A glamorous house owned - but hardly, if at all, lived in - by David Asper is once again under renovation by its new owners. The Forest Hill Road house was purchased by Mr. Asper, who is executive vice-president of his family-controlled CanWest Global Communications, in May, 2006, after he moved to Toronto from his hometown of Winnipeg. It had been extensively renovated with a cutting-edge design by Toronto real estate developer Ken Zuckerman, who bought the property for about $2.7-million and sold it to Mr. Asper for $6-million. When the deal closed, Mr. Zuckerman told friends he went directly to Monaco for the Grand Prix to celebrate.
The four-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion boasts a plum location and is across the street from the home of financial luminary Ira Gluskin, of Gluskin Sheff + Associates, and close to the residence of media mogul Ted Rogers, who heads Rogers Communications. A week after Mr. Asper took possession on the house ) he put it up for sale for $6.5-million, telling Nobody's Business it was done for a "business reason" because he had received a number of phone calls expressing buyer interest in the property. Mr. Asper was also involved with a marital reconciliation at the time, he said.
Two months ago, the house was finally sold by carriage trade realtor Elise Kalles, although the price is not known. (In land registry documents the transaction listed at zero, a common technique in the business to keep a selling price private.) The new owner is Maury Kalen, owner of Toronto's Mr. Greenjeans, an Eaton Centre landmark burger emporium.
I just wanted paper, honest
Oops, wrong number indeed. Staples sent out a mass e-mail to its customers recently offering them a deal on copier paper, with a toll-free number for interested buyers to call with an order. Only trouble was, the phone number went to a phone sex line. Telecom consultant Mark Goldberg found that out when he called and found himself on the receiving end of breathy compliments about what a hot, sexy guy he was. "This incident serves as a good reminder to all of us," he wrote at mhgoldberg.com/blog, "when you send a message to a million of your closest friends, make sure you proofread it carefully" though, he conceded: "It was nice to have someone call me hot and sexy. Even if it was a wrong number." Staples says it corrected the error within minutes of the e-mail going out.pbest@globeandmail.com
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