At the centre of this real estate transaction is Bikram Dhillon, a businessman named Brampton’s Citizen of the Year just before the deal was done. Brampton’s purchase — paying Dhillon almost two and a half times what it cost him three years earlier — further exhausted a city fund meant for “generational projects.”

Through a numbered company, Dhillon paid $32.5 million for the property on Sandalwood Parkway West in 2020, then sold it to Brampton in 2023 for $77.9 million. Dhillon never used it. The previous owner remained, paying him market rent.

Today, the two-storey building in northwest Brampton is virtually empty, despite Brown’s claims of it being a major processing centre for the city’s photo radar speed cameras — a plan now further in jeopardy following Premier Doug Ford’s announcement that he will ban the devices across Ontario. 

Dhillon did not respond to queries made by the Star in writing, by telephone, email, and in an in-person visit to his office.

Questioned about the purchase, Brown said Sandalwood was essential.

“I can tell you, without hesitation or qualification, that the City (a) needed Sandalwood and (b) got the best deal for Sandalwood. Anyone telling you otherwise are wrong,” the mayor said in an email. He would not agree to speak in person or by telephone.

Late Thursday, following publication of this story, Brown authorized the release of internal city documents related to the sale. Those documents, from September 2023, show that staff were pursuing a variety of uses for the building, including parkland, a cricket field, offices for recreation staff, and a speed camera processing centre. The documents reveal that city staff reported to council that the building had previously sold for $32.5 million, provided assessments of its current value, and that the owner offering it to the city was Dhillon, described in the city documents as the recipient of “Brampton’s Citizen of the Year for 2023” and a major donor to the local hospital system.

When the Star visited the Sandalwood property in August, it was sparsely populated. It was built to hold roughly 180 staff in offices and cubicles, but the Star noted just 11 people working in cubicles in one corner. Piles of old furniture were jammed together on the main floor, where the ceilings are 15 to 32 feet high in places. 

“This is nuts,” said one Brampton City Hall insider. “Don’t you just need a few computers and a handful of people to send out these traffic tickets?”

Elaine Moore, a former Brampton councillor, criticized the use of the city’s Legacy Fund to pay for Sandalwood. She said the now-depleted fund used to provide “investment income,” which kept taxes down for residents. 

“Using the Legacy Fund for (Sandalwood) is reckless and does nothing to improve the quality of life for Brampton taxpayers,” Moore said.

For this story, the Star has spoken to six individuals, including current senior Brampton employees, former employees, and individuals who have worked for Brown. They spoke on condition the Star not publish their names, saying they fear retaliation by Brown if they speak on the record. The insiders, including those no longer at the city, say Brown rules the city with an “iron fist” and they do not want to run afoul of him.

175 Sandalwood Parkway West was built in 1991. It’s pink stone and glass, sitting on about 16 acres zoned for industrial use in northwest Brampton.  

Sandalwood was Brampton Hydro’s home for years. Following a series of mergers and acquisitions it became the local office of publicly owned utility Alectra, electricity supplier to a million Ontario residents in 17 communities, including Brampton. Shares in Alectra are held by several municipalities. In 2020, Alectra needed new offices and decided to sell Sandalwood, said Alectra spokesperson Blair Peberdy. Alectra had two appraisals and sold it for $32.5 million.

“Alectra accepted the highest offer for the property, which was very close to the appraised value,” said Peberdy, senior vice-president of regulatory and corporate relations.

The buyer was a numbered company incorporated by Bikram Dhillon three weeks before the purchase. Dhillon owns BVD Petroleum, which services truckers. Dhillon’s company funded the purchase with a $21 million mortgage. 

Dhillon never used the building. Alectra leased it back from Dhillon for three years, agreeing to pay Dhillon’s company roughly $5.3 million over that time period, according to a copy of the lease agreement.

By May 2023, with the Alectra lease expiring later in the year, Dhillon was ready to sell.

He had an appraisal done by realty firm CBRE, which valued the building and property at $85 million — a big jump from the $32.5 million it sold for in 2020. Real estate experts familiar with the area told the Star that while industrial sites went up in value during the pandemic, they didn’t increase that much. Later, a second appraisal requested by Brampton came in at $65 to $70 million, which the Star’s experts said was closer to the actual value, though still a “little high.”

According to the newly released documents, Brampton staff noted a “significant gap” in these valuations.

How Brampton ended up buying Sandalwood is a story shrouded in closed-door “in camera” city council meetings. Municipal rules allow councils to go behind closed doors to discuss the purchase or disposition of land. Brampton initially refused to release internal documents related to the deal, citing “privacy rights” and “commercial confidentiality.” Brown, Dhillon and Brampton staffers would not agree to be interviewed.

Here’s what the Star could determine.

During in-camera council meetings in 2022 and 2023 there were discussions about buying Sandalwood. Sources say it was never made clear why Brampton wanted it, or how much it would cost. The newly released documents reveal that in the two weeks leading up to Brampton’s decision to purchase Sandalwood, city staff reported that numerous city departments had an interest in using the building. Among the suggested uses in the September reports: cricket field, offices for recreation staff, speed camera processing centre, storage for outdoor equipment; and a “small engine and light duty vehicle maintenance shop.” 

“If the property is acquired, then a multidepartment effort will be needed to collocate (sic) the various potential uses identified for this property,” says one of the September staff reports.

By spring 2023, Dhillon, the owner, wanted to get a deal done. But it was never listed on the open market. Instead, according to a Brampton public relations official, the Colliers real estate firm (which does work for Brampton) reached out to the Brampton real estate department in May 2023, to gauge interest. Brampton’s Natalie Stogdill, acting director of strategic communications, provided one paragraph of an email chain between Colliers and a Brampton city real estate staffer.

Colliers writes: “In speaking with the owner, he will sell the building ‘off-market’ meaning we will not have to be part of a bidding process should the City express interest in the property,” the Colliers official wrote, referring to Dhillon but not naming him. Stogdill would not provide the rest of the email chain.

In the months that followed, according to insiders, the ground was laid for what Brown would later say in a December press release was the reason for the building purchase: pole-mounted, automated speed cameras.

Brampton had 50 cameras at the time. These are the photo radar cameras that snap the licence plate of a car travelling over the posted speed limit. 

On Aug. 8, 2023, a Brampton city staff report noted that a Toronto regional centre was processing Brampton’s tickets. (A private company operates the cameras, but municipal officers view the images and send out tickets.) Toronto was not processing enough Brampton tickets, the report said. Brampton staffers suggested the city would earn more revenue if it ended the Toronto contract and did its own processing.

To do this, Brampton would have to “rent or lease” a small space of roughly 10,000 square feet, at an annual cost of $380,000. This would house a staff of 16, which would grow eventually as Brampton planned to expand from 50 to 150 cameras over the next few years.

There’s no mention in the August staff report of purchasing a large building. No mention of Sandalwood, a property that is 170,000 square feet of office space, and 16 acres of land — 17 times the size of the office space Brampton’s own staffers said was needed to process the fines.

Insiders say they never understood why Brampton did not simply use existing office space in city-owned properties. 

“It was all very hush-hush, very secretive,” said one insider. 

But within six weeks of that August staff report, Brampton would agree to purchase Sandalwood from Dhillon’s numbered company, paying $77.9 million. Brown says he never discussed the deal with Dhillon.

“As for Bikram, he has never lobbied me about this nor, to my knowledge, any other member of Council,” said Brown, in his email to the Star.

Brown and Dhillon have appeared together at several public events in recent years.

In 2021, Brown and Dhillon posed for photos at Dhillon’s new office space on Torbram Road. Dhillon’s company BVD said it was “lovely” to have Brown visit its new offices. (Brown often visits local businesses as part of his stated goal of growing the city’s business community.)

In 2022, Dhillon made a $10 million pledge to William Osler Health System Foundation to “support health care in Brampton and Etobicoke.” At the press conference, Dhillon was joined by Mayor Brown and Premier Ford. The south tower of Brampton Civic Hospital (part of the William Osler Health System) was named for him. Dhillon and members of his family, in a video posted online, noted the importance of health care and how his four children and nine grandchildren had been born at Brampton and Etobicoke hospitals. Previously, in 2020, Dhillon donated $100,000 to the hospital system. 

In August 2023, just before the Sandalwood Parkway deal was done, Dhillon was honoured as Citizen of the Year, selected by a committee and approved by council. Brown referred to the hospital pledge by Dhillon as “transformative contributions to local health care in Brampton,” according to a city statement posted after the event. A photo of Brown and Dhillon (with Dhillon’s company banner behind) was taken at the event and shared on social media. 

Shortly after the August Citizen of the Year event, the city moved forward on Sandalwood. 

Brown said he was completely unaware of Sandalwood’s existence until city staff brought the deal forward just before the purchase. Brampton insiders said Brown’s comment struck them as odd, given that Sandalwood was the city-designated emergency site if a disaster caused city hall to be evacuated. (That was a holdover from when the building was Brampton Hydro.)

“You’d think the mayor would know that,” the insider said.

Insiders say they knew Brown wanted the city to buy Sandalwood. But for what use, they could not get a straight answer.

During closed-door meetings leading up to the purchase insiders say they heard the following suggestions: recreational “amenities”; space for not-for-profits; animal sanctuary; parkland; a cricket field. But speed camera processing was not mentioned until a Sept. 12 staff report (one of the newly released documents).

At a Sept. 20 special city council meeting, the speed camera issue was discussed, and Sandalwood was again mentioned.

“The property is being considered to be used for the City’s requirement of an automatic regional ticket processing centre,” the staff report states, adding that parks and sports fields are also being considered.

Meanwhile, the city was days away from a major purchase that was never discussed publicly, due to the meetings being in camera. The final issue was cost.

City staffers had in hand the $85 million valuation of Sandalwood provided by Dhillon. Brampton real estate staff hired their own appraisal company. The official valuation would not arrive for two months — long after Brampton had done the deal, but according to newly released documents staff were given a preliminary assessment in September from the appraiser, which “valued the property in the range of $65 to $68 million.” (In the appraiser’s final report they revised that to a range of $65 million-$70 million, then stated its final valuation was $67.5 million.) At the same time, city staff received “an opinion of value” from the real estate broker involved in the deal that the property was worth $72 million-$78 million.

Also, Brampton real estate staff had requested — and just received — a “peer review” criticizing the $85 million CBRE appraisal.

The report from the review company, Cleo B Consultants, arrived on Sept. 15. It criticized the CBRE appraisal and suggested “good old common sense” should be applied to the valuation. It noted “the challenging question that needs to be addressed is how a market sale from 2 years ago resulted with the value of (Sandalwood) being almost tripled over this period?”

Asked about the criticism of the CBRE report, a CBRE spokesperson (Ricky Hernden, vice-president content and client strategy) said the report it sent to Dhillon complied with “best practices” and was a “draft.”

With all of this information in hand, staff reported in its in-camera document that “a more realistic total property value is $71 million.”

The peer review suggested Brampton look more deeply into the issue. 

It was too late. Just over a week later, on Sept. 29, Sandalwood came up again in a closed-door session. Following a discussion, Brown put forward a motion to authorize city staff to purchase it at a price of $77.9 million. Brown said it would be a “speed camera processing hub.” Some present were dumbfounded. 

What some city councillors say they didn’t know was that an “agreement of purchase and sale” had been signed by the city three days before. That agreement was dependent on city council voting to approve the deal.

Insiders were mystified at the $77.9 million figure. There was a rumour that it had previously sold for $32.5 million. But when someone checked the public land registry the sale figure was listed as ”$2,” indicating the real amount had been “suppressed” by the purchaser (a legal manoeuvre some companies and individuals use to shield from the casual observer the price of a sale). The newly released documents reveal that in the in-camera reports, the $32.5 million figure was stated.

Some councillors also say they were not told who was behind the numbered company that owned Sandalwood. However, newly released documents show that Dhillon is identified as the owner.  

In the public session of the Sept. 29 meeting, Brown moved a motion to purchase Sandalwood. Brown ally Coun. Rowena Santos seconded it. It was passed unanimously. In the minutes of the public meeting it states the building was being purchased “for future park, sport field, and Processing Centre for Automated Speed Enforcement.” The deal was set to close in December.

Funding, Brown told council, would come from two places in the city budget. Half from the “cash-in-lieu of Parkland” given by developers for other projects, and half from the “Legacy Fund,” set up years ago to fund what insiders say were considered “generational projects.” 

Two months later, the Brampton real estate staff received the completed appraisal they had requested. Appraisers MPR said the property was worth $67.5 million. 

Despite all of this, Brampton took ownership of Sandalwood on Dec. 18, 2023, paying $77.9 million. The Alectra lease ended that day.  

The next day, Brown made a public announcement that the city had purchased the building. As a result, Brown said, the streets would be safer. 

“The new regional ASE Camera Processing Facility is a strategic investment for the City of Brampton. The new facility will allow us to move the city’s ticket processing from Toronto to Brampton, creating local jobs, and putting the brakes on speeding in school zones.”

Insiders are upset by the secrecy surrounding this land deal. What Brampton paid for the building — $77.9 million — was not generally known until the publication of this story. Even today, if you did a provincial land registry search, the sale price would be listed as $2, the actual value “suppressed” just as the previous Sandalwood sale was. The actual sale value was buried in a line item of a council minute that was released later, but not picked up by the general public or any media covering Brampton. A video recording of the Sept. 29 public session shows that neither Brown nor anyone present mentioned the $77.9 million price tag. However, the in-camera documents released by Brown reveal the price was clearly stated.

A year into ownership of Sandalwood, Brampton’s social media posted a photo of the inside of the building showing what appeared to be numerous staffers standing with Brown. Most of the people in the photo are either politicians or people who do not work in the small photo radar division.

The use of Brampton’s “legacy fund” to purchase the building has rankled former councillors. One said that the fund, set up with $100 million, was for “generational projects” that would truly help the city grow, and the investment funds would help keep taxes low. With the purchase of Sandalwood and several other projects, this fund dropped to just under $20 million in late 2023, and now sits at $11 million (March 2025).

The Star received three emails from Brown regarding the Sandalwood purchase during this investigation. In the last one, he ended: “ps this (purchase) was passed unanimously by our council because we all accepted the arguments from staff on why it was needed and made sense for the City.”

Brampton public relations spokesperson Stogdill recently wrote to the Star and provided a list of what fills (or will fill) the building. “Fleet Parking, Automated Speed Enforcement Staff, Municipal Elections Staff, Recreation Staff, Service Brampton Staff, and Outdoor Storage for City equipment.”

Several weeks ago, after the Star made inquiries about the building, city staff were directed to start moving employees from the recreation department and public works out of their former offices to “fill some of the space” in Sandalwood, a source said.

Clarification — Oct. 10, 2025

This story has been updated following the release of in-camera Brampton city staff reports ordered to be made public by Mayor Patrick Brown.