Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT) has added more documents to an already bulky statement of foreclosure submitted to court in late 2012 against the Commonwealth Campus Corp.
This latest affidavit adds a 16-page clarification of points made in the original complaint filed in November. The affidavit is a collection of prior documents on file at NDIT that outline the terms of the Commonwealth financing deal made in late 2009, early 2010.
"It's the next step in the legal process," said NDIT spokesman Joel MacKay. "The legal process is proceeding. The parties are still negotiating to come to a resolution on this matter sooner rather than later. As the matter is before the courts, that's all we can say at this point."
Local businessman Dan McLaren, head of Commonwealth Campus, said that he has not been informed about the new documents.
"Not sure what was filed. I still haven't been served from the first go around," he said upon learning of the new submissions to the court.
The initial documents were copies of the contract between NDIT and Commonwealth Campus, led by McLaren with other prominent local business people named as partners.
NDIT helped finance Commonwealth's purchase of several parcels of downtown real estate. There was a repayment schedule in place but NDIT served legal notice in November that the terms had allegedly been broken by nonpayment of amounts owed. NDIT now says that the deadline has passed and Commonwealth has missed payments amounting to more than $1.4 million.
McLaren counters that the deal was put in place in the first place at the urging of the provincial government in order to secure the land for purposes related to the proposed Wood Innovation and Design Centre. The provincial government, said McLaren, failed to live up to their end of that arrangement, leaving Commonwealth in a financial bind.
