In Canada's hottest real estate market, Lululemon founder's home tops the list

The most expensive house in Canada’s most expensive real estate market doesn’t boast a tree-lined drive or sprawling grounds. It doesn’t have a dozen bedrooms, a grand hall, or Victorian-era servants quarters turned guest house. In fact, from the street, Chip Wilson’s $57.6 million Vancouver home could pass for a tidy office block: all open concrete with colour touches that look institutional green.

But when you’re in the neighbourhood of Kitsilano on the waterfront, the normal standards of appraisal go right out the window.

The house that snug pants built was named B.C.’s priciest home by the provincial assessment authority earlier this year (and the race was close, because Vancouver’s market is that nuts).

Wilson, of course, built his fortune on Lululemon, which he founded in 1998. It’s fun to snicker at the see-through pants scandal, but the company has made Wilson a billionaire twice over. So he can afford a pricey patch of land with a killer view of the freighters on English Bay, the city and the mountains beyond. It’s a short walk to Granville Island to stock up on whatever meditating billionaires drink.

And it is the land that makes 3085 Point Grey Road the diamond that it is. Consider the place a full endorsement of the old saw that real estate is about “location, location, location.” Stick this thing on the coast of Lake Huron and the price tag wouldn’t even merit mention.

“The lot value alone still makes up a massive amount of that value,” says Kitsilano Re/Max realtor Ben Chimes.

Viewed from the water, it’s clear the home is designed not so much to be looked at, but to be looked from. The two-story structure is stretched along the south of the property with the water-facing side, almost completely glass, looking out on several patios, an infinity pool, tennis courts and the water beyond

Spread across three properties, the 30,000 square foot house sits on what is almost certainly Canada’s richest stretch of shoreline. Wilson’s home is hardly the only uber-valuble spread in the area. Three houses just blocks away in the neighbourhood of Point Grey are the third, fourth, and fifth richest properties in the province, all sharing the same water view. And while much of the seaside property in Vancouver sits behind the (awesome) waterfront biking trail, Wilson’s sits on a gap where the path recedes back into the neighbourhood.

“It’s true waterfront there,” says Chimes.

Built over the course of about five years starting in 2008, the home was a well-known headache for the local community, where sprawling construction sites don’t mix well with the moneyed-hipster vibe.

Not that Wilson was a rich interloper looking to parachute into the nicest lot and helicopter in and out (though an apparent April Fools Day joke notice announcing plans for a helipad on the site did cause a small uproar earlier this year). Wilson opened the first Lululemon store in the neighbourhood, and company folklore has him taking his first Yoga class there in 1997.

Now finished, the home gives a tidy profile on the street side, sitting behind a low concrete wall and mostly blocked by a tall hedge.

Viewed from the water, it’s clear the home is designed not so much to be looked at, but to be looked from. The two-story structure is stretched along the south of the property with the long north, or water-facing side, almost completely glass, looking out on several patios, an infinity pool, tennis courts, gardens and the water beyond. In other words, it’s built for someone who likes outdoor living. Inside, seven bedrooms and nine baths provide ample space for hosting Wilson’s five sons.

The home was designed by Russell Hollingsworth, known for ultra high-end Vancouver estates. So it has architectural pedigree, even if it’s not a consensus stunner from the outside.

“It may not be everyone’s style. I personally like it. I like the modern, the more stark modern myself,” says Chimes. “It’s unbelievable building quality, the highest end finishing you can find.”

According to a profile by Vancouver Magazine in April, the house features an open kitchen on its west side, with ultra-modern counters and cabinets, leading through two living rooms, and then offices for Chip and his wife Shannon. Across the front of the property runs a small moat.

And just in the past year, the section of road behind his property has been shut down to all but local traffic, turning it into a bike and pedestrian path. Not that Wilson needs it, but that kind of thing usually pushes property values higher.