LIBERTY LIFESTYLE DRAWS FAMILY
Spacious Cityscape townhome offers the ‘comfort and feeling of a detached home’
A well-designed townhome can provide many of the same characteristics that are sought-after in single-family homes.
Sam Mathew and Blessy Cherian, who have a son named Jayden, know what that’s like. It’s a factor that brought them to the Urban Townhomes in Cityscape. Mattamy Homes is both the builder and developer of this northeast Calgary master-planned community.
The couple is originally from the southern part of India, and moved to Calgary from Toronto in 2015.
When they decided it was time to purchase their first home, they poured through resale listings, starting with the single-family end of the market. But based on their budget at the time, “we saw very old homes,” says Mathew — not the floor plans or specifications they had in mind.
They instead found an answer with a new home in Cityscape. The couple bought the Liberty model, part of the Urban Townhomes, one of two multi-family product lines in the community.
The Liberty is 1,314 square feet with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. Mathew says “it has the comfort and feeling of a detached home, even though it’s a townhome.”
The first release of a new phase of Urban Townhomes opened earlier this year, with prices starting from $331,990.
One of the benefits to this home option, and one that stood out to the family, was that they don’t re- quire monthly condo fees.
“We were really happy about that,” says Mathew, 30.
This was an affordable move for the couple, who were paying about $1,600 monthly rent for an apartment located near Foothills Hospital.
Cherian works as food service supervisor at the hospital, and Mathew is both a customer service manager at one store and sales associate at another.
There are five floor plans for the Urban Townhomes, ranging from the Liberty’s aforementioned 1,314 square feet to the 1,401-squarefoot Soho.
One of the prime features on these homes is the expansive space set up to enjoy quality time in the fresh air.
“We’ve got a big balcony upstairs,” says Mathew. “Almost 10 to 12 people can (use the balcony) to enjoy the summer.”
With the Liberty, in particular, the balcony is 19 feet 10 inches by nine feet six inches.
And they get larger. The Opus corner unit, for example, reaches 21 feet 10 inches by nine feet six inches.
“We try to make the outdoor living space as big as possible,” says Warren Saunders, Mattamy’s vicepresident of sales and marketing.
They also have a double-car attached garage, another benefit attracting buyers, such as the Mathew family.
“We can park both cars inside the garage and won’t have to (worry about) snow removal,” Mathew says. These garages connect to the main level of the home, where there’s an open-concept kitchen, dining area, and great room.
“They can do a future basement development, as well,” says Saunders. “So it’s a nice product for anyone who is in a certain price point but still wants room to grow and have future storage and that double-car garage.
“It hits a band where it just gives people more choice around how much home they can have and not sacrifice on storage space,” he adds.
The other multi-family product line in Cityscape is the Village Townhomes. These are three storeys, have a single-car garage, and range from 1,157 to 1,513 square feet. In the current phase, there are quick possession options from $298,990. These homes have condo fees.
There will be pre-construction sales releases for further phases of this product in the coming weeks, says the builder.
This option is giving flexibility to potential buyers of a different style of home, says Saunders. “It’s geared toward people who would normally be looking at a larger apartment condo, but we offer the choice of being able to go up in square footage and be in more of a townhouse style ( home),” he adds
Cityscape also offers a range of single-family homes.
Mathew says the family was attracted to this end of the city and its ease of access to amenities, such as Walmart, Safeway, Superstore and CrossIron Mills Mall.
There’s also a lot to enjoy about the community itself. There’s 46.5
hectares of environmental reserve and a cricket pitch.
The cricket pitch is temporarily located on a future school site in the community.
Cityscape is also part of the Rotary/Mattamy Greenway. When complete, the pathway will connect 55 neighbourhoods in a 138-kilometre loop around the city.
The Mathew family represents a major milestone for Mattamy, as its 2,500th homeowner in the Calgary area.
“Mattamy is very proud of our roots in Calgary and the surrounding area, and we are excited to be able to continue our commitment to delivering thoughtfully planned communities and the best homeowner experience,” says Don Barrineau, president of Mattamy’s Calgary division.
“Certainly we’ve all been experiencing a challenging economy and housing market, but we continue to see a bright future in Calgary.”
Mattamy is also building and developing the community of Southwinds in southwest Airdrie and The Gates at Hillcrest, a townhome development with no condo fees, nearby.