From CTV News in Calgary
It looks like a new hotel along a highway but this can’t-miss construction project turning heads just west of Calgary is a huge single-family home.
It’s been under construction for months on Highway 22, just north of the Highway 8 roundabout, and it’s so large that neighbours and people on social media can’t stop talking about it.
According to property records obtained by CTV Calgary, the two-storey home, set on 80 acres, will be 11,000-square-feet when it is complete.
It will also have a nine-car garage, seven fireplaces and two guardhouses that are formidably sized on their own.
The property’s address is 242131 Range Road 42 in Rockyview County, but it’s still so new that you won’t even find it on Google Maps.
The home is being built by Jager Homes and documents list its value at $3,159,594. The cost of permits alone is more than $10,000.
A CTV News crew that went out to the site was asked to leave and was told no information would be given out.
Documents show the home’s owner as “El Condor Lands Inc.,” a division of the Hon Group of Companies owned by Calgary real estate magnet Nicholas Hon. His company Jager home is building the mansion.
A day after our story first ran, Ernest Hon, Director of El Condor contacted our newsroom. “It’s a private home,” he said, “We respect the privacy of whomever will live in there.” He would not disclose if the home was for him, or anyone in his family.
People living in the area and passersby have reacted negatively to the lavish home.
Rhonda Phillips wrote to the Cochrane Eagle, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more grotesque and narcissistic tribute to the owner’s ego in my life. Not to mention that it couldn’t be more out of place unless it was built in the middle of some of the slum areas of a third world country.”
Others on chatboards and social media have marveled at its size. A post on the Calgarypuck forum, “Flabbibulin” says it’s, “the biggest bloody house I have ever seen!,” while “OzyFlame” dubbed it, “overly hedonistic,” and “jaydorn” asks, “That's a house?! Drove by there last month and just thought it was a weird place for a hotel/condos. But a single family home?”
While the wooden structure of the building is up, and solar panels are visible on the roof, it appears finishing work is still far from over.
Neighbours tell CTV News that an iron fence has surrounded the property for about two years. Building permits were applied for in July, 2013.
There’s no word on a completion date.
Rockyview County’s last assessment of the land lists it as “vacant farmland” worth $11,500.
The Hons are well-known Calgary developers behind a 42-storey luxury condo tower, the guardian, in Victoria park.
