Stadium Plaza: the receiver asks to empty an unheated building by November 20

On November 3, Grant Thornton Limited, receiver and manager of 2264356 Alberta Ltd., applied to the Court of King's Bench of Alberta for an order disclaiming "all leases associated with the Lands" at Stadium Plaza, directing "all and any tenants, and any other occupants" to deliver up possession and vacate by November 20, 2026 "(or such other time as this Honourable Court may direct)", and permitting it to seek the assistance of a peace officer of the Edmonton Police Service to remove occupants who remain after that date. It also asks the court to raise the receiver's borrowing limit, and the charge that secures it, from $500,000 to $2,500,000. The application is returnable November 10 at 2:00 p.m., and it names the tenants of 11228 86 St. as respondents: "This application is made against you. You are a respondent. You have the right to state your side of this matter before the Court," per the Receiver's Application, filed Nov. 3, 2026, p. 1 and para. 1. The six-storey building, completed in 2024, has 78 residential rental units, per the receiver's First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, para. 3.1.

The First Report, filed the same day, says the heating system is inoperative because copper piping was stolen from it; the receiver understands the piping was removed primarily from the fifth and sixth floors and at various locations through the first four, leaving "the entire boiler heating system" no longer functioning. The receiver has a preliminary estimate of approximately $461,000 to repair and restore it, and understands the work would take approximately three to four months and is "not expected to be completed prior to the onset of winter," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 7.1–7.2, 7.4. "With the approaching winter conditions," the application says, "the Building is uninhabitable and must be vacated for health and safety purposes," per the Receiver's Application, filed Nov. 3, 2026, para. 7.

Two days after its appointment on August 25, the receiver had written to the tenants: "At this time, there are no changes to your tenancy agreement." A later paragraph of the letter repeated the point: "Again, the appointment of the Receiver does not terminate your tenancy agreement," per the Receiver's Notice to Tenants, Aug. 27, 2026, p. 1. On October 28 the receiver issued a notice headed "NOTICE OF NO HEATING IN BUILDING." "That means there is no hot air or hot water, and the temperature in the building will continue to drop as the weather gets colder," it read; there was "no definitive timeline for having this problem fixed," and the notice "strongly recommended" that tenants and occupants make arrangements for alternative accommodations, per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, para. 7.8 and App. 11, p. 79.

The lender's case for the receivership was reported here on September 4. The First Report puts the company's debt to CMLS Financial Ltd. at approximately $13,613,618 as of August 7, with interest and costs continuing to accrue, and traces the company's financial difficulties to "challenges associated with the construction of Stadium Plaza," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 3.7, 3.11.

What the receiver found in a building finished in 2024

On taking possession, the receiver says, it found that the building had "experienced significant deterioration and damage inconsistent with a recently constructed building." Its observations include damaged walls, broken windows and doors, dismantled tenant mailboxes, graffiti inside and out, evidence of unauthorized occupants, drug paraphernalia, and what the report calls "ongoing criminal activity, including but not limited to, reports of robberies, pepper-spray assaults, and vandalism involving machetes." The elevators, the report says, are inoperable, with water pooled in their shafts from a flood "reportedly occurring in or about January or February 2026" that was not remediated before the receivership and whose cause the receiver does not know, per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 5.1, 5.3, 8.7. Among the recent incidents the report lists are the forceful removal of an exterior exit door, plumbing taken from a vacant unit's bathroom sinks with the water left running, and repeated attempts to remove brass components from the fire standpipes, per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, para. 5.7.

According to the report, the security firm the receiver engaged in place of the previous provider, BPS Protective Services K-9 Inc., told it within the first few weeks that it would no longer provide services "due to concerns regarding the safety of its security personnel and K-9s," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, para. 5.6.1. The report says the receiver is having difficulty obtaining and retaining contractors "as a result of continued criminal and alleged gang activity": BPS K-9 and Otis Elevator Company "have declined to continue providing, or to undertake, services at Stadium Plaza as a result of safety concerns," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, para. 5.22.

On September 2 a letter signed for the receiver authorized Edmonton Police Service officers to act as its agent at the property, so that any officer "may issue and enforce bans against any person who, in their sole discretion, is determined to be a trespasser on the property." Since then, the report says, EPS has advised that approximately 16 unauthorized individuals have been removed for trespassing and "numerous other individuals have been arrested in connection with weapons, violence, or other offences," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 5.6.4, 5.17 and App. 5, p. 47. An Edmonton Police Service email of September 23, attached to the report, reads: "All of the previously boarded suites have been breached." It continues: "I feel the building is degrading rapidly," and "I am afraid these created conditions may also lead to injury or loss of life," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, App. 8, p. 61.

Edmonton's Residential Inspection Safety Compliance Team, a task force that includes the City of Edmonton, EPS, Edmonton Fire Rescue Services and Alberta Health Services, inspected the building most recently on July 21 and September 8 and is scheduled to return on November 10. The receiver says that "ongoing vandalism, trespassing, drug and alleged gang activity have made it very difficult for the Receiver to attain any measurable improvement in the condition of the Property," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 5.10–5.12. The officer who attended the September 8 inspection recorded what tenants said: "Not one person who I spoke to stated they felt safe and were all considering moving out," per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, App. 9, p. 68.

Thirty-six occupied units, twelve valid leases

For operational purposes, the report says, the previous property manager generally categorized tenants as low or high risk. Low-risk tenants included occupants who "generally paid rent, had a valid lease agreement, and were not known to be involved in significant police or security matters"; high-risk tenants included occupants "with identified concerns, including but not limited to, significant rental arrears, unauthorized occupants, prior police involvement, threatening behaviour towards contractors, or reported drug or other criminal activity." On September 9, 39 of the 78 units were vacant, 13 were occupied by low-risk tenants, 21 by high-risk tenants, and five were of unknown status. By the report's date 42 were vacant and 36 occupied, 13 by low-risk and 23 by high-risk tenants. Based on the information available to the receiver, of those 36 "only 12 have valid lease agreements"; 22 are occupying units on expired leases and two without a lease, per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 6.2, 6.4–6.6. As at October 28, the report says, one of the 42 vacant units remained secured and boarded; the other 41 had been boarded and then broken into, per the First Report, Nov. 3, 2026, para. 6.12.