the north grenville
www.ngtimes.ca
TIMES
Vol. 1, No. 21
The Voice of North Grenville
April 24, 2013
Developer investigated over North Grenville project
Tom Assaly’s house on Whitney Road was at the centre of the “Nature’s Walk Gated Community in North Grenville” project
The collapse of a prestigious residential development project in North Grenville has led to a Court appointed Inspector investigating the affairs of Thomas G. Assaly and the companies he set up to develop the property at Whitney Road. The project involved a number of individuals living in North Grenville, as well as numerous investors who have initiated the appeal to the Court. On February 6 of this year, a group of investors in the “Nature’s Walk Gated Community in North Grenville” applied to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to have an Inspector appointed to examine the background to the develop-
ment project in which they had invested large sums of money. The Inspector was mandated to investigate a number of companies set up by Thomas G. Assaly, as part of the Assaly Group of Companies, to build a gated community, complete with golf course, nature walks and clubhouse/recreation centre and tennis courts. Two parcels of land belonging to Tom Assaly at 1011 Whitney Road in North Grenville, consisting of a total of 156 acres, was to be developed into 20 lots, and was advertised as “Ottawa’s first gated community”. Early in 2009, Tom Assaly hired Patrick Caicco, a financial advisor and President of Advantage
Wealth Building Strategies, Inc., to promote Nature’s Walk to his clients. Their investments would fund the development, and they were guaranteed an average annual minimum of 10% return on their investment. The minimum investment was $150,000. It was a very inviting offer, and Pat Caicco had raised more than $1 million in less than four months. The money was paid into the companies set up by Tom Assaly to develop both Nature’s Walk, and a project in Smith’s Falls. What happened to this money, and details of the various cash transfers between companies, and alterations to the Nature’s Walk project itself, are the subject of the
Court-appointed Inspector. What is known is that Tom Assaly’s company, Millenium Springs Properties Ltd., took out a mortgage with TD Bank on the Whitney Road property in November 2010 for $588,750. Assaly and his wife lived in a 7,000 square foot house on the land [above], and it was from there that the companies operated. It seems that working at the house was quite an experience. It was guarded by two attack dogs, which were left to roam freely and menaced everyone coming to the house, including company employees. It has been reported to the Times that at least one of those employees took to arming
themselves with pepper spray in self-defense, before Karen Assaly had one of the dogs shot. By early 2011, the monthly dividend payments to investors stopped, and serious concern was expressed by them over the failure to see any work being done on the site. Tom Assaly’s financial officer quit in March, 2011 because of the complete confusion which existed over where precisely the company funds were being transferred. It was becoming difficult to know what funds belonged to which company and which project. One of the companies involved was a charitable Foundation established by Tom Assaly, into which much of the investor money seems to have been deposited. By 2012, the entire project seems to have fallen apart, and Patrick Caicco believed that much of the $3,000,000 he had helped raise from investors was sitting in the charitable Foundation accounts in Canada and Florida. A number of
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