Loewens’ Twin Cedars goes on the market, becoming the most expensive home listed in Metro Vancouver and the second most expensive in B.C.
Derrick Penner
Sun
Real estate agent Grant Connell (left) talks with Ray Loewen at Twin Cedars, Loewen’s Burnaby home, which is now on the Multiple Listing Service for $25 million. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Like the rest of Twin Cedars, the sunroom of the Burnaby home was designed by architect Ernest Collins. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
The entrance of Anne and Ray Loewen’s home soars two stories and is dominated by a massive crystal chandelier. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Building the Twin Cedars estate in Burnaby was a labour of love for the Loewen family, and the house has been a private refuge for the family during sometimes tumultuous business times.
After 13 years, however, Ray and Anne Loewen are ready to downsize and pass on the exquisitely designed home, with hand-crafted hardwood, silk wall coverings and natural-material flooring, on to someone else.
The asking price, a cool $25 million, makes it the most expensive listing in Metro Vancouver on the realtor-driven Multiple Listing Service and second most expensive residential property listed in B.C.
“A house is just bricks and mortars,” Ray Loewen said in an interview. “[This house] has been a home.”
The Loewens took two years building the 14,611-square-foot mansion on 1.3 acres, which is situated off Burris Street near Deer Lake Park in Burnaby. It was completed in 1995.
A private racquetball court in the basement that opens at the back end to a luxurious viewing gallery and games room and a pristine private tennis court are among the home’s indulgences.
Ray Loewen described owning a house with those two items as “a childhood dream,” and said they are amenities the family has “enjoyed enormously,” with family, friends and neighbours over the years.
Anne Loewen said the two “wanted a very traditional house. Something that was solid, something that was grounded.”
So the design by architect Ernest Collins features a lot of wood: the cherry wood coffered ceiling in the dining room, the mahogany bookcases and paneling in the library and oak mouldings and trim in the billiard room.
The grand entrance soars two stories and is dominated by a massive crystal chandelier that drops down from ornate plaster work to illuminate the space.
“To build this house was such a joy because of all the beautiful craftspeople and craftsmen involved,” Anne Loewen added.
However, her husband said the house has become too much home, and considering the couple spends six months of the year outside the country, they’ve decided it’s time to downsize.
They’ve listed the home with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada. Their agent is Grant Connell, the one-time top Canadian tennis doubles player who has refocused his competitive energies selling real estate.
And while other segments of the Lower Mainland’s real estate market have slowed or deflated, Connell said he has already seen some interest in the Twin Cedars listing at the ultra-exclusive end.
“It’s a bit of an anomaly in the market right now,” Connell said, “in that we’re pretty much catering as much to outside of Canada as we are locally.”
Connell said he has scheduled some showings of the Twin Cedars for next week.
“Mainland China is a big factor [in the super high-end market],” he added, “So is Russia as well. They are buying up a lot of real estate in North America, a huge amount.”
Connell’s colleague at Sotheby’s, Jamie MacDougal, also has developer Milan Ilich’s Richmond equestrian mansion on 20 acres, the Ivy Manor, $24 million.
For the Loewens, Twin Cedars also been the family’s refuge over the years.
Ray Loewen, a native Manitoban, made his fortune by turning the family funeral parlour into one of North America‘s largest funeral-services conglomerates.
In 1995, Canadian Business magazine estimated the Loewens‘ personal wealth at $426.5 million.
The Loewen Group’s business, however, faltered in the late 1990s under a mountain of debt and a very public lost lawsuit in Mississippi.
“We have had a very public life,” Loewen said, “and our home has been a place of privacy and security for us.”
