VIRTUAL VIRTUOSOS
Edmonton’s home industry celebrated with awards ceremony — where else? — at home!
Sterling Homes walked away with the most prizes as Edmonton’s home building industry held its annual awards Thursday in a virtual ceremony.
But Sterling was shut out of the highest honours as Kanvi Homes, Milestone Builder Group and Carrington Communities snagged three of the top five overall awards, with the fourth going to Diamond Contracting Ltd. for Renovator of the Year, and fifth to Durabuilt Windows and Doors for General Member of the Year.
“Our Awards of Excellence event was originally scheduled for March 14 (at the Edmonton Convention Centre) and up to the 11th or so we thought we still would be able to go ahead with it,” said Marie Soprovich, president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Edmonton Region. “But after an emergency board meeting it was really clear that we needed to cancel this event due to the COVID -19 pandemic. It was a shock. It was two days before, and the same time the NHL pulled the plug on their season. We always really look forward to this event, and we’re so disappointed that we couldn’t celebrate it in person, but the health and safety of everyone is of the utmost importance.”
Ultimately, the CHBA-ER decided to go with a virtual version held Thursday. “The Awards of Excellence is a huge celebration of our industry and all the hard work that goes on and we really tried to make the virtual version exciting and fun,” added Soprovich, noting the streaming version kept a bit of the feel of the Roaring ’20s theme that was to be a part of the live event.
Kanvi was named Builder of the Year — Small Volume; Milestone as Builder of the Year — Large Volume; and Carrington won Builder of the Year Multi-family, making it the third year in a row it has taken this award and the fifth time overall.
Kanvi also won Best Single Family — Any Style Model in the $1 million to $1.5 million category for the Windsor custom residence. Milestone came out on top in three other categories: its Central Park townhomes won for Multi-family Townhouse/duplex development; its Marcus model won Best Single Family — Any Model in the $350,000 to $400,000 range, and its Liliya — Cassidy residence followed up at the $400,000 to $450,000 level in the same grouping.
Carrington’s Oxygen IV and Holloway II both won for Multi-family — Apartment Style, Oxygen winning for under $250,000 and Holloway for $200,000 to $250,000.
Diamond took a second award, this for Best Renovation in the $300,000 to $600,000 category.
Sterling, meanwhile, dominated the sales portion of the awards. Its eight awards were all sales-related. Another big winner, the Rohit Group of Companies, won seven awards including Best New Community for Woodhaven Edgemont.
Awards were presented in 58 individual categories, including a new addition.
“This year we’re thrilled to introduce an infill awards category,” said Soprovich. “We had a lot of entries.”
Alair Homes won for Best Infill under 2,000 square feet, SWISH Developments for between 2,000 to 4,000 square feet, and Effect Homes Builders for over 4,000 square feet.
Both Best Community and Best Show Home Parade went to Canada Lands Co. for the Village at Griesbach.
Other builders and renovators to win awards included Accent Infills, Alquinn Homes, Aquarian Renovations, Beaverbrook Group of Companies, Bedrock Homes, Brookfield Residential, Coventry Homes, Crimson Cove Homes, Dolce Vita Homes, Encore Master Builder, Effect Home Builders, Habitat Studio, Hager Developments, Jayman Built, Landmark Homes, Mattamy Homes, Morrison Homes, Montorio Homes, North Pointe Homes, PK Developments, Pacesetter Homes, Qualico Communities, San Rufo Homes, Streetside Developments, Urban Edge Homes and Vicky’s Homes.
The awards, said Soprovich, is not only the association’s flagship event, but it allows its member to make their mark.
“People who are looking to purchase homes are looking for builders and renovators who are excellent at what they do. The awards highlight and showcase their work of excellence and receiving an award really has a big impact with buyers.”