A pharma magnate is selling his lakeside Oakville estate for $18.9 million

Is $19 million the going rate for a megamansion in the GTA? That’s the list price for Robert Herjavec’s palace on the Bridle Path, and it also happens to be roughly what pharmacy magnate Mahen Acharya is asking for his sprawling mansion on the Oakville lakeshore.

Acharya is the chairman and CEO of Sterimax Inc., an Oakville-based company that supplies drugs to hospitals. According to his executive bio, he was born in Kenya and immigrated to Canada after graduating from university in 1973. In 2005, he sold a Kingston-based wholesale drug business, Trent Drugs, to AmerisourceBergen Corp for a reported $40 million, plus the assumption of $43 million in debt.

The house has over 17,000 square feet of living space, six bedrooms and nine bathrooms. The exact list price is $18,888,000.

Here’s the master bedroom:

And its ensuite bathroom:

The owner had this stained-glass skylight custom made and installed in the house’s rotunda:

The living room has more than enough space for a grand piano:

The family room, with cathedral ceilings:

Here’s the kitchen:

And the in-ground pool:

The property, located on 850 feet of shoreline at 88 Wolfdale Avenue, was purchased in May 2011 for $8 million. The buyer was a trust, for which Acharya was the signatory. The discrepancy between the original purchase price and the current asking price seems extreme, but the listing agent, Don Goodale, believes it’s justified. “He’s spent about $4 million on the property since he bought it,” Goodale said. “He improved the landscaping, and the whole lower level was completely gutted and rebuilt with all high-end stone and heated floors.”

The lower level also has a wine cellar:

A large living area:

And a mood-lit home theatre:

The property has a private inlet at the mouth of a creek, as well as a boat lift with direct access to the water, which Goodale points out are rare luxuries on the Lake Ontario shoreline. The house was built in 2001 on the site of an earlier home. “The last owner was able to rebuild on the existing footprint, but he wasn’t allowed to build one square inch bigger. That was the only way he was able to get it approved,” Goodale said. “It’s one of the few homes that is that close to the lake.”

The listing promises expansive Lake Ontario views, perfect for the thrifty plutocrat who wants all the waterside enjoyment of a cottage without actually having to buy a second residence on Lake Joseph.

Here’s a view of the layout:

And the boat lift:

Because of its immense size and expense, Goodale expects the mansion to sit on the market for one or two years before it sells.