An enormous abandoned mansion that sits a top a sprawling lot overlooking the Scarborough Bluffs looks, for all intents and purposes, like a teardown.
Its boarded-up windows, moldy walls and animal inhabitants, say just as much. Yet this monster home on Birchmount Rd. has just hit the market with an asking price of $3.8 million.
The price is even raising the eyebrows of real estate agents.
“I don’t think it is a good three-point-something-million dollar investment,” said Scott Lyall of RE/MAX Hallmark Realty. “The land is spectacular, but you’ve gotta knock this down. It will cost, in my opinion, half a million dollars to knock it down.”
Back in 2012, Global News learned that the property owner filed for bankruptcy in 2009, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to a list of businesses and creditors.
The house has sat empty until now–placed on the market, Lyall said, by court ordered sale.
“Magnificent 12,000-plus square foot home on Lake Ontario. Three-car detached garage. Almost two acres overlooking lake,” the listing reads.
“Home requires substantial work to complete. Basically a shell of concrete and steel beam,” it continues. “Beautiful 180-degree views of the water.”
Josi Sarne, who has lived across the street for 22 years, saw when the house was being built several years ago. She said she’s seen different owners, and many “tourists” come and go.
“School kids. Undesirable types coming down, it’s forever being broken into, animals have been there. It’s now a hazard,” Josi said.
She said the neighbourhood initially buzzed with excitement at the idea of something nice being built that would fit in, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to be the case. Now, they just want the eyesore gone.
“It’s obviously been pretty distressing to look at that everyday for quite a number of years and we are hopeful that someday, somebody will buy it and do something with it,” Josi said.
That hope is not too far-fetched, Royal LePage real estate agent Normand Gautreau said.
“I’ve got clients that are interested, it’s just a question of how and how much,” Normand said.
“That house was someone’s dream, and a lot of money has been spent and it’s gonna take a lot of money to bring it back to where it belongs, but it deserves it. It’s that unique and that special,” he said.
Whatever happens, no condos will be built on the lot. Zoning rules will only permit the property be used for a single-family home.
—With files from Mark Carcasole