After almost a full year, a buyer has finally been found for the mysterious Westfield Business Centre in Surrey, according to filings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
The Westfield Business Centre sits at 14178 104 Avenue in Surrey and makes up the entire block between 141 Street and 142 Street, about midway between Surrey City Centre and Guildford Town Centre.
According to court documents, the three-storey commercial building was constructed in 1998 and was intended to serve as a stratified shopping mall called "The Asian Centre." It's unclear who the original developer was and why the mall never came to fruition, but the property was sold by Donald Pitt — a lawyer in Arizona who co-founded the Phoenix Suns NBA team — in early-2022 to a man named Kuldeep Bansal, according to a Peace Arch Newsreport from that time.
The sale to Bansal brought additional scrutiny to the property, however, as the Globe & Mail described Bansal in an April 2019 investigation as an immigration consultant and international recruiter that "preyed upon the weak" and whom the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants later found to have committed several instances of professional misconduct.
Through all of this, the building has remained vacant and has never been occupied.
According to court documents, Colliers Executive Vice President Bill Randall has been involved with the property for nearly 25 years, during which time there have been numerous offers to buy the property, none of which were completed until the sale to Kuldeep Bansal. One potential barrier, perhaps, is that the building is not up to code and that the estimated cost to bring it in compliance with the BC Building Code has been estimated to be $22.3 million.
The Foreclosure
The property is legally owned under 622013 BC Ltd. and beneficially owned by Westfield Business Centre Ltd. (formerly 1267541 BC Ltd.) and foreclosure proceedings were initiated against both in August 2023 by GC Capital Inc. and Kismet Capital Ltd., as previously reported by STOREYS.
In their petition to the court, GC Capital and Kismet Capital said that they entered into a first-ranking mortgage agreement with the owners on April 25, 2022 for the principal amount of $30,000,000. As part of the mortgage agreement, the loan would carry an interest rate of 15.0% per annum for the first year before then escalating to 18.0% after that, with the maturity date set at May 25, 2023.
That mortgage charge was registered on title for 14178 104 Avenue, but also 14019 104 Avenue, a vacant piece of land a short walk away. The 14019 104 Avenue property is legally owned by TDP Holdings Ltd. — also listed as a respondent — and beneficially owned by the aforementioned Westfield Business Centre Ltd.
According to court documents, 14019 104 Avenue was intended to be used as excess parking for the Westfield Business Centre — despite being half a block away — and is now approximately 80% encumbered by BC Hydro wires.
The Westfield Business Centre at 14178 104 Avenue and 14019 104 Avenue in Surrey. / Colliers
After the loan matured and the borrowers defaulted, GC Capital and Kismet Capital issued a formal demand for payment on July 17, 2023, initiated the foreclosure proceedings in August, and obtained an order nisi of foreclosure from the Supreme Court on November 2, 2023, by which the outstanding debt had reached $32,917,244.88.
In addition to the mortgage held by GC Capital and Kismet Capital, subsequent charges that had been registered on the title included one held by 1063466 BC Ltd. pertaining to a $4 million loan agreement and one held by 0938080 BC Ltd. pertaining to a $14 million loan agreement, bringing the total amount of debt on the property to over $50 million.
1063466 BC Ltd. initiated separate foreclosure proceedings against the property in December 2023, while 0938080 BC Ltd. was eventually added to the proceedings initiated by GC Capital and Kismet.
After the borrower failed to redeem the mortgage by May 2, 2024, conduct of sale was then granted to the lenders in order to sell the property and recover their debt.
The Sales Process
As is common in foreclosure proceedings, conduct of sale was first granted to the lower-ranking charge holders, for three months beginning on May 31. No buyer was found and conduct of sale then shifted to GC Capital and Kismet Capital, with Bill Randall, Mike Grewal, and Dylan Sohi of Colliers serving as the listing team in both cases.
According to court documents, Colliers had received five notable offers to buy the property between March 2024 and September 2024, all of which eventually fell through.
In March 2024, Signature Capital submitted a $62,710,000 offer. Colliers countered to $85,000,000 and Signature Capital accepted it, before then terminating the offer on April 30. On April 29, Jim Pattison Group submitted a letter of intent to purchase the property for $80,000,000, but the LOI was ultimately not executed.
The Westfield Business Centre at 14178 104 Avenue in Surrey. / Colliers
In July, VVBC Property Holdings Ltd., which was identified in court documents as 88 Supermarket, submitted a $52,000,000 offer. The second-ranking lender countered with $60,000,000, the offer was raised to $54,000,000, the second-ranking lender against countered with $60,000,000, the bidder reiterated its $54,000,000 offer, and the negotiations died.
On August 27, a $60,000,000 offer was submitted by 0761302 BC Ltd., but "the buyer failed to provide an adequate buyer profile to support its financial ability to complete the transaction" and the offer was not accepted. On August 28, the City of Surrey then made an offer to buy the property, but came in too low at $32,880,000 and the offer was also not accepted.
The Transaction
Finally, on October 18, an offer of $55,500,000 was submitted by 1262066 BC Ltd. The first-lender / brokers countered with $58,000,000, before the two sides then settled on $56,500,000 and the offer was accepted.
According to court documents, the sale price would result in an estimated shortfall of $3,423,552.56 after the first and second mortgages and a total shortfall of $8,222,010.59 when including the third mortgage, builder liens, and other charges.
After the offer was accepted, 1063466 BC Ltd. — the third-mortgage holder — voiced strong opposition to the sale, saying that 14019 104 Avenue and the Westfield Business Centre should have been marketed separately rather than as a package deal. They also pointed to the BC Assessment $115,643,000 valuation of the two properties as indication that the price was too low. (Since then, the BC Assessment valuation of the two properties has now dropped significantly to $63,613,000.)
Additionally, the debtors themselves also opposed the sale, saying in December that they had shifted the strategy for the property from leasing to strata, with plans for a 202-unit strata project, of which 27.5% had been pre-sold for a total of $43,460,256.75. According to Bansal, the project could be completed with an additional $6,500,000 and 12 months, pending City approvals and financing.
In response, GC Capital and Kismet Capital said that the stratification process had "barely begun," the refinancing of the project is not concrete, and that the borrowers had actually placed the property in jeopardy of being auctioned off by the City in a tax sale as a result of $1.8 million in property tax arrears.
At the end of the day, the Supreme Court approved the sale to 1262066 BC Ltd. on January 15. The true identity of the buyer was not disclosed, however, although court documents note that the buyer is "a well-known and respected company." In other words, the mystery continues.
