The Fintry Queen is up for sale again, but owner Andy Schwab said that doesn’t mean he has given up on his plans to give the tour boat a new home in Penticton.
“We weren’t successful with the B.C. investment program. We were just too late out of the gate,” he said, referring to his attempt last month to gather investors by offering tax credits through the B.C. Investment Program.
Schwab had hoped to raise $600,000 to renovate the Fintry Queen, but the deadline was March 1, and Schwab said that it was too much of a push to find investors in time.
“What I have decided to do in the interim is that we are going to list it through Re/Max,” said Schwab.
The Fintry Queen will go on sale for $349,000 but that is just the value of the metal and other equipment in the boat, according to Schwab. As an operating business with a Penticton berth, he continued, its value is over $1 million.
In the meantime, he is continuing the preparation work needed to bring the boat to Penticton.
Schwab said he has started work on environmental assessments and permits and hired a local firm to work on the engineering needed to hook up utilities to the proposed berth at the Kiwanis walking pier.
“Work is going at the boardwalk this month by Greyback. We are looking to get the conduit put under the ground,” said Schwab, who still hopes to bring the Fintry Queen to Penticton by October.
“We will look to get the ship ready to go, cleaned up and if all goes according to plan then the dock would get built likely in September,” he said.
Schwab expects that a prospective buyer for the boat would likely want to follow his plan to put the Fintry Queen back into the tourist excursion business.
“Someone could buy that boat and turn it into a houseboat if they want, but I don’t see that happening,” said Schwab. “I think whoever is going to buy it will want to stay on the same schedule. It doesn’t make sense that they don’t try to realize cash flow out of it.”
Schwab said if the boat does sell, he would be prepared to stay on in a management role to finish putting the move to Penticton together.
“My whole objective is to see the boat operating again,” said Schwab. According to his proposal, bringing the boat to Penticton will mean anywhere from 40 to 60 jobs and $500,000 economic impact for the city.