Emerald Stone

http://emeraldstonecondos.com/

Connaught's and the entire Beltline's first landmark condominium tower upon completion in 2004, Emerald Stone's 23 floors and its green-tinted glass and red-brick walls tower attractively over the neighbourhood.

Beyond the colours, the curving balconies hint that this building was designed for the young urban buyer; that also comes through with the in-house gym, games room with foosball table and golf simulator, bike storage in the parkade and the internet service packaged with the condo fees. Emerald Stone also offers assigned lockers, central air conditioning, nine-foot ceilings and balcony gas outlets for barbecues. There's one small guest suite and, initially at least, a resident manager.

There are 160 suites at Emerald Stone, starting from one-bedroom homes of 659 square feet and two-bedroom, two-bathroom homes of about 883 square feet. One suite each on the 17th and 18th floors merged a one-bed and a two-bed layout to arrive at NW corner suites of 1,562 square feet each....nice! Two penthouses enjoy three exposures each and sprawl over 2,575 square feet and each have two oversized corner balconies. There is one large commercial condo unit on the main floor, housing Ric's Grill. There are seven visitor parking stalls on the main floor and 159 titled-property parking stalls over four levels below grade.

Twelve suites on lower levels have spacious terraces atop the building's wider podium. To make rectangular spaces more interesting many suites have some angled walls and angled breakfast bars. Of course the upper-floors suites have terrific views.

Emerald Stone was built by ProCura Real Estate Services, which had already built the low-rise Residences of Mount Royal right across Fifteenth Avenue, followed by the Montana Condos tower just east of Residences of Mount Royal. The company has also bought the south-west corner of Fourth Street SW at Eleventh Avenue, so watch for--eventually--another mixed-use luxury and very tall building there.

At the time of writing dogs are permitted at Emerald Stone with the Board's written approval and with on-going good behavoir. Exterior windows and doors are common property for maintenance and eventual replacement (not in my lifetime!). Unit factors are allocated to suites in proportion to their sizes and parking stalls have a UF of two each. I have some floor plans and the building's Condo Plan on file.