McKinnon homes offer Kerrisdale downsizers a chance to stay put

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Project name: McKinnon by Cressey
Project location: W. 48^th Avenue & West Boulevard, Vancouver

Project size: 40 homes in a four-storey concrete construction building
Residence size: 2 — 3 beds, 970 — 2,400 sq. ft.

Prices: from $1.3 million

Developer: Cressey Development Group

Architect: IBI Group

Interior designer: Scott Trepp, Trepp Design
Sales centre: 3130 Arbutus St (between W. 15^th and 16^th avenues), Vancouver

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., Sat — Thurs
Telephone: 604-428-8858

Website: www.mckinnonbycressey.com

Sales began: July 2016

Occupancy: Winter 2018/Spring 2019

 When some think of living in Vancouver’s tony Kerrisdale neighbourhood, they may mainly envision row upon row of stately single-family homes. However – as Cressey discovered through a couple of recent developments on the city’s West Side – downsizers from those homes are displaying a real appetite for continuing to live in the area in large condominiums.

Now, the company is improving on what it learned through its Arbutus Ridge and Sterling developments with its latest offering: McKinnon by Cressey.

 “With Arbutus Ridge, we had a mix of smaller homes, including one-bedroom units,” explains Jason Turcotte, vice-president of development at Cressey. “At Sterling, there were no one bedrooms at all, and there aren’t any here either.

“There aren’t a ton of families looking to move into these homes; it’s very sophisticated buyers looking for a luxurious ‘lock and leave’ lifestyle now that they’ve sold their houses.” (He also expects there to be some consumers ‘moving up’ in the market as well, from previous multi-family residential experiences.)

Most of the prospective buyers are people who would likely have renovated or built high-end homes before, so Cressey knew it had to do something very special to impress them. It set about trying to retain the best components of a single-family home, while adding a few new special touches that would be new to purchasers.

 Turcotte points them out on a walk through the show suite at the McKinnon sales centre. It starts right from the entry point, where a small foyer immediately inside the door helps create a sense of arrival. Off to one side is a proper laundry room with side-by-side appliances, a stone countertop for folding, overhead storage space, and a hanging bar for delicate items. Putting this in its own area is highly practical; it decreases the level of noise coming from the machines when they’re running, and also reduces potential visual clutter when guests are over. A powder room and coat closet are equally functional little spaces before entering the apartment proper.

Turcotte says the design process really revolved around the kitchen. The company has made it a habit to continue to improve its trademark CresseyKitchen every time it has the chance to do so, with that trademark referring to easy-to-walk-through layouts and high-level design.

“The kitchen is the most important room in a home – it’s the heart of a home, it’s where you spend most of your time,” he says. “We also figured the people who would be living here would be very social types who loved to entertain.”

 The design team employed all white wood veneer cabinetry in all of the homes, with a pleasing to the touch imprinted grain pattern. The light-coloured millwork brings a real sense of brightness into the space. Inset deep niches eliminate the need for handles on the doors and drawers, and lower the maintenance factor. The latter is also why marble is employed only on the backsplashes, with durable and easy-to-maintain quartz for the countertops.

For the ease of the cooks in the family, the integrated refrigerator and freezer have been grouped with a wall oven in one area of the kitchen. A five-burner natural gas Wolf cooktop is on the other side, making going between the two areas simple. Glass and metal drawer interiors are sturdy and easy to clean, and built-in cutlery organizers help keep them organized. Most homes also have a pull-out pantry.

 The design team opted for a stand-alone kitchen island that is square, allowing for storage on all sides and easy traffic flow through the kitchen. Here, for instance, is where the microwave and wine bottles are tucked away in the show suite, along with drawers and shelves for putting away sundry other items.

 Built-in closet millwork is included, as is heated flooring in master bedroom ensuite bathrooms. The bathrooms feature the latest in contemporary design, including walls and floors completely clad in oversize tiles, wall-mounted faucets, wall-hung floating vanities with elongated trough sinks and undermount lighting, ceiling-mounted rain shower heads, and freestanding soaker tubs. More storage is available in drawers or cleverly concealed mirrored panels.

 All homes are fully air conditioned, with engineered hardwood floors and nine-foot-high ceilings in living areas. Each home has access to sizable terraces or balconies, with the penthouses having access to expansive private rooftop decks with outdoor kitchens. Those owners can also choose to install hot tubs.

 Cressey offers more than half a dozen upgrades for all owners in a $30,000 package, including an integrated wine refrigerator, a built-in Wolf espresso machine, a TV entertainment unit that can either conceal or reveal a screen, with space for a bar cabinet, and an parking stall outlet to charge an electric vehicle.

 “Some of the upgrade items don’t suit everyone, so it didn’t make sense to just go ahead and include them,” Turcotte explains. “For instance, if you’re not a coffee or a wine drinker, you’re not going to add those things in – this allows people to customize the spaces a little more to their individual preferences.”

He says most of the interest is coming from people who are already in the immediate area, and who know and value living in an established neighbourhood that isn’t quite as busy as some other urban areas of Vancouver. They already know and take advantage of the amenities in the neighbourhood, such as shopping, dining at local restaurants, great access to schools and golf courses, and a really strong sense of community.

 Even so, some may not know why Cressey decided to name the development McKinnon. As the story goes, at the turn of the 20^th century, South Vancouver was emerging as a neighbourhood – enough to warrant getting its own interurban electric rail (similar to a streetcar) stop. Local resident Mrs. William McKinnon, whose first name appears to have been lost to the sands of time, was tasked with naming the stop and elected to go with Kerry’s Dale, after her family home in Scotland. Eventually, that became Kerrisdale.