When the purchase of 9 Madison was announced a month ago, David Kalm, Project Manager for International Estonian Centre Inc. (IEC), said: “9 Madison is now owned by the Estonians!” (Link https://www.eesti.ca/estonian-...) After receiving it's mandate from the City of Toronto at the end of April 2018, Build Toronto sold 9 Madison to the IEC on December 20th with a price tag of $1,000,000.00. On top of legal and administrative expenses, IEC put a little more than $33,000.00 toward municipal and provincial land transfer taxes.

The land registry documents for 9 Madison provide insight into the finances behind the acquisition and, perhaps, shed a little light on the health of the capital campaign. Two primary elements funded the purchase, $650,000.00 was cash and the remaining $350,000.00 was financed with a mortgage from the Estonian (Toronto) Credit Union. Considering that IEC is a fairly new company, it received favourable financing terms at an interest rate of 3.95% per annum. Mortgage payments to the credit union are $ 1,152.08 and are due on the last day of every month; the first payment happened on January 31st. At this early pre-construction stage, its interesting that the purchase of 9 Madison required support of a loan. With two recent and significant donations resulting from a prominent media presence, one would have thought that the capital campaign could have supported the purchase of 9 Madison without additional financing. However, at such affordable rates, it's understandable a new enterprise would take advantage of such an opportunity and would want to manage its cash more prudently.

Executing the purchase on behalf of the International Estonian Centre Inc. was two of its officers Veiko Parming and Glen Leis, who also happen to be directors on the board of Estonian House (Toronto) Ltd. The address listed for the IEC is, coincidentally enough, is 958 Broadview Ave. Ironically, with 11 Madison vacant and IEC's primary goal to be downtown, it's a wonder that IEC hasn't setup an office close to the site using neighbouring 11 Madison or 310 Bloor Street West as a contact address.

Beyond those pieces of information, there has been no official release regarding exactly what type of incorporation IEC is; who the company's officers are; what the operational mandate is and what relationship will the shareholders of Estonian House (Toronto) Ltd have with International Estonian Centre Inc. In November it was stated that: "Estonian House in Toronto Limited will initially be the sole member of the charity and will thereby appoint its directors. In addition, Estonian House in Toronto Limited will initially be the sole shareholder of the business corporation, thereby appointing its directors." (Link https://www.estoniancentre.ca/... ) If the purchase of 9 Madison is the first transaction executed under this new corporation, then shareholders of Estonian House may want to vote on how their new entity may be structured, the new by-laws governing IEC and have a separate set of directors operating under the board of Estonian House.

Allan Meiusi
EWR Contributor

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