Sandy Shindleman and Robert Shindleman of Shindico Realty Inc recently the Inaugural King Charles lll Coronation medal from MP Marty Morantz (There we’re others in the Jewish community who received this distinction but the Winnipeg Jewish Review only became aware that the two Shindleman brothers received this medal recently).
Receiving this award coincides with the 50th Anniversary of Shindico, a full service commercial real estate company founded in 1975 by Sandy Shindleman (Robert joined Sandy at Shindico in 1984).
Sandy became a licensed real estate broker at just 18 years old. After starting a brokerage first in his hometown of Portage La Priairie in 1973, he moved operations to Winnipeg in 1975, establishing Shindico.
Shindico’s reputation for integrity , and excellence is built is built on its mission statement of Succeeding by Helping Others Succeed. In 2023, Shindico announced the acquisition and integration of Akman Management.
At B’nai Brith MB Award of Merit event honouring the Shindlemans in 2011, Sandy Shindleman spoke about growing up on a farm in the east end of Portage La Prairie, which he still considers to be his home town. Sandy recalled how his father Eddie who grew up in Winnipeg and was a cattle buyer. At age 14, Eddie moved to help his sister and brother-in-law in a grocery store business, known as Greenberg’s Groceteria. As a grocer, and cattle buyer, and businessman Eddie stressed the importance of service to his customers, a value which he imparted to his sons.
Sandy noted that the best business education he got from his father about the importance of helping people was when he was 13 or 14 and was asked by his father to go out and buy the bull of a retired farmer. He described going out to this “80 acres of un-kept farm” to get the bull. “I looked underneath it, and sure enough, it was a bull,” he said. In fact,“a lot of bull.” Up until that time “I had been involved in bull-shipping but never in bull buying,” he pointed out. On sizing up the bull, Sandy offered the farmer $420 and brought it back into town. His father had to ship the bull to the stockyard in Winnipeg and obtained $1,100 for the bull from Burns Meats, which after expenses, netted approximately $1,000.
When his father Eddie asked Sandy what he thought of bull selling, Sandy recalled “I was thinking that I could quit school and make more than you do standing on your feet seven days a week in the store.”
But, his father then told Sandy to go back to the farmer and give him another cheque for another $500, since the farmer was a long-time customer and should be treated properly, getting “full marks” for his bull.
When Sandy gave the farmer the $500.00 cheque, the farmer endorsed it to go toward purchasing food from Greenberg’s Groceteria. When Sandy gave the check to his father, Eddy tore it up, with the point being that he would pay back the farmer and his family in groceries. Eddie was able to feed the farmer for months, teaching Sandy the importance of always treating the customer with gratitude and respect.
Sandy said he had learned from that “When we make sure our customers succeed, we succeed.”
Conservative MLA Jeff Bezerra has stated “I have known the Shindleman family all my life, and this goes back a long way. I was probably around 8 or 10-years-old, living on 3rd St. SE and always walking to Victoria School at lunchtime. Sometimes, I'd see my mom because she worked for Sandy's dad at the grocery store. They always treated the staff and everyone with so much respect. Us neighborhood kids often hung out there, and even if we didn't have money for candy, we always left with some. Their generosity started back then and has continued ever since."
Reflecting on Shindico’s 50th Anniversary Sandy stated in a post on the Shindico website, “We've built a nearly $2 billion development pipeline through relationships and helping others. Each building we construct or lease provides jobs and expands the tax base.”
He recently told the Real Estate Insider that Looking ahead, Shindico plans to double in size over the next decade. As he said “In 10 years, I expect to slow down a bit, but our legacy will continue to grow. We aim to expand our professional management and development pipelines significantly,” Shindleman said.
Sandy Shindleman is currently the chair of the board of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism CISA, whose founding director is Dr. Catherine Chatterley. He and his family have sponsored CISA's annual Shindleman lecture. CISA is an independent national academic organization committed to the scholarly study of the millennial phenomenon of Antisemitism in its classic and contemporary forms.
Last year more than 70 academics signed a petition from the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism “calling for the release of all documentation on Nazi war criminals in Canada,” including the names of alleged Nazi War criminals who settled in Canada. The Liberal government has refused to do this. (In January 2025, B’nai Brith Canada commenced the legal action in Federal Court in response to Library and Archives Canada’s decision in November2024 to continue to keep secret the list of suspected war criminals.)
Also, among their many philanthropic initiatives, the Shindlemans have donated to the Health Science Centre Foundation, funded the Shindleman Aquatic Centre, Manitoba’s largest leisure and wave pool, in Portage la Prairie, the Edward Shindleman Park as well as contributing to the Assiniboine Park Conservancy’s Willow Tunnels.
