BRIO BRIDGELAND’S BOUTIQUE APPEAL
15-unit development offers ‘close-knit’ vibe and homes with customized finishes
Young, single and looking to purchase her first home, Chelsea Wong eventually found her new Bridgeland condo online. Or to be accurate, the condo found her online.
“It was one of those funny algorithms maybe, but Instagram knew I was looking in Bridgeland and an ad popped up one day for Brio. It caught my eye,” she says.
Wong is an insurance claims adjuster and works in the heart of downtown Calgary. She was set on an inner-city condo but found close-in neighbourhoods to be very congested, with the exception of Bridgeland. She’d rented an apartment there once before and found it had a certain small-town charm which she says still exists.
The social media post for Brio Bridgeland that jumped out at her that day sent her off to the presentation centre on 1st Avenue N.E. by the Blue Star Diner. There she met Scott Silva, director of sales and marketing for the developer, Fortress Residential Group, who walked her through the project proposal.
“It was a smaller project with the price point I was looking for and all the amenities I want. It would take a year to be built, so I put 10 per cent down and went to live with my parents so I can save some money,” she says.
As a boutique development, Brio will have just 15 units. Wong says it feels more residential than apartment-like and as a non-party type, she’s happy the building ’s population will be small.
She picked a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on the third floor — a junior penthouse — with 829 square feet and a 215-squarefoot balcony with an outdoor storage locker. Wong is thrilled to have space to store all her outdoor gear.
“I’m a minimalist in the city, and I was originally looking for a one-bedroom. But I have a fairly active lifestyle and go off to the mountains on the weekends as much as possible, so there’s a lot of equipment involved. I liked the amount of space Brio was offering with options for storage,” she says.
The second bedroom will handle equipment overflow and visiting friends from abroad.
“It will be nice for them to come back and have a comfortable place to stay without being stuck on the couch, plus, they’ll have their own bathroom,” she notes.
Brio will have heated, underground parking, key fob access to each unit and the common areas, which include a rooftop patio and fitness centre. Wong is confident she’ll be there for five to 10 years.
“It’s a really good location, with good access to roads, and access to pathways is phenomenal. It’s close knit and still fairly quiet,” she says.
Brio Bridgeland is set to break ground shortly on a vacant lot on Mcdougall Road N.E. It will be a four-story building with one-, twoand three-bedroom residences, 700 square feet to 1,400 square feet in size. At the top end are two-storey penthouse units with unobstructed views.
Brio’s prices range from $349,000 to $779,000, GST included.
There is one more junior penthouse left in the building, priced from $429,000, says Silva, who hosts the sales centre on a by-appointment basis.
He says that several changes have been made since the launch of the project early in 2019.
“We made some esthetic changes to the exterior, making it more modern and inviting. But what we’ve changed dramatically from last year is our ability to customize each unit,” Silva explains.
All of Brio’s interior choices fall into standardized price categories. Buyers consult with an interior designer and mix and match from the existing selections.
“If they want a dark countertop on the island and a lighter one in the main kitchen, or dark upper cabinets and lower cabinets that are light, or a barn door instead of a swing door, we can do that,” he says.
Because there are just 15 units, it’s easier to add upgrades if a buyer wants them, such as a fireplace or in-floor heating in a bathroom.
Silva says Brio, with its maintenance-free exteriors, was reverse engineered. Fortress consulted with property managers to help mitigate some of the more common issues and mistakes that may occur within a building’s envelope.
They have also adopted the Molok high capacity efficient waste management system where 80 per cent of the container is underground. No bins have to be moved in and out and it’s much cleaner.
“We’ve created a smart design. It’s not just green built, it’s actually smart,” he says.