Villa Vie Residences is expecting to announce a ship purchase agreement in early December. The information was revealed by the company’s founding partner and CEO Mikael Petterson during a recent webinar.

“We are going through the last stages of the purchase agreement, and we expected to be able to announce the vessel by the end of next week,” he said during a webinar on Wednesday.

Before that, on Friday, a 3D model of the ship, which will include deck plans and cabin renderings, will be up on Villa Vie’s website, Petterson noted.

While the name of the ship could not be revealed by the company, a video shared during the webinar showed Fred. Olsen’s Braemar.

Out of service since early 2020, the 1993-built vessel has been looking for a new owner since 2022.

Villa Vie expects to take possession of the vessel between mid and late February, Petterson added.

“After that we expected the ship to be relocated to Germany for an eight-week wet dock and a two-week drydock. This is plenty of time to do everything that we need,” he said.

A complete refit project is already planned and includes all the things that need to be done onboard the ship, Petterson noted.

“We had a complete survey done on the vessel, that took two people four days to do. We also hired a project manager to scope out the project,” he added, noting that Villa Vie is now in talks with a ship refurbishment specialist company.

“We are completely on track to meet our May 15 deadline and launch service out of Southampton,” Petterson noted.

The vessel is expected to have a lifespan of 15 years, Petterson added, up from the projected seven-year lifespan of the original project.

“The ship is in very good shape. The engines are in perfect shape. The technical aspects of the vessel received very positive reviews,” he said.

During the webinar, Petterson also hinted at a potential second ship being added to the Villa Vie Residences fleet in the future, saying that the additional vessel would cost “over a $100 million.”