Commcache: four price cuts and 18 months for the last building

The apartment building at 800 Howard Avenue in Windsor, which also carries the address 581 Cataraqui Street, is three and a half storeys and holds 18 units. BDO Canada Limited, its court-appointed receiver, put it on the market on February 7, 2025, at $3.25 million. In the months that followed, 14 interested parties signed non-disclosure agreements, five toured the building, and the receiver cut the price four times, "in response to prospective purchaser feedback, market conditions, recommendations from the Windsor Sales Agent, and the Windsor Appraisal," until the listing stood at $2.2 million when a buyer signed on June 8, 2026, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Aug. 14, 2026, paras. 17–18, 24(b).

On September 3, 2026, Justice Jana Steele of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) approved the sale, to 581 Cataraqui Inc., and vested the building in the purchaser on delivery of the receiver's certificate, per the Approval and Vesting Order, Sept. 3, 2026, paras. 2–3. It was the last of five buildings National Bank of Canada had put into receivership two years earlier: the receiver had sold three, and a second mortgagee had refinanced the fifth out of the proceeding, per the Notice of Motion, Aug. 14, 2026, paras. 3–7. The purchase price is sealed until closing. In a companion order the court authorized an interim distribution of $1,120,000 to the bank, which Justice Steele described as "the senior secured lender, who will suffer a shortfall," per the Endorsement of Justice Steele, Sept. 3, 2026, paras. 3, 8–9.

Five buildings, one lender

Commcache Asset Management Inc. was incorporated in Ontario in September 2019, and 52 Lacroix Inc., a single-purpose holding company, in November 2020. Both were in the business of leasing real property, with a registered office in Innisfil, and Benjamin Oakes was the sole director and officer of each, per the Affidavit of Alexandre Cyr, July 24, 2024, paras. 11–12. Between them the companies held five multi-plex buildings: 12 units at 220–222 King Street and 12 at 45 Hartman Avenue, both in Sudbury; the Windsor building; 20 units in two detached buildings at 199–215 John Street in Blenheim; and six units at 52 Lacroix Street in Chatham, the one property 52 Lacroix Inc. owned. They had no employees, and third-party property managers ran the buildings, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Aug. 14, 2026, paras. 7–8, 37.

National Bank financed each building separately, under credit agreements dated between December 2020 and July 2023, with a first mortgage and an assignment of rents on each and a guarantee from Mr. Oakes. By June 17, 2024, Commcache owed the bank $8,424,023.68 and 52 Lacroix owed $395,935.58, per the Affidavit of Alexandre Cyr, July 24, 2024, paras. 6–7, 13–16, 21–22. CMHC guaranteed the bank's mortgages on the King Street and Windsor buildings, per the Receiver's Second Report, Apr. 4, 2025, para. 18.

The defaults were sworn by Alexandre Cyr, the bank's senior manager of special loans: missed monthly payments; second-ranking mortgages registered against the Hartman, John Street and 52 Lacroix buildings without the bank's consent, two of whose holders had served notices of sale; an insurance policy cancelled for non-payment; and an overdraft of $83,198.99. Mr. Cyr swore that Mr. Oakes missed a scheduled call on April 25, 2024, then told the bank on April 29 that the arrears and overdraft would be paid by May 10. "Oakes failed to make any payments by May 10, 2024," the affidavit says, per the Affidavit of Alexandre Cyr, July 24, 2024, paras. 1, 24, 28–31.

No one opposed the application, and Justice Conway appointed BDO on August 14, 2024, recording that Mr. Oakes "wishes to work cooperatively with the Receiver in an effort to minimize costs and preserve equity." The same endorsement gave 2689918 Ontario Inc., the second mortgagee on John Street, 30 days to deliver a term sheet for taking an assignment of the bank's debt and first mortgage there, with the receiver barred from marketing the property meanwhile, an arrangement the judge found "consistent with recent caselaw," per the Endorsement of Justice Conway, Aug. 14, 2024, paras. 2–5. The assignment went through in October 2024, and the receiver has not been in possession of John Street since, per the Receiver's Fourth Report, Aug. 14, 2026, para. 15.

Chatham, then Sudbury twice

The Chatham building had been listed since February 2024, before the receivership, and the receiver kept the agent on. The agreement it signed, dated December 16, 2024 and later assigned to 1001107085 Ontario Inc., carried a price the receiver called supportable as market value "even though the price is below the appraised value for the property." It expected the bank to be repaid in full and Robert O'Neill, holding a $350,000 second mortgage, to fall short, and "there will be no funds available for unsecured or other creditors," per the Receiver's First Report, Jan. 21, 2025, paras. 18, 34–39, 43–44. Justice Black approved the sale on January 30, 2025, per the Endorsement of Justice Black, Jan. 30, 2025, paras. 6–11. Condition problems surfaced before closing; the receiver gave the buyer a $15,000 credit for a mutual release, and the deal closed on February 28, 2025, per the Receiver's Second Report, Apr. 4, 2025, paras. 52–55.

The receiver engaged Royal LePage North Heritage Brokerage for the King Street and Windsor buildings on the same day, February 7, 2025. Within a week Sudbury Apartment Rentals Limited had made a conditional offer on King Street. In March it asked for a lower price; the receiver waited while the bank took the reduced figure to CMHC, and signed the amendment on March 21 once CMHC consented. The only other offer in six weeks of marketing was "significantly less than the consideration contemplated in the Sale Agreement," per the Notice of Motion, Apr. 4, 2025, paras. 10–14 and the Receiver's Second Report, Apr. 4, 2025, paras. 30, 35–36, 47. Justice Steele approved the sale on April 15, 2025 with an interim distribution of $1,475,000, per the Endorsement of Justice Steele, Apr. 15, 2025, paras. 2–9. The receiver put the bank's King Street balance after that payment at $740,639 plus interest; the sale closed on April 30, per the Receiver's Third Report, July 24, 2025, paras. 12, 53.

Hartman Avenue could not go to market that spring. The receiver found over the winter that the roof needed replacing, temporary repairs "were unable to outlast the winter conditions," and by July 2025 eight of the 12 units were empty, some with "significant mold and ceiling damage." When repair costs proved "far greater than originally anticipated," the receiver moved to an urgent sale. Listed June 23, 2025, the building drew 33 site visits and 13 offers in about two weeks; seven bidders submitted revised offers in a best-and-final round closing July 9. Every offer was below the receiver's October 2024 appraisal, which predated the damage and which the receiver said did not provide "an accurate indicator of market value in the circumstances," per the Receiver's Third Report, July 24, 2025, paras. 16, 19–22, 27.