The City of Burnaby is the latest entity to have filed a civil suit against embattled Burnaby-based real estate developer Thind Properties, as creditors left and right continue to take action to secure their claims.
The Notice of Civil Claim was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia just before Christmas, on December 23, against Madeira Manor 2018 Ltd. and Thind Development (Maywood) Limited Partnership.
Madeira Manor 2018 Ltd. is the registered owned of 6677 Silver Avenue (also known as 4330 Maywood Street), a development site near Metrotown Station that has been the subject of a development proposal for several years that has yet to materialize.
As first reported by STOREYS in December, Thind Properties acquired 6677 Silver Avenue from the previous owner — Kirpal Properties Ltd., Nita Developments Ltd., and SVM Properties Ltd. — for $22,000,000 in or around April 2024.
The transaction was completed via the sale of the shares in Madeira Manor 2018 Ltd. and was first disclosed in a civil suit initiated by Goodman Commercial, whom the previous owners hired to list and sell the property.
According to the City of Burnaby, it granted final adoption of the bylaw to rezone 6677 Silver Avenue in June 2022. Planned for the site was a 24-storey tower that the previous owners had named Contour Metrotown.
"As part of the rezoning, Madeira agreed to provide cash in lieu of public amenities for the purpose of obtaining a density bonus as described in section 6.22 of Burnaby Zoning Bylaw, 1965," said the City in its Notice of Civil Claim. "Instead of paying cash at the time of the rezoning, Madeira and the City agreed to a deferred density bonus payment of $5,677,624.07."
The payment was secured via a covenant registered on the land title and the owners were obligated to make quarterly interest payments, with interest accruing at the RBC Prime Rate + 2% per annum.
According to the City, the first interest payment was due in September 2022, which the City invoiced Madeira Manor 2018 Ltd. for in August and every three months after that. The City says that in July 2023, it sent a letter to the owners demanding payment for the overdue invoices, and has yet to receive any interest payments to date.
On top of the $5,677,624.07 density bonus payment, the amount of outstanding interest is now at $1,296,396.57, as of the City's filing, bringing the total amount owed to the City to $6,974,020.64.
Although the agreement was reached between the City and the previous owners, Thind Properties is now responsible for the obligations after entering into an agreement in June 2024 with the City to assume the obligations.
"Under the Assumption Agreement, Madeira and Thind acknowledged in writing that the outstanding balance of the Interest Payments was and remained due and payable to the City," said the City in its claim. "To date, Thind has not paid, or caused Madeira to pay, any of the balance of the Interest Payments outstanding at the time it entered into the Assumption Agreement."
The 24-storey tower planned for 6677 Silver Avenue (4330 Maywood Street) in Burnaby.
In August, Thind Properties then submitted a rezoning letter of intent seeking to increase the amount of allowable units from 91 to 106.
As first reported by STOREYS in December, Thind Properties is now also facing a foreclosure against the 6677 Silver Avenue property, on top of receiverships pertaining to its District Northwest, Minoru Square, and Highline Metrotown projects, the latter of which is located a block away from 6677 Silver Avenue.
The foreclosure was initiated on December 4 and the City of Burnaby is now asking the Supreme Court to declare that Thind is in default of the covenant and to recognize the outstanding interest owed, a charge the City says ranks ahead of the mortgage of the foreclosing lender. The City has not asked for a judgment on the density bonus payment amount. Thind Properties has 21 days to respond to the Notice of Civil Claim.
The foreclosure and civil suit are the latest entries in the ongoing saga surrounding 6677 Silver Avenue, which was occupied by an apartment building called, according to signs on the building, The Madiera — not "Madeira" as the name of the registered owner suggests.
The previous owners evicted the building's tenants in Summer 2022, then failed to make payments in Spring 2023 as required under the City's tenant protection policy. The property was listed for sale shortly after that by Goodman Commercial, whose civil suit claims the owners failed to pay commission. In February 2024, as reported by the Burnaby Now, a fire also broke out in the building, resulting in one fatality.
The property is now likely headed towards a court-ordered sale as part of the foreclosure proceedings, which would provide the various creditors with some measure of recovery. Whether Thind Properties itself will be able to recover from its litany of financial trouble, however, remains unclear.
