Bear Mountain Victoria Real Estate

Bear Mountain Victoria Real Estate

The rumble of heavy equipment, punching of compressed-air nail guns, whining of electric drills and the rifle-shot sound of hammers on plywood echoing down the fairways - they're not the kind of sounds most people expect to hear while teeing off at a championship golf course.

Then again, Bear Mountain Resort is not just a golf course. It's a retirement village, recreational centre, fine dining destination, massive residential development and, according to some analysts, one of the busiest construction sites in the province.

The original plans called for two 18-hole golf courses and about 2,200 "doors" - developer speak for single-family homes, condominiums, hotel rooms or any other kind of dwelling unit - over more than 1,000 acres of property.

Less than five years later, those plans have expanded to allow for 3,500 doors and now include a 127-unit condominium development called St. Andrews and Finlayson Reach, a similar-sized condo development running along the base of Mount Finlayson.

The development also includes two hotels with a total of 130 rooms, one of which will sit atop a 160,000 square-foot clubhouse.

Later this month, a 10,000 square-foot recreation centre is slated to open, complete with swimming pool and squash courts.

When the condominium units at St. Andrews and Finlayson Reach go on sale later this month, they're expected to sell out in less than 24 hours.

"It'll take a day, if that. We've had about 400 inquiries from Alberta already," said Dale Sproule, Bear Mountain's manager of real estate sales. "We knew this development was going to be successful, but this is about as good as it gets in the real estate business. It's been a wild ride."

This year alone, real estate sales at Bear Mountain are expected to top $100 million.

The total build-out over the next 10-15 years is estimated at $2 billion.

It's a remarkable success story, especially when you consider that Bear Mountain is the brainchild of former NHLer Len Barrie and a group of retired hockey buddies including Greg Adams, Mike Vernon and Ray Whitney, none of whom brought any significant development experience to the table.

"They were smart enough to know what they didn't know and to find good people to help them," observed Sproule, who has known Barrie since the latter played for the Western Hockey League's Victoria Cougars 20 years ago.

"Len had the vision and he has the ability to work with people to create that vision."

One of the keys to Bear Mountain's success has been the decision to offer a range of different products.

For long-term residents who need plenty of space, there are single-family homes. Retirees might opt for a more compact condominium. The St. Andrews units are marketed as lock-and-leave dwellings, "like a second home with golf privileges," while the hotel rooms will cater to upscale vacationers who fly in for golf packages.

"The selection is a big advantage for a private company like us. We're very consumer-driven and we can adapt," Sproule said.

Thus far, the vast majority of buyers have been from the Victoria or Vancouver Island area. But increasingly, interest is coming from out of the province or out of the country.

"We're now turning to the international market, and that's absolutely key," Sproule said.

Victoria planner Gwyn Simmons said Barrie's ownership group benefited from a combination of sound planning, and fortuitous timing, both in Victoria's growing reputation and the recent building boom brought on by low interest rates.

"I think they got high-quality site planning with a lot of attention to detail," Simmons said. "Victoria's housing market is getting a bit internationalized and... provincewide there's been generally a good feeling about the economy.

"What Bear Mountain has is pretty unparalleled with the views, the golf course and the climate on the island and the fact it's very close proximity to all the amenities of the city."

The development has also been a bonanza for local construction companies, providing not just long-term employment but enough work to occupy half a career for some.

While most of the single-family lots on the lower slopes were sold and developed by an array of small and medium-sized companies, Scansa Construction is project managing the condos and hotels atop Bear Mountain.

Scansa owner Kory Gronnestad expects to be running flat-out at Bear Mountain for the next 10 to 15 years.

In addition to managing hundreds of contractors working on the hotel and condo buildings, Gronnestad oversees road construction, installation of water, sewer and gas lines and even logging and landscaping the fairways of the resort's second golf course.

The biggest challenge has been finding qualified labourers, although Scansa has the advantage of being able to offer long-term employment.

"It's tough but we've been really lucky to date. A lot of people like the fact that it's long-term," he said.

Gronnestad's latest challenge is securing approval from the provincial highways ministry for a main access road that will link the resort to the Trans-Canada Highway west of Langford.

"We were only allowed to build a certain number of doors without that highway going down," he said. "I haven't really had time to think. It's just chase, chase, chase to get to the next thing."

Bear Mountain has been a boon for smaller construction companies as well.

Steve Copp, owner of Steve Copp Construction, built 15 townhouses at Bear Mountain last year. That, combined with another 21 homes elsewhere in Langford, was almost more work than his firm could handle.

"(Bear Mountain) is definitely a booming spot, but so is all of Langford," he said. "It's a strong market back-to-back."

Manley McLachlan, president of the B.C. Construction Association, said there's no concise way to measure whether Bear Mountain is the busiest building site in the province. But he said the development is a clear indication that B.C.'s economy is on the rebound.

"What we can say is Bear Mountain is probably the best example of what's happening in the B.C. economy and the B.C. Construction Industry overall," he said.