MINDFUL DESIGN
Clive at Collingwood's smart-home features are well received by buyers
Some homes are smartly finished. Others are just plain smart.
Enter Clive at Collingwood, a 68unit condo-and-townhome project set to rise just a few hundred steps from the Joyce-collingwood Skytrain station.
Here, the smart-home touches are a significant part of the story. Using their phones, tablets or computers, residents of the project — an undertaking from Nexst Properties named for one of the streets bordering its location — will be able to tinker with myriad features in their homes, whether or not they happen to be standing inside them.
Lighting, for instance, can be adjusted remotely via an app, as can the thermostat. A sensor placed near the washer and dryer is designed to detect moisture and will alert the homeowner, also through the app, if it happens to detect any.
“We've just provided a slate of things in your home,” says Nexst CEO Dan Laflamme. “Simple things, like when you walk into your home, there's a motion detector that makes the lights turn on, so you don't have to fiddle with the light switch when you're carrying groceries or a toddler.”
Clive comprises five townhomes — four three-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit — and 63 condominiums, six of them rental units on the first level of a six-storey concrete building. Many of the project's buyers, Laflamme says, have been more than a little surprised when they hear of the hightech features.
“It's not something that people offer in homes right now,” he says. “These are things you would expect to find in high-end homes or Coal Harbour apartments, but we just think they should be accessible to everybody.”
Other noteworthy touches, Laflamme says, include a groundbreaking air-purification system that he says is capable of cleaning the air, both inside the homes and in the project's common areas, to state-of-the-art levels.
Nexst, says Laflamme, had been toying with the idea of such a system for a long time, “but with the advent of COVID, it just started to make sense.”
Mike and Jenny Morgan, a sales executive and a baker respectively, were drawn to Clive in part because of the air-purification system. Additional draws included the air conditioning, the project's transit-friendly location and the more than 800 square feet of living space they'll enjoy in their two-bedroom home, an upgrade from their one-bedroom rental in the West End.
The couple, who are in their mid-thirties, have a one-year-old daughter and say they struggled with the intense heat this summer, adding that the air-purification system “just made sense” to them.
In many ways, the Morgans typify the individuals who have so far purchased residences at Clive: upsizers who tend to be on the younger side.
Most, says Laflamme, are people who live in the general area and have come to appreciate its character, its restaurants and its multiple neighbourhood amenities. In this respect, Jenny Morgan also typifies such a buyer.
“I grew up not too far from here, closer to 29th Avenue Station,” she says. “Seems like there's lots more going on around Joyce, with lots of restaurant options and mom-andpop shops.”
Some 26 units at Clive have been sold, but Laflamme says a good variety of different home types remain available, perhaps not surprising, given that a large array of plans is on offer at Clive, from studio suites to spacious penthouses with far-reaching outlooks and private roof decks.
“We've never done as many singular floor plans before,” says Laflamme, noting that they number around 40.
“Nothing makes you feel less special than buying a unit that looks like everyone else's,” he says. “So we took the opportunity to create different layouts for different people to appeal to different lifestyles.
“Some people like bigger kitchens and smaller living rooms or vice versa … everybody 's different, so why should the spaces all be the same?”
An open-plan display home measuring more than 600 square feet showcases the handsome finishes at Clive. The unit, which has one bedroom and a flex space — the latter outfitted as a home office — has a kitchen with a good-sized island and clean, crisp lines, a bedroom with ample storage and a bathroom with a glass-enclosed shower and a large vanity with a square sink.
Two colour palettes are on offer at Clive — Warm and Cool — and wide-plank laminate will top floors in the main living areas, with large-format porcelain tile in the bathrooms. Kitchens will have quartz countertops, porcelain tile backsplashes with integrated shelving, and appliance packages from Bosch, Fulgor, Frigidaire and Whirlpool. Bathrooms will also have quartz counters and built-in storage units with seating.