Weekend trips away on the agenda
Sun
The Pacific Auora is selling cabins priced between $189,000 and $599m000
Marketing manager Mark Boyd says interest is high
A former East Coast ferry, the previous planned reincarnations for which came to naught, is now being promoted as a West Coast floating condo project.
The Pacific Aurora, built in 1962, is being renovated — again — with 22 condominium units for sale.
“It has just been going gangbusters. The phone has been ringing off the hook,” sales and marketing manager Mark Boyd said Friday of the vessel’s latest attempted resurrection.
Previous plans to turn it into a timeshare project and a gambling casino fell through.
The vessel is in the Allied Shipyards in North Vancouver being transformed into condominiums marketed by Waterfront Lifestyles International.
“It’s in such good shape, it’s only going to take 30 to 60 days to turn this ship loose,” Boyd said.
Condos on the 188-foot vessel range in size from about 100 square feet to 340 square feet. They are priced between $189,000 and $599,000 per unit.
Boyd said the owners brought him in from Florida, where he operated a business converting vessels into condos.
He admitted the age of the vessel might put some potential buyers off, but said it was inspected and found in good repair.
“We are certain there are 10 to 20 more years’ useful life left in that ship. That is the expectancy, not the guarantee,” Boyd said.
Where the ship will be berthed remains uncertain, but he said the search has been narrowed down to about five locations in the Vancouver area.
From its new base, the Pacific Aurora would embark on weekend cruises, which could include whale watching, cruising the coast or whatever else its strata board decides.
The plan is to make an annual twoweek cruise to destinations such as Alaska or San Francisco.
Shipboard life would include condominium fees, which could run between $12,000 and $32,000 a year. Meals would be included in the price.
Boyd is looking for purchasers who will put 20 per cent down into an escrow account.
When the renovations are complete, he is offering anyone who wants out of the project their money back, with interest.
The former CN Marine cargo-passenger ferry, known as the MV Taverner, sold for $262,000 in 1996 after being taken out of service the previous year. It sailed to Vancouver where it underwent a $5-million refit.
In 1997, the ship was almost reborn again after Marine Growth Canada announced it had purchased the vessel, now called the Pacific Aurora, for $1.35 million. The new owners said they wanted to sell seagoing time-shares.
“The time-shares did not sell,” Boyd acknowledged Friday.
It was then promoted as a “coastal cruiser,” but languished in its berth after $1.25 million in cost overruns tangled it in liens from unpaid suppliers.
The vessel found its way back into the headlines in 1999 when it was included in an application to B.C. Lottery Corp. for a gambling licence. It was supposed to become a destination casino with 35 slot machines, four gaming tables, 38 sleeping cabins, a restaurant and a pub.
The head of the Prince Rupert Port Authority said in interview with a Vancouver Sun reporter in 1999 that the expression of interest from the operators of the Pacific Aurora contributed to the decision to built facilities for small cruise vessels.
Financial difficulties repeatedly delayed plans for the ship’s reincarnation.
