Mount Royal Grande

This sophisticated-looking condo building was initiated by Statesman Corporation, which for some reason sold the City-approved development package and land to Pointe of View, which was happy to complete the project in 2002 (which explains the "e" on Grande). There are four floors of modern frame-with-concrete-overlay construction housing 71 roomy suites atop an in-ground garage housing 93 titled parking stalls, so 22 suites have double titled parking. The garage also has bike racks.

Of the 18 suites per floor four are one-bedroom homes of 775 or more square feet, but the rest are all well over 1,000 and many are more than 1,300 sq. ft. The bay-window projections and west-end turrets plus the complex brick and stucco facing make the entire building nice to look at and adds interest to floor plans, too. The top-floor suites enjoy vaulted ceilings rising to 19 feet, while virtually all other ceilings in suites are overheight at 8' 9" high, although not the nine feet that most Realtors will promote. Suite layouts mostly have the living/dining/kitchen between the bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Balconies are 70 to 100 sq. ft., and ground-floor suites all have generous patios with fencing. The building has central air conditioning, sprinkler systems and of course all suites have laundries and in-suite storage. Many suites have upgrades to granite countertops, gas stoves and the like. There is ample indoor visitor parking (10 stalls) and two large bike racks in the parkade. New security was put on all access points to the building early in 2008.

Heating and cooling are paid for through the condo contributions, with heating and cooling liquid piped to each suite where it's forced-air distributed by an in-suite radiator/blower unit, which is ceiling-mounted above each suite's storage room near the entry door. I've heard that the original units weren't of the best quality, so many owners have since replaced them ($5,000 or so), and the new ones work well.

Exterior doors and windows are common property for maintenance and future replacement. Owners are each responsible for the maintenance and/or replacement of the in-suite heat/cool blower. I have the building's Condo Plan on file.