High-end condo project highlights Calgary's red-hot market

A Vancouver developer has unveiled the design for what it's calling Calgary's most luxurious condominium complex, the latest entry in a red-hot market that is attracting high-end buyers to the city.

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"This is absolutely top of the line," Grant Murray, Concord Pacific's vice president of sales, said Tuesday of the development called The Concord.

With kitchens worth a cool $270,000 and four-car garages available, it's hard to accuse the developer of overstatement.

The 350,000-square-foot complex comprising just 218 units will go up in the heart of Eau Claire, across from Prince's Island Park.

"The smallest suite is 1,050 square feet," Murray said, while the largest is a 6,000-square-foot penthouse.

The prices start at about $1 million and climb to $13 million for a penthouse suite, Murray said.

And if the price range sounds outrageous, Murray says Calgary's market can handle it.

"We've looked at the demographics," he told CBC News. "You've had 97 [single-family home] sales in the month of May of a million dollars or greater …  that's just in one month!"

Sotheby's flies in potential clients

That kind of market has prompted Sotheby's International realtor Mark Everdon to offer a special come-on to entice likely buyers.

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Potential clients interested in multimillion-dollar properties call up Everndon's team, which dispatches a jet to pick them up and fly them  to Calgary.

"Usually, with the properties in the surrounding areas I'm working with — you know, 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-million-dollar properties — we can be there in less than five minutes," Everndon said.

Concorde Pacific's Murray said he knows that even with Calgary's red-hot high-end market, the firm faces a lot of work selling the new development

"We know it's going to take a little longer for us to sell this project," he said, "but that doesn't allow us to back off from presenting something special."

Construction on the development is set to begin next March, with completion expected in three years.