S6 F R I D AY, M AY 8 , 2 0 1 5 C A L G A R Y H E R A L D S A M A W A R D S

J O S H S K A P I NC A L G A R Y H E R A L D

Two major community awards are staying put after Mahogany and Watermark at Bearspaw extended winning streaks at a Calgary region housing competition this year.

For the third year in a row, Ma-hogany earned the Community of the Year — City of Calgary crown. Watermark is on the same run of wins in the category for Commu-nity of the Year — Calgary Region.

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association Calgary Region SAM (Sales and Marketing) Awards were announced during a gala event at the Telus Convention Centre recently. Other developer awards went to the Willows of Riv-er Heights for New Community of the Year and Qualico’s Dressage in Silverado for Show Home Parade of the Year.

Mahogany is a lake community in southeast Calgary master-planned by Hopewell. The community was also recognized on a countrywide stage earlier this year, picking up the top community development title at the National SAMs.

“The land for Mahogany was pur-chased over 10 years ago, and we took a tremendous amount of time in its planning and predicting its future in how it would be relevant to Calgarians,” says Hopewell’s president Paul Taylor. “I suppose to some degree this award is a re-flection of the fact that the time we invested to get the planning right and forecast the future as we have has come to fruition in the form of this award and many other ways.”

A driving appeal at Mahogany is the community’s three-part lake. At 25 hectares, it’s the largest fresh-water lake within city limits.

“With the immigration that Al-berta sees year after year where we have Canadians and people from other parts of the world coming here that are used to being around

water, it’s just that much more im-portant,” Taylor adds. “We’re cer-tainly somewhat starved for water in this part of the world in terms of recreational use — that seems to satisfy a lot of people’s needs.”

Beyond the trophies, Taylor says the biggest affirmation of Mahoga-ny’s success has been the number of house hunters who have made the decision to buy there. “Which we’re really excited about,” says Taylor of the demand in Mahogany early this year. “The market is soft

today so competition and so forth is very brisk. We’re very proud of the fact that things are continuing to be relatively firm out there.”

The runner-up for top commu-nity in the city was Brookfield Resi-dential’s Riverstone of Cranston. Other communities in the run-ning included Auburn Bay, also by Brookfield, along with Genstar’s Walden and Currie Barracks by Canada Lands Co.

Like Mahogany, Watermark’s trophy case also includes national

honours. The luxury community west of city limits is a two-time winner of the National SAM for Community Development.

“We were so shocked and incred-ibly honoured when we won the second time in a row so a third time in a row — we’re just gobsmacked,” says director of sales and market-ing Ian Macdonald.

Macdonald says the win is shared with the community’s featured builders, Astoria Custom Homes, Albi Homes, Trickle Creek Custom

Homes and Wolf Custom Homes. Each of these builders were nomi-nated for a SAM award.

Finalists for the Calgary region community award include Arte-sia at Heritage Pointe by Heritage Pointe Properties, Ravenswood by Qualico, Canals Landing by Gen-esis Land Development and La Vita Land’s Fireside of Cochrane.

For the new community award, developer La Vita Land said the Willows won with it boutique plan for 450 homes and expansive park.

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARMMahogany, Watermark extend SAM victories as communities of the year

J O S H S K A P I NC A L G A R Y H E R A L D

Luxury villas with top-flight views have brought another major award to the community of Watermark at Bearspaw.

The Villas at Watermark landed the Best Multi-Family Communi-ty trophy at this year’s Canadian Home Builders’ Association Cal-gary region SAM (Sales and Mar-keting) Awards.

Watermark at Bearspaw also ex-tended its winning streak at this year’s SAM Awards, with its third straight title for Calgary region Community of the Year. Both the community and the villa project are by Macdonald Development.

“I think it’s all of the elements coming into one,” says Ian Mac-donald, director of sales for Mac-donald Development Corp. “It’s a lock and leave community so we want to make sure that everything is covered for our residents,” says Macdonald of the villas.

This includes energy-efficient building practices, stunning ar-chitecture that blends in with its hillside location and top-notch sight lines of the Rocky Mountains, Macdonald says.

“As I like to say, it’s a million dol-lar view and your villa is free,” he adds. “The area allows people to enjoy the view, sit back and relax.”

The Villas at Watermark is now selling in its final phase, with firm sales on 82 of 101 villas. These villas

have a spacious main level terrace and a walkout patio. They come in four floor plans; the 2,010-square-foot Highwood, the 2,376-square-foot Glasgow, the 2,625-square-foot Cascade and the Kananaskis, which is 1,976 square feet.

Villas come with upscale specifi-cations, including gourmet kitch-ens with stainless steel appliances.

Watermark itself is a master-planned community featuring high-end single-family homes, five kilometres of paved trails and a central plaza with an outdoor kitchen.

Avi Urban’s development dubbed The Block placed second for the Multi-Family Community prize and was one of the company’s two finalists in the category. The Block is a 60-unit condo and townhome project at an amenity-rich site off 17th Avenue SW. Along with its runner-up finish at the Calgary region SAMs, the Block was also a finalist for the top community development award at this year’s National SAMs.

Avi Urban’s other contender in the category was its Prospect Rise development. This is a 68-town-home complex in the northwest community of Kincora.

Other finalists in the category include Sabal by Hopewell’s town-home development Chalet No4 in Copperfield and a Jayman Modus project called Homes that Work, part of the builder’s Concept de-velopment in Sunset Ridge.

B E S T M U L T I - FA M I LY C O M M U N I T Y

Villas at Watermark, Watermark at Bearspaw in Rocky View County.

Upscale villas, top-notch views

S H O W H O M E PA R A D E O F T H E Y E A R N E W C O M M U N I T Y O F T H E Y E A R

C O M M U N I T Y O F T H E Y E A R — C I T Y O F C A L G A RY

C O M M U N I T Y O F T H E Y E A R — C A L G A RY R E G I O N

Qualico Communities for Dressage in Silverado. La Vita Land Inc. for Willows of River Heights, Cochrane.

Hopewell Residential for Mahogany. Macdonald Development Corp., Watermark at Bearspaw, Rocky View.

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