (He didn't finish high school until 2006, when the school gave him his final credit for career development and marketing: he earned an A.)

By 1989, Mr. Rennie was already a wealthy man, selling a house a day, when he was approached by Dan Ulinder, a University of British Columbia professor of urban land economics. Mr. Ulinder asked him to help sell units at a condo-conversion development in Burnaby.

"I sold it in two weeks to all my clients' children," Mr. Rennie recalls. "It just sold out and Dan and I never looked back. I changed his life, and he changed my life."

Their entry into the condo market was timely. In the late 1980s, the city had put together a plan and changed zoning to increase downtown housing. As well, the market was ripe. "[New-home] developers were starting to make very little profit on the homes. It seemed a shift was going to happen," Mr. Rennie says. "It seemed time to diversify."

By 1992, the two partners had formed a company. Their pivotal break came that year when they took on sales of a 189-unit condo tower at 1188 Howe St., the earliest example of a local Vancouver company doing presales. (Mainly a Hong Kong marketing method at the time, presales involve selling units before construction is complete; the buyer doesn't have to pay the mortgage until the project is completed, during which time the property usually increases in value.)

Mr. Rennie and Mr. Ulinder sold out 1188 Howe St. in four hours — setting a North American record and putting their company on the map for condo marketing.

"That was the one that said, 'Wow, they can sell out a tower downtown,'" says Mr. Rennie. "It said to the banks, 'These are bankable.' It said to the development industry, 'These are salable.' And it started to pave Dan and I a career."

The two men later set another North American record when they sold out the 493-unit Residences on Georgia in a single day.

By 1997, Mr. Rennie had bought out Mr. Ulinder and formed Rennie Marketing Systems. (Mr. Ulinder, who went on to become a senior vice-president with Concord Pacific Group, died in 2003.)

Today, with a staff of 26, Mr. Rennie has moved beyond sales. He acts as a developer's representative and is involved in many aspects of projects, including concept, zoning, architecture and design.

"People let me play in their sandbox, and I don't take it lightly — it's a huge privilege," he says. "I'm just a very, very, very high paid consultant."

But he's a creative, big-picture guy, too, says Mr. Beasley, who has worked closely with Mr. Rennie.

"What he's doing most directly for his clients is he's shaping projects, he's marketing projects, he's causing them to move, and that's great. It's making a lot of people a lot of money," Mr. Beasley says. "Bob continues to be one of the strongest supporters for a much more sophisticated idea of the city."

Experts like Mr. Rennie and Mr. Beasley predict that post-Olympics, owning property within Vancouver city limits will be beyond the means of most people.

"I think that there is a huge emerging issue of affordability for average folks to live in the city," says Mr. Beasley. "I don't think any part of Vancouver is going to stay easily affordable."

Mr. Rennie agrees: "I think between now and 2015, that I would buy today."

But his interests go beyond the ins and outs of developing and selling real estate. Perhaps his most important message is to developers: the fact that people need not only homes, but also communities complete with stores and services and developed infrastructure.

"In a lot of cities they throw in condos but they forget we can't shop at Neiman Marcus and Holt Renfrew every day," Mr. Rennie says. "You need drycleaners, and you need to be able to pick up a loaf of bread."

That commitment to community is reflected in his own actions. An ardent supporter of Vancouver's culture, he pushes for more art, dance and theatre. He is also building offices and a 20,000-sq.-ft. art gallery in Chinatown to house his collection of the works of about 40 international artists, one of Canada's largest private collections. He doesn't plan to open his gallery to the viewing public, at least for the first few years, but says the collection is the sole reason he continues to sell real estate.

"I have an addiction, a passion for the art collection. If we are going to continue to build the collection, I have to continue doing what I am doing," says Mr. Rennie, who sits on the main acquisitions board for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, as well as the American acquisitions board for the Tate Gallery in London.

He is also becoming more politically outspoken on social issues, giving speeches recently to developers and planners about the need for affordable housing. He cites working with the flagship Woodward's building as a personal and professional turning point.

"Woodward's came into an area with huge social problems and social housing issues," Mr. Rennie explains. "It's sort of my thing to try to figure out how to mix the people with jobs walking down the street, with the people without jobs. You can absorb the people without jobs by bringing balance to the neighbourhood," he says.

"A lot of people said, 'Don't do it, it will ruin your career.' Well, I think it's given me a new career."

Special to The Globe and Mail