The auction of a luxury waterfront home on Pender Island has brought in $800,000 for the B.C. Cancer Foundation.
Robert and Diane Conconi donated the 2,662-square-foot retreat known as Madrona Grove to the foundation so that it could receive the proceeds from a sale. The auction, held at the home, generated $725,000, with the rest of the money coming from a party that accompanied the event.
The festivities included a performance by Juno Award-winning guitarist Jesse Cook. The auction brought out five bidders and about 150 onlookers, including the Conconis.
The buyer was from Calgary. He came away with a home that sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean and features a wrap-around sundeck.
“We would have liked to see the home go for over a million dollars,” Alex Lambert of The Garage Sale Luxury Auction House said in a statement. “But the business of the day was the sale of a home, and the sale price achieved is a true reflection of the market conditions in the area.”
The highest price paid for a Pender home in recent months was $825,000. It was a comparable property.
The decision was made to sell the Madrona Grove by auction because, given the area’s real-estate market, it seemed to be the best option, said Douglas Nelson, president and CEO of the cancer foundation.
“Looking at what the market is like in Gulf Islands properties right now, we knew we needed to do something that was special and unique in order to turn this great gift into dollars that we could invest in cancer research.”
The money will be put to use immediately, Nelson said.
He said the donation of the home was a special gesture by the Conconis.
“Bob and Diane have been incredibly generous to the foundation in a whole host of ways, and this is the greatest example of that,” he said.
The donation of the home was inspired by Robert Conconi’s successful treatment for throat cancer — the same type of cancer that caused his father’s death 30 years earlier.
