Site Of Foreclosed 67-Storey AimForce Project In Surrey Listed For $75M

A transit-oriented development site in a prime location in Surrey has officially been listed for sale, according to court filings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and a sales brochure obtained by STOREYS.

The subject site is 10227 King George Boulevard, located near the intersection with 102 Avenue and just east of the Expo Line SkyTrain's Surrey Central Station.

The property is currently occupied by an open-air shopping centre, with tenants including RBC, Popeye's Supplements, and Bubble 88, among others.

The site is legally owned by Aimforce Surrey Centre 1 Ltd. and beneficially owned by AimForce Development Group, and the site — along with two other properties owned by AimForce — became the subject of multiple foreclosure proceedings in recent months, as first reported by STOREYS.

For the site, AimForce Development Group was planning a 67-storey residential tower with 746 units that was set to be one of the tallest residential towers in British Columbia.

The Foreclosure

The foreclosure proceeding for this property was initiated by Pacifica Mortgage Investment Corporation, which is managed by Capital West Mortgage Inc., on February 29, pertaining to a first-ranking mortgage agreement that was reached in December 2020 for the principal amount of $27,500,000, with interest accruing at a per diem rate of $14,382.06.

On April 15, the Supreme Court granted the order nisi of foreclosure, which confirmed the outstanding debt at $29,307,137.42 as of April 15, with interest since then accruing at a daily rate of $14,814.12.

The order nisi also set the redemption date — the date by which the debtors can pay the outstanding amount to halt the foreclosure — at October 15, 2024.

The 10227 King George Boulevard site in Surrey.(CBRE)

The second-ranking charge holder on 10227 King George Boulevard is Amber Mortgage Investment Corp, managed by Amber Financial, who initiated their own foreclosure against the property on April 18 with a claim that they were owed $16,114,178.89 as of April 18, with interest accruing at a daily rate of $7,984.25.

With both charges, the outstanding debt on 10227 King George Boulevard exceeds $45,000,000.

Since then, Amber Financial has applied for conduct of sale, which would allow them to sell the property to recover what they are owed.

According to court filings, Pacifica obtained an appraisal of $45,700,000 for the property in June 2024. However, AimForce Development has said that they received an appraisal of the property from Rose Wang of LW Property Advisors, dated September 2023, that valued the property at $95,000,000. AimForce says they have asked Wang for a formal rebuttal report, but it was not provided in time by the July 22 hearing, adding that they had also met with representatives from Royal LePage Commercial, who valued the property at $75,000,000.

AimForce Development also says it has been diligently investigating refinancing options, saying their financial difficulties are "temporary." One potential lender AimForce says it has found is DPSE Canada Export-Import Limited, the Canadian arm of a Germany-based investment company. AimForce says DPSE issued a facility letter in March 2024, but no funds have been issued and negotiations are ongoing.

Conduct of Sale

AimForce says that on July 16, it learned that Amber Financial had approached an investor named Roy Li to partner in acquiring the 10227 King George Boulevard property for approximately $45,000,000 — with Amber investing $25,000,000 and Li investing $20,000,000 — before later flipping the property.

In a court filing, AimForce also accused Amber Financial of tipping off media outlets about the foreclosure proceedings, "which was allegedly aimed at and has had the effect of deterring potential investors from investing" and to "further Amber's acquisition scheme."

STOREYS has been advised that it is one of the media outlets AimForce alludes to. However, STOREYS had no contact of any kind with Amber Financial prior to the publishing of our article on July 16 and received no news tips about the foreclosure proceedings.

In the court filing, AimForce asked the court to give them the usual six-month redemption period. Redemption periods are typically set at six-months by default, but can be reduced if the lender can make the case that it should be shorter.

On July 22, the Supreme Court set the redemption period at just one day, granted conduct of sale to Amber Financial immediately upon expiry of the redemption period, and confirmed the outstanding debt to Amber at $16,880,460.58 as of July 22, with interest now accruing at a daily rate of $8,238.76.

Although Pacifica filed their application first and holds a first-ranking mortgage, in foreclosure proceedings, conduct of sale is often granted first to lower-ranking charge holders, as they have more incentive to maximize the return from the sale.

Amber Financial has since retained Carter Kerzner, Stirling Richmond, Jim Szabo, and Tony Quattrin of CBRE to list and sell the property, according to a sales brochure sent out to potential investors this week. The listing is not currently public on CBRE's website, but a copy of the sales brochure was forwarded to STOREYS by somebody with no involvement in the foreclosure proceedings.

CBRE has listed 10227 King George Boulevard with an asking price of $75,000,000, which is just a bit higher than the BC Assessment valuation of $68,138,000.

In their sales brochure, CBRE notes that the rezoning application for the 67-storey tower received a third reading in January 2023, meaning whoever takes over the property will only need to fulfill any outstanding conditions before receiving final approval for the project. In the meantime, the property also provides holding income, with a net operating income of approximately $960,000.

Any sale of the property will require final approval from the Supreme Court.