Mariposa Gardens

Built as The Van rental apartment building in 1980, this concrete seven-storey tower with no balconies has a modern look, sacrificing the balconies for flaired corners that allow for extra-wide living room windows. Anyway, there's a terrific common-property roof-top deck, so grab your beer and head on up. The building was condo subdivided in 1989, but continued to operate as a rental building until 2004 or so when suites were updated and in-suite laundries were put in, with dryers vented to outside (not all are, you know).

There was a dispute between buyers and the converting developer, and owners paid to repair or upgrade the building's exterior and other deficient items. Condo fees were subsequently high in part to pay those costs, but the building is looking good and performing well as an investment for owners.

The building has a mix of assigned indoor and surface parking, some ground-floor storage lockers and a small lobby; no other amenities. The larger suites are at the front of the building, with about 770 square feet each, while those facing north have about 670 square feet each. Off the lobby there's a tiny suite of 290 square feet, and it's nice to see the Condo Plan favour it with a unit factor per floor area of half that assigned to the other suites, so its condo fee will always be modest. On the other end of that scale there's one top-floor north-facing suite of almost 1,400 square feet.

Exterior windows and doors at Mariposa Gardens are common property. I have the Condo Plan on file.