Kazakh Developer Avoids Receivership for Project (Update1)
By Joe Schneider
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bazis International, a Kazakh developer planning a C$542 million ($490 million) hotel- condominium tower in Toronto, struck a deal with lenders that stopped the project from being put into immediate receivership.
A group of private lenders, who put up C$46 million for the development, deferred a request before an Ontario judge to place the project into receivership today and sell the property in the center of Toronto after negotiating all day with Bazis lawyers.
“The loan has been in an almost constant state of default since December,” Gary Berman, a spokesman for the lenders, said in court documents requesting the appointment of the accounting firm Ernst & Young Inc. as receiver.
Details of today’s agreement weren’t immediately available. Ontario Superior Court Judge Herman Siegel adjourned the request to Aug. 18, with consent from the lenders, provided conditions of the order are complied with. Siegel said he would sign a final copy of the order tomorrow.
Bazis planned to build an 80-story tower that would include retailers and a Sofitel hotel, at 1 Bloor Street East, the main intersection in downtown Toronto. The condominium units start at C$500,000 and sell for as much as C$8 million. When the units were first put up for sale in 2007, real estate agents hired people to stand in line for days to be among the first to put deposits on the apartments. Almost 500 buyers have made deposits, Bazis said.
Height Lowered
The developer has since lowered the planned height of the building to reduce costs and has offered to refund deposits to people who bought units on top floors that will no longer be built, the Toronto Star reported.
Bazis accused the lenders in a statement, issued before today’s hearing was scheduled to begin, of using the courts to complete a “back-door acquisition” to “purchase the best site in Canada at a significant discount.”
The lender group bought the loan from Societe Generale when the Paris-based bank needed to raise cash, Bazis said. Bazis also had an agreement with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. for construction financing, the developer said. The deal fell apart when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September.
The case is 2201334 Ontario Ltd. v. 1 Bloor St. East., 09-8256-00CL, Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Toronto)