1075 Nelson: a $91 million letter and a guarantor's defence

The tower was to rise 585.5 feet from the highest point of the downtown peninsula. CBRE's brochure for 1075 Nelson Street calls the CURV "the world's tallest residential passive house," designed by the architect Tom Wright of WKA: 60 storeys, 357 condominiums and 176 market rental units, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, App. "B". Construction never began, and on the lands today, the receiver reports, stand a partly occupied 28-unit rental building and a former rental property beside it "in a poor state of repair and uninhabitable." The owner carried the real property, with capitalized development costs, at approximately $168,000,000 on its December 31, 2024 financial statements; BC Assessment put it at $35,203,300 as at July 1, 2025, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 15, 18–19, 45.

Deloitte Restructuring Inc. has been receiver and manager of 1075 Nelson Development Limited Partnership, its general partner and its nominee since July 25, 2025, when Justice Blake of the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted Royal Bank of Canada's application under s. 243(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, per the Receivership Order, July 25, 2025, para. 1. Its First Report, dated August 31, 2026, is its first account to the court of that year. A supplement of the same date is given over almost entirely to one letter of intent, and to the guarantor who says the receiver let it go.

A land loan, extended four times

The debt is a $90,000,000 committed, non-revolving land loan, of which RBC holds $50,000,000, Bank of Montreal $25,000,000 and Meridian Credit Union Limited $15,000,000; it paid out a KingSett subordinate loan and part of a $9,000,000 subordinate loan from 1409658 B.C. Ltd. It fell due on August 31, 2024. Four amendments moved the date: to September 30, 2024 for a $75,000 extension fee; to November 30, 2024 for $150,000, with the margin over prime raised from 1.00% to 1.50%; to April 30, 2025 for $187,500, the margin reaching 2.00% on March 1, 2025; and finally to July 31, 2025, at prime plus 2.50%, on condition of a $225,000 fee and subject to the lenders receiving a CBRE opinion of value "if the current land site were to trade in the market within the next 3-4 months," according to the credit agreement and amendments exhibited to the Affidavit #1 of S. Kovesdi, July 11, 2025, Ex. "A", pp. 9–10, 23, 63, 69–70, 77–78, 85–86, 94–95.

The $225,000 was never paid, so maturity stayed at April 30, 2025. RBC demanded on June 11, 2025, under the loan and under an unlimited joint and several guarantee of May 11, 2023 given by the nominee, the general partner, Brivia Family Investments Inc. and Kheng Ly, and put the debt at $91,204,611.06 as at July 10, with interest running at $18,369.87 a day, per the Notice of Application, July 11, 2025, Part 2, paras. 11, 14–20; Part 3, para. 11.

The receiver's summary of what went wrong is market and cost: a pre-sale program launched in or about March 2023 "into a softening luxury condominium market," premium pricing and weak Vancouver pre-sale demand that left the debtors short of the pre-sales needed for construction financing, and escalating construction cost projections, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, para. 28. The city had rezoned the site in June 2020 on condition of 102 units of on-site social housing. After the debtors represented that cost escalation and softening markets made those units unviable, council allowed cash in lieu, and on March 11, 2025 approved a $55,000,000 payment in their place, none of which fell due because construction never started, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 19–20.

On October 15, 2025, Justice Blake granted an order nisi fixing the debtors' liability at $92,969,843.93, with interest at RBC prime plus 2.50%, and adjourning generally RBC's claim against Mr. Ly and Brivia Family Investments, along with redemption and foreclosure, per the Order Nisi, Oct. 15, 2025, paras. 5–9. RBC's draft order had sought judgment against both guarantors for the same sum, per the Statement of Relief Sought, Oct. 1, 2025, Sch. "A", para. 7.

What the receiver did with the year

Forty-one units had been pre-sold when the receiver arrived. CBRE and the other realtors that pitched for the listing advised that there was "a very low likelihood of a buyer continuing the Project in its current format," and the receiver's counsel concluded that under the Real Estate Development Marketing Act a receiver's appointment requires a new disclosure statement, giving each purchaser without title a fresh seven-day right to rescind. On October 2, 2025, the receiver offered purchasers mutual termination and release agreements; every contract has since been terminated, leaving purchasers to Travelers Insurance Company of Canada's deposit insurance or the deposits held in trust by McCarthy Tétrault LLP, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 48, 52–55. Cancellations had begun before the receivership: Brivia sent purchasers a new disclosure statement on April 11, 2025, and by April 25 the buyers of 57 units had asked to cancel, according to Ilias Konstantopoulos, Mr. Ly's special advisor, in the Affidavit #1 of I. Konstantopoulos, May 6, 2026, paras. 7–9.

In September 2022 the debtors had paid the City of Vancouver a $1,425,395 building permit application fee. On January 7, 2026, once the city confirmed it could be refunded, Paul Chambers, the Deloitte senior vice-president who signed both reports, asked CBRE to confirm that the chances of a buyer continuing with the existing development and permit were "very low to zero," adding: "I think 'bird in the hand' is probably the best strategy here," per the Supplement to the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, App. "H". The city paid back $1,419,865 on February 24, 2026. That refund is most of the $2,155,370 the receiver had received by August 19, 2026, alongside $345,392 in advance commissions recovered from realtors, with more outstanding and some disputed. Disbursements of $941,084, including $257,421 in property taxes and $174,076 in receiver's fees, left $1,214,286 on hand, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 58–60, 65, 81–83.

The First Report describes no offer. CBRE, retained on September 4, 2025 at 0.85% of gross proceeds, launched on September 24 with an email to about 1,622 prospects and advertisements in four publications, and held discussions with 42 groups; fifteen parties have had extensive discussions and seven have signed confidentiality agreements. "The Sale Process is ongoing," the receiver writes, in a market with elevated construction and financing costs, softening pre-sale demand and rents, and "a number of other downtown development sites and stalled projects currently available for sale," per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 35–36, 40, 42–44.

A letter for $91 million

Mr. Ly is president and CEO of Brivia Group, the Montreal developer that controls the debtors, and sole director of the general partner and the nominee, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 10, 14. On May 7, 2026, he filed a response to RBC's petition. In it he says the property was appraised at $169 million as at February 22, 2024 and $183 million as at December 17, 2024, and that in May 2025 RBC told Brivia that CBRE's preliminary valuation was "in the mid-$50 million range." Brivia offered an orderly sale with proceeds to RBC first, and on a July 22, 2025 call urged a forbearance agreement and a confidential sale instead of a receivership, warning that remaining purchasers would likely be "spooked," per the Response to Petition (K. Ly), May 7, 2026, Part 4, paras. 6, 10, 12–13. The first of those appraisals, by Ryan ULC, was prepared for first mortgage financing and relied on pre-sale information and a hard cost estimate supplied by the client, per the Affidavit #1 of K. Ly, May 7, 2026, Ex. "A".