A man sprinkles grass seed mixed with top soil on bare ground before the front steps of a south-Barrie townhouse.
He and his partner aren’t expecting any sod to arrive.
“At least we have a home,” he told BarrieToday, gesturing to the unfinished townhouses across the way.
The development is in receivership, leaving more than 260 buyers in limbo at 700-780 Mapleview Dr. E., in the St. Paul's area near Yonge Street.
Mapleview Developments (Richmond Hill), Pace Mapleview (Toronto) and a numbered Ontario company (Waterloo) owe almost $47.1 million, according to court documents, with interest, fees and costs continuing to accrue.
“The sales office is closed, nobody is on site. They are all done,” said a woman.
Another man, who also doesn’t want his name published, said his driveway won’t be paved, he won’t get grass, the deck at the back of his townhouse won’t be built and there will be no nearby small park for his child to play.
“None of that is going to get done until this is resolved, if it gets resolved,” he said of the receivership. “Within a six-month period, things went sideways.”
His family bought the townhouse in 2019 and moved in three years later.
“They are so far behind on things,” he said, motioning to other partially built townhouses.
Yet another man is taking his dog for a walk.
“I’m only renting, so it doesn’t really affect me, but the owners … no grass is not a great selling feature,” he said.
Pace did not respond to requests for comment from BarrieToday.
The Ontario Superior Court has appointed KSV Restructuring as receiver of the development. A receiver takes control of a property, supervises liquidation proceedings and remits the proceeds according to priorities established by common or statutory law.
This property was to be developed in phases on 50 acres of land, with a total of 1,133 residences built or planned, according to court documents.
Its first phase includes 193 residential units, of which 91 are freehold townhomes and 12 are stacked townhomes. Of those, the sale of 181 units has closed.
The second phase includes 119 units, all of which are freehold townhomes and the sale of 83 units has closed.
Phase three comprises property where servicing is materially complete, but construction of a proposed 209 units has not yet begun.
The fourth phase is property where servicing is in progress, but not yet completed, with 321 stacked townhomes proposed.
Phases five and six include properties where neither servicing nor construction has begun; a total of 210 senior homes and 81 stacked townhomes are planned.
The receivership does not include phase six.
Mapleview Developments, Pace Mapleview and the numbered Ontario company took on various loans with Kingsett Mortgage to finance this development, loans which have a maximum principal amount of almost $106 million, according to court documents. The loans matured on Feb. 1, 2024 and have not been repaid.
It was Kingslett which applied for the receivership order, according to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
There are also 10 construction liens registered against title to the property, according to court documents.
