Luxor Land: the listing that didn't sell

The security here is two pieces of downtown Edmonton that are mostly asphalt. The Azure Lands are two contiguous parcels totalling 17,675 square feet at 10910 and 10921 Jasper Avenue NW, improved with a paved surface parking lot. The Cascadia Lands are a single 48,583-square-foot parcel at 10008 and 10010 109 Street NW, improved with a paved parking lot and two vacant commercial buildings, per Brief of the Plaintiff, National Bank of Canada, August 10, 2026, paras. 6, 8.

Against that, National Bank of Canada is owed $10,898,181.59, with interest running at $1,890.84 a day, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, para. 24.

Six extensions

NBC — the successor by amalgamation to Canadian Western Bank — agreed under a commitment letter to a non-revolving demand loan of $12,000,000, maturing 24 months after advance. GSRI Ltd. and George Schluessel guaranteed it. The bank took a general security agreement over present and after-acquired personal property relating to the lands and registered it at the Alberta Personal Property Registry, a mortgage securing $12,000,000, and an assignment of rents, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, paras. 4, 11–14.

Then the maturity date moved, repeatedly:

``` June 7, 2022 → September 30, 2022 February 14, 2023 → August 31, 2023 December 27, 2023 → June 30, 2024 (April 8, 2024 — breach letter identifying various breaches) August 21, 2024 → October 31, 2024 October 25, 2024 → November 15, 2024 April 28, 2025 → May 15, 2025 ```

No seventh amendment came. The loan matured on May 15, 2025, and NBC demanded payment the following day, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, paras. 15–23.

There is also an ownership wrinkle sitting underneath. Azure Limited Partnership and Cascadia Limited Partnership each claim an unregistered beneficial ownership interest in their respective lands under Trustee and Beneficial Owner Agreements dated January 8, 2019 — and both consented to the debtor pledging the lands as collateral, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, paras. 7, 9–10.

The bank paid the taxes

Beyond not repaying, the debtor stopped paying municipal property taxes. By October 8, 2025 the arrears, interest and penalties owing to the City of Edmonton reached $1,144,565.72, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, para. 25.

The City had registered tax notifications against the lands, and the lands were scheduled to be auctioned by tax sale in October 2025 — with one Azure parcel set for a tax auction in October 2026, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, para. 26.

A municipal tax sale would have taken NBC's collateral out from under its mortgage. So the bank paid. Counsel gave the City a personal undertaking on October 10, 2025, NBC paid the arrears in full in early November, and the City confirmed receipt on November 5. The payment was added to the indebtedness as a separate cost account, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, para. 27.

The debtor has paid none of the taxes accrued since. Municipal taxes through to December 31, 2026 total $263,528.42, all outstanding except $672.52 the bank itself paid on an account the City had inadvertently left out of its 2025 payout request, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, para. 28.

The year they tried it the other way

This is the part practitioners will want, because it is a documented account of a lender choosing the softer remedy and then having to explain why it did not work.

NBC applied to appoint a receiver over the lands in 2025. After negotiations with the debtor, and having regard to the appraised values and the offers that had been presented, it agreed to pivot — from a receivership to a consensual judicial listing. Separate Consent Redemption Orders – Listing were granted for the Cascadia Lands and the Azure Lands on September 29, 2025, per Brief of the Plaintiff, August 10, 2026, para. 30.