After first landing in the resort in 2008, Dulce Agcopra can finally call herself a Whistler homeowner.
The immigration consultant is among the several local employees who managed to snap up one of 29 newly-released Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) units in Cheakamus Crossing during a sales event held over the weekend.
“I have been fortunate to have really amazing landlords in the 15 years I’ve lived here, which I know not everyone is … but it does feel amazing to know that I can actually feel secure in the place that I have and maybe even think about getting a dog, or growing a family,” she said.
Agcopra got the call that a unit was available—if she wanted it—five years after adding her name to the WHA purchase list in 2017. Agcopra was No. 285 on WHA’s master waitlist and No. 64 on a waitlist to purchase a two-bedroom in Cheakamus Crossing, specifically, when she was invited to view a show suite during an open house in mid-May.
Now, she and her partner will move into the bright, airy two-bedroom apartment—which features vaulted ceilings and is located on the building’s top floor—when construction on the project is completed next winter.
“I believe this building is also very energy efficient, so that’s great, and hopefully in the future, I hope to get an electric car and they have electric charging stations, so it’s got a lot of things going for it,” said Agcopra. “Plus, it’s right next to the river and the trails.”
The launch of the 29 units at 1360 Mount Fee Road represents the second phase of the development, following the recent sellout of all 46 homes in the first employee-restricted building at nearby 1340 Mount Fee Road in early April.
“We are very pleased to be able to provide this much needed new employee-restricted housing—the purchasers’ excitement and joy in securing housing in Whistler is contagious,” said Eric Martin, president of Whistler 2020 Development Corporation (WDC), in a release.
“Whistler’s mayor and council should get a lot of credit for its vision related to resident-restricted housing initiatives and supporting WDC’s work in building new rental and ownership housing,” he added.
There are 25 more employee-restricted units on Mount Fee Road that remain unclaimed, all of which are due to be released at a final sales event on Saturday, June 18.
Upon its completion, this extension of Whistler’s Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood will see the addition of two new four-storey buildings offering a variety of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments. Both buildings feature elevator access and a shared underground parkade, and are anticipated to be move-in-ready in late summer 2022 and winter 2022-23, respectively.
Each home must be its owners’ primary residence, and ownership is restricted to qualified Whistler residents registered on the WHA waitlist. Purchase prices for the remaining one-bedroom apartments range from $330,000 to $335,000, while two-bedroom units are priced between $415,000 and $435,000. The limited number of three-bedroom layouts are all already spoken for.
After years spent living with housemates and in rentals, Agcopra said she’s just looking forward to having a space to call her own.
Currently, she lives in a two-bedroom unit on the bottom floor of a home in Alpine. “We’re pretty good as far as where we’re living at the moment, but obviously we want something more permanent,” said Agcopra. “Before that I lived in share houses. Now that I’m married, I don’t want to go back to a share house situation.”
More information about Whistler’s employee-restricted ownership opportunities is available at whistlerhousing.ca.
