The sale price of Regina’s most notorious non-development has been slashed by 76 per cent, and now a lawyer representing one of the three banks that financed the lot at the corner of Albert Street and Victoria Avenue is talking about why.

Grant Richards, a senior associate with Cuelenaere LLP in Saskatoon who specializes in general and commercial litigation, foreclosures and real estate, is representing the Korea Exchange Bank of Canada.

The landowners, Westgate Properties, still reportedly owe KEB Canada $1.6 million dollars.

As a result of the money owed, KEB Canada launched legal proceedings to take over the site through foreclosure, leading to the property being listed for sale by court order.

“The court appointed a selling officer,” Richards said. “Who then listed it for sale through Cushman and Wakefield.”

Richards adds the original asking price of $8.5 million was set by Westgate Properties in the spring, but since the site is being foreclosed on, the mortgage companies lowered the price to the current listing, as they thought that was a more realistic asking price.

A number of other factors also contributed to dropping the listing price; including the fact that backfilling is nearly complete, the necessary repayment of outstanding property taxes to the City of Regina, and covering the $2.6 million bill for backfilling the hole.

“The taxes are outstanding for I think 2018 and 2019 and with penalties total about $90,000,” Richards said. “That’s not really a big issue for us, the biggest problem for us is the city has spent a lot of money filling in the hole and that gets added to the property taxes and of course comes ahead of all us.”

Richards says a buyer has to make an offer in order to make the foreclosure official.

“If there is [an offer], the court would then approve the sale to the new owner and the court would issue a new title to that new owner,” Richards told CTV News. “We’re just waiting to find someone to put an offer in.”

The City says it is the "first creditor paid in the event of a bankruptcy" and that the outstanding taxes will be paid back once the property is sold.

Work to fill the hole in is expected to finish next month.