Castle has new king and queen
Brother and sister, originally from Sydney Mines, buy Castle Moffett
Viewed by many as the romantic castle on the hill, Castle Moffett – the former bed and breakfast with its two distinctive towers overlooking the Bras d’Or Lake – has finally been sold.
Debbie Gracie-Smith and her brother, Ken Gracie, bought the property in Bucklaw, Victoria County, with the sale finalized last Friday. As part of the deal, Gracie-Smith said they couldn’t publicly disclose the sale price.
It’s last known listing price in 2016 was $849,000. In 2013, its price was listed at about $1.5 million.
The Gracie siblings, who grew up in Sydney Mines but now live in Ontario, purchased the property sight-unseen, although they pored over about 100 photos taken by the realtor.
“Our whole family, we’re real estate junkies. Kenny probably owns 10 houses now and up until a couple of months ago I owned five properties including some in Florida,” said Gracie-Smith, who has three other siblings heavily invested in real estate.
“We’ve always been interested in real estate. We’re always looking for something new and different to do. For example, my brother took a crack house and turned it into a really nice home to rent out. We like the challenge.”
Even though she’s lived away from Cape Breton for 55 years, her mother and father would travel with the entire family to vacation on the island every summer. They had a camp in the Boisdale area, she said.
Currently living in Newmarket, Ont., Gracie-Smith has a background in the information technology sector where she co-founded an international IT consulting business in the credit card industry named CRATOS.
While she’s employed fulltime as an IT consultant specializing in radio frequency technology, her brother, Ken, works in Cambridge, Ont., as the general manager of a company that designs and builds compressed air products for use in fire sprinkler systems, breathing air systems for medical applications and surgical suction.
They have no intention of quitting their day jobs.
Their plan is to hire staff to manage the bed and breakfast once they have time to inspect the property for deficiencies and make the necessary repairs and renovations, Gracie-Smith said.
The brother and sister will actually step into the B&B for the first time today. It will also hold a new moniker, Gracie Castle, as an honour to their family.
“We’ll be down until Tuesday morning and we’re just going to assess what we think needs to be done,” she said.
“And there is work to be done. We expected that after it’s been vacant for a few years but apparently they had a great
caretaker and the place looks like somebody up and left it. It looks like it’s in really good shape.”
The nearly 10,000 square foot, five-star inn was built in 1992 as an anniversary gift for Desmond Moffett’s wife, Linda.
Three years later the couple decided to open parts of their summer home as a 10-room bed and breakfast classically decorated with four-post and canopy beds and some bedrooms
connected to ensuite baths.
By its third season, the inn was awarded Canada Select’s five stars in the bed and breakfast category. Castle Moffett was the first to receive this rating in Cape Breton.
After Desmond Moffett’s death 2006, Linda Moffett continued to operate Castle Moffett as a B&B, but indicated in a CTV interview in June 2014 she was ready for someone else to take over.
“This building was a labour of love given to me by my late husband and it has so many good memories in it that I’d like someone special to take over,” she said at the time.
Some of the changes GracieSmith plans to incorporate in renovations is to ensure the inn is fully accessible for those who have disabilities.
Over the long-term, she would like to see a ballroom built onto the building so it could be used as a full-service wedding venue.
Her imagination runs wild with ideas and the prospect of holding a Halloween masquerade ball and Easter egg hunts on the grounds with her grandchildren.
Gracie-Smith would also like to build an in-ground pool and a garage to house landscaping and grounds maintenance equipment.
The property is a sprawling 158-acre site adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway.
“It’s very magical for us when we look at the photos and the location and what we think we can do with it, so we’re really excited about the opportunity to kind of bring something different to the island,” she said.
Castle Moffett’s 2018 residential assessment is $826,900. Undeveloped land on the property classified as resource forest is valued at $36,700 and another piece is valued at $2,100 resource taxable.
According to realtor Krista Rose of Century 21 Island Gateway Realty in North Sydney, the most recent listing price wasn’t available because the property had not been publicly advertised.
“It wasn’t listed, it was exclusive. We did sell it through our brokerage. It just wasn’t listed on the multiple listing service . . . I never listed (the property) before, it never came to our brokerage before, we just sold it.”