Buyers of GTA development uncertain as it enters receivership
CBC
Buyers who have been waiting years to move into homes at a pre-construction development north of Toronto are facing more uncertainty and delays, after the project was placed into receivership earlier this year.
Operating as Mapleview Developments, Richmond Hill-based Pace Developments was building more than 1,000 condos and townhomes in six phases on 20 hectares of land across from the Barrie South GO station, near the intersection of Yonge Street and Mapleview Drive E., about 100 kilometres north of Toronto.
But the future of the partially-completed Urban North Townhomes project, which first went up for sale in 2018, is now up in the air.
"I feel betrayed," said Melenie Chan, who paid a $25,000 deposit after signing a sales agreement for a two-bedroom unit in September 2018.
"It's just sickening that they can take my money ... I feel like I can't do anything."
The project is the latest Ontario residential development to enter receivership — a court-led process secured lenders can use to recover costs from assets, usually through a sale — as some developers struggle to complete projects amid elevated interest rates, high construction costs and a slower real estate market.
A judge from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice appointed KSV Advisory in March to take control of the project, following an application by one of its lenders, KingSett Mortgage Corporation, claiming the developers have missed payments and it's owed more than $47 million plus interest.
Dino Sciavilla and Yvonne Sciavilla, both directors of Mapleview Developments and Pace Developments, are listed as guarantors of the loan, according to court records and the Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA), which regulates home builders in Ontario.
"The applicant has lost all confidence in the debtors' management ... specifically due to their significant debt load and dire liquidity issues," lawyers for Kingsett argued in their application.
In addition to at least three other lenders, who are also owed millions of dollars, 10 construction liens have been registered against the property, with the largest held by Condrain Group for more than $4 million.
Kingsett argued the appointment of a receiver would "provide the most effective and appropriate method of effecting an orderly, efficient, and transparent sale of the property."
Pace Developments didn't respond to requests for comment CBC Toronto sent via email and phone.
Chan said she and her husband bought the home for their son to move into after he graduated high school.
Their sales agreement identified the first possible move-in date as July 2021 and the last possible date as October 2023, although Chan says the closing date has been pushed back multiple times, with the latest being July 2024.