78 Tisdale: the deposits go to Aviva, the land back to market

On March 31, 2021, Justice Conway signed two orders over a parcel of land at 78 Tisdale Avenue in Toronto. The first, on consent, appointed Grant Thornton Limited as a receiver without possession, to monitor the owner, Nascent (Tisdale) Inc., as it tried to close its own sale, under an agreement of purchase and sale dated March 1, 2021 with Ideal Properties Inc. in trust, per the Consent Order, Mar. 31, 2021, paras. 3–5(c)(i). The second made Grant Thornton a full receiver, and by the terms of her endorsement it was held back. Nascent had three milestones to meet: evidence of a wire of about $180,000 to its lender, Fiera FP Real Estate Financing Fund, L.P., on account of April and May interest, by 2:00 p.m. the next day; written evidence of the buyer's waiver of due diligence by April 24; and a closing, or payment of Fiera in full, by June 1. The full receivership order would take effect only if one was missed, per the Endorsement, Mar. 31, 2021, paras. 1–6. On April 26, 2021, Nascent missed one, and the receiver took possession, per the receiver's First Report, May 25, 2021, paras. 1–2 (Motion Record, July 17, 2026, App. B).

The land is 1.5 net developable acres south of Eglinton Avenue and west of Victoria Park Avenue, zoned for 35 townhouses in six blocks with about 51,000 square feet of buildable floor area, per the receiver's Information Memorandum, June 10, 2021, p. 8. Nascent had signed 19 pre-construction agreements, most of them in 2017; the receiver disclaimed them effective June 19, 2021, believing it highly unlikely that a buyer at fair market value would both assume them and complete the development, per the First Report, May 25, 2021, paras. 24, 27, 29–30 (Motion Record, July 17, 2026, App. B). The address is now 100 Tisdale Avenue. Five reports later the site is still unsold, and the receiver's list of work since August 2024 includes keeping a fence rented, moving to cheaper insurance and a cheaper security-check provider, and removing garbage left on the property by an unauthorized third party. At June 30, 2026 it held $6,746.74 in cash, representing advances from Fiera, per the Fifth Report of the Receiver, July 17, 2026, paras. 2, 57–58.

On August 31, 2026, Justice Cavanagh heard the receiver's motion on its Fifth Report by videoconference. The relief included paying out deposits that had sat in a segregated trust account since 2021, and on that his endorsement reads: "I am satisfied that the proposed distribution to Aviva should be approved. There is no opposition." He granted the rest, approving the receiver's activities and fees and its engagement of Colliers Macaulay Nicolls Inc. to sell the land, per the Endorsement of Justice Cavanagh, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 1–3.

Four extensions and a walk-away

The receiver's first sale process ran in 2021. It signed 20 non-disclosure agreements, took offers by July 19, 2021, and accepted none of them after consulting Nascent's primary secured creditors, per the Third Report of the Receiver, Mar. 9, 2022, paras. 18–20. On February 15, 2022 it signed with DIG Developments Inc., on terms that hung on a planning approval: a $150,000 deposit, from which the receiver could draw about $2,280 a month for carrying costs, and a condition that DIG obtain, at its own expense and within five months, the City of Toronto's approval to increase the permitted density, per the Third Report of the Receiver, Mar. 9, 2022, para. 25. Justice Gilmore approved the sale on March 17, 2022, with the unredacted agreement filed as a confidential appendix, per the Approval and Vesting Order, Mar. 17, 2022, p. 1. The receiver had asked that the agreement and its summary of offers be sealed until the transaction closed or the court ordered otherwise, per the Third Report of the Receiver, Mar. 9, 2022, para. 31. DIG went to the Committee of Adjustment on March 15, 2022 asking to raise the unit count from 35 to 53, lot coverage from 45% to 48%, and the height limit from 11.25 metres and three storeys to 12.55 metres and four, and to cut one block's front-yard setback from 6 metres to 1.5, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 2, 2024, para. 25. The committee refused in June 2022. What followed, in the receiver's account, was two years of extensions, each with Fiera's support: a first amendment on July 15, 2022 moving DIG's condition date to October 17, 2022 and raising the price; a second on November 11, 2022 moving it to March 17, 2023; an amended and restated agreement on March 23, 2023 moving it to November 15, 2023 with a further price increase; and a retroactive amendment on December 12, 2023 moving it to January 15, 2024. Mediation with the City at the tribunal from July 26 to 28, 2023 failed. From January to March 2024 the receiver and DIG considered "various scenarios and options to further extend the Amended APS and to maintain the support of Fiera," and on March 22, 2024, unable to agree, both agreed to stop, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 2, 2024, paras. 26–33.

The receiver kept $108,933.09 of DIG's deposit. The set-off was built from $56,070.75 in carrying costs from February 15, 2022 to March 22, 2024; $13,544.32 in interest on 2023 and 2024 property taxes that DIG had agreed to pay and had not; a $15,701.70 estimate of further interest to March 2025; and $23,616.32 paid to two outside consultants, whose unpaid invoices to DIG had to be settled before the receiver could obtain DIG's planning documentation. That left $41,066.91 returnable to DIG, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 2, 2024, paras. 34–38. Justice Conway approved it on August 12, 2024, noting that "DIG has not opposed the set-off against the Deposit," per the Endorsement of Justice Conway, Aug. 12, 2024, para. 2.

The same attendance resolved a property tax problem that arose during the receivership. Minutes of Settlement in an Assessment Act appeal, signed on December 10, 2021 by a licensed representative who purported to act for the company and by City staff who were not aware of the receivership, led to Assessment Review Board decisions that reclassified the land as multi-residential for 2017 through 2021 and added a retroactive $265,248.07 to arrears, for a total of $365,298.60, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 2, 2024, paras. 44–48. On the City's consent, Justice Conway cancelled the 2017 decision, lifted the stay nunc pro tunc so as to ratify the decisions for 2018 through 2021, and cancelled interest and penalties for January 1, 2022 to August 12, 2024, per the Order of Justice Conway, Aug. 12, 2024, para. 5. She grounded that jurisdiction in the receivership order's stay provisions and s. 319(2)(b) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, per the Endorsement of Justice Conway, Aug. 12, 2024, para. 2.

The "what" and the "how"

With DIG gone, the receiver took the appeal to a hearing anyway, on the view that higher density would raise the land's value; DIG's former counsel, acting under the receiver's direction, called the evidence, per the Fifth Report of the Receiver, July 17, 2026, paras. 26–27. The Ontario Land Tribunal heard it by video from June 11 to 14, 2024. By then the request was for 52 units, and the City's land use planner called that an overdevelopment, testifying that the approved 35 was the appropriate level of intensification. Member S. deBoer preferred the evidence of the appellant's planner and found the City's experts more concerned with matters for the later subdivision and site plan appeals: "In layman's terms, the Minor Variance Application Appeal allows for the 'what' can be built, whereas the Plan of Subdivision and Site Plan Appeals focus on the 'how'," per the OLT Decision and Interim Order, Oct. 2, 2024, paras. 2, 29, 50, 64, 66 (Motion Record, July 17, 2026, App. L).