River's Edge

Twenty-four lucky homeowners get to live in this four-storey elevator-served concrete building dating from 1979. I say lucky because it's an intimate river-facing building with spacious suites ranging from 1,225 to 1,390 square feet, so there isn't a small one in the bunch; all offer two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. The building is designed around a courtyard that gives extra light to two thirds of the suites, and a four-storey sloping glass ceiling covers the lobby and upper-floor hallways, which also have windows to the courtyard. The lobby finishing is original but is delightful, as it's a four-storey atrium with an open stairway and a view of the river. There's no doubt that River's Edge was built as a condominium and not initially as a rental building.

Suites at the east and west ends of the building span the building's depth allowing for each to have a balcony facing both north and south toward the Elbow River, large windows in three directions, and even a tall and thin window by their entrance in the fourth direction, towards the courtyard; apartments with four window exposures? 'very uncommon. The north-facing suites all have two balconies in that direction, plus a balcony each overlooking the courtyard. Those suites are also the largest, each with two bedrooms plus a den. The two ground-level suites that face south each have a 300-square-foot patio facing toward the river--'very nice. Suite interiors range from original finishing to expensively upgraded. All suites have a wood-burning fireplace and a permanently wall-mounted air conditioner in the living room. As of 2011 the fireplaces are only permitted to be used as candle alcoves.

There's one assigned indoor parking stall for every suite, four large concrete-built basement lockers for those lucky enough to be assigned them, and a plywood locker built at the front of most parking stalls. There's a small gym in the basement, but it's not much, housing only a couple of treadmills and a sauna that no one seems to have used for some time. At my last walk-through the boiler room was fully modern with properly-scaled twinned heating boilers and water heaters. Exterior windows and doors are common property for maintenance and eventual replacement, which has been done on an as-needed basis. I have the Condo Plan on file.