This Beachfront Mansion Is Primed for a James Bond-Style Escape
Come for the shutdown, stay for the private beach—and the subterranean boathouse that, at the push of a button, launches a vessel straight into the ocean.
The covered terrace.
Source: Sotheby's International Realty
When businessman and hotelier Raoul Malak bought a contemporary mansion in Metchosin, B.C., a town on the southern coast of Vancouver Island in 2012, the house was only six years old. Its prior owner had commissioned Simcic + Uhrich Architects to build the home, spending close to seven years and what Malak says was C$24 million ($17.2 million) building it from the ground up.
When the original owner was forced to relocate, Malak purchased the house, its furnishings, a caretaker’s house, and 67 acres for a fraction of that sum—about C$5 million. “I can tell you, he accepted the negotiated price because he understood that we liked what he had,” Malak says. “It wasn’t a question of the price, it was that he understood we appreciated how magnificent it was.”