BUILDING A CORNERSTONE
Walton launches its development
The company behind SkyView Ranch has turned shovels on a new community set to bring homes to more than 30,000 residents on the city’s northeast end.
Cornerstone is a master-planned community by Walton Development and Management that is expected to add about 4,500 single-family homes and 10,000 multi-family units to the landscape east of SkyView Ranch. Sales are expected to start in the third quarter of 2016.
At almost 1,200 acres (485 hectares), this is the largest development ever approved by the City of Calgary.
“Cornerstone will continue to change the face of northeast Calgary,” says Bill Doherty, Walton’s CEO. “Our goal is to build a beau- tiful and diverse community that reflects the unique attributes of Calgary itself.”
Walton’s land counts as more than 75 per cent of the overall Cornerstone area structure plan, with other owners connected to smaller holdings, says the company. The community will include about 20 per cent devoted to green space, including a protected wetland.
Cornerstone’s builder group for the single-family segment includes veterans Morrison Homes, Jayman MasterBuilt, Hopewell Residential and Shane Homes.
On the multi-family end, it’s Shane, Morrison, Truman Development Corp. and Carrington Communities.
Cornerstone will be divided into five neighbourhoods called View, Ridge, Park, Point and Gate, says Walton’s executive vice-president Craig Dickie.
“We drew from our vision of a community that is culturally rich and diverse,” says Dickie. “A community that can meet the needs of families at every stage of their life and a community that celebrates the distinct qualities that makes Calgary what it is.”
The Park and Point neighbour- hoods will feature wetlands, pathways systems and parks “within walking distance to all the amenities, to encourage an active, outdoor lifestyle,” says Dickie. Ridge and View neighbourhoods will tie in sight lines of the Rocky Mountains with easy access to major transit routes, he adds.
Gate is slated to boast what Walton says is “Calgary’s first Major Activity Centre.”
This is a high-density mixed use development with commercial, retail, office and residential space along with two planned transit plazas.
“With the five neighbourhoods, we want each one to have a distinct characteristic, not only from a planning or community design perspective, but the architecture rolls through that as well,” Dickie says.
Home styles in Cornerstone will include row- style townhomes, street-oriented towns, zero lot line homes, laned and front-attached garage homes.
While “true estate” options aren’t part of the plan for Cornerstone, Dickie says it will have move-up homes on amenity spaces, such as parks and ponds.
While prices in Cornerstone have not been formalized, rolling out attainable options was one of the developer’s priorities.
“We want to maintain affordability in this community. It’s a price-sensitive market,” Dickie says, adding price points will be comparable to what was on tap in SkyView Ranch.
“What’s happened (in SkyView Ranch) in eight years, we’d love to replicate that here,” says Dickie. “Clearly, when we did SkyView, we found that price point that worked and we maintained that.”
We want to maintain affordability in this community. It’s a price-sensitive market.