National Post (National Edition)
A real estate pitch for a turbulent time
$21-million Nova Scotia island touted as secure and self-sufficient for up to a year
In a perfect pitch for the times, when isolation is top of mind but real estate sales are crashing, a $21-million mansion on a private island off the coast of Nova Scotia hits the market boasting it was purpose-built for “security, seclusion and self-sustainability.”
“For anyone looking to isolate,” said real estate broker Mariana Cowan, “you can stay there minimally for a year, if not longer, without ever having to leave the island.”
Built by an American after the 9/11 terror attacks, The Lodge at Strum Island, in Mahone Bay, was designed as a secure, luxury, long-term panic room.
“The primary goal of the island was and still is to create a safe, totally self-sufficient place where the island owners live without fear of whatever ails the outside world,” Cowan said.
This, however, is not a bunker for roughing it, or some makeshift shelter for preppers.
The private island has its own source of power, heat, light, water and food. It has boats, docks, gardens, a greenhouse and security. It has separate out-building living quarters, offering “another place someone can go and quarantine,” Cowan said.
The setting is more high-society social distancing than emergency shelter; it is far and away the most expensive residential property listing on record in Nova Scotia.
Last year, when it was offered as a vacation rental property, the pitch was more luxury than security, calling Mahone Bay “the new Nantucket,” a reference to the U.S. island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Lodge was offered for $9,950 per night with a minimum fournight stay, and was featured on HGTV’s Island Hunters.
Strum Island covers 9.88 acres near the head of Mahone Bay, not far from Lunenburg. While private and tranquil, it is not isolated or remote. It is a few minutes by boat to the mainland near the town of Mahone Bay, and then an hour’s drive to Halifax. Or, if you’re so inclined, about 15 minutes from Halifax airport to the island’s helicopter pad.
It is without doubt a luxury property, absurdly so by most standards. The main house of 9,500 square feet has a granite stone exterior finished in red cedar, with slate roofing and copper gutters.
Inside are six large bedrooms, each suite named after a great European artist, mostly Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.
The interior blends rustic beauty with luxe opulence, such as the walnut handcarved bar with hammered copper sink in The Great Room, complete with Tiffany-style lighting.
The house’s top storey is an observatory in the traditional maritime style of a widow’s walk — where a seaman’s wife would supposedly watch in hope for the return of her husband’s boat — accessed by a telescopic staircase that lowers with the push of a button.
The times being what they are, however, with a pandemic and spreading contagion, it seemed a good time to pump up features not every luxury retreat can offer.
While the island hooks to the electrical grid on the mainland by underground cable, there are backup generators. Two 1,000-gallon propane tanks are hidden by the pump house, and boilers and wood stoves are found throughout the buildings, along with air conditioning.
The windows are hurricane-proof; water comes from dug and drilled wells with UV filtration.
There’s a year-round greenhouse, vegetable gardens, apple, pear, peach and plum orchards, numerous berry and herb gardens, a lobster holding pen and, in fact, an entire 820-squarefoot building for lobster cooking and barbecuing, called The Lobster Temple.
Each building has its own security system and is covered by multiple security cameras.
U.S. developer Fred Kern bought Strum Island after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, which, like COVID-19, brought significant economic and political turmoil. Along with fear.
“That was the initial reason why he built the home, post-9/11, to have that getaway. That was very important to him as the initial developer of the property,” said Cowan. “That is how it came about, to build this wonderful property as a safe-haven.”
Kern spent years working on his grand plan, shoring up the island from erosion with a seawall built with ten tonnes of rock brought in by barge.
Construction was completed over several phases, and includes a 2,000-squarefoot boathouse with its own living quarters, small cottages, a pump house and even a heated cat or doghouse.
A long-term pandemic seemed the perfect circumstance for Kern to sell.
“He thought maybe there was opportunity, that this time may be the time to sell it,” said Cowan. “It is quite a unique property.”
The price is exceptionally high for Nova Scotia, and for all of Atlantic Canada.
If sold at asking price, it would be almost three and a half times the previous sold price record of $6.1 million in 2011, according to the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors.
Nova Scotia’s average house price in March 2020 was $288,101, compared to the national average of $541,926, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.