You wouldn’t think that executive homes and economy-of-scale purchases belong in the same sentence, or the same subdivision.

Yet, focus groups have led at least one Calgary builder down that road. Pacer Corp. is marketing 24 executive attached homes in Hopewell’s Elbow Valley community, just west of the city in Rocky View municipal district. House and lot start at $349,900.

The target market is 35- to 50-year-old upwardly mobile executives, says general manager Greg Dudar. The group also includes younger empty-nesters, whose children have left home, but who are still active.

There are two basic home designs and two colour schemes, with each colour scheme available in darker or lighter tones. The two computer-generated renderings below show some of the design choices available.

Computer-generated renderings show some of the design choices available at Pacer Corp.'s Clearwater Point development in Elbow Valley.

Pacer used focus groups to determine which design features were wanted – which carpet fabrics, paints and finishing details, whether to use hardwood or ceramic flooring, whether to include fireplaces, and so on.

As it turns out, 80 per cent of the focus groups wanted the same things.

“Instead of designing something and telling the market it’s what they wanted to buy, we went to the market and said: ‘Exactly what do you want to buy?’ ” Dudar said.

Top interior designer Monica Stevens refined the market preferences into co-ordinated selections.

This way, potential buyers don’t have to rely on a small paint chip to decide which colour would look best on an entire wall.

Interior design fees for a top-quality house would probably cost $12,000 if they were incurred one home at a time, says Dudar.



Pacer was able to reduce these costs by planning the entire development as one. Materials for the houses could then be bought on a project basis instead of house by house.

“It’s a new way of doing houses in this price range in Calgary,” he says.

Pacer’s Clearwater Point is in Elbow Valley, an area of rolling, wooded land about a kilometre west of city limits. The community includes 600 acres of natural open space with 20 kilometres of pathways.

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The Salvation Army is busy raising funds for three of its facilities in Calgary. The army kicked off a campaign recently to raise $11.5 million for the two most urgently needed facilities, aimed at sheltering the homeless and breaking the cycle of poverty.

The first phase of the Onward Campaign is to raise $10 million for the new Centre of Hope in the East Village downtown, and $1.5 million for a Family Life Resource Centre, likely to be located in Forest Lawn.

The Centre of Hope replaced other Salvation Army facilities downtown last year, says public relations co-ordinator Andrea Conway. It focuses on the homeless, offering transitional and emergency shelter beds, job-finding assistance and a free community meal.

The Family Life Resource Centre will be aimed at low-income families and youth at risk.

Conway describes the potential clients as people one or two paycheques away from homelessness. The idea is to work with families and youth to break the poverty cycle. Community consultation is underway to find out how best to meet their needs, she added.

The second phase of the campaign will try to raise $4.5 million for a seniors’ centre, likely in Ogden. It will be aimed at allowing seniors to age in place as their needs increase from supported living to continuing care.

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Building permits jumped 16 per cent by value in January this year month compared to January 2001, city hall reports.

Permits worth $125.4 million were issued in January, compared to $108.2 million a year earlier. Residential permits were up 39 per cent to $91 million from $65.7 million. Single-family houses accounted for $76.1 million, up 45 per cent from $52.6 million in January 2001.

Non-residential permits dropped 19 per cent, to $34.4 million from $42.5 million.

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A 10-storey office building is going up at 7th Avenue and 9th Street S.W., with completion about a year away.

“The construction crane is already on site,” says Peter Cohos, president of Copez Properties Ltd., the developer.

Plaza 1000 will have 153,000 sq. ft. of leasable space with a typical floor plate of about 16,000 sq. ft.

The lead tenant will be Nova Chemicals, taking up 90,000 to 100,000 sq. ft. That leaves about three floors for other tenants. The space would suit companies that want an office downtown, but don’t want to be right in the heart of downtown, he says.

There is an LRT outside on 7th Avenue, and there will be heated underground parking at the rate of one stall for 700 sq. ft. The building, designed by The Cohos Evamy Partners, will have Tyndale stone and glass outside. The general contractor is PCL.