The sale of Jasper’s largest apartment dwelling to the largest landlord in Canada has triggered Parks Canada to ask tenants of that property to prove their eligible residency.

However, the agency is assuring Jasperites that anyone laid off due to COVID-19 or experiencing seasonal unemployment will not be removed from the building.

“Parks Canada acknowledges that the COVID-19 pandemic has and will impact the employment status of many in the tourism sector and associated industries in Jasper National Park,” public relations and communications officer, Steve Young, told The Jasper Local October 28. “There is no intention to remove residents from the community who are temporarily unemployed or laid-off due to COVID-19, or as a result of seasonal layoffs.”

But some residents are worried that despite Parks Canada’s promise, it will be the apartment’s management doing the dirty work.

“Parks will keep their hands lily white by having Northview as the bailiff and boot out the undesirables,” one Cavell tenant suggested.

On the night of October 20 and early on Wednesday, October 21, Cavell tenants discovered letters that had been placed under their doors. The letter requested proof that tenants are eligible to reside in Jasper National Park by no later than Friday, October 23.

“Parks Canada has demanded that Northview collect from each of the residents on the lease…written confirmation of their residency eligibility,” reads the letter from Northview Apartment REIT, current owners of the buildings (as of this writing).

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is a vehicle for financial investment in real estate, and it gives investors a chance to profit from real estate without having to own or manage it directly. 

But Northview REIT won’t be the owners of Cavell for long. The distribution of the letters was tied into the sale of the buildings, according to property manager Barry Gilbert, and an online press release from Cision, a public relations firm based in Toronto, announced the takeover of Northview REIT by Galaxy Value Add Properties. Galaxy is an affiliate of Starlight Investments, an asset management firm with a portfolio of more than 36,000 multi-residential units across Canada and the United States. 

The acquisition of the 26,723-suite portfolio which makes up the Northview REIT transaction, of which the Cavell sale falls into, will make Starlight the largest landlord in Canada, according to Keep Your Rent Toronto, a tenant-advocacy group tracking unfair rent increases and evictions during the COVID pandemic. Starlight is a “pandemic profiteer,” whose Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Drimmer, is known for buying his own companies through his other companies, according to the advocacy group.

For residents of Cavell Court, the fact that the ownership of the buildings is due to change hands in early November might not matter in the short term, but as Starlight plans to float the Northview REIT companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, at least one resident is suspicious of the sale.

“Do the new owners have plans? Knock the buildings down and build hotels? Knock the buildings down and put up condominiums?”

The land is zoned by Jasper National Park as R3 (Multiple Family Dwelling District). Hotels can only be built on lands zoned C2 (Tourist Commercial District).

Neither Drimmer nor other representatives of Starlight responded to The Jasper Local’s requests for comment. 

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com