The Rez in downtown Haliburton will be back on the market in the spring, with owner Haliburton County Development Corporation (HCDC) saying its intent is to sell the building with existing tenants remaining in place.
The building has had a rocky run in recent years. After being transformed from a medical centre into low-cost housing in 2009, it has provided shelter for dozens of County residents over the past 15 years.
The space was originally owned by Peter Curry, who sold to Nick Adams in 2017. Adams had been the parttime building manager, taking care of maintenance and helping residents whenever a problem arose. After moving to New Brunswick, Adams sold the Rez in November 2021 to a group of investors from Brampton.
He returned in late 2022, re-buying the property after the new owners defaulted on the mortgage. Adams tried to keep the Rez going, serving as a live-in manager for several months before moving back to NB. Unable to keep up with mortgage payments, and with the property sitting on the market for several months with little interest, he turned his keys over to HCDC, the mortgage holder, in December.
Pat Kennedy, HCDC board chair, confirmed March 19 the investment firm retains ownership of the property. He said staff has been working with representatives from the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) to clean up the space and assist with four remaining tenants.
“Our goal is to put it back on the market for sale – we’re not in the landlord business. We’re in the process of getting it ready for resale… it’ll come on the market in another 30 to 60 days, I think,” Kennedy said.
He noted there has been some interest. Sources confirmed a potential deal between Adams and local nonprofit Places for People fell through in early winter.
Fay Martin, the housing agency’s vice president, said they will reassess the situation should the property hit the market.
Remaining residents can stay
Kennedy said whoever buys the space will likely have to adopt the existing tenants, who are protected by the Residential Tenancies Act.
“Our intent is not to put them on the street, that’s for sure. Our intent is to sell the property as is with those residents still in place,” Kennedy said.
“There’s four people in there right now. It has capacity for 15 people. We have spent some time cleaning the place up. We’re going to paint one of the rooms to show prospective buyers what it can look like.”
Kennedy praised Adams for running the operation for as long as he could, saying, ideally, HCDC will find someone willing to continue that work.
“We were certainly very supportive of Nick and his efforts to keep The Rez going. He worked very hard at it constantly, gave a lot personally. We’ll try and carry on. We’d love to find somebody that would carry on keeping the residents, and maintaining that space.”
