OUT OF TOWN PROPERTIES: WHISTLER’S SOLANA
Twenty- unit development designed with outdoor living in mind
Solana
Project location: Whistler Project size: 20 units: two- beds and two- bed- and- dens Residence size: 910 to 1,872 sq. ft. Price: $ 439,900 to $ 946,000 Developer: Innovation Building Group Ltd. Architectural design: Brent Murdoch Interior design: Anastasia Nadeau/ Innovation Building Group Marketing: Denise Brown at Re/ Max Sea- to- Sky Real Estate Whistler Location: 15- 1005 Alpha Lake Rd. ( Innovation Building Group) Website: solanawhistler. com Hours: 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday to Friday, on weekends by appointment Phone: Denise Brown at 604- 935- 2013 Sales: 20 units move- in ready late 2015
SHAWN CONNER
SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Rod Nadeau can always tell which condos in Whistler are “actually lived in,” as he puts it.
“They’re the ones with two bikes and four pairs of skis chained to the railing on the balcony,” he said. “When you have an underground parking lot, you can’t leave anything down there — there’s not enough space. And some people have bikes that are worth more than their cars.”
Nadeau is a managing partner with Innovation Building Group Ltd. in Whistler, the developer behind the 20- unit Solana project, which is scheduled to break ground later this month. The project is designed with the active Whistler lifestyle in mind, and features individual garages with 14- foot- high ceilings in the underground parkade.
“We can build a whole wall of storage on the back,” Nadeau said. “You can have your mountain bikes, your road bikes, your skis. Storage for your toys is very important if you live full- time in a condo- style building.”
It’s this kind of lifestyle accommodation that’s attracting people like Doug Wylie.
“We have eight bikes between us,” the Whistler resident said of he and his wife. Two of those are at their North Vancouver condo. “We do a lot of cycling.”
They also have a canoe and sets of skis. “In Whistler here, a lot of people are quite active, even at as advanced an age as myself,” the 69- year- old retired civil engineer said. “Not everybody here skis, but most do.”
The Wylies spend most of their time at their 2,000- square- foot house in Whistler. But, he says, the way the Solana homes are laid out, “we wouldn’t lose a huge amount of space from what we’re in now,” he said. “In terms of the space we use, it’s way more efficient than the house we’re in now.”
Solana, which has a contemporary wood- and- glass West Coast Modern exterior, will be built to green platinum certification standards, another factor that is attractive to Wylie.
“One of the first things I noticed about Solana is that the developer was going with triple- paned windows,” said Wylie, who has noticed how much heat is lost in his North Van condo because of the doublepaned windows.
“It always amazes me how we put up all that double- paned glass, and how much wasted energy there is as a result.”
Besides high- quality triplepaned windows, Solana will have LED lighting, an airtight building envelope with individual heat recovery ventilators in each suite, laminated veneer lumber panels for decks, the parkade ceiling and exterior elevator shaft, insulated concrete forms for a heated parkade, and passive ( using sunlight without active mechanical systems) solar heating.
Solana is positioned to take full advantage of the latter. The development is set in Rainbow, an area five minutes north of Whistler Village and in the west side of the valley. Due to clouds amassing leeward of the mountains, Nadeau explains, the area has its own sun- filled micro- climate.
“Because you have this blue hole of sunshine in the middle of the valley, you could be looking across the valley at a snowstorm or rainstorm,” Nadeau said. “It’s considerably sunnier and warmer than the other side of the valley.”
All units face southeast or southwest and have floor- toceiling windows.
“The light penetration is so much greater here,” Nadeau said. “On a sunny day in January, you won’t need any heat at all.”
The windows will also offer views of Whistler, Blackcomb, Armchair and Wedge mountains.
A planned rooftop terrace will also help homeowners cash in on the sun. Features include a barbecue, a firepit and six tables that can be arranged for a long- table dinner. “So now there’s a real reason to go up there, so it will become the social hub of the building,” Nadeau said. The terrace will also be home to a rooftop community garden.
Inside, the homes come equipped with granite countertops and undermount sinks and stainless steel Energy Star appliances in the kitchens. Ensuites will have soaker tubs and separate showers. The entry, kitchen and bathrooms suites will have heated tile floors. Each residence will have its own laundry room.
Innovation is offering complete customization.
“We’re a custom- home builder, and since there are only 20 units, we decided not to pick the options ourselves,” Nadeau said.
Interested parties can drop by Innovation’s Whistler office and rifle through the myriad hardwood flooring, tiling, carpeting, cabinet door- styles, paint colours and countertop options.
It seems little has been left to chance with Solana, which is situated in a comprehensively planned neighbourhood. When complete, Rainbow will be home to a 22,000- squarefoot shopping mall, gas station and single- family homes and duplexes.
“It’s been designed to be a complete neighbourhood, and a walkable neighbourhood,” Nadeau said. No home will be more than 400 metres from the commercial centre.
And the neighbourhood is “plugged into the valley trail network,” he said. “You can jump on your bike and ride off the road onto all the trails throughout Whistler from there.”
Solana is expected to be move- in ready at the end of September 2015. Wylie, who had completed an offer as of this writing, will be 71 by the time he moves in. Hopefully he’ll still have plenty of skiing left in him. A good winter for him, he said, is 60 days on the slopes.
“I do quite a bit of volunteer stuff on the hill,” he said. “I’ve got a little problem with arthritis, and my actual ski days were reduced quite a bit this year.”