Rupert Mews: after nearly a year on the market, a sale to Porte goes to court

The five houses at 1565, 1571, 1581, 1585 and 1589 Rupert Street, in the District of North Vancouver, stand on adjacent lots, and their owners bought them, the receiver's application says, "with the intention of developing a multi-family housing project," which would have meant demolishing the existing buildings and building new. A development permit from the District, which the application dates to 2022, lapsed in 2024 and has not been renewed, per the Notice of Application, Oct. 9, 2026, Part 2, paras. 1, 9–10 and the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 5, 2026, paras. 8, 15–16. Four of the houses are let on month-to-month residential leases. The fifth, 1565, was empty when the receiver was appointed and is not in habitable condition. KPMG Inc. boarded up its exterior access points and tested it for hazardous materials, and, having concluded that the remediation needed to make it habitable would exceed the value of doing the work and leasing the house, has neither remediated it nor tried to rent it, per the First Report, paras. 12–14, 25–27.

On October 14, 2026, KPMG filed that report, dated October 5, with an application to sell the five houses to Porte Acquisitions Corp. It asks, among other things, for a sale approval and vesting order; a sealing order over the confidential supplement that holds the price, the appraisal and the letters of intent; authority to borrow up to $500,000, rather than $250,000, if the sale has not closed by October 30; a distribution to National Bank of Canada; and its own discharge, per the Notice of Application, Part 1, paras. 1–3 and the First Report, paras. 2, 60. Justice Hughes of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Vancouver Registry No. S-253889, appointed KPMG receiver and manager of Rupert Mews Limited Partnership, its general partner Rupert Mews GP Ltd. and 1152846 B.C. Ltd., the company that holds title, on June 19, 2025, on National Bank's application under s. 243(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and s. 39 of the Law and Equity Act, per the Receivership Order, June 19, 2025, para. 1.

A land loan and a partners' petition

The partnership has four limited partners: Danacan Holdings Inc., with 50%; 1137951 B.C. Ltd., with 40%; and Tavankar Industries Ltd. and D.M.S. Enterprises Ltd., with 5% each. Title sits with 1152846 B.C. Ltd., as bare trustee for the partnership, per the First Report, paras. 9–11.

National Bank financed the purchase with an uncommitted interim land loan, under a loan agreement dated October 8, 2020, that was raised from $8.5 million to $9.3 million by amending agreements in early 2023 and was initially repayable within 12 months of the first drawdown, according to the affidavit of Erin Welte, a senior manager in the bank's special loans group, sworn May 22, 2025. The affidavit lists seven amending agreements, from October 2021 to March 2025, that extended the repayment date, the last of them to May 1, 2025. The bank holds a $9.3 million mortgage with an assignment of rents over the lots, registered on October 29, 2020, with other security, and the four limited partners, the nominee and five individuals guaranteed the loan, per the Affidavit #1 of Erin Welte, May 22, 2025, paras. 1, 5–9, 11, 17–23.

The loan was not repaid on May 1, 2025, and $52,920.82 of interest due that day was not paid either; the bank's demand letter of May 2 enclosed notice under s. 244 of the BIA, per the Welte Affidavit, paras. 26–28. The receiver puts the balance at May 12, 2025 at $9,369,992.06, with interest and expenses, including legal costs, continuing to accrue, per the First Report, para. 66.

The bank's notice of default of April 24, 2025 listed, among other defaults, that a guarantor had petitioned for a receiver and the borrower's winding-up and dissolution, that the borrower had not told the bank of it, and that it had not done all things necessary to keep the development permit in full force and effect. The bank's affiant says the bank was first served with the petition materials on April 10, 2025, more than six months after the petition was filed, per the Welte Affidavit, paras. 24, 31. No affidavit from the partnership's side is in the record read for this piece.

The petition was brought on September 19, 2024 by 1137951 B.C. Ltd., the 40% limited partner, in a separate proceeding, No. S-246543, seeking, among other things, the dissolution of the partnership, an accounting between the limited partners and a receiver. As the receiver's report summarizes it, the petition alleged "numerous breaches of the partnership agreement between the Limited Partners" and that, "due to ongoing governance disputes," the partnership "was no longer capable of fulfilling its purpose of redeveloping and selling the Properties." Danacan and Tavankar filed a response on November 18, 2024, which is not in the record read for this piece. To the receiver's knowledge there had been no material developments in that action by mid-2025, when the bank sought a receiver, per the First Report, paras. 17–20.

Thirty-six parties and no offers

KPMG invited proposals from six commercial real estate brokerages on June 27, 2025, received five, and chose CBRE Limited, signing an exclusive listing agreement on August 11. CBRE's valuation group appraised the properties; the appraisal is in the confidential supplement. The receiver determined that the houses' value is maximized by the potential to redevelop the adjoining parcels into a multi-family development rather than by selling them individually, per the First Report, paras. 27, 31–33.

The assembly was listed on September 9, 2025 at approximately $12.8 million and marketed to developers and investors through CBRE's website, an email campaign to a qualified investor list of more than 1,000 parties, LinkedIn, and print and mobile advertising. Between September and November 2025, the report says, CBRE communicated with 36 interested parties; 14 signed non-disclosure agreements and 13 went into the data room, and no offers were received. In January 2026 the receiver, in consultation with CBRE, approved a cut in the list price to $11.6 million, which generated no acceptable offer either, per the First Report, paras. 34–35, 40–41.

CBRE told the receiver that buyers were hesitant or unable to bid because of factors including the length of the District's development approval process, softening rental-market conditions, increased development costs and the difficulty of obtaining equity financing for development projects. The report adds the District's official community plan, still being developed for the area, which it says has caused "some uncertainty" about obtaining further development permits and complying with zoning, and the District's municipal elections in October 2026, which "may cause additional development approval delays." The receiver also noted at least three other residential construction projects nearby that it says impacted the sales process, per the First Report, paras. 36–39. The application adds affordable housing policy changes and anticipated provincial policy changes, including a potential change to add PST to certain soft construction costs, per the Notice of Application, Part 2, para. 16.

In or about April 2026 the receiver had CBRE go back to parties that had shown interest and invite offers "based on their own assessment of the Properties and prevailing market conditions." That produced two letters of intent, per the First Report, para. 42. The application describes them as coming from two qualified residential developers and says the receiver chose Porte's after reviewing their terms and a discussion with National Bank, per the Notice of Application, Part 2, paras. 18–19. On June 16, 2026 the receiver entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Porte Acquisitions Corp., subject to a 90-day due diligence period and court approval, per the First Report, para. 43.