B.C. firm buys troubled Saskatoon condo building for more than $2M

A problem-plagued condo building in the city’s Pleasant Hill neighbourhood has been sold to a construction company based in B.C.

The high-rise, known as Prairie Heights, was shut down on May 6, 2021 after the Saskatoon Fire Department deemed it no longer healthy or safe to live in due to ongoing fire hazards and drug activity in and around the building.

Clayton Barry, a court-appointed administrator for the Prairie Heights Condominium Corporation (PHCC), said the court approved the sale of the building to Westbow Construction Group for $2,025,000.

“Court found that the purchase price being proposed and offered by Westbow was satisfactory and was in the best interests of all the parties,” he said.

Barry said there were a lot of interested buyers from across Canada, including Ontario, Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. He said they got about 12 offers, with Westbow’s being the highest.

“There were a lot of interested people in this and that resulted in us getting what I think is a very, very strong price so, that’s good for the ownership group. But, even on that level, you still have a lot of owners who, they’re not coming out on the right end of the balance sheet on this,” Barry said.

According to court documents obtained by CTV News, Westbow plans on doing “a full renovation, rehabilitation and rebranding of the PHCC property, which will include the addition of two more units, and that the final product will be suitable for quality affordable housing.”

Westbow, which also operates in Saskatchewan, said it is dedicated to helping improve communities in Saskatoon.

“Prairie Heights provides a unique opportunity to redevelop a building with a challenging history into a safe home for future residents that we hope marks a positive turning point for the Pleasant Hill community,” Westbow’s Chief Operating Officer Corey Kirzinger said in a statement to CTV News.  

Barry said the sale was completed and the title was officially transferred to Westbow on Jan. 19, with a portion of the money from the sale going towards taxes owed to the City of Saskatoon.

At the time of the building closure, Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD) Assistant Chief Yvonne Raymer said the property was disproportionately demanding resources of the fire department and Saskatoon Police Service (SPS).

In 2020, SFD and SPS responded to the high-rise 109 times and 403 times respectively, she said. Between January and May 2021, SFD responded 45 times and SPS responded 131 times.

“(The City was) owed money in terms of services that they provided on an emergency basis to do with the fire suppression system. They had directed a lot of resources in terms of fire trucks and policing,” Barry said, adding that all of those fees have now been paid.

Barry and his office are now working on a report to determine how much each owner gets from the sale of the 44 unit building.

He said it’s a complicated process because they need to take into account the money that the condominium corporation still owes for security and maintenance services as well as condo fees that haven’t been paid by individual owners.

“At the end, we hope that there’s going to be a distribution to the ownership group that’s going to be fair and equitable for everybody,” Barry said.

Bobbi Korven, who owned a unit in Prairie Heights since 2008, said she knows she’ll be losing a lot of money.

“I had a chance to sell my condo in there for $120,000 at one point and now I don’t know what I’ll get, $30,000 maybe,” she said.

“Life happens, there’s nothing I can really do about it. I just have to be glad that I’m going to get some back.”

According to Barry, not everyone was on board with selling the condo, but the majority were.

For Korven, she said she is glad that the building has been sold and that she can start a new chapter.

“The pressure is off at least, it’s gone down. We had so much trouble in there. It was hard to get somebody to maintain the building and look after it … we’re tired of trying to get somebody to look after it and losing money.”

Korven rented out her unit and did not live in the building, but said she understands how hard this has been on other owners who did call Prairie Heights home.

“It was their home, where they lived, so they had to go out and find a new home and some of them had mortgages and it was very difficult for them,” she said.