The province is now making progress in an “accelerated fashion” on the purchase of one piece of unidentified Laurentian University property as part of the university’s plan of arrangement following its late 2022 exit from insolvency.
This is the latest news from Laurentian University administrators, who were asked during the Jan. 16 LU senate meeting about the status of land sales to the province.
Administrators said the province is hoping to complete this transaction by its year end, which is March 31.
Sudbury.com reached out to Laurentian University to ask exactly which property was being referred to during the meeting.
In response, university communications staff said in an email, “The property in question has not yet been identified publicly. It will be communicated when appropriate.”
A pool of cash of up to $53.5-million for Laurentian’s creditors is to come from the sale of university real estate to the province of Ontario, which will be rented, in some cases, back to LU.
The minimum floor for the pool of cash has been set at $45.5 million. If Laurentian doesn’t fund the creditors’ distribution pool to at least that amount by Nov. 28, 2025, the university will have defaulted.
The land sales to the province were originally supposed to be completed within four years of Laurentian’s CCAA exit, but that was pushed up to three before creditors voted on the plan of arrangement in 2022.
While some information was provided by Laurentian last spring as to what properties the province is purchasing — confirming the campus greenspace won’t be included — that deal hasn’t been completed.
Laurentian senate member David Leeson asked interim president Sheila Embleton during the meeting “if there's any update on the sale of university properties to the province to help fulfill the conditions in the plan of arrangement.”
Embleton answered that “there's nothing of a concrete nature to report in terms of something having actually been sold.”
“There may be others who are on the call here who are a better place to talk about detail, but there are seven items (pieces of property), and I think it's fair to mention that they're trying to move one of those faster than some of the others for that,” she added.
“I mean, the province is trying to move one of those faster than the others, and we'd like to do it within this budget year. I'm not sure if that's going to happen because the end of the budget year is not that far away, remembering their budget year ends March 31.”
Sylvie Lafontaine, who joined Laurentian this past fall as its new vice-president, finance and administration, added further context to the discussion during the senate meeting.
“Certainly there's been ongoing meetings with Infrastructure Ontario, exchanging information, and on the one property that is being somewhat advanced,” she said.
“We are working with a really tight deadline, understanding that March 31 Is their year-end. But we're progressing well, at this stage. We're reviewing, understanding that it's to sell those properties, but also it's the leasing back by the university of those where the programs are being delivered.
“So we continue to make progress now in an accelerated fashion for this one property, and we'll be able to report back as we're getting closer and closer to the final arrangements.”
In June 2023, Laurentian said it had established an agreement on a term sheet for the sale of real estate to the province of up to $53.5 million.
This term sheet outlines a proposed structure for the transaction which allows the province of Ontario to purchase seven university parcels of land, allowing both parties to explore the potential transaction. The school has not identified those seven parcels of land.
The total land identified in the term sheet covers 68.75 acres, which represents approximately nine per cent of the university’s total 750+ acres.
There are also five buildings identified in the Term Sheet, which would be fully or partially leased back to Laurentian or NOSM University:
- East Residence
- Vale Living with Lakes Centre and Watershed Building
- Northern Ontario School of Medicine
- Health Sciences Building
- Security and Maintenance Building
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
