The land at 25 Glen Watford Drive, north of Sheppard Avenue East, is a strip of 1.73 acres with 130 feet of frontage and 519 feet of depth, per a Colliers memorandum filed with the receiver's motion record First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, App. E, p. 127. KBIJ Corporation took title from JTK Holding Inc. in June 2015 by a transfer registered at $6,500,000, JTK taking back a $2,000,000 mortgage First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, paras. 6–8; App. F, Sch. C, p. 156. The plan, according to the lender that financed the purchase, was a ten-storey retirement home with ground-floor retail and medical offices Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, July 21, 2023, para. 5. Eleven years on, the receiver describes the property as vacant land, zoned for high-density mixed use and approved to permit a 10-storey mid-rise retirement residence First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, para. 4.
On April 6, 2023, KBIJ signed an acknowledgment and direction under which its lawyers, Shirley Yee Professional Corporation, would put purchasers' deposits for the project "known as 'E C Manor'" into an interest-bearing account, and "will be charging a one percent (1%) administrative fee plus HST to manage this service" First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, App. N, p. 201. The firm now holds deposits totalling $5,729,977.30, which are accruing interest First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, para. 29. In October 2024 it counted "55 matters on file," in correspondence whose subject line styles the vendor as "KBIJ CORPORATION IN TRUST for E C MANOR FOUNDATION" and one buyer's interest as a "Life Lease Interest" in Unit 1020 First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, App. J, p. 176.
No building went up, and the refinancing KBIJ told the court it was arranging did not arrive. On October 24, 2023, Justice Penny of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) appointed Rosen Goldberg Inc. receiver and manager of KBIJ's property under s. 243(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and s. 101 of the Courts of Justice Act, on the application of the first mortgagee, Sigma One Capital Inc. Receivership Order, Oct. 24, 2023, para. 2. On August 25, 2026, the receiver served a motion record asking the court to approve a sale of the land to an affiliate of Sigma, vest it free of the buyers' agreements, and order the law firm to pay the deposits over so the receiver can return them Notice of Motion, Aug. 25, 2026, paras. 1–2. Three days later Justice Cavanagh set the motion down for September 29 Endorsement of Justice Cavanagh, Aug. 28, 2026, para. 2.
Two years at 1% a month, renewed five times
Sigma lent $4.5 million under a commitment letter of June 15, 2015: a two-year term, interest at 1% a month compounded and accruing until maturity, when $5,713,805.92 would be payable, and a profit-sharing agreement to follow, per the affidavit of Sigma's managing partner, Paras Dharamshi; the agreement signed on October 1, 2015 gave Sigma 50% of the profits from developing and selling the land Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, July 21, 2023, paras. 1, 6, 10. Sigma's charge permitted the $2 million vendor take-back and a third mortgage of up to $700,000, and nothing more without its written consent. Charges followed in favour of two individuals ($100,000 in 2018 and $269,500 in 2021) and Sun & Partners Professional Corporation ($200,000, 2021), and two further individuals registered a $180,000 notice in 2019; the receiver understands KBIJ sought Sigma's written consent to none of them First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, paras. 6–8.
When the loan matured in June 2017, KBIJ "had achieved little, if any, progress in developing the Real Property," Mr. Dharamshi deposed Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, July 21, 2023, para. 13. Sigma renewed it annually on five occasions and let the interest accrue, first so KBIJ could take the land through site plan control and later so it could refinance or sell. In July 2022 Sigma insisted on $100,000 a month; it received two such payments and then, on May 19, 2023, one of $50,000. At July 7, 2023 the debt stood at $11,564,963.41, and demand and a notice under s. 244 of the BIA followed the next day Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, July 21, 2023, paras. 13–15.
Three appearances and a US$130 million commitment
KBIJ delivered no responding material on the application. At the first scheduling appearance, on August 22, 2023, Charles Chan, its principal and the loan's guarantor, and two others told Justice Conway that a lawyer then on vacation would act; on September 7 that lawyer told Sigma's counsel he was not retained. That evening another lawyer, engaged only on the refinancing, forwarded a signed commitment from RBK Investment Group, of Las Vegas, for a US$130 million mortgage loan to discharge every mortgage on title and fund a large-scale project on the land Supplementary Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, Oct. 20, 2023, paras. 4–7. David Preger of Dickinson Wright LLP, for Sigma, answered that the commitment "has no air of reality," since no private lender "lends $130M at 4% per annum to even the most sophisticated developer" Supplementary Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, Oct. 20, 2023, Ex. C, p. 17. Justice Kimmel fixed the hearing for October 24 with responding material due October 2, which she wrote built in two weeks for the lender to retain Ontario counsel and for KBIJ to try to negotiate a refinancing Supplementary Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, Oct. 20, 2023, Ex. D, paras. 4–5.
On September 25, Ernest Woo of Shirley Yee Professional Corporation told Sigma's real estate counsel he was completing a loan transaction expected to close two days later. Mr. Chan then advised that the deal would close before October 6, that the lender was wiring the funds through Chase Manhattan Bank, and that Sigma would be paid in the week of October 9, and later in the week of October 16. On October 18 Mr. Woo wrote that his firm was no longer retained. Mr. Dharamshi deposed that he believed the RBK financing to be "a ruse," while saying he did not know who was behind it Supplementary Affidavit of Paras Dharamshi, Oct. 20, 2023, paras. 11–18, 22.
Mr. Chan and Hratch Aynedjian appeared for KBIJ on October 24 and asked for another adjournment. Justice Penny refused: "While the debtor represents that there are ongoing efforts to refinance, there is no evidence to support the viability or prospect of success of those efforts." If new financing came through in the near future, he added, "there will still be an opportunity to pay out the debt owed to the applicant without the need for a sale" Endorsement of Justice Penny, Oct. 24, 2023, paras. 2–5.
Thirty-five confidentiality agreements, one letter of intent
After consulting Sigma, the receiver signed an unpriced listing with Colliers on March 24, 2024. Colliers put the land on MLS and Realtor.ca and on a web page that drew 2,095 views and 137 flyer downloads, and opened a data room with the approved retirement-home documentation, two 2022 environmental site assessments, and a preliminary development concept the receiver commissioned from Weston Consulting to explore higher density, which sketched two residential buildings of 12 and 23 storeys. The receiver's form of confidentiality agreement drew 35 signatures. Mr. Chan told the receiver and Sigma at various points that he meant to refinance and seek the receiver's discharge, but "no refinancing commitments were produced." One letter of intent came in; negotiations with the party behind it failed, and no offer followed First Report, Aug. 25, 2026, paras. 12–20.
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