Mayfield Investments: the 80 acres near Camrose go last

Mayfield Investments Ltd. was incorporated in Alberta in 1974, but its president traced the business to 1942, and swore in October 2024 that the family behind it had since built and operated some 27 hotels, dinner theatres, a casino and multiple restaurants, per the Affidavit of Jason Pechet, Oct. 23, 2024, para. 5. What it held that autumn was the Camrose Resort and Casino, the Medicine Hat Lodge, half of the Copper Coulee Casino attached to the lodge, the Stage West Dinner Theatre in Calgary, a stake in a winery in Penticton, and an 80-acre parcel across the street from the Camrose resort that the company called the Camrose Excess Lands.

ATB Financial, the company's senior lender, had written that parcel into its loans years earlier. A commitment letter from 2019, restated in 2021, required a lump-sum payment on its sale equal to the greater of 80% of gross proceeds and $2,125,000, and ATB's director of risk advisory and management swore in September 2024 that Mayfield had been trying to sell the land "since, at the latest, 2019" without success. "It is the Lender's view that the appointment of the Receiver may assist in enabling the sale of the Camrose Excess Lands to proceed, in the near term," he added, per the Second Supplemental Affidavit of Muhammad Ashraf, Sept. 4, 2024, paras. 59–62. ATB was owed $38,902,672.68 as of September 3, 2024 (para. 11).

On August 21, 2026, Justice G.S. Dunlop of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta approved the sale of those 79.74 acres to Salt & Pepper Farms Ltd., sealed the price, and authorized the receiver, Ernst & Young Inc., to pay all or part of the net proceeds to ATB, per the Approval and Vesting Order (Camrose Lands), Aug. 21, 2026, paras. 2–4, the Sealing Order, Aug. 21, 2026, para. 2 and the Order (Distribution – Camrose Lands Transaction), Aug. 21, 2026, para. 3. In January, listing the real estate work on the two hotel sales, the receiver had referred to "one other piece of real property that has not yet sold," per the Eighth Report of the Receiver, Jan. 27, 2026, para. 69(d). As of August 10, ATB was still owed approximately $19.2 million, with interest accruing, per the Tenth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 10, 2026, para. 38.

A consent order with a trigger

Mayfield had been in default with ATB since March 2021. A run of forbearance agreements began in June 2022, followed by a demand in August 2023, notices under s. 244 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act that December, a sales process that produced nothing sufficient to repay ATB, a receivership application in June 2024 and, on August 29, 2024, Mayfield's own application under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. On September 6, 2024, immediately before both were to be heard, the parties signed another forbearance amendment, and Justice M.J. Lema granted a consent receivership order stayed until October 31 or until ATB filed a certificate of a further default. The CCAA application was adjourned sine die. One of Mayfield's obligations was to deliver an unconditional commitment letter from Canadian Western Bank by October 15. It did not arrive, and ATB filed its certificate on October 24, when it was owed more than $38.8 million, per ATB Financial v Mayfield Investments Ltd, 2024 ABKB 635, paras. 3–24.

The company's account of its insolvency, in the affidavit filed on October 23, named the pandemic's effect on Alberta hospitality, a commercial real estate market that hampered the marketing of its assets, a flood at the Camrose resort and the litigation with contractors that followed, insurers it said owed it more than $4 million, steep interest rate increases, and a 2023 harvest failure at the Okanagan winery. Mayfield said it was "on the verge of solvency" and in the final stages of a $30 million refinancing with Canadian Western Bank, per the Affidavit of Jason Pechet, Oct. 23, 2024, paras. 9, 32, 43.

Justice M.A. Marion dismissed its application to stay the order on October 30, 2024. CWB had not yet given credit approval, Mayfield had no concrete refinancing plan, and the receiver had already taken possession, told the staff, and terminated the president's employment. ATB had argued that the egg could not be unscrambled; she found that "while the egg may not be fully scrambled at this point, it has been cracked and is already bubbling on the griddle," per 2024 ABKB 635, paras. 57(c), 62, 67. EY's first report counted $88,610 in Mayfield's ATB accounts on the appointment date, 212 employees on the hotel and casino payroll, and management's forecast that the company could not operate past November 1 without a cash injection, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 28, 2024, paras. 31(d), 38.

A casino licence sold twice

Mayfield's casino subsidiary had already agreed, in April 2024, to sell the Camrose Casino's licence for $5.5 million to Capital City Casinos Ltd., which planned to move it to a new casino in southeast Edmonton. A $4.125 million deposit sat in trust with Duncan Craig LLP, and under those terms neither it nor the balance would be paid out until the Edmonton casino was built and the deal closed, which would take about two years. The receiver told Capital City those terms were not acceptable and renegotiated: the full price on court approval, and a lease letting Capital City run the casino inside the Camrose resort for at least 20 months while the Edmonton building went up, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Feb. 14, 2025, paras. 24–26, 30–31, 43–44. Justice D.R. Mah approved the sale on February 21, 2025, per the Tenth Report, para. 8; it closed on March 31 for about $5.8 million, including a working capital adjustment of approximately $323,000, per the Sixth Report of the Receiver, July 7, 2025, para. 23(b).

ATB's security did not reach the casino partnership's assets, only Mayfield's interest in the partnership, so the casino's own creditors were identified first through a claims process, per the Fourth Report, paras. 47–48. On February 27, 2026, Justice C.D. Simard authorized distributions on eight accepted claims, among them $549,458.28 to ATM Cash Systems (Canada) Ltd. and $346,560.30 to the Canada Revenue Agency, and $3,101,787.02 to ATB, per the Court Order (Distribution – Capital City Transaction), Feb. 27, 2026, Sch. "A". Under a consent order the same day, the further $601,787.64 ATM Cash had sought on its damages claim was disallowed and declared "forever barred and extinguished," per the Consent Order, Feb. 27, 2026, paras. 2–6.

Two hotels and a forced-sale clause

The sale process Justice Dunlop approved on January 14, 2025 put the Camrose hotel, the Medicine Hat Lodge and Mayfield's half of 1995472 Alberta Ltd., the holding company above the Copper Coulee Casino, in the hands of Avison Young, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Jan. 6, 2025, paras. 22–25, 39–41. Thirty-six parties signed confidentiality agreements and nine qualified letters of intent came in, per the Seventh Report of the Receiver, Dec. 8, 2025, paras. 22(q), 26.

The Camrose hotel went to a bidder that signed its confidentiality agreement after the phase 1 deadline; the receiver admitted Denham Properties Ltd. to phase 2 under its power to waive strict compliance in consultation with ATB. Denham submitted an unconditional bid on June 13, 2025, the receiver designated the amended bid the highest and best, and the purchasing entity then became an affiliate, Rose Country Investments Ltd., which also took over Capital City's casino lease, per the Sixth Report, paras. 26–32. Justice M.E. Burns approved it on July 14, 2025, and it closed on July 31 at a purchase price of $6.1 million, per the Seventh Report, paras. 9, 24(b).