Sold …
Ucluelet's Island West Resort has sold through the courts for $2.1 million.
Mark Lester and Alan Johnson of Jones Lang LaSalle's specialized assets group piloted the property through the sale process, which culminated with a buyer from China acquiring the six-acre site including a 19-room motel and 84-slip marina, RV campground and restaurant.
Lester said the property has redevelopment potential.
The resort entered foreclosure in late 2008 when a bid to develop 75 apartments and 19 townhomes on the property failed.
Vancouver business partners Grayden Hayward and Craig Lochhead bought Island West Resort in 2006 and set up Island West Development (2006) Ltd. with the aim of gathering investors to support the venture.
But the project became an early casualty of the financial crisis of 2008, entering foreclosure that August when it was put on the block for $7.25 million. The price dropped repeatedly, eventually landing at $2.5 million prior to the courts approving the successful offer on July 7. The property isn't the only Ucluelet asset attracting interest.
Lester said an offer has also gone firm for the development lands of Wyndansea, which has a list price of nearly $8 million. The site was to feature 925 residential and hotel-condo units anchored by a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. The deal will also require court approval prior to completion.
… to the highest bidder!
A competitive bid process – of sorts – is also planned for a luxury property on Pender Island.
Kelowna-based The Garage Sale Luxury Auction House plans to auction the million-dollar Madrona Grove property on August 22 on behalf of the BC Cancer Foundation.
The property includes 4.4 acres overlooking the Salish Sea, as well as 2,662 square feet of living space. But far from a mere charity auction, the process is designed to garner maximum exposure and market value for the property.
Auctions expedite the sale process, setting a specific timeline for offers while garnering bids from a wide array of potential purchasers.
All buyers for auctions The Garage Sale runs are pre-qualified, said founder and CEO Alex Lambert, and there are no reserve bids to ensure that the sale happens.
“That's what gets people to the table,” he said. “That's what makes it real.”
However, it hasn't always been that way.
The immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis saw many auctions fall short of expectations, in some cases even being called off entirely.
When Cascadia Pacific Realty Ltd. put a 5,000-square-foot luxury home with 315 feet of lake frontage in the Nicola Valley on the block through Vancouver auctioneer Maynards Industries Ltd. in late 2008, the three participating bidders failed to meet the $1.2 million reserve bid. The high-profile auction was called off – as were many others, not just because reserve bids couldn't be met but because many buyers (particularly those in the U.S.) found financing was difficult to obtain.
The past year has seen auction sales throughout the Pacific Northwest revive, with many properties successfully returning to market. Aquilini Investment Group's purchase of two vineyard properties in Washington state is a sign of just how far the market has rebounded.
Heating up
Summertime, and recreational property marketers would have us believe the market is as hot as the weather.
A plethora of pitches have crossed this reporter's desk for Okanagan developments in recent weeks, as have reports regarding the state of the recreational property market.
According to Royal LePage, recreational properties in the Kelowna area can be had from $300,000 to $700,000 for waterfront properties. This is at the lower end of past estimates, which post-2008 pegged prices at $650,000 to $1.5 million, and last year pegged typical offerings at $800,000 to $2 million.
Meanwhile, Re/Max of Western Canada ups the required ante with prices of detached waterfront homes running from $1 million to $5.7 million in Kelowna, and $900,000 to $1.75 million on Skaha Lake in Penticton.
Small wonder offerings such as those at the Sendero Canyon project above Naramata (developed by Canadian Horizons Development Group and Sendero Canyon Homes Ltd.), Skaha Hills at the south end of Penticton, and Van Maren Group's Cottages on Osoyoos Lake can seem attractive to buyers. Prices at Sendero Canyon have been averaging in the $500,000 range, with 14 sales (out of 231 units total) occurring since its May launch. Similarly, Cottages on Osoyoos Lake have logged 12 sales to date this year, and total sales are approaching 70 of 284 units planned.
Meanwhile, the Penticton Indian Band Development Corp. and Greyback Developments Ltd. saw 19 homes sold the week after release this spring at prices starting from $425,000. The first phase of 47 homes is within a whisker of selling out, with 140 additional homes planned – almost a quarter of the total construction of 600 homes.
