The Willows set to grow on buyers
First phase of The Willows of River Heights plans to offer 79 homes within Cochrane
A new boutique neighbourhood boasting plenty of green space offers a place to put down roots in a burgeoning town west of Calgary.
The Willows of River Heights recently started selling into its first phase in Cochrane. The project is being developed by Calgary company La Vita Land — which also master-planned Fireside, another new community in the town.
Named after the many willow trees — known for their deep roots — that populate the area, The Willows sits on a 28-hectare piece of land within the River Heights district, a new residential and commercial project in Cochrane off Cowboy Trail.
Slated to move in this November, Nick Hummel and girlfriend Amy Varner will be among the first to put down roots in the project.
“It is exciting,” says Hummel, who teaches a first-year carpentry apprentice program in central Alberta. “You always see these older, developed communities and it’ll be sort of neat to see where it all starts.”
The Willows’ first phase will include 79 laned and frontattached garage homes. Later phases will bring on townhomes, duplexes and garden suites.
“Cochrane likes different built forms together to have a little more diversity and make streetscapes different as opposed to cookie-cutter,” says development manager Justin Mauro of La Vita Land. “We incorporate that in our neighbourhood.”
The community features architectural designs including Arts and Crafts, Colonial, Prairie and Farmhouse. Homes in the Willows start in the $320,000s, including lot and GST.
Janssen Homes, NuVista Homes and Kingsmith Homes will each open a show home in the development later this summer.
Janssen’s is a 1,580-squarefoot model called the Ember 2, with three bedrooms. Nuvista’s show home is the 1,542-squarefoot Banbury and Kingsmith Homes’ is the 1,378-square-foot Ashford 2.
Hummel and Varner bought the Ember, a predecessor of the Ember 2, by Janssen Homes. The couple’s house is a 1,731-square-foot, two-storey de- sign. There are three bedrooms and a laundry room on the top floor.
“It’s a great little layout,” says Hummel.
“The other thing is, the upstairs is just huge. It has a big feel to it; three bedrooms, and between those three bedrooms, it takes up 830 square feet.”
This gives the couple a nice space for a home office.
“One of those bedrooms will be more for my girlfriend to study in,” says Hummel, adding he plans to transform the basement into a pub-like sports room.
While many main floors these days boast an open-concept plan, Hummel says he and his girlfriend are fond of his home’s cosier spaces.
“You don’t want to live in just one room,” says Hummel.
“It’s separate. It’s good to have rooms in the house, which I personally like.”
The Willows’ design shines a spotlight on its natural beauty, with 25 per cent of the project dedicated to parks and open space. It has a preserved wetland and a new one that wraps around the neighbourhood’s storm pond. There’s also a large central park, pathways and a future school site.
The couple is living in a condo in Canmore, so heading to another area with a “small town,” pace feels right, and is one of the reasons they turned to Cochrane, says Hummel.
“There’s no traffic, no busier roads,” he says. “Just a quieter place to live, which is nice.”
Another part of the Cochrane draw was that the couple’s dollar seemed to stretch further in the mountain-view town.
“I noticed quite a difference in house prices,” says Hummel.
“Where I saw the show home that we looked at — we thought it was not the price range that we were looking for, but when we started talking to the (sales staff ), we found it was quite affordable. It was
quite surprising, actually.”