The Bear Mountain skyline no longer includes a massive motionless crane.
Imported from Spain three years ago when construction of the first 26-storey tower in the Capella project seemed imminent, the self-erecting crane was among the assets transferred to Bear Mountain Land Holdings Ltd. when the resort edged close to bankruptcy last year.
Capella’s former developer Robert Quigg had planned to use the crane, which can stretch up 500 feet, to put the top levels on Vancouver Island’s tallest high rise, a 44-storey building planned for the final stage of Capella.
He’d hoped to see a total of four high rises for the site, for 653 luxury condominiums, but the project never got past the first foundation.
Bear Mountain CEO Gary Cowan said the timing and development concept for the Capella land is still under review, but deemed it appropriate to sell the crane.
“A contractor in Langley purchased the crane and it has gone to the lower mainland,” Cowan wrote in an email to the Gazette.
Bear Mountain went into creditor protection in March 2010.
Court proceedings revealed the resort was more than $300 million in debt, mainly to HSBC bank, which took control of a majority of Bear Mountain assets last year.