The Van Mills Centre retail plaza in Mississauga has been sold as part of receivership proceedings pertaining to Vandyk Properties, according to filings in the Ontario Superior Court.
The Van Mills Centre — not to be confused with the Vaughan Mills mall in Vaughan — is located at 1944 Fowler Drive, along Erin Mills Parkway in Mississauga. The 4.29-acre property sits adjacent to the Sheridan Centre shopping mall that has since been renamed Sherwood Village as part of a mall redevelopment.
Current tenants of the Van Mills Centre include RBC, Sherwin Williams, IDA Pharmacy, Starbucks, Subway, Pizza Hut, Eggsmart, and BarBurrito. According to the sales brochure, the retail plaza has a gross leasable area of 45,299 sq. ft and currently has an overall occupancy rate of 75.9%.
Coincidently, the corporate office of one of those tenants, RBC, was the lender who initiated the receivership proceedings against Vandyk Properties, who owned the Van Mills Centre under Vandyk-Vanmills Plaza Inc.
Debt and Disposition
The receivership was initiated by RBC on January 8 pertaining to a loan agreement dated November 2015 for a revolving demand facility of $70,000 and a mortgage agreement dated July 2019 — later extended to December 2022 — for the sum of $13,500,000.
According to RBC, Vandyk defaulted on the agreements after failing to make monthly payments to RBC in November 2023, as well as property taxes to the City of Mississauga, with Vandyk owing $12,426,346.31 to RBC as of December 5 and $753,021.93 to the City as of November 23.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted an interim receivershp order on February 20, removed the interim tag on February 23, then approved the sales process for the property on May 23, with Matthew T. Smith, Nick Macoritto, and Mark Leshchyshyn from JLL's National Retail Investment Group serving as the listing team.
The Van Mills Centre in Mississauga and its surrounding context. / JLL
During the sales process, 129 interested parties reached the point of signing non-disclosure agreements, with 16 ultimately submitting formal bids. According to the Receiver, Fuller Landau LLP, this first round of bids "differed materially both in respect of the purchase price offered for the Real Property and in terms of their conditionality."
The two parties that submitted the highest bids then entered into a second round of bidding. Ultimately, the Receiver selected the bid made by 1900 Drive Holdings Inc. and entered into an agreement of purchase and sale (APS) on August 21. Details about the buyer were not disclosed, but a copy of the APS included in court filings was signed by Vahe Garabetian, who is identified as the CEO of 1900 Drive Holdings Inc. In a 2017 press release, Garabetian is identified as a co-owner of Ontario-based Raffi Jewellers.
As is common in insolvency proceedings, the purchase price was redacted.
According to the RBC, the amount owed to RBC as of August 8 was $13,706,594.64. Other secured creditors include the second-ranking mortgage holder Kay Family Investments Inc., followed by O Canada Capital Inc., who were owed $11,975,215.21 and $4,452,478.04, respectively, as of mid-September.
The transaction was ultimately approved via a traditional approval and vesting order on October 8. That same day, the Ontario Superior Court also approved the distribution of sales proceeds to RBC, Kay Family Investments Inc., and O Canada Capital Inc., suggesting that the purchase price was enough to pay off the first and second-ranking debts in full, and the third-ranking debt in part or in full.
