[Northern Light]

In an article in today's Star it is revealed that due to feuding among the 4 sons who inherited to their Dad's business............a judge has ordered the company liquidated with the proceeds going to the sons.

Multibillion-dollar development empire, built by Auschwitz survivor, has been ordered sold because his four wealthy sons can’t get along

The late Teddy Libfeld emigrated to Canada in 1951. He founded the company that became the Conservatory Group in 1960 and ran it, beginning in the lat...

www.thestar.com

Its paywalled, but Outline works.

Excerpt:

The judge was fairly scathing in relation to the testimony given by the sons:

“THE LIBFELD BROTHERS ARE NOT CREDIBLE OR RELIABLE WITNESSES.”

Also from the judgement (but in the article)

I can hardly fathom running such a large and complex business in this way....

Worth a read!

A major player is about to disappear and/or radically change.

 

[Undead]

Yeah this is why I'm going to leave two properties behind if I have more than one kid

 

[TheKingEast]

good riddance.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

They are among the slowest developers in the region.

I wonder how this will affect their pipeline of projects moving forward.

 

[AlbertC]

If development sites for crap like this gets sold off then I won't be too heartbroken:

150 Pearl Street | UrbanToronto

150 Pearl Street , Toronto by 1, Richmond Architects

urbantoronto.ca

 

[Anastasia]

Some interesting additional detail on this situation provided here: Extreme Family Disfunction: Unintended Consequences In A Winding-Up Case

I couldn't find an update on the timeline for the sale, but hopefully it doesn't drag. They have some interesting development sites that I am hopeful will be reimagined and improved under new ownership.

 

[AlbertC]

New article by Toronto Life:

Inside a $4-billion family feud

Teodor Libfeld arrived in Toronto with nothing and built a multibillion-dollar real estate company. When he died, his four sons took over and destroyed the empire he created

torontolife.com

 

[Northern Light]

New article by Toronto Life:

Inside a $4-billion family feud

Teodor Libfeld arrived in Toronto with nothing and built a multibillion-dollar real estate company. When he died, his four sons took over and destroyed the empire he created

torontolife.com

This quote jumps out from the article:

 

[DirectionNorth]

This quote jumps out from the article:

View attachment 380948

I feel so bad for him. Only $125 million and $240,000 per year! His luck must have run out!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Hmm, I am hoping each will get taxed appropriately.

AoD

 

[Jonny5]

I feel so bad for him. Only $125 million and $240,000 per year! His luck must have run out!

$240,000 goes quicker than you think. After income taxes, property taxes and mortgages on your house and your cottage, maxing out your RRSP, maxing out your TFSA, private school tuition for the kids, live in nanny for the baby, lease on two brand new BMWs, four seats of season tickets to Leafs games, landscapers and groundskeepers for your houses, country club membership, two week family summer vacation to Europe per year, two week family winter vacation to the Caribbean per year, Rogers All of Everything Max Speed Ultra Unlimited Cable Wireless Internet package, maxing out political donations, buying the 16 year-old a porsche for his birthday, and buying a mountain of coke for a "boys weekend" up at the cottage, there's only a few thousand left to feed your family, and you know how much the markup is on bottles of champagne at restaurants!

Seriously though, that was a great story. It will be interesting to see what they do with the eventual proceeds of the sale. I doubt they can resist not going back into the business again here.

 

[Anastasia]

It finally looks like Conservatory Group is moving forward with the disposition of their portfolio, with it now being listed for sale according to this article.

Hopefully this leads to some development on the projects that have been sitting idle for the last several years (e.g. 5&10 Towns in Cooksville).

 

[Anastasia]

This website lets you see the properties included in the sale process.

Also, this article in the Globe offers a bit more information around the sale (paywall protected).

 

[doady]

The end of Conservative Group such a major loss for Toronto. Even 4 years later I still wonder if the huge void left in the absence can ever be filled.

 

[AlbertC]

Richmond Architects in shambles. Who else is going to commission them en masse to constantly recycle the the same dated designs for their whole portfolio...