The Simple Investor: no sale, no restructuring, and October's rent in dispute

The townhouses at 700 Parkhill Road West in Peterborough are ten two-storey buildings holding 128 three-bedroom units, occupied, by the first mortgagee's account, by individual residential tenants. SIREG 700 Parkhill Inc. bought them in October 2021 for approximately $33.4 million from an entity related to the lender that now holds its second mortgage. The plan was to convert the rentals to condominiums and sell them one at a time, the proceeds of each sale going to Firm Capital Mortgage Fund Inc. for a partial discharge of its first mortgage and the rents helping to service that mortgage until then. In December 2025 the City of Peterborough refused the conversion application. SIREG 700 has appealed, but no approval exists, and "it operates as a rental apartment building," according to Forrest Todd, Firm Capital's vice-president of mortgage banking, in the Affidavit of Forrest Todd, Oct. 7, 2026, paras. 1, 15, 17–19.

SIREG 700 is one of 18 filing companies in what they and their proposal trustee call "the consolidated business operations known as the Simple Investor Real Estate Group." That business, their joint aide memoire says, "involved acquiring income-producing multi-residential properties, pursuing their condominium conversions where feasible, selling converted condominium units to individual investors, and managing and leasing units following their sale." The group owns 10 apartment complexes in varying stages of conversion, which with units in already-converted buildings come to approximately 900 units managed by SIREG Management Inc.; 43 condominium complexes with approximately 2,200 units are managed by SIREG Management as well. The majority of the companies are single-purpose property owners with no revenue. SIREG Management runs the buildings with its own employees and contractors and is, "in most if not all instances," the lease counterparty, per the Joint Aide Memoire of the NOI Applicants and Proposal Trustee, Oct. 7, 2026, paras. 3–6.

Sixteen of the companies filed notices of intention to make a proposal under s. 50.4(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act dated September 25, 2026: The Simple Investor Real Estate Group Inc., SIREG Holdings Inc., SIREG Management and the 13 property companies that borrowed from Firm Capital. SIREG 3438 Sinnicks Inc. followed with a notice dated September 28, and SIREG 1075 Sutton Inc. with one dated October 5. AlixPartners Restructuring, Inc. is trustee in all 18, and the motions so far run in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) under the SIREG 700 file, No. BK-26-03429084-0032, per the Certificate of Filing, SIREG 700 Parkhill Inc., Sept. 25, 2026 and its companion certificates, the Certificate of Filing, SIREG 3438 Sinnicks Inc., Sept. 29, 2026, the Notice to Creditors, SIREG 1075 Sutton Inc., Oct. 6, 2026, p. 2 and the Joint Aide Memoire, Oct. 7, 2026, p. 1, para. 1 and Sched. "A".

Forty-three boards and a licence

SIREG Management had a second job: it managed condominium units owned by third parties under lease and management agreements with those owners, and it was the licensed condominium manager, under the Condominium Management Services Act, for each of the 43 condominium buildings, appointed by each building's condominium corporation. "On or about September 17, 2026, the board members of the condominium corporations for each of the 43 condominium buildings resigned en masse," the joint aide memoire says. On September 29 the Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario suspended SIREG Management's licence. With no boards, the corporations "lack the ability to appoint a new manager," and the suspension "risks creating a vacuum that could result in buildings being unattended or unserved," per the Joint Aide Memoire, Oct. 7, 2026, paras. 7–8.

Firm Capital attached the regulator's September 29 press release to Mr. Todd's affidavit. According to the release, the Registrar ordered the immediate suspension of SIREG Management's condominium management provider licence and issued a notice of proposal to revoke it. The action, the release says, "follows complaints received by the CMRAO and an inspection that indicates SIREG failed to deposit funds received on behalf of client condominium corporations into general and reserve accounts in the names of those corporations, contrary to section 115 of the Condominium Act, 1998." SIREG Management has the right to request a hearing before the Licence Appeal Tribunal on the proposed revocation, per the Affidavit of Forrest Todd, Oct. 7, 2026, Ex. "B" (CMRAO release, Sept. 29, 2026).

Shortly before the filings, the group had retained Reflect Advisors LLC for interim management services, with Adam Zalev of Reflect as chief restructuring officer, and engaged restructuring advisors "to determine if a viable restructuring or sale of the Group was possible." The joint aide memoire reports the result: "Despite their efforts, it has now become clear that a viable restructuring or sale of the Group is not possible and that a winddown of operations will be necessary." It describes the group's cash flow as "very limited and constrained" and its mortgage lenders as "not willing to permit DIP financing on their mortgaged properties." The companies, it says, "will, optimistically, have no funds left to operate by the last week of October 2026." The CRO and the trustee intend instead to facilitate "the stable transition" of the group-owned apartment buildings to secured creditors and of the managed tenancies in individual condominium units to the units' owners, and, "to the extent possible and permissible," to assist in moving condominium management to third parties, per the Joint Aide Memoire, Oct. 7, 2026, paras. 9–10, 13.

The first mortgagee

Firm Capital holds first mortgages on the properties of 13 of the companies, in four groups. As of September 21, 2026, Mr. Todd swears, they owed it $80,088,678.56 plus accrued interest, fees and costs. His affidavit's table gives the parts, each before interest, fees and costs and stated as at September 16 or 18: $26,000,000 on Parkhill; $39,579,394.16 on the Brockville properties at 1-4 Balmoral Place, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 Cartier Court, and 1390, 1400 and 1410 Kensington Parkway; $9,764,059.40 on 62 condominium units at 756 and 758 Kipps Lane in London; and $4,745,225.00 on 1137 Old Highway #117 in Baysville. Among the second mortgages the table shows are 1000018790 Ontario Ltd.'s on Parkhill, in the principal amount of $3,250,000, and Monarch Realty Fund LLC's on 1-4 Balmoral Place and on 54 units at 758 Kipps Lane, of $7,800,000 and $7,000,000, per the Affidavit of Forrest Todd, Oct. 7, 2026, paras. 21, 25.

The Parkhill loan, $26,000,000 under a commitment letter of June 23, 2025, is guaranteed by SIREG Holdings and by Todd C. Slater, whom the affidavit describes as "the founder and President of the SIREG group." Mr. Todd says certain of the other borrowers missed mortgage payments due September 1, 2026; Firm Capital's real estate counsel, Fogler, Rubinoff LLP, delivered demands and notices of intention to enforce security under s. 244 of the BIA to them on September 17, 18 and 23, and, under a cross-default clause in the commitment letter, a demand to SIREG 700 on September 21, per the Affidavit of Forrest Todd, Oct. 7, 2026, paras. 22, 24, 26–28. Firm Capital's position is in the same affidavit: "There is no BIA proposal proceeding that could succeed in the absence of Firm Capital's support, which it unequivocally will not support," and it "will unequivocally not support any BIA or CCAA proceeding of the SIREG entities" (para. 5).