Yet another hotly-anticipated Toronto condo forced into receivership

Unless you've been ignoring news headlines for the last few months — and who could blame you, really? — you're probably well aware that the economy, tariffs, and years of overvaluation and undersupply are not boding well for Toronto's real estate market.

The average price point for a piece of the region's real estate is finally starting to descend as sales volumes remain at rock-bottom lows, particularly in the condo sector, which has been struggling in ways one wouldn't have thought possible given the real estate booms of years past.

Counterintuitively, amid calls for ever-more homes to deal with our growing population, builders have been forced to put dozens of projects and tens of thousands of homes on ice due to a lack of demand (not demand to own in its own rite, but to do so in this economy, at these prices, in this socio-political landscape).

A number of major developments have even gone into receivership, a new sign of the times — including, now, one major project that was due to turn a historic Toronto church-turned-theatre into homes.

Units in church conversions tend to be pricier than the average, and quite coveted among those who can afford them, being full of distinctive architecture and history alongside luxe upgrades.

This is why it may be somewhat surprising that the forthcoming complex at 736 Bathurst Street, home to the Randolph Theatre, is now locked in litigation, with owners unable to finish the 49-storey condo or pay back creditors who helped fund it thus far.

It is common for developers to start project-specific corporations to protect assets (among other reasons), and in this case, the corporations behind the development — listed as 736 BST Corp. and 2657819 Ontario Inc. in new legal docs — were ordered into receivership on April 24.

Lender Timbercreek Mortgage Servicing filed its application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice earlier in April, asking that a receiver (MNP Ltd., in this case) be appointed to take over the property and all assets associated with the project, in the hopes of liquidating to get their money back from ONE Developments, which is helming the build.

The money in question is a staggering $23.5 million that the developer and its corporations have yet to pay Timbercreek back, despite the funds being due in full by last May.

This all comes after the attempted sale of the planned complex, with no bites from other developers to see the project through, leaving anyone who was hoping to live in the new building in the lurch.

At least one additional creditor, Addison, is listed in the lengthy legal docs as having its own, smaller $5,000,000 of skin in the game, which will end up being an entirely separate legal battle for ONE.