Nearly a year after being placed under receivership, a buyer has been found for a mid-rise office complex at 55 Town Centre Court in Scarborough.
At just eight storeys, the building itself is fairly innocuous, but the grounds for receivership are arguably not: in November 2023, the building was subject to receivership proceedings after The Bank of Nova Scotia went to the Ontario courts over an alleged default of $26.6M.
An October 7 (amended) Approval and Vesting Order cites Grant Thornton LLP as receiver over the property, and also reveals 1606555 Ontario Inc. as the court-approved purchaser of the property. Mahendra Jain has signed the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. That purchase agreement is cited in the filings and is dated May 31, 2024, but a purchase price has not been revealed in the documents.
Details of the bidding process are outlined in the court filings. Those explain that there were almost two months of marketing, and during that time, the property was "widely exposed to the market" and received seven non-binding letters of intent. The offer that sealed the deal fulfilled certain requirements, including that it was a "relatively strong financial proposal" and that the purchaser owns "similar assets in the GTA." In addition, it was realized that the purchaser "intended to buy the property as an office asset, meaning there would not be uncertainty regarding required approvals from the City of Toronto in redeveloping the 55 Town Property."
Speaking a bit more to the receivership proceedings that preceded the receivership order on November 6, 2023: The Bank of Nova Scotia entered into a loan agreement with 55 Town Centre Holdings Ltd, and that went sour around June 2022, when the debtor breached the conditions of the loan. That then prompted the bank to send a notice of default in February 2023. By May, Bank of Nova Scotia sent a demand for payment to the debtor, and that was not fulfilled.
A few months thereafter, on January 29, the Ontario courts granted approval for the sale of the property. As mentioned, Colliers was chosen to list and market the property following a selection process that drew in six potential brokers.
It’s worth noting that this wasn’t the first time the property was listed for sale amidst a loan default. In July 2023, just several weeks after the demand for payment was made by Bank of Nova Scotia, 55 Town Centre Holdings Ltd., which is run by entrepreneur Cesare Fazari, publicized an attempt to get the building sold. The owner offered a $1M commission to anyone, realtor or not, who convinced the future buyer to submit an offer.
This plan stemmed from consultant Andy Curnew — he’s, notably, a celebrity-elbow-bumping resident of Toronto's Bridle Path neighbourhood who calls himself a “millionaire playboy philanthropist.” Despite this effort, no sale materialized, and that eventually put the fate of the property in Grant Thornton’s hands.
In any case, the court filings note that about half the units within 55 Town Centre Court were vacant as of late 2023. The building includes of 222,285 sq. ft of gross floor area and was marketed earlier this year as having the potential for office use, residential conversion, or redevelopment.
