Waterford of Bridgeland

Don't confuse this 1981 building with the four Waterford buildings in Erlton, which are newer. A Vancouver developer bought this 47-suite frame rental building atop its concrete in-ground garage and converted it to condominiums in 1993. It has since provided affordable apartment home ownership in a neighbourhood that is fast becoming gentrified and more expensive.

The garage extends well beyond the building's footprint, giving every suite an indoor common-property spot to park the car. There are four floors of suites with elevator service, topped by sloped perimiter roofing and a flat main roof. While it's a modest building with white stucco cladding, Waterford always presents as being well looked after and condo contributions in 2009 were low. One-bedroom suites start at 609 square feet, while two-bedroom suites are all over 800 and top out at 905 square feet. Many suites have laundry hookups but there's also a central laundry room. Every suite has a balcony or a patio. There's no back lane here, as the building backs onto a pleasant block of tree-lined Marsh Road before it dead-ends at Edmonton Trail.

The Condo Plan allocates unit factors in proportion to suite sizes. Since the indoor parking is assigned common property the stalls pay no condo contribution, nor property tax. Exterior windows and doors of all suites are common property for maintenance their eventual replacement. I keep the Condo Plan on file.