The entrance to the Woodbine Mall in Etobicoke. Romspen Investment Corp. is buying the troubled mall from its largest borrower.Azad Amin/The Globe and Mail
Romspen Investment Corp. is buying a troubled mall from its largest borrower after the loan total swelled to $499-million and the likelihood of repayment dwindled after two failed property auctions.
Romspen, one of Canada’s largest private mortgage lenders, has been battling commercial real estate investor and businessman Issa El-Hinn, also known as Chris Hinn, for years after he defaulted on multiple loans. In 2023, a receiver was appointed to take control of three Toronto properties that underpin his distressed loans: Woodbine Mall and Rexdale Mall, in the city’s northwest corner; and 1500 Birchmount Rd., in the city’s northeast corner.
After failed auctions for Woodbine Mall and Rexdale Mall, which were initiated by the receiver, Mr. Hinn’s debt total climbed to $499-million, up from $333-million at the time of the 2023 receivership. The total keeps rising because unpaid interest continues to accumulate.
With repayment seeming unlikely, the receiver sought protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in early 2026 for the largest asset underpinning the loans, Woodbine Mall. An Ontario judge approved the plan in April, and Romspen will now buy the mall assets, which include a fantasy fair and kids village, out of CCAA.
The purchase could complicate Romspen’s cash flow outlook. The company raises money from predominately retail investors, then loans it out, often to real estate developers. Romspen typically allows its investors to cash out of its funds once a month. However, the company has frozen investor redemptions since November, 2022, because it has struggled with loan defaults.
While owning Woodbine Mall could pay off in the long term, because Romspen has the potential to redevelop it into residential properties, Toronto is currently suffering through a real estate development crisis. Any property sale or new project is unlikely to materialize in the near future, which means generating cash to fund investor redemptions will be challenging.
Romspen did not return a request for comment for this story.
Because Romspen’s redemption woes have dragged on for so long, the lender recently formed an investor advisory committee. In December, this committee released a report to clients and informed them that Romspen has struggled to recover money lent to several “large, complex” projects.
Three of Toronto-based Romspen’s troubled projects are located in Canada and two are in the United States, according to a memo sent to clients on Dec. 23. They are: The Ellie condominium project in Toronto; the redevelopment of Woodbine Mall in Toronto; the Atmosphere mixed-use project in Richmond, B.C.; the redevelopment of a Motorola office complex in Austin, Tex.; and the Via Mizner hotel and club in Boca Raton, Fla.
All five developments were either in receivership or had restructured under creditor protection, according to a Globe and Mail analysis, and each of the five projects had borrowed more than $100-million from Romspen. Some, such as the Ellie condo project, were getting close to completion before going into receivership, while others, such as the Atmosphere project, are in their early stages.
Investors in Romspen’s $2.7-billion Mortgage Investment Fund have been trapped since November, 2022, when Romspen froze investor redemptions owing to troubles with loan repayment. Since then, the fund manager has provided quarterly updates and held calls with investors. After the third quarter of 2025, for instance, Romspen reported that 55 per cent of its loans were under review, compared with 39 per cent a year earlier, reflecting “the continued slowdown and price uncertainty in real estate markets.”
Romspen is now taking action on Woodbine Mall after the receiver failed to sell the property, according to court filings.
Early in the auction process, a lease for a Hudson’s Bay Co. store complicated any sale because the retailer had lengthy renewal rights, and these could be used to obstruct the demolition of the buildings and the redevelopment of Woodbine Mall, something that “significantly impacted its marketability,” according to court filings.
However, Hudson’s Bay entered CCAA proceedings in March, 2025, and disclaimed the lease in July. After that, the receiver launched a new auction that, “again, resulted in a number of conditional offers priced too low relative to the Romspen debt.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a former mall tenant, Hudson's Bay, entered Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings in July, 2025. The company entered proceedings in March, 2025, and disclaimed the lease in July.