Bennette Chase: a second sale process, and a bigger charge

The rulebook for a second attempt at selling a closed Esso station on 34 Avenue SE in Calgary runs to forty numbered paragraphs. It defines a Potential Bidder, a Qualified Bidder, a Qualified Bid, a Successful Bid and a Back-up Bid, and it provides for a teaser, an electronic data room, an inspection window that shuts one day before bids are due, a ten per cent deposit wired into a law firm's trust account, and a clause leaving every determination the process calls for to the receiver's sole discretion. Justice M.A. Marion approved it on September 18, 2026 and directed MNP Ltd. to implement it and to return to the court for approval of a successful bid as soon as reasonably practicable after one is selected, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, para. 2; Sch. "A", para. 39. The order was filed three days later.

The asset is the one that has been sitting closed since MNP took possession on April 1: a two-bay car wash, a four-pump gas bar and a convenience store on a 0.35-acre corner lot. A first process launched on June 3, 2026 at a list price of $1,995,000 drew more than 40 executed non-disclosure agreements and no sale, and the receiver has proposed a new list price of $1,590,000, per the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 8–9, 24–25, 29.

Thirty days, and a deposit held by the receiver's lawyers

The process runs thirty days: it begins September 19, 2026, with NAI Commercial Real Estate Inc. as marketing agent preparing a list of potential bidders and an offering summary; bids are due by 5:00 p.m. Calgary time on October 19, 2026; the receiver then has eight business days to notify the successful bidder; the approval application follows "as soon as reasonably practical," and closing is due eleven days after the court approves, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", paras. 10, 12–13. The process is to be advertised in Insolvency Insider and on LinkedIn, and posted on the receiver's and the agent's websites, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", para. 14.

Qualification happens at two gates: a party becomes a Qualified Bidder by delivering an executed confidentiality agreement and a disclosure letter naming its directors, officers and shareholders — after which the marketing agent opens the data room — and a bid becomes a Qualified Bid only when the receiver designates it one after the deadline. Nobody passes either gate without the receiver's approval, and the receiver may eliminate a Qualified Bidder at any point in its reasonable business judgment, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", paras. 16–18, 27.

The bid itself must satisfy six requirements. It arrives before the deadline, with a cash deposit by wire of ten per cent of the purchase price, held in a non-interest-bearing trust account by Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, the receiver's counsel. With it comes a letter making the offer irrevocable until a successful and back-up bidder are chosen, disclosing every entity entering the transaction or financing or benefiting from the bid, attaching board authorization, and showing financial capacity "without any necessity for a financing condition." A bid may claim no break fee or expense reimbursement, and may carry no condition other than approval by the court, all due diligence having been completed before it is submitted; it encloses an executed purchase agreement in the receiver's own form, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", para. 25. The paragraph that follows adds that "The Receiver is entitled, in its sole discretion, to waive compliance with any of the Bid Requirements," per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", para. 26.

The receiver "shall be under no obligation to accept the highest offer" and will weigh total consideration, the treatment of stakeholders, the recovery for creditors and any delay, financing or closing risk, in consultation with NAI and with Servus Credit Union Ltd., the secured lender whose application produced the receivership, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", paras. 28, 30. Every Qualified Bid other than the successful one and any back-up is deemed rejected on the date of court approval, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, Sch. "A", para. 32.

What is different from June

The June process was run on the receiver's own authority, under the power in paragraph 3 of the receivership order to market the property and solicit offers; this one is approved and directed by the court, and the order that approves it protects the receiver, its affiliates, partners, directors, officers, employees and agents from liability for any act or omission related to the process short of gross negligence or wilful misconduct, per the Order (Approval of Sale Process), Sept. 18, 2026, para. 3, the First Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 19, 23 and the Application (Sale Process), Sept. 8, 2026, para. 5.