Mansion was a dot.com millionaire’s unfulfilled dream

Derrick Penner
Sun

This 47,000-square-foot, 10-bedroom Abbotsford mansion is up for sale. The main house includes a hydraulic elevator, formal dining room with marble and Brazilian cherrywood foyer, billiard room, movie theatre and NATHAN WAITE/SPECIAL TO THE SUN small library. It’s topped with a glassed-in cupola with a grand view of Mount Baker. Below the house is the large cabana/spa structure and pool connected by a tunnel. The asking price: $9.9 million

IAN LINDSAY/VANCOUVER SUN Below the Abbotsford mansion is a large cabana-spa structure and pool connected to the house by a tunnel.

This Abbotsford mansion of 47,000 square feet is coming on the market listed by agent Danny Evans for $9.9 million. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

The residence at 29444 58th Ave. in Abbotsford is no plain farmhouse.

It is possibly Canada’s biggest single-family residence stretching 47,000 square feet from a cathedral-like front entrance to a grand dining room, spacious conservatory and tunnel that leads to a serpentine pool.

And it can all be yours for a cool $9.9 million, said listing realtor Danny Evans with Homelife Benchmark Realty Corp. in Langley. He thinks it’s perfect for an ultra-wealthy family or company looking for a private retreat nestled in the Fraser Valley farm belt.

The home contains a modest number of bedrooms, seven in the areas classed as the main house and coach house with an additional three in the staff house. It boasts five “engineering rooms” to manage state-of-the art heating systems and a backup generator.

The main house, which includes the master bedroom, den, hydraulic elevator, breakfast room, morning room, sewing room, formal dining room with marble and Brazilian cherrywood foyer, billiard room, movie theatre and small library.

It’s topped with a glassed-in cupola with a grand view of Mount Baker. Stretched out, the home’s square-footage would cover more than half a CFL football field.

“I’ve been selling 27 years in real estate, and never have I come close to [representing] a property like this,” Evans said.

Carmen Wright, with the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, said her staff has been unable to find any single-family homes as big as the Abbotsford residence, although there is rumour a 55,000-square-foot house might be being built somewhere in Ontario.

However, compare that with the $37.5 million singer Billy Joel is asking for his 14,000-square-foot mansion on Long Island, according to the Wall Street Journal. Or the $8 million CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric is reported to have spent on a 5,000 square-foot Southampton, N.Y. estate.

The $9.9 million — $210 per square foot — is relatively a steal, according to Evans, representing a steep price reduction from the $12.5 million owner Donald Beaupre put it on the market for a little over a year ago.

The home’s 2006 property assessment by the B.C. Assessment authority was for $3.31 million.

That price also represents a substantial loss from the $15 million Evans said the 77-year-old Beaupre, a retired telecom inventor and entrepreneur, poured into what was to be his dream home for himself and his wife, as well as a family retreat for the families of their seven grown children.

Beaupre, founder of the firm SR Telecom, bought the 20-acre Abbotsford farm property for $475,000 in 1992, then starting in about 1997, began working full time with designer John Anthony Lewis to build his grand vision.

Alas, Evans said Beaupre was hit by deteriorating health as the project progressed. The owner is now too frail to continue with the project and wants to sell. Evans said there is still finishing work to be completed.

Who would buy it? Evans said a couple of offshore parties have looked at it in the past and are still interested. Another party has also enquired with a mind to making it a retreat.

Evans is holding a realtors’ open house today as a means to “get the word out.”

JUST HOW BIG IS IT?

The house has 10 bedrooms and covers a total of 47,000 sq. feet on a lot measuring 20 acres all for a cost of $9.9 million

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

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