Lake Country’s notorious Airport Inn sold for $3.5M

After being boarded up for more than a year, the controversial Airport Inn Lakeside in Lake Country has been sold for $3.5 million.

Royal LePage realtor Jeane McBride was the listing agent for owner Raif Fleihan. She confirmed today, May 10, the deal “firmed up” last week but would not say who the new owners are and said she didn’t know what they had planned.

“It’s nice to get it done,” McBride said. “I feel good and something beautiful is probably going to happen there.”

Fleihan spent years renovating his motel while fighting with the District of Lake Country and Interior Health over permitting and health rules before the municipality ordered it closed in the summer of 2019.

That took some months to happen since a number of people were living there and needed to be relocated before it could be boarded up.

READ MORE: Two people refusing to leave Lake Country’s controversial Airport Inn

In the end, there was a suspicious fire in one of the buildings and Fleihan was convicted of assault with a weapon.

READ MORE: Notorious Lake Country hotel owner pleads guilty to assault

Before the buildings were bordered up and the property fenced off, in May 2019, Fleihan listed it for sale at $8.1 million although it had an assessed value of $2.2 million.

Last fall, he dropped the asking price to $6.9 million.

“He’s very motivated and he’ll work with terms,” McBride told iNFOnews.ca at that time.

In the end, he didn’t really want to be that flexible during negotiations but after the due diligence was done, he settled for the $3.5 million, McBride said.

The latest value put on the 5.48 acres by B.C. Assessment, as of July 1, 2020, was $2.4 million. The numerous buildings on the land were valued at $190,800 but McBride’s listing described it as vacant land.

Most of the land is zoned C-9 Tourist Commercial. That allows for things like hotels, motels, campsites, amusement establishments, boat storage, food and liquor sales.

One acre is zoned RU-1, which is for single family homes.

READ MORE: Airport Inn owner not afraid of getting the boot from Lake Country officials

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