The sale of Len Barrie’s luxurious Compass Pointe Place home in Langford for $4.4 million was approved in a Victoria courthouse on Thursday.
Buyers Gurmit Singh Uppal and his family also will pay $50,000 for personal property in the 12,500-square-foot mansion built in 2008 for Bear Mountain developer Barrie.
The successful bid was presented in the Supreme Court of B.C. on Thursday morning. It beat another bid presented to the receiver for the property. No name or amount was revealed for the other bidder.
With two offers on the table, negotiations took place outside the courtroom. The successful offer was presented to the court and accepted, with a $250,000 deposit. The sale price was $4,429,222. The process took just five minutes.
When HSBC Bank Canada foreclosed on Barrie, it was owed slightly more than $14 million, court was told.
Some revenue has since come in — the house was used as the setting for the Bachelor Canada television show last year — and the total owed is now $12 million, without interest, said Marcel Peerson, a lawyer acting for HSBC.
The sale will close in two weeks, he said. The buyers would not comment.
Once pegged at $13.9 million, the asking price for 2300 Compass Pointe Pl. dropped to $4.988 million this year.
Owned by Len and Kristy Barrie, it sold for a price close to the current assessed value of $4.49 million. The land is valued at slightly more than $1 million and the house at $3.45 million.
Barrie was the force behind the Bear Mountain development on Skirt Mountain in Langford, where residential and commercial properties have been built.
The former professional hockey player was the chief executive officer of Bear Mountain Partnership, which controlled Bear Mountain Projects.
HSBC, the partnership’s largest creditor, took control of the resort with its two golf courses, a hotel and development land, in 2010. At that time, it was owed $250 million and the resort was in creditor protection.
Colliers International is marketing the resort.
Barrie relinquished his house keys to HSBC in early 2012, leaving his six-bedroom, 10-bathroom home, which boasts an 1,800-square-foot master suite. Features include a swimming pool, an outdoor basketball court, fire pits, four dishwashers, Swarovski crystal knobs in the master bedroom, travertine floors, a wine cellar, a home theatre, a putting green and floor-to-ceiling windows in main rooms.
It has views of the Juan de Fuca Strait and the Olympic Mountains.
Scott Piercy, who had the listing with Jim LeBlanc at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, said: “There are definitely investors out there. It is good for the market.”
The sale shows confidence in the Langford market, he said. Many of the capital region’s multimillion-dollar homes are on waterfront sites in Oak Bay and North Saanich. Although it is not on the waterfront, the Compass Pointe house has “views like nowhere else,” Piercy said.
This is one of the highest prices paid for a Greater Victoria house this year. Villa Madrona in North Saanich sold for $6.6 million.
