Mewburn Towns: what is left of 27 buyers' deposits

The trust ledger Aliquot Law kept in Oakville for the townhouses at 2700 Mewburn Road in Niagara Falls opens in November 2020 with $5,000 bank drafts and cheques and runs into 2022, when most of the buyers added a cheque marked "upgrades." At its foot the buyers of 27 units at Mewburn Towns had paid $1,980,487, and the firm had released $1,702,950 of it toward construction in eleven releases between October 5, 2021 and September 9, 2022, per the ledger appended to the Supplement to the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 13–15, App. "I".

No townhome has been completed or occupied. Construction stalled, in the receiver's account, "due to 945Can's lack of available funding"; no meaningful work has been done on the site since around the fall of 2025, and the blocks stand between 50% and 90% complete, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 17, 2026, paras. 2, 15–16. On August 17, BDO Canada Limited, receiver of the owner, 11517945 Canada Inc., asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to approve a sale of the site to Royal Living Development Group Inc. at a price filed under seal, and to declare the 27 buyers' purchase agreements terminated. In a supplement dated August 31 it proposed that, before the buyers claim from Tarion Warranty Corporation's deposit protection program, they share what is left of their deposits, which its draft accounting puts at approximately 9.88% of what each paid, per the Supplement to the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 31, 2026, paras. 21–23.

The lender's account

11517945 Canada Inc., a federal corporation with its registered office in Mississauga, bought the Mewburn Road parcel on March 20, 2020 for $1,900,000, per the parcel register attached to the Affidavit of Amber Waheed, Jan. 19, 2026, Ex. "B", p. 38. It retained Alpha Capital Management Inc. as consultant and construction manager, and Alpha also acted as vendor of the units: the purchase agreements are between Alpha and the buyers, and the debtor is not a party to them, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 17, 2026, paras. 3, 14, 19.

Meridian Credit Union Limited financed the build under a credit agreement of December 1, 2021: a demand construction loan of up to $9,900,000 and standby letters of credit of up to $1,081,495, issued to governmental authorities and Tarion among others. It holds a $14,500,000 first collateral mortgage registered September 29, 2021 and guarantees from Alpha and from the debtor's sole director, Magid Hassan Idris. The first loan advance came on December 9, 2022, and the loan was not repaid at maturity, December 9, 2024, according to Meridian's affidavit in the Affidavit of Amber Waheed, Jan. 19, 2026, paras. 9–12, 22.

In Meridian's chronology, a concerns letter of August 23, 2024 had already asked whether purchasers would agree to extend, the "Outside Occupancy Date" of October 30, 2023 having long expired. A standstill agreement of January 2, 2025 recorded that the project budget was expected to increase "as a result of cost escalations and substantial delays." In July 2025 Meridian declined to renew, and on October 31 Alpha's management told it that the private lender the debtor had been courting was no longer interested in taking out the Meridian debt, per the Affidavit of Amber Waheed, Jan. 19, 2026, paras. 21–22, 25–28.

A local developer Meridian had put in touch with Alpha visited the site on November 11, 2025. As the affidavit relays his observations, he found potential water damage from the site going without proper heating or cooling for at least two seasons, evidence of mould damage in Block C, which the debtor claimed to be "ready to close," and fire separation between units in each block that "was done incorrectly." On November 19, Mr. Idris told Meridian he had injected approximately $4.9 million into the project and would put in nothing more "until there was a satisfactory plan in place to get the project to completion," per the Affidavit of Amber Waheed, Jan. 19, 2026, paras. 29, 31.

A feasibility study that Glynn Group Incorporated prepared for Alpha on September 23, 2025, attached to the same affidavit, had found that "the project has been progressing very slowly, and at times over the last year, the site has become dormant for several months at a time." It took its sales figures from the developer's November 2024 sales report and noted that it had not been given executed closing extension letters "to confirm the sales are still valid," per the Glynn Group Feasibility Study Report, Sept. 23, 2025, Ex. "W", pp. 134, 136.

Meridian demanded $8,781,087.62 on December 19, 2025, made up of $7,761,823.16 on the loan and $1,019,264.46 on the letters of credit, and on December 30 learned from Alpha that the builder's risk insurance was lapsing that day and would not be renewed, per the Affidavit of Amber Waheed, Jan. 19, 2026, paras. 36–39. Its application issued January 21, 2026. On February 12, Justice J. Ramsay appointed BDO receiver and manager under s. 243(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and s. 101 of the Courts of Justice Act, with authority to borrow up to $500,000 against a Receiver's Borrowings Charge on the property, per the Receivership Order, Feb. 12, 2026, para. 22.

Ten offers and a sealed price

The receiver insured a vacant, part-built site, put mobile security patrols and cameras on it, filed an insurance claim for water damage to certain units, and commissioned a cost-to-complete report from Glynn Group. It describes the project in three pairs of blocks: two "A" blocks of four townhomes each, about 70% complete and facing the street; two "B" blocks of six, about 50%; and two "C" blocks of four, about 90%. "The Receiver has not continued progressing the development," per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 17, 2026, paras. 12, 16–17, 24.

After taking listing proposals from CBRE Limited, Institutional Property Advisors and Avison Young, the receiver listed with Avison Young on May 12, 2026. The campaign, which included MLS and two Globe & Mail advertisements, drew 55 expressions of interest and 31 signed confidentiality agreements. Nine offers arrived by the June 23 offer date. The top two offerors were asked for final and best offers by June 26, and a tenth party sent a late offer. Meridian backed Royal Living's resubmission on the condition that Royal Living replace two letters of credit, for Niagara Peninsula Energy Inc. and the City of Niagara Falls, then totalling $300,434.57; the receiver countered with that term on July 2 and signed on July 3, per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 17, 2026, paras. 25–34.

The agreement sells the property "as is, where is," subject only to court approval, against a non-refundable deposit already paid, with closing on the later of August 14, 2026 or ten days after the vesting order. The price is redacted in the public copy. The unredacted agreement, the cost-to-complete report and the summaries of listing proposals, initial offers and resubmissions went to the court as confidential appendices, which the receiver asked be sealed until the transaction completes because their release "is likely to jeopardize the value that could be generated from the Real Property," per the Notice of Motion, Aug. 17, 2026, paras. 21, 35–36. "No information has come to the Receiver's attention which indicates that a better result could have been achieved by continuing to market the Mewburn Property," per the First Report of the Receiver, Aug. 17, 2026, paras. 34, 37.