The Ridge at Burke Mountain 1425 Strawine Hill Street Coquitlam 49 single-family homes by Foxridge Homes
Winning appeal at Foxridge’s The Ridge at Burke Mountain
Michael Bernard
The Vancouver Sun
Project: The Ridge at Burke Mountain
Project location: 1425 Strawline Hill St., Coquitlam
Project size/scope: 49 single-family homes with three or four bedrooms and total square footage from 3,400 to 3,800 square feet. Well-developed trail systems, many municipal amenities, stores and restaurants at Coquitlam Centre, David Lam campus of Douglas College, and access to the newly launched Evergreen SkyTrain line.
Prices: From $1.56 million, including GST
Developer: Foxridge Homes, a Qualico company
Interior designer: First Impression Design
Sales centre: 1425 Strawline Hill St., Coquitlam
Hours: Noon — 5 p.m. daily
Telephone: 778-285-6299
Website: www.foxridgehomesbc.com
Occupancy: August 2018
For Metro Vancouver homebuilders, winning awards can have benefits that go beyond the pride of having trophies to display in the corporate boardroom.
That’s what Foxridge Homes, a three-time 2017 Georgie Award winner, has found this year with the brisk sales of its newest phase of The Ridge at Burke Mountain in Coquitlam.
“We sold 43 of 44 homes in just two months,” said Diane Zarola, director of sales and marketing for Qualico Developments Inc., Foxridge’s parent company, in describing last year’s sales.
“And we’ve sold 14 homes (of 49) to this point in this phase,” an outstanding feat considering the more muted real estate market cycle this year, she said.
The Ridge itself won a Georgie — considered the Oscars of the B.C. development industry — for Best Single Family Detached Home over 2,300 square feet under $750,000. Foxridge received another Georgie for Best Single Family Home under 2,300 square feet for its Willoughby West development in Langley, and with those honours under its belt, Foxridge was named the 2017 Grand Georgie winner for Single Family Production Home Builder of the Year.
The awards play no small role in sales, she said, “because they give people confidence in our company when we have been recognized by the industry.”
Zarola says design has been a big draw for buyers at Burke Mountain, where Foxridge has constructed more than 300 homes since 2009, but the area also has a lot going for it.
“There are so many outdoor things that people love to do here,” she said. And all the infrastructure — the library, the city hall and all the recreation facilities — are all brand new. That’s a real draw when you consider the other cities and the (older) state of their facilities.”
Foxridge, part of the Winnipeg-based Canadian giant Qualico, has been building homes in the Fraser Valley for more than 30 of Qualico’s 66-history. It focuses exclusively on single-family houses in municipalities with large undeveloped tracts of land, communities such as Coquitlam, Surrey, Langley and Maple Ridge.
A recent tour of the award-winning show home reveals why The Ridge is proving so popular. The home boasts panoramic views from Burnaby on the west to Golden Ears on the East, and Richmond and Vancouver Island to the south on a clear day. Directly below, the Fraser River meanders through a patchwork quilt of farm fields.
The show home’s administrative office and greeting area are housed in the double garage of the Ravenview model, a 3,824-square-foot home on three levels, Zarola explains. A front veranda leads to an imposing eight-foot-high front door that makes an impressive entrance. On one side of the entrance inside is what Zarola calls a “flex space”, which she says can be used for a variety of purposes, such as a home office or a music room, which is how it is presented today.
Interior designer Shannon Haerdi, whose firm First Impressions Design decorated the award-winning show home, said the large oversized custom travertine panels on the walls “are very three dimensional and tactile.”
“With the Panasphere panels installed floor to ceiling, it immediately draws your eye to this room and up to a large chandelier that is showcased in this space,” she said.
Adjacent to the flex room is a powder room where a transom above the door ensures ample natural light floods into the hallway. Another room off the engineered hardwood hallway is a generously sized mudroom with an entrance to the garage.
But the tour de force of the home’s design is where the hallway opens to the great room, a 17-by-16-foot open-concept living room with three banks of stacked windows rising to an 18-foot-high ceiling. The site location and floor plan presented lots of great assets to work with, Haerdi said.
“We really wanted to feature the high ceilings and large windows in the great room, and with custom oversized drapery and a beautiful cascading chandelier, we feel we achieved an elegant, yet opulent look,” she said. “The natural light cascades into the main floor and wraps you in warm light, drawing you to the amazing view outside.”
Sharing the panaroma vista are a dining room with a deck, complete with built-in barbecue (optional) and a spacious white cabinet kitchen with appliances around the perimeter and an ample island work space. A separate walk-in pantry provides lots of room for food storage and cleaning supplies.
The kitchen cabinetry is eight-foot-five-inch-high Shaker-style maple soft close cupboards topped with crown moulding. Countertops are distinctive granite or cultured quartz with full-height ceramic tile backsplashes. Appliances by Bosch include a combination convection-microwave wall oven at shoulder height, a five-burner built-in gas cooktop, a french door refrigerator with bottom-mount freezer and internal water dispenser, a 300 series quiet steel tub dishwasher and a Venmar chimney-style hood fan.
Leading upstairs is a glass-panelled staircase, an optional upgrade that exposes the open area below while providing even more panoramic views.
The 18-by-12-foot-six inch master bedroom has a vaulted 10-foot-high coffered ceiling and offers a balcony that can be doubled in size. The bedroom comes with a large walk-in closet and built-in cabinetry. The ensuite has a Mirolin freestanding soaker tub and separate frameless glass walled shower and ceramic tiled flooring. Buyers have the option of granite or quartz countertops with a porcelain undermount sink.
The 1,231-square-foot upper level has three other bedrooms, including a nursery with a corner window, another child’s bedroom and a guest bedroom. The three share a bathroom with sinks on each side of the entrance. Also featured is a large laundry room so a homeowner can clean clothes without carrying them up and down stairs.
At 1,293 square feet, the downstairs level offers two more bedrooms and a supersized games room stretching across the entire width of the home. The two bedrooms have been seconded for a crafts room and TV room to occupy the kids while the parents use Foxridge’s unique one-stop shopping in the games room to choose everything from cabinet finishes and faucets to railing types to lighting and countertops.
For Johnny Guo, who last September moved his family of five — including his wife, daughter and parents — into the home that sits next door to the show home, The Ridge provided a welcome expansion of living space.
“I lived in Coquitlam in a townhouse of about 1,200 square feet, so this is a lot more space. I like the design and layout of the home. After you put all the furniture inside, it’s pretty good.“
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