The journey

There are two ways to learn real estate. You can read financial statements, or you can hold a shovel. Zachary Dolbec did both — and not one after the other: at the same time.

Cégep de Sainte-Foy in accounting and management, then Université Laval, then a Master’s in Finance at Hult International Business School in 2023. Between semesters: apprentice electrician, apprentice carpenter, machinery operator.

That explains the rest. A developer who has poured concrete does not get told just anything about a construction schedule. And an operator who can read a balance sheet does not build a project that cannot be financed.

In 1967, Herman Dolbec bought land in Saint-Ubalde. His son Stéphan turned it into one of the largest potato operations in Eastern Canada. Three generations later, the land is still in the family.

Zachary did not take over the farm — his brother runs it. He did something else with the same inheritance: instead of farming the land, he develops it. Same territory, same name, different trade.

In Portneuf, the Dolbec name opens doors because it has closed very few. That is capital you cannot buy and can lose quickly.

Portneuf and Mékinac appear on no major developer’s map. Municipalities there open streets, offer incentives, actively look for someone to build — and there is almost no one to answer.

Meanwhile the vacancy rate stays below equilibrium and households leave villages for lack of new housing. Saint-Casimir had built nothing since 1897.

Building six units in a village of two thousand does not interest a large group. For someone who lives fifteen minutes from the site and knows the mayor, it is exactly the right size.