Town For Sale

On my break, I was reading The Province and found a headline on the front page which read "You Could Own a Town for $7 million!" I was like whaaa? Serious. Sounded like something from a game called Monopoly. I flipped to the article and found it a very interesting read. The article stated that the entire community of Kitsault, BC is up for sale. It's a few hours drive north of Terrace and virtually all of it oceanfront.

The town includes 92 houses, 7 apartment buildings, containing 210 suites; 1 fully equipped hospital (Kitsault General Hospital), with a never used X-ray machine; 2 recreation centres, complete with swimming pool, gym, hot tub, racquetball courts, library, theatre, curling rink, and Maple Leaf pub; a brand-new shopping mall that includes facilities for a grocery store, restaurant, liquor store, bank, post office, and several specialty stores; more than 80 hectares of wilderness, including approximately 1.5 km of beach. Power lines, telephone service, and sewage connections are still intact.

The town has been abandonded since the nearby molybdenum mine closed in 1982. The town lasted for only 2 years. Since then, a caretaker and his wife have been the only resident of Kitsault. For 22 years, the town has been kept in good condition and with some upgrades and repairs, it's ready for residents to move in. If an investor bought the town, condos could be sold starting at $14,000 and houses at $70,000.

In The Province, they did a comparison with homes on the market in some affluent neighbourhoods in Vancouver. For $7.9 million, you could own a 6 bedroom, 10 bathroom home with screening room, pool, four-car garage, and landscaping in the Shaughnessy area. But you only get a really nice house.

Peace.