Big Fat Deal: $12 million for a Vancouver Island party place

Each week, BCBusiness takes you inside one of the most outrageously upmarket real estate offerings in the province

Address: 1424 Gillespie Road, Sooke

Price: $12,500,000

MLS: 381059

The skinny: 12-bedroom, 14-bathroom, 15,000-square-foot former resort on 82 acres of East Sooke waterfront. 

The bling: Just in time to host everyone and their pet poodle-doodles over the holidays comes this massive beast of a building. Don’t let the fact this former posh fishing lodge—the la-di-da-sounding Grouse Nest Resort—has fallen on hard times of late put you off. So what if the furniture is a little flabby, and the carpet a little, um… pink? At least the beds look as though someone bigger than Goldilocks has been keeping them nice and warm for you. And just look at that main room: dance floor, copper bar, fancy fish grills and, are those stripper poles? Attach a couple of disco balls to the ships’ wheels thoughtfully attached to the ceiling, lay out a soft food buffet and way hay and up she rises! Seriously, who needs to fork out for an all-inclusive to Cancun, when you could have your own party palace with optional water sports (weather permitting)? And when you don’t have the energy for full on family festivities, we hear there’s good money in illegal gambling dens (nudge-nudge, wink-wink).

The hidden extras: Bidets in every bathroom (hey, don’t knock it), 360-degree deck and ocean views, private boat dock.