First Alert Forward: Canadian entrepreneurs bet on St. Louis region for business growth

ambale
6 days ago
5 min read

3 business owners from Canada say the region offers opportunity and access, but immigration challenges and lack of unified branding could limit growth

Published: Apr. 1, 2026 at 11:09 AM CDT|Updated: Apr. 1, 2026 at 7:40 PM CDT

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Three Canadian entrepreneurs have relocated to the St. Louis region, building multimillion-dollar businesses and urging others to consider the area as immigration policy tightens and other cities compete for talent.

Raj Tut left Ontario for St. Louis in 2013. He founded Storyboard Living, a property management company based in Fairview Heights that now manages 1,400 apartments valued at more than $200 million. The company’s properties are primarily in the Metro East, with plans to expand into Missouri.

Tut bought the building for the company’s headquarters in 2021.

“Our thought was we needed a spot for the company’s headquarters as we grew,” Tut said.

First Alert 4’s David Amelotti asked Tut, “You don’t feel you could be doing this in Canada and only do this in the STL metro?”

He responded, “Yeah there is more opportunity here. A better business environment to help small to medium businesses thrive.”

Tut told First Alert Forward that Canada has many large conglomerates and small businesses, but not as much middle-tier opportunity.

“In Canada, in my opinion, there are a lot of really large businesses, conglomerates, a lot of very small businesses, not so much of the middle tier,” Tut said.

He said three or four years in, he felt like he really had something.

Canadian business owner guides others to region

Tut has become a guide for other Canadians considering the move. His friend Satinder Atwal followed him to St. Louis from Toronto and now owns and operates multiple storage facilities in the Metro East.

“I show them the entire region, and they all fall in love. I’ve never had a single person come here and not love St. Louis,” Tut said.

Atwal said Tut was the one who made the light bulb go off when he first visited.

“He was the one that sort of, the light bulb went off when I first came here and I saw a smaller, medium-sized city versus a big city like Toronto,” Atwal said.

Atwal said in big cities, it’s an appreciation game. In St. Louis, it’s about yield.

“In Canada, you see the ceiling. Here you see the horizon,” Atwal said.

Immigration process remains challenging

Building a business and building a life legally in the United States are different challenges.

“Right now, there’s political tension around immigration. I’ve talked to a lot of people who say newer policies from the current administration make it more difficult. What do people miss or not understand?” asked Amelotti

Tut responded, “It’s been 13 years, and I’m still going down my path. I have a couple years, left until I can apply for citizenship. It was not easy then. It isn’t easy now. There is, I think, a negative sentiment today, and it probably is more challenging than it was when I immigrated to the US.”

Tut said many people who visit St. Louis want to stay, but navigating the immigration process is challenging.

“A lot of people that visit St. Louis want to be in St. Louis. It’s just challenging to navigate the process of actually making it happen,” Tut said.

“If that immigration piece was easier, I would have many more people here in St. Louis,” Tut said.

Tut’s wife, Jaz, said the first two years were difficult. She was home alone with the children while Tut worked, and she sometimes felt alone.

“The first two years… Raj was always working and I was home alone with the kids… sometimes it felt like you feel alone,” Jaz Tut said.

She said leaving Canada was a culture shock.

“It’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Jaz Tut said.

The parents of two are remodeling their new West County home, where they plan to establish permanent roots.

“There’s actually so much beauty in that… it’s like a fresh new start. You can build your own story,” Jaz Tut said.

Entrepreneur urges regional branding strategy

Tut hosts a podcast urging entrepreneurs to stop overlooking the region.

“We need people to choose to move here,” Tut said.

He said if St. Louis wants to compete, it needs to market itself as one region.

“I think we need a regional strategy for branding,” Tut said.

“As it sits currently, if you come to St. Louis and you go downtown, and then maybe you go to Main Street, St. Charles. You’re viewing those as two very different things versus all the St. Louis region,” Tut said.

Construction company founder chooses St. Louis for access to business leaders

Mark Turnbull grew up in British Columbia and was building his business in Canada before looking south. He is now launching his off-site construction company in St. Louis.

“From a strategic, logistic standpoint, you can’t beat the city,” Turnbull said.

Turnbull had an idea to build homes using modular components.

“I just had this kind of epiphany moment. Well, you know, you break down a building, it’s the core components of a wall, buildings of 8 to 10 components,” Turnbull said.

“You look at a car. 30,000 parts, 18 hours, it’s off the line. 10 parts in a building. Why can’t we do it the same?” Turnbull said.

Turnbull and his team have a multimillion-dollar deal to build new homes in the Ville neighborhood. They are preparing to move in almost $2 million worth of equipment to build modular home kits.

St. Louis was not Turnbull’s first choice.

Amelotti asked Turnbull, “What does St. Louis offer you that you couldn’t get in the other cities that you looked at in the States?”

Turnbull responded, “St. Louis wasn’t my first choice. Generally, it’s the last one’s the right one, and that’s where you end up. But I looked at Bellingham, Washington, LA, Vegas, Memphis, and then also Nashville. I had some traction in each of those cities, but with St. Louis, everything was like a domino effect. Everything was just, the business community here is incredibly, incredibly supportive. It’s like 1 degree of separation to get to Maxine Clark or get to Bob Clark or any of these big, big people.”

Turnbull told First Alert Forward that founders are building something, and St. Louis offers an opportunity to build a city along with a company.

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t be here, to be honest. Why would you go into the cog of Silicon Valley or New York City or say out in LA or something like that, and you’re just in this big system here, you have an opportunity to build something, to reset the community, reset the city and whatnot. And to me, that’s exciting. And I think any founder, they’re building something. So do you feel like you could build a city along with your company at the same time?” Turnbull said.

Tut is now working with the International Institute of St. Louis to help more Canadians relocate to the region.

Read all about it here.