EY is marketing Conservatory Group’s 61-property portfolio through a court-sale process as the organization’s business winds down.

The Conservatory Group and its assets are worth billions of dollars. EY has published a brochure and explanation of the sale process online.

Most of the properties are located in the Greater Toronto Area, including the city’s Etobicoke, Scarborough and downtown North York areas; Mississauga, Ont., Markham, Ont., and Richmond Hill, Ont. The asset types include commercial podiums, grocery-anchored retail plazas, single-tenant retail, office, industrial and multi-family. Some of the retail spaces are located within mixed-use condominium properties.

A team led by Zach Pendley, head of EY’s Canadian real estate and valuations practice, is co-ordinating the marketing effort.

“This portfolio represents one of the largest collections of real estate assets in the Greater Toronto Area available for purchase in decades,” says EY in a marketing document.

The offering spans about 1.5 million square feet and includes 1,794 multi-family residences and 16,000 high-rise units to be developed, as well as 884 acres of low-density developable land and 13.5 million sf to undergo development. A total of 91 sites are shovel-ready for construction.

The leased properties have a 95% occupancy rate.

Interested parties will have the option of purchasing some or all of the Conservatory Group’s assets.

The Conservatory Group was founded in the 1980s by the late Theodore (Teddy) Libfeld, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Canada from Poland in 1951. The entity evolved from a merchant homebuilding business that he started in the late 1950s into a vertically-integrated real estate conglomerate.

Libfeld family members now own the business and its properties. According to published reports and court filings, the court-ordered liquidation stems from a dispute between Libfeld’s four sons, who did not formalize a governance plan after their father died.

Photo: Conservatory Group