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WEDNESDAY, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER JANUARY 20, 12, 2016
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R E A L E S TAT E W E E K LY
WHAT’S HAPPENING ON BEAR MOUNTAIN, VANCOUVER ISLAND? T he golfing world’s eyes have been fixed on Bear Mountain, just outside Victoria, over the past month, as the PGA Tour 2016 Pacific Links Championship took place on one of the golf resort’s two Nicklaus Design mountain courses September 19-25. Colin Montgomerie may have walked off with the title, but the real winner here has to be Dan Matthews, chief executive and co-owner of the resort’s development company Ecoasis. With so much global attention focused on his resort, a flood of inquiries about caused the website to grind to a halt, according to real estate projects co-ordinator Ruthanne Doyle. The company, which previously developed a ski-in-ski-out community in Whistler’s Creekside and is building homes at the Hualalai Resort in Hawaii, bought Bear Mountain at a discount from HSBC Canada in 2013 after the bank took it back from its previous owner, who ran into financial trouble. Residential and commercial development at the resort, which had reached a population of 3,000, had stalled. But Matthews saw through the bad press, and took the opportunity to develop the highly promising 806-acre Bear Mountain site into a worldclass resort community. “[The controversy is]
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what was exciting about it,” said Matthews with a laugh. The developer had a good base to start from, with the already established country club and residences just a 22-minute drive away from downtown Victoria. The mountainside resort had 3,000-plus residents already established in 1,200 (largely singlefamily) homes. It also already had a large, luxury Westin hotel with spa and restaurants, as well as a pub and corner grocery store – and, of course, those two championship-level golf courses.
The New Masterplan Over the past three years, the Ecoasis team has been working with the incumbent Bear Mountain residents to create a masterplan to expand the residential element by 2,850 new homes to house a total population of around 10,000. It will also add a commercial “village” centre and further recreational facilities. Many hiking and mountain biking trails have already been created, as well as a competitive-level mountain bike park. The resort is also planning a state-of-the-art, clay-courts tennis centre. When built, the village centre will have 300,000 square feet of commercial space
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available, including a high street with shops, restaurants, bars and businesses, which will be pedestrianized during peak shopping and dining hours, with road traffic allowed at other times. New road infrastructure is also set to start in October, which will make it much easier to get in and out of the resort.
Townhomes and Detached Villas The residential component of the masterplan will be phased out over the next 10 to 15 years. The earliest of those homes are the new Cypress Mews townhome development, which is about to launch pre-sales, and the Cypress Gates detached home community. Cypress Mews homes is a development of 15 high-end townhouses in a West Coast contemporary design that will be built to a certified Built Green standard and include luxury finishings, which will be priced in the upper $600,000s. Cypress Gates, on the other hand, is an 18-unit executive villas project that will offer spectacular golf course and Mount Finlayson views in a private gated enclave. These homes will be approximately 2,500 square feet and start at just over $1 million. In addition to the townhomes and villas, phase one of the Cypress development also
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contains a group of 27 single-family lots. Phase one of these lots are now sold out, and have either been sold to individual buyers, who can choose from one of the seven construction companies on Ecoasis’ Designated Builders Program preferred partner list to build a home on the lot, or sold directly to those builders. However, more lots will be released in the coming weeks, said Doyle.
Condos at Each End of the Price Scale Next, the company will turn to its condo development, Elevate. The sprawling building will have around 200 units in two ninestorey towers atop a wide podium that is flat to the ground at the upper level, and drops down the mountain with a five-storey frontage at the lower entrance. The top of this podium will create another community hub, with extensive amenities including an infinity pool. Elevate’s units will range from flexibly designed 300-square-feet micro-units starting at around $150,000 to larger condos of 1,200 square feet priced up into the $600,000s. For the full article and photo gallery on Bear Mountain and its future, go to REW.ca/News/Developments
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