As the shovels sunk into the ground Wednesdy afternoon, it marked one developer breaking the way for a new type of housing seldom seen in St. Albert.
“There's a need in the marketplace right now for a great price point unit that accommodates young families,” said Daniel Rojek, vice president of Landrex Ventures, the company building the new housing complexes in Erin Ridge.
Eve at Erin Ridge is a four-acre plot of land that will feature 76 townhouses in the $300,000 to $400,000 range. Rojek said the company has been conceptualizing the residential plot of land for just over a year.
The entire complex is being completed in five phases, with roughly 15 townhouses being completed per phase. The first phase is expected to finish next year, and Rojek said he's already heard excitement toward the new homes.
But the entire project won't be rolled out all at once. According to Rojek, each phase will be completed based on market demand. He said he anticipates the four-acre plot to be done by 2023. Once completed, the area will be home to upwards of 150 residents.
“There's a lot of great product up here in St. Albert, but we feel what we’ve presented is very unique. It's very classy, it's very contemporary, it's got an edge to it,” Rojek expressed.
Design at Eve
Eve at Erin Ridge, named after the shortened version of Landrex Ventures president Ryan Andrews' grandmother Evangeline, features modern designs similar to a Manhattan loft.
Inside the home, the walls are finished in bright white with pastel grey tiling and touches of dark mahogany wood trimmings. When someone walks into the unit, they’ll immediately notice the wide, open space connecting the kitchen to the living space.
The townhouses are 1,447 square feet each and contain up to three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. Each unit also has a double-park garage and its own yard. In addition, there’s a communal courtyard located in the middle of the complexes.
Brett Johnson, senior designer at Boss Design, said when Landrex Ventures reached out to them to design the homes, the developer already knew what they wanted.
Johnson said along with having an East Coast vibe, the units were to have flat roofs. The only problem? Canada’s harsh winter climate doesn’t work well with flat surfaces.
“Right from the get-go, we had to try and come up with a different way of designing something that would look very flat without it actually being a flat roof,” he said.
The homes’ roofs are instead built with a slant, so that the thick heavy snowfalls don’t accumulate in the wintertime.
Eve at Erin Ridge recently went through an amendment to its area structure plan, with its original design containing only 54 units. When the City of St. Albert changed its density regulations last year, it required the complex to also increase the amount of units in the four-acre space.
“(Landrex) increased the number of units without changing or without increasing the sizes of their site,” he explained. “We kept squeezing and squeezing.”
But the designer said it was an opportunity rather than a challenge. With the new requirements, Johnson said they were able to make a townhouse development unlike what has been seen before in St. Albert.
With innovation, sustainability and community at the core of the development, the homes are marketed for young families, young professionals or those who are looking to downsize.
James Mabey, real estate agent and broker at Century 21 Masters, said the new townhouses will fill a gap in St. Albert’s housing market.
“It’s the exact kind of product and price point that St. Albert has been missing for a long time,” he said. “We need entry-level homes, and we need affordability to be a big driver.”
St. Albert’s “missing middle”
In February 2018, council voted in new residential zoning laws, which allowed townhouses with front driveways or rear driveways to be built. It also paved the way for garden suites and implemented higher-density targets for developments.
The changes have only recently made it easier for more affordable housing to be built in the city, however. Not having that type of housing readily available only makes it difficult for St. Albert to retain its youth once they graduated from post secondary.
“I firmly believe that if young people and young families cannot buy their first property in the community that they want to live in, then they will not necessarily come back,” Mabey explained.
During the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Coun. Jacquie Hansen said Eve at Erin Ridge was a “very exciting project for St. Albert”.
“We are looking to bring diversity to St. Albert, we are looking to bring options. We are looking to bring new families of all sorts here,” she expressed. “This is a wonderful, progressive, innovative project.”
For more information about the development, visit: https://www.eveaterinridge.ca/the-beginnings-of-eve-at-erin-ridge/
