A West Vancouver restaurateur and businessman has bought Sooke Harbour House.
Luke Evanow said the sprawling three-acre property on Whiffin Spit Road immediately caught his eye when he stepped onto the grounds.
“It’s just the air, the view, the water, the architecture … all of it,” said Evanow, who closed the deal on Wednesday with the former owner, IAG Enterprises of North Vancouver.
Evanow, who said he plans to share more details on the hotel and restaurant’s future on Monday, declined to reveal to the Times Colonist what he had paid for the three-storey hotel with 28 rooms, a 100-seat restaurant and other associated lands and assets.
Sooke Harbour House had last gone on the market for $13.3 million in 2022, but it did not sell.
It had been run by a local family for more than four decades until 2020 and was once widely known for its emphasis on locally grown food and the quality of its wine cellar.
It fell into financial trouble following the 2008 financial crisis and became embroiled in several court battles that eventually resulted in IAG, a North Vancouver-based real estate investment company, buying the property for $5.6 million in a court-ordered sale in 2020 following a foreclosure action.
Timothy Durkin, a former hotel manager, was found by a B.C. Securities Commission panel to have engaged in an elaborate, years-long investment scheme where he defrauded a would-be immigrant from China of $1 million who thought she was investing in Sooke Harbour House.
Durkin, along with a partner, had tried to buy the hotel in 2014 from Frederique and Sinclair Philip while Durkin was on the run from U.S. authorities over his suspected involvement in a Ponzi scheme.
The two never completed the sale after stringing along the Philips family for years and engaging in court battles over the ownership of the hotel.
A 2020 B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered two companies in which Durkin was a director to pay more than $4 million in damages to the Philips.
The judge’s decision said Durkin embarked on a “six-year odyssey of lies, excuses, threats, intimidation and bullying.”
The damages owed to the Philips were never paid.
IAG spent $14 million renovating the 1940s-era property after taking control in 2020. It reopened to guests last summer.
Colliers Canada senior vice-president Stephen Moscovich, who helped to broker the sale, said while IAG had a vision for the property, the hotel didn’t fit into the company’s long-term investment portfolio, and it ultimately decided to sell.
Those interested in buying Sooke Harbour House hailed from as far as California, but the real offers all came from B.C. boutique hotel operators during the three or four months that the property was on the market, he said in an interview.
Evanow said he intends to take out the Copper Room lounge and put in a “casual concept” restaurant as part of a plan to bring in more visitors from across the province.
Sooke Harbour House will continue to focus on serving the farm-to-table and organic food that it is known for, Evanow said in an interview. “New brand, same name, elevated service.”
Evanow said he plans to keep the chef and the managers who take care of the restaurant, hotel and events parts of the business, but that those who were part of the IAG group would be “no longer continuing.”
Sooke Harbour House is the second waterfront hotel that Evanow’s hospitality company purchased this year.
Fred’s Hospitality Group bought the 28-room Driftwood Motor Inn in Sechelt, renamed it the Sechelt Inn and revamped the 147-seat restaurant in the hotel to serve modern Italian cuisine under the Fred’s Restaurant banner.
The original Fred’s is in West Vancouver, where the hospitality group also runs a café.
Evanow is also the second-generation owner and CEO of Foundry Commercial Kitchens, a Vancouver-based commercial kitchen supplier that began under the name Pacific Restaurant Supply in 2001.
