Fresh off of buying the Elm41 project at 2465 W 41st Avenue in Vancouver out of foreclosure, Vancouver-based real estate developer Landa Global Properties is now also set to buy the Modus project out of receivership, according to filings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
The Modus project is a collection of 17 townhouses under development at 7576 Granville Street (also known as 1488 Park Drive), a 19,341-sq. ft lot located at the southeast corner of Granville Street and Park Drive in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver. The site is comprised of multiple single-family lots that have been consolidated.
The property is owned under Grandlake Investments Corp. and was being developed by Centred Developments, which was also facing a foreclosure on its Horizon 21 project in Coquitlam that was sold last summer.
Court documents indicate that all 17 units were pre-sold for prices between $1,138,900 and $1,668,900.
The Receivership
A rendering of the Modus project planned for 7576 Granville Street (1488 Park Drive) in Vancouver. / Cornerstone Architecture
As first reported by STOREYS in May 2024, the receivership proceedings were initiated by First Commercial Bank regarding a first-ranking mortgage agreement the two parties entered into in October 2021 for the principal amount of $15,000,000 and an interest rate of Prime + 3%.
According to court documents, around March 2023, the cost consultant on the Modus project — Butterfield Development Consultants — began seeing cost overruns and "adjustments" were made to cover the costs. It's unclear what those adjustments were, but CTV News reported in July 2023 that buyers had been notified by the developer that they were switching from concrete construction to woodframe construction.
In September 2023, First Commercial Bank then became concerned that the amount agreed upon under the loan would not be enough to complete the project, and began requiring monthly interest payments, which Grandlake was able to pay until, and including, November.
In December, First Commercial then agreed to extend the maturity date of the loan to December 14, 2023, conditional on the developer providing an updated interim budget. Grandlake was unable to provide this and also failed to make the monthly interest payment for December, prompting the lender to issue a formal demand for payment on January 15, 2024. After the developer was still unable to pay, First Commercial initiated the receivership proceedings.
The receivership came into effect on May 20 and the outstanding debt was $10,600,756.12 as of April 22, with interest accruing at a daily rate of $2,460.97 per day.
The Sale
The 7576 Granville Street (1488 Park Drive) site in Vancouver. / Colliers
Following the receivership coming into effect, 7576 Granville Street was listed for sale in late-September by James Lang, Jessica Hathaway, Simon Lim, Rhys Shields, and Hart Buck of Colliers without an asking price.
According to the Receiver, 70 potential buyers were contacted and 39 progressed to the point of signing confidentiality agreements, with much of the interest being driven by the high-exposure location on the west side of Vancouver, the small size of the project, and the progress made on it thus far. In its listing, Colliers noted that the underground parkade has already been completed.
Three formal offers and one non-binding expression of interest were submitted, and the $9,300,000 offer submitted by Dura Construction Ltd. — also known as Dura Group — was chosen. The parties entered into a sales agreement in December and the court hearing was set for January 16.
As part of the court-ordered sales process, when an offer has been accepted and a court date is set, other parties can still make final bids to buy the property. That doesn't always happen, but in this instance it did, with Westgate Pacific Investments Limited Partnership — also known as Westgate Pacific Construction — submitting an offer on January 13 to buy the property for $10,560,000. BC Assessment values the property at $9,234,000.
The Westgate offer was approved by the Supreme Court on January 16, but has yet to close. Although undisclosed by the Receiver, Westgate Pacific is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Landa Global Properties and the sales agreement was signed by Kevin Chueng, CEO of Landa Global, which confirmed the acquisition and said it is scheduled to close in March.
"We are excited about this property, as it enhances our portfolio of boutique developments on Vancouver's West Side," said Landa Global in a statement provided to STOREYS. "We are currently navigating the legal acquisition process, and look forward to sharing more updates on our vision for the site in the near future."
