Furry Creek golf course sold to Chinese company
The Furry Creek Golf and Country Club is being sold to a Chinese company, Fine Peace Holdings.
“They have considerable experience in the development of resort-oriented residential communities in China, golf course communities,” said Michael Geller, a property developer who is consulting with Fine Peace.
“Their intention here is to significantly upgrade the golf course and clubhouse, and build a mix of housing along the waterfront. There’s up to 250 homes that could be built along the waterfront in a mix of townhouses and low-rise apartments.”
Geller said the purchase includes the golf course, clubhouse and waterfront property along Howe Sound. The purchase price has not been disclosed. Fine Peace is slated to take over the golf course Oct. 10.
Furry Creek is located on the Sea to Sky Highway between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish, about a 40 minute drive from downtown Vancouver.
It was initially developed by United Properties, which ran into financial difficulties around 2000 and sold the golf course and waterfront land to the Burrard Group. (Parklane Homes purchased another part of the original Furry Creek site.)
The Burrard Group is owned by brothers Caleb and Tom Chan, who quietly head a billion dollar real estate empire that includes projects in San Francisco, Maui and Vancouver.
The Chans are the philanthropists who donated $10 million for the construction of the Chan Centreat the University of British Columbia.
The Furry Creek course has been run by the Burrard Group’s GolfBC, which owns nine golf courses around the province, including Nicklaus North in Whistler, Mayfair Lakes in Richmond and Gallagher’s Canyon in Kelowna.
In a press release GolfBC said it wasn’t looking to sell Furry Creek, but decided to let it go after being approached by Fine Peace.
“We feel good about passing the torch on to Fine Peace, whose golf operations and development experience will serve to accelerate and further establish Furry Creek as a world-class destination and community along the stunning Sea-to-Sky corridor,” said Christian Chan, executive vice-president of the Burrard Group.
Geller did the original plan and approval for Furry Creek in 1990-91, and said the zoning is already in place for townhouse and apartment developments.
“It’s becoming a very desirable community,” he said.
“They are planning to add some much-needed commercial space, a general store and other neighbourhood commercial, so that this can become a more complete community.”
The initial phase of the development by United Properties was called Oliver’s Landing, Geller said that townhouses in Oliver’s Landing currently sell for about $1.3 million to $1.5 million.
Another Chinese company, Taicheng Development Corp, paid $31.5 million for 200 hectares of land in Britannia Beach in 2012. In April it submitted an application for a 1,000 residence development.
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