MEDIA KIT
OUR HOME & MINIATURE LAND
Corporate Profile
Our Home & Miniature Land is something that has never been done before and it’s taking form
right now in Mississauga. The vision of Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer – he calls it “a miniature
world of Canada with moving parts” – Our Home & Miniature Land will be an interactive
museum showcasing Canada from coast to coast. This will be achieved through an extraordinary
series of 3D exhibits that are being built in stages. The first exhibits are currently being
constructed by a skilled, motivated, and passionate team of model makers, illustrators, engineers,
and carpenters. The intent is to make Our Home & Miniature Land a prime tourist attraction, but
not only that. It will also serve as an educational learning centre for students and other interested
groups. There will be educational tools showing how a city – indeed, how an entire country –
actually works.
The Toronto exhibit under construction includes a scale replica of the CN Tower that is three
metres high, an exact model of the Rogers Centre covering four square metres, Toronto’s Union
Station as it will look when current renovations on the real thing are completed, as well as the
Air Canada Centre, St. Lawrence Market, the Distillery District, and the Bloor Street viaduct, not
to mention the big bank towers and skyscrapers from the city’s downtown core. Put it all
together and you have Canada’s largest city in miniature form. It is a spectacular enterprise and
the attention to detail is something else again. Indeed, it took four months to build the model of
Union Station, 12 months for the Air Canada Centre, and longer than that for the Rogers Centre.
Trains, bridges, overpasses and treed landscapes with figurines of people, along with buses,
streetcars, trucks and automobiles all make for a perfect but miniature world that is in constant
motion.
It is a living, breathing city.
Our Home & Miniature Land already has approval and buy-in from companies and organizations
being depicted. These quintessential Canadian brands include the big banks like BMO, CIBC,
TD, and Scotiabank, as well as such corporate mainstays as Tim Hortons, Purolator, Roots,
Loblaws, Home Hardware, Petro-Canada, and many more. The Royal Botanical Gardens and
Fairmont Royal York Hotel have also given their go-ahead. The Hamilton exhibit, which is also
under construction, will demonstrate among other things a steel mill in operation and has the nod
from ArcelorMittal Dofasco.
When Our Home & Miniature Land is complete, three components will be stressed – explore,
experience, learn – in a setting that can only be described as remarkable. It will cater to three
targeted audiences: families, schools, and tourists. Tourists will be treated to quality
entertainment value for all ages in their visit. Students will learn how a city works, understand
Canada’s geography and history, and be able to take a workshop in model making. Visitors can
opt to include a behind-the-scenes tour. It’s all part of the mix of a truly unique offering.
Plans include a replica of Toronto’s historic Fort York, as well as a replica of the Battle of
Queenston Heights for the Hamilton exhibit. When the entire Canada-wide project is complete, it
is expected that a total of up to 20 exhibits will be involved, about six of them for Ontario. The
Ontario exhibits are being built first.
Brenninkmeijer and his staff took possession of the present Mississauga site in January of last
year. The objective is to have most of the Ontario exhibits ready for a grand opening to coincide
with Canada’s 150th sesquicentennial celebration in the summer of 2017, and to have this in a
prime location. Several Open Houses for invited guests, including teachers and students, were
held in early March and the feedback was very positive, to put it mildly.
“Virtually everyone who attended our Open Houses was ecstatic with what they saw,” said
Brenninkmeijer. “They were very impressed with both the quality and magnitude of what we’re
doing. This feedback has confirmed our plans and provided us with the confidence to move
ahead as we seek investor funding and select a new permanent home for our attraction.”
The Partners
Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer
Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer is the Founder and Revenue Protection Inspector of Our Home &
Miniature Land. Prior to founding Our Home & Miniature Land in 2012, he spent ten years in
the investment business as Managing Director of Good Energies Inc., a private equity fund that
places emphasis on renewable energy technologies, notably solar and wind energy. Before the
investment business he was general manager of Fossil Canada, a division of Comark Inc., which
is an apparel fashion retail company in Canada. He has over 30 years of business experience
working in senior executive roles, principally in retail in various European countries. Jean-Louis
has a Bachelor of Marketing degree from St. Eligius College in Antwerp, Belgium. In addition to
English, he is fluent in Dutch, German and French.
David W. MacLean
David MacLean is Vice President and General Superintendent of Physical Plant for Our Home &
Miniature Land. He was previously with Federal Express Canada Ltd., serving as Manager of
Strategic Sourcing & Supply at the Canadian headquarters in Mississauga. Prior to FedEx, he
worked in the Acquisition Services group at CIBC. David has a B.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering
from the University of Toronto. After graduating, he was involved in project management for a
number of high-rise construction projects in Toronto and Montreal. He has a lifelong interest in
railroads, railroad history, and railroad modelling, and is a long-time member of the Model
Railroad Club of Toronto, Inc., which is one of North America’s oldest model railroad clubs. He
served several terms as President. He has also built a number of custom model railroad projects
for private individuals and corporations.
Fact Sheet
Company Address:
1267 Cornwall Road
Suite 200
Oakville, ON L6J 7T5
Temporary Exhibit Facility:
370 Britannia Road
Unit 4
Mississauga, ON L4Z 1X9
Telephone:
905-502-0006
416-562-8242
Email:
info@miniatureland.ca
Website:
www.miniatureland.ca
Stages Under Construction:
Toronto, Hamilton
Special Features:
Planned Opening:
-
370 square metres (4,000 square feet) of floor space
1,460 metres of HO scale model railroad track
385 railroad track turnouts (track splits into two or three tracks)
5 km of control wiring
3 helixes (trains to move from one level to the next)
30,000 hours of labour to date
Rogers Centre
CN Tower
Air Canada Centre
Union Station
ArcelorMittal Dofasco Steelworks
10,000 individual figures for ACC and Rogers Centre
Summer 2017