Developer pushed out of condo project The One

Mizrahi founder calls decision 'mind boggling' in audio recording

- ANA PEREIRA AND RICHARD WARNICA

Mizrahi Developments, the developer behind a long-delayed 85-storey condo project at Yonge and Bloor streets called The One, is being replaced. Skygrid will take over duties March 13.

The controversial developer behind a long-delayed project billed as the tallest residential tower in Canada, an 85-storey behemoth on the corner of Yonge and Bloor streets in Toronto, is being replaced, according to an audio recording of an internal meeting obtained by the Star.

In the meeting Monday, Mizrahi Developments founder and president Sam Mizrahi told employees his company would no longer oversee construction of The One, a starcrossed condo tower at one of Toronto’s most iconic intersections.

“For me, it’s just mind boggling,” Mizrahi said in the recording. “Because I don’t see how somebody else is going to do it better than we are.”

Disgruntled lenders forced The One into receivership last fall. They initially left Mizrahi on the project as general contractor. But on Monday Mizrahi informed his team that the relationship was coming to an end.

“It was not what I expected, it was not what I was led to believe. But they made a choice to go in a different direction … with someone else. We can’t change that,” Mizrahi said.

Mizrahi told a room full of employees that the project’s receiver, Alvarez & Marsal, had given his company 15 days notice before construction veteran Skygrid takes over on March 13.