One stop shop: new northwest community of Carrington will have something for everyone

The answer to what the new northwest community of Carrington will have when complete is an easy one: pretty much everything.

The neighbourhood, launched as part of the massive Keystone Hills area plan, will include its own high-density housing; an employment and commercial centre built around a planned Green Line CTrain station; direct access to Stoney Trail and downtown; new schools, as well as proximity to existing ones; and acres of parks, wetlands and pathways. It also sits in a high-demand area that is suffering from a shortage of housing supply.

Collin Campbell, vice-president of operations and land development with Mattamy Homes, says sales have been strong since they began last October. Mattamy, the largest of three developers in Carrington, will eventually have 3,000 homes built across 159 hectares in the community.

The company started by constructing amenities on its site at the intersection of 14th Street and 144th Avenue N.W., including the $3-million, 0.9-hectare Greenway Park at the neighbourhood's entrance.
That park includes public art, a popular skateboard area, play structures, green space for soccer, a half basketball court, granite walkways, benches and a plaza.

The park's northern boundary will connect to the plaza and then to the community's first commercial/retail site.

As the company's first Carrington homeowners take possession this month, Mattamy will also open new duplex and townhouse showhomes.

Genstar has more than 400 lots in its first two phases in Carrington, which will include a mixture of single- and multi-family homes. Marcello Chiacchia, Genstar's vice-president of Calgary communities, expects the second phase will be sold out by mid-2019.

The third developer, responsible for 46-hectare South Carrington, is private landholder H3 Developments.

Genstar's 36 hectares are bounded by Centre Street and 144th Avenue N.W. Its Carrington phase three will include about 1,000 multi-family units in a work/live hub of office and retail space around the future Centre Street corridor LRT station. Across the street lies Brookfield Residential's Livingston development.

Campbell and Chiacchia say Carrington buyers have come from all over the city, and include new arrivals to Calgary. A sizable portion of housing demand has come from Asian Canadians, many of whom grew up in north-Calgary communities like Genstar's Panorama Hills and want to stay in the area.

Campbell says the mix of buyer needs stretch from those looking for larger square footage – possibly to house multiple generations – to those seeking smaller, more affordable units, including Mattamy's duplexes and townhomes.