Suburbs Satellites CALGARY & NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES& • JUNE 2012 New Community issue Go inside today’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods Getting warm Okotoks’ new subdivisions are heating up with buyer activity PLUS Spotlight SOLD! on Calgary’s New look for Airdrie’s suburbs hot real estate market WWW.CALGARYHERALD.COM/SUBS SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2012 1 Do you own your own home? Why not? FINAL PHASE NOW SELLING NEW SHOWHOME OPEN NOW Brand new fabulous 3 bedroom townhomes Live, being built now Laugh, Townhomes available for late summer & fall possessions featuring open plans, 9 foot ceilings Love in with 3 bedrooms + master ensuite Get out of the rental market today! Your home-buying dollar gets you so much more at Wildwood Village – in the heart of Strathmore. Brought to you by Call Stan Johnson now 424 Ranch Ridge Meadow, 403.560.9364 Strathmore www.PartnersHomes.ca 2 SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2012 WWW.CALGARYHERALD.COM/SUBS in this issue Suburbs 2A 20 Airdrie New areas Satellites DIDSBURY CALGARY & NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES& • JUNE 2012 582 put city in the CARSTAIRS spotlight. New Community issue Go inside today’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods Getting warm Okotoks’ new subdivisions are heating up with buyer activity PLUS 2 Details on SOLD! Calgary’s New look for Airdrie’s suburbs 24 Cochrane 23 Chestermere hot real estate market Lakeside bedroom community WWW.CALGARYHERALD.COM/SUBS SUBURBS + SATELLITES APRIL 2012 1 Show homes provide inside AIRDRIE is playing to its strengths. look into real estate scene. COCHRANE SUBURBS + SATELLITES A special publication 1 1A CHESTERMERE STRATHMORE of the Calgary Herald 1 14 Calgary 560 18 Strathmore Special Projects Manager: Fresh-faced communities offer 22 LANGDON 22X New developments pace Barb Livingstone, 403-235-7339 buyers with fresh alternatives. 22 another round of growth. [email protected] Project Co-ordinator: 7 OKOTOKS BLACK 2 Jamie Zachary, 403-235-7552 12 High River DIAMOND [email protected] Future plans expected to put town HIGH RIVER Contributors: Wil Andruschak, on the map for homebuyers. LONGVIEW CAYLEY Alex Frazer-Harrison, Shawn Hoult, NANTON Annalise Klingbiel, Jessica Patterson, Carl Patzel, Joel Schlesinger, 7 Okotoks STAVELY Paula Trotter and Gerald Vander Pyl 13 Nanton & Claresholm Something old, something new for Southern Alberta towns CLARESHOLM ‘small town’ in Alberta’s foothills. think outside of the box. Cover photo: Courtesy Lakes of Muirfield ADVERTISING FEATURE Wildwood Village in Strathmore offers perfect combination uality and value come together at Strathmore is coming into its own Wildwood Village in Strathmore as a viable alternative for those who Qwith a blend of well-appointed want big-city amenities in a small- homes, fantastic pricing and a quiet and town atmosphere. It is also close convenient location. enough to Calgary for commuters — a This popular townhome development 30-minute drive to the city limits via the by Partners Development Group is TransCanada Highway. located on Strathmore’s east side, Since 1998, Partners Development minutes from shopping, dining, parks Group has built more than 800 multi- and schools, and surrounded on all sides family units in the Calgary area, by the wide-open beauty of the Alberta including Arrive at SkyView Ranch prairies. in Calgary, Arbours of Langdon in With the final phase now available and Langdon, Tara Springs in Calgary, Silver selling fast, this is your last opportunity to Creek Lodge in Canmore and both take advantage of incredible price points Dakota Sky Ranch and Spring Meadows on a mix of two- and three-bedroom in Okotoks. townhomes, with select units including To see what Wildwood Village has front-attached two-car garages. to offer first-hand, visit the new Three-bedroom, 1,125-square-foot show home located in Strathmore at townhomes start at $194,900. Larger 424 Ranch Ridge Mdws. 1,425-square-foot units with two-car Other standard features include high- selections. Furthermore, each home To get there, head east from Calgary garages, three bedrooms, two-and-a-half efficiency furnaces, rounded corners, includes a large unfinished basement, on the TransCanada Highway, turn left bathrooms and built-in entertainment/ nine-foot-high ceilings and large kitchens allowing for future growth. on Lakeside Boulevard, then right on fireplace wall unit start at $239,900. featuring an island. Garage models also Wildwood Village surrounds a large Archie Klaiber Trail (formerly East Ridge Whichever home you choose, it is easy feature a pantry. park, is just one block from an elementary Road) and watch for the signs. to see its value, with tens of thousands Homebuyers are also able to customize school and is close to many amenities For more information visit www. of dollars in savings versus a comparable their home with a trip to the design including shops and restaurants. PartnersHomes.ca, or call Stan Johnson home within the Calgary city limits. centre for cabinet, flooring and colour With 100 years now under its belt, at 403-560-9364. WWW.CALGARYHERALD.COM/SUBS SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2012 3 >> Coopers Crossing, Westmark Holdings >> Mahogany, Hopewell Residential Communities >> Mahogany, West 85th Developments >> The Summit of Cranston Ridge, Baywest Homes >> Bob Bourassa, a former bus driver, at his home in Windsong, a community on Airdrie’s southwest side. Carl Patzel photo. 4 SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2012 WWW.CALGARYHERALD.COM/SUBS >> Lakes of Muirfield, Lyalta >> Coopers Crossing, Westmark Holdings the great migration Once sleepy towns, suburbs wake up to new reality of Calgary and area’s real estate market BY JOEL SCHLESINGER economic development, but another factor Airdrie, Okotoks, High River, Chestermere, together to ensure everyone is making the has been the migration of people working Cochrane and Strathmore, to name a few — most of the available land, says Decker etired City of Calgary employee in Calgary who have sought a less hectic life- have grown at a much more rapid pace. Yet Shields, a senior planning analyst with the Bob Bourassa recently gave up his style — and, of course, lower cost housing. they’re able to handle the growth because City of Calgary. Rfive-bedroom estate home in Airdrie In that regard, too, these communities they’re designed for more densely populated “The city always needs a 30-year supply for a 1,200-square-foot townhome across have changed. Denizens of these communi- development, notes Kalinchuk. of land for development, so we have to be the city — and he couldn’t be happier. ties have more choice than ever — from For Bourassa, Airdrie has been the ideal innovative in how we develop and work “I love it,” says the 62-year-old former high-end mansions and urban chic condo- community to live in while working in together so everyone is on the same page,” >> Mahogany, Hopewell Residential Communities bus driver. “It’s everything I wanted.” miniums to affordable family homes, town- Calgary. he says. At 1,200 square feet, the two-bedroom, houses and apartments. “It’s a nice, easy pace, and it’s a 15-min- Over the next 15 years, Calgary needs two-and-a-half bath townhome built by David Kalinchuk, economic develop- ute drive from downtown Calgary.” 58 square kilometres of new suburban Mattamy Homes in the development ment manager with Rocky View County And most importantly, it’s affordable. areas that are planned, subdivided and ser- of Windsong is a big downsize from — which encompasses the unincorporated “The base price for (my) townhome was viced. That’s to accommodate 19 per cent Bourassa’s former five-bedroom home in communities to the north, east and west $199,900. With the upgrades, it came to population growth to more than 1.3 mil- Edgewater Estates. of Calgary, including Bearspaw and just over $234,000,” says Bourassa. lion. But with the nest empty, the sleek and Springbank — says the region has become “It’s an awesome price because I saw a “Traditionally, the majority of Calgary’s modern townhomes of Windsong were the increasingly “rurban” — taking the best of program on HGTV featuring my identical population growth has been in new subur- perfect fit. rural and urban lifestyles and mixing them unit only in Toronto for $330,000.” ban communities that tend to be away from Bourassa has lived in Airdrie for 20 years, together. Mattamy Homes sales and marketing the city’s centre,” says Shields. so he’s seen it transform from a bedroom Rocky View, in particular, has experi- director Norah Latter says the homebuilder Certainly, Bourassa feels he made the community into a vibrant, urban centre. enced a shift in the real estate market over knows its offerings are resonating with right choice. His new residence fits him like “There wasn’t a single traffic light in the last few years from acreages and estate people. Since it opened its sales office in a pair of comfy shoes. It features a garage, Airdrie when I moved out here except for homes to communities complete with con- Airdrie in 2009, response has been over- storage and laundry room on the ground >> Mahogany, West 85th Developments off the highway,” he says. “It was all four- dos, townhomes, grocery stores, schools and whelming. floor, a great room, kitchen and dining way stop signs.” parks. “It was a low point in the real estate room on the main, and two bedrooms and The city of 43,000 isn’t alone in its dra- “These are communities with 1,500 to market but we got a fantastic welcome to two full baths on the top floor. >> The Summit of Cranston Ridge, Baywest Homes matic metamorphosis. Most of Calgary’s 2,000 homes,” he says. the city of Airdrie, selling more than 750 “In the great room, there’s a breakfast bar suburban and satellite communities have Unlike towns and cities around Calgary, homes since.” and the kitchen has all stainless-steel appli- experienced enormous growth and develop- growth in Rocky View County has been Builders and planners are also doing more ances,” he says.