SkyCity Centre Winnipeg | 45F | 575 Ft | 175.26 M | Cancelled

[Urban recluse]

Yes, how wonderful if a developer who is legit built a tower there.

[Roger Strong]

Still more Fortress investor woes mentioned today in:

simcoe.com: Portion of Barrie's Collier Centre up for sale, developer confirms

The building has a controversial recent history. Two people who invested money in a syndicated mortgage — defined as a situation where a group of people jointly invest in a single mortgage on a property — filed a $27.5-million class-action lawsuit against Fortress last year, alleging the company did not disclose several major investment risks on Collier.

Fortress has agreed to repay the syndicated mortgage investors using “all available cash flow” after the repayment of all other costs.

When developer Mady sought bankruptcy protection in January 2015 and stopped work before selling the project to Fortress, it owed $50 million to its creditors, mostly Laurentian Bank and construction trades. All of them rank ahead of the syndicated mortgage holders for repayment.

[OakbluffMB]

Looks to me like they bought the asset to prevent the investors from losing money, finished the residential and are selling the commercial. What's the issue?

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by OakbluffMB

Looks to me like they bought the asset to prevent the investors from losing money, finished the residential and are selling the commercial. What's the issue?

Macleans has more information.

Fortress didn't just come along after the project got in trouble. They were marketing it to investors BEFORE Mady went bankrupt and Fortress took over.

The investors, far from being rescued, are unlikely to get their money back. Creditors including the Laurentian Bank and construction trades get paid first.

The two investors, however, call Fortress’s promises “empty” and “crafted for public relations purposes,” according to the suit, because “the obligation is worded in such a manner that it is highly unlikely there will ever be any ‘available cash flow’ once the Collier Centre is completed.”

But the article details how Fortress still gets a large cut of the investors' money.

[NorthStarsProject]

everyone. sorry for the delay. there is lots going on with sky city right now. i will be waiting for everything to settle down before i make statements on the matter as its very complicated.

however i can confirm that i have been told the project will not be moving forward.

there is a serious matter involving couple of investors and a person at fortress and was told he has screwed the last person.

i was told sky city will not be moving forward and a new project could be in the works but not having any part of the existing sky city team. even that seems doubtful but if its not a condo then there has been talks of a company in vancouver moving their head offices to winnipeg and could develop their new headquarters on the existing location.

[balletomane]

Originally Posted by NorthStarsProject

everyone. sorry for the delay. there is lots going on with sky city right now. i will be waiting for everything to settle down before i make statements on the matter as its very complicated.

however i can confirm that i have been told the project will not be moving forward.

there is a serious matter involving couple of investors and a person at fortress and was told he has screwed the last person.

i was told sky city will not be moving forward and a new project could be in the works but not having any part of the existing sky city team. even that seems doubtful but if its not a condo then there has been talks of a company in vancouver moving their head offices to winnipeg and could develop their new headquarters on the existing location.

That's a shame to hear. Hopefully Fortress will make an "official" statement regarding the project in the not to distant future. If there is potential interest in the site, maybe they could somehow salvage part of the Sky City design - I like the crown on top, it would've been unique in the city skyline.

[lilwayne]

I cant believe people are believing this guys unsubstantiated reports

its a crazy time we live in when a person can come on a forum and claim to have inside information on a company or project without naming or providing any links or sources. People automatically believe everything they hear or read.

[balletomane]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

I cant believe people are believing this guys unsubstantiated reports

its a crazy time we live in when a person can come on a forum and claim to have inside information on a company or project without naming or providing any links or sources. People automatically believe everything they hear or read.

That's why I want to wait for an "official" statement. Obviously, hearing anything about the project being cancelled, whether proven or not is saddening, but I want to hear something from Fortress or one of its affiliates before I stop dreaming about this project being built.

[NorthStarsProject]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

I cant believe people are believing this guys unsubstantiated reports

its a crazy time we live in when a person can come on a forum and claim to have inside information on a company or project without naming or providing any links or sources. People automatically believe everything they hear or read.

you wont hear an announcement when there is nobody in charge. you will know when the city makes announcement on a new project or when people who have invested money into the project realizing there is no building coming up.

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

I cant believe people are believing this guys unsubstantiated reports

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

In this case it's like someone claiming - in Dec 2016 - that the incoming president would be known for crazy 3am tweets, non-metaphorical neo-Nazi advisors, racist policies and nepotism.

Unsubstantiated, yes, but entirely in keeping with previous behavior. So much so that it's those in denial who really should provide the extraordinary evidence.

[GreyGarden]

This is sad to hear, expected, but still kind of sad. It would have been a terrific project for the area and would have added nicely to the momentum that Graham Ave is currently experiencing. It's a shame sales hadn't been a stronger.

[Bluenote]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

I cant believe people are believing this guys unsubstantiated reports

its a crazy time we live in when a person can come on a forum and claim to have inside information on a company or project without naming or providing any links or sources. People automatically believe everything they hear or read.

Prove to me it is getting built. All I have seen is some piece of paper claiming they sold this many suites. And a sign that says 50% sold. Nothing else.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by NorthStarsProject

everyone. sorry for the delay. there is lots going on with sky city right now. i will be waiting for everything to settle down before i make statements on the matter as its very complicated.

however i can confirm that i have been told the project will not be moving forward.

there is a serious matter involving couple of investors and a person at fortress and was told he has screwed the last person.

i was told sky city will not be moving forward and a new project could be in the works but not having any part of the existing sky city team. even that seems doubtful but if its not a condo then there has been talks of a company in vancouver moving their head offices to winnipeg and could develop their new headquarters on the existing location.

Says who?

[optimusREIM]

K seriously stop making claims that you can't prove or refuse to release your source. Just because it may seem plausible does not mean that we should accept it at face value. Unless you can cite a reliable source this sort of thing is misleading sensationalism

[balletomane]

I guess we just wait and see what comes in the next few weeks/months. Until there is word from an official source, all we can do is speculate and dispute each other's claims, which won't go anywhere. NorthStarsProject may seem to just be some forumer who is making unsubstantiated claims, but I also don't want to doubt he/she may have inside knowledge...
Or else many of us are going to have one of those "I told you so" moments.
Hopefully what ever good news or bad news we hear from an official source is followed with good news.

[DowntownBooster]

SkyCityCentre WPG continues to post comments on their twitter account including March 30 stating - 'We're in marketing meetings today! Stay tuned for a great new campaign / program rolling out soon.'

If this project is about to be cancelled or isn't making any progress at all or the sales are really only 20% like some people are claiming, it would seem to me that they wouldn't bother maintaining a sales center or continue with their twitter account as it would be much easier to just stop all communications/sales efforts whatsoever.

It almost seems like some individuals just don't want to see this project proceed and the thought of it going forward bothers them on a personal level. I don't know how many times in Winnipeg we have been told that such and such a project will never happen or that something else is impossible. I recall hearing some people guarantee the NHL will never come back to Winnipeg as though by them making the statement they could prevent it from happening. I also recall those stating if a baseball park or hockey arena were to be built downtown they would be epic failures because nobody would go downtown to watch a game.

Now I don't know if this particular project will go forward but I am hopeful that it does. I had thought our days of being 'Negativipeg' were past us but I guess there are still many that want to maintain that mindset.

[Urban recluse]

It is difficult to remain optimistic about this project. I hope it proceeds.

[optimusREIM]

You'd think that on this forum the negativity would be low. There are still those who are almost anti development. Would it hurt to be a little more optimistic? Idk apparently it would for some people.

[The Jabroni]

That would be a shame if that's true.

One can only hope. I'd rather wait for statements from official channels though. As far as everybody else is concerned from the outside looking in, this project is still going.

For now, I'm content with the other projects that are happening in our downtown.

[DancingDuck]

Originally Posted by NorthStarsProject

there has been talks of a company in vancouver moving their head offices to winnipeg and could develop their new headquarters on the existing location.

^^^ I'm most intrigued by this bit... any chance there's more you can say? Would they consider coming here even if SkyCity goes ahead?