128 Hazelton: Unit 404 finds a buyer after 841 days on the market

Unit 404 at 128 Hazelton Avenue is a finished condominium of 1,566 square feet in a nine-storey, 20-unit building in Toronto's Yorkville, and it has been under contract since November 16, 2018. That day Robert Hiscox agreed to buy it from Mizrahi (128 Hazelton) Inc., together with a storage locker and a private two-space parking garage, for $2,315,450 including HST, paying a deposit of $231,517.50 and a further $168,005.68 for upgrades and staging, per the Seventh Report of the Receiver, Sept. 9, 2026, s. 1.0, para. 3; s. 1.1, para. 1(b); s. 3.0, paras. 1–2. Mr. Hiscox is a principal of Constantine Enterprises Inc. (CEI), Hazelton's senior secured creditor, and a former director of Hazelton. The purchase never closed, and Hazelton remains the registered owner. Before the receivership Mr. Hiscox retained a brokerage to list the unit and garage for sale; the first listing, in November 2022, asked $3,250,000, and the most recent, in March 2026, asked $2,499,000 for the unit with a single parking space. The receiver counts 841 days on the market, across three brokerages and 46 months, per the Seventh Report, s. 1.0, para. 5; s. 1.1, para. 1(b); s. 3.0, paras. 3–4.

On September 16, 2026, Justice Jana Steele of the Commercial List approved two assignments of that agreement, and no one opposed. Brelow Inc. takes Unit 404 and the locker for $2.2 million. Hazy Holdings Inc., which the receiver's factum describes as the purchaser of the building's ground-floor unit, takes the garage for $350,000. Brelow has paid a $115,000 deposit and Hazy $20,000, both held in trust by real estate counsel on the transactions, per the Seventh Report, s. 3.0, paras. 5, 7 and the Factum of the Receiver, Sept. 11, 2026, para. 13. The net proceeds go to CEI on account of its first-ranking debt, per the Ancillary Matters Order, Sept. 16, 2026, para. 3.

A joint venture in receivership

Hazelton is owned half by CEI, whose principals are Mr. Hiscox and Edward Rogers, and half by Mizrahi Developments Inc., controlled by Sam Mizrahi, who was Hazelton's president and one of its two directors until he resigned on May 13, 2024. Another company he controls, Mizrahi Inc., was the project's general contractor and developer, per the Endorsement of Justice Cavanagh, May 12, 2026 (2026 ONSC 2781), paras. 1, 4–5, 7. On February 1, 2024 CEI bought the first-ranking debt of DUCA Financial Services Credit Union — $13,015,116.36 as of February 29 — after DUCA had started a receivership application of its own, then applied for a receiver itself. The Mizrahi respondents called it a partnership dispute over a nearly complete building, relying on a statement of claim alleging that CEI, Mr. Hiscox and Mr. Rogers had taken steps to prevent the project's debt from being repaid, allegations CEI denies. Justice Cavanagh gave the pleaded allegations no weight, accepted CEI's evidence that it had lost confidence in the Mizrahi respondents, and found a receivership just and convenient, per the Endorsement of Justice Cavanagh, May 13, 2024, paras. 11, 18–19, 28, 32–33, 43–45. His order of June 4, 2024 appointed KSV Restructuring Inc., which became AlixPartners Restructuring, Inc. on June 1, 2026 and was substituted as receiver on June 3, per the Seventh Report, s. 1.0, para. 1, n. 1.

Orders of August 30, 2024, September 20, 2024 and August 15, 2025 approved sales of the ground-floor retail unit and units 201, 204, 403 and 801. Hazelton still owns Unit 404, the garage, Unit 802, which is listed for sale, and Unit 901, "a large top-floor unit," whose construction "is expected to commence shortly," per the Seventh Report, s. 1.0, paras. 4–5. When the receiver sought approval of the Unit 801 sale in August 2025, CEI had advised it that approximately $10.6 million was owing on the DUCA debt, and CEI was owed $1.43 million on its advances to the receiver. The Seventh Report puts the first figure at approximately $6.7 million as of June 30, 2026, excluding costs, and the second at $802,000, per the Sixth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 11, 2025, s. 2.0, paras. 3–4 and the Seventh Report, s. 2.0, paras. 3–4. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada held a second priority mortgage, subordinate to the DUCA debt, for up to $18.5 million of Hazelton's deposit insurance indemnification obligations, per the Endorsement of Justice Cavanagh, May 13, 2024, para. 14.

The price and the lift

The receiver's primary rationale for the sales, its report says, is how long Unit 404 and the garage have been available for sale, the distressed state of the condominium market and ongoing costs; the appraisal it obtained from Simon & Associates Ltd., dated June 23, 2026, was an additional step. "The market response is the best indication of value," per the Seventh Report, s. 3.2, n. 6. At the combined price of $2,550,000, Unit 404 and the garage sell at $1,628 a square foot. The appraisal's four comparables, adjusted, ran from $1,218 to $1,432, the highest of them Unit 301 in the same building, which sold for $2,095,000 in November 2025. No commission is payable, Mr. Hiscox has advised, per the Seventh Report, s. 1.2, para. 1; s. 3.0, paras. 9–10; s. 3.2, n. 7.

The report also proposed how to divide the $2,550,000, which produced what the receiver calls "a purchase price lift of $234,550" over the 2018 price, per the Seventh Report, s. 3.1, para. 1. The receiver would keep the lift, Mr. Hiscox would be credited his deposit and his upgrade payments, and $2,150,476.82, before HST, would be paid to the receiver. Its reasons: the unit was finished, so Mr. Hiscox could have required the receiver to close his 2018 agreement with the same credits; without a credit for the deposit, he had advised, he would claim against Aviva, a claim that the receiver says would potentially increase the priority claims in the estate and/or run against the guarantors of the Aviva facility, whom it understands to include Mr. Mizrahi and Mr. Hiscox; and a similar deposit credit went to CEI when it assigned its own agreement for Unit 403, a sale the court approved on September 20, 2024. Mr. Hiscox, the report says, had first asked to be credited the lift, then agreed that it would be paid to the receiver provided he were reimbursed for the upgrades, per the Seventh Report, s. 3.1, para. 2. Had the receiver moved instead to disclaim the agreement, it says, Mr. Hiscox could have required it to close, for net proceeds of $1,915,926.82, per the Seventh Report, s. 3.2, para. 1(g).

In footnotes, the receiver records that the consent and amendment agreement for Unit 404 puts Mr. Hiscox's deposit at $441,760, but that in its view some of what he paid may not have been in respect of deposits or upgrades, so it treats $399,523.18 as the amount he paid; the upgrade figure "is subject to further review by the Receiver," per the Seventh Report, s. 3.0, para. 2, n. 2; s. 3.1, n. 4.

On September 15, the day before the hearing, the receiver put in an aide memoire. After the motion record was served, Mr. Hiscox advised that, "despite the Receiver's previous understanding, he was not in agreement" with the allocation: he expected credits for the deposit ($231,517.50) and the purchase price lift ($234,550), which the aide memoire calls the Hiscox Allocation, per the Aide Memoire of the Receiver, Sept. 15, 2026, para. 2. That reduces the cash reaching the estate by $66,544.32. To facilitate the transactions, CEI agreed to credit an equivalent amount against its priority debt if the receiver accepted, and the receiver did, "given (a) as a result of CEI's agreement to credit the CEI Priority Debt, the economic outcome to Hazelton's estate is the same; and (b) a similar approach was taken" on Unit 403, per the Aide Memoire, paras. 3–4.