Feb/05
Westgate Park

Fleming Takes on Alberta's Largest Real Estate Development. Calgary's Westgate neighbourhood was ready for a makeover. One developer's vision was to make it the city's most coveted address. Fleming Design's challenge: define the target market and generate a strong early buzz that could be maintained over several years of marketing efforts.

Calgary is a city facing explosive growth. Youthful, confident, and buoyed by a strong economy, the market is ready for something big, something bold. Intergulf Cidex selected a neighbourhood which was off the radar and drew up plans for an ambitious development with three luxury towers. Rising from an under-developed property flanked by two busy Calgary roadways, Intergulf Cidex's vision became a plan for the largest residential real estate development in Alberta.

Fleming Design identified the "Creative Class" target market - young professionals who value career independence, have established flexible work environments, and are likely engaged in "ideas" industries such as architecture, law, finance, entertainment, and design.

In other North American cities, this Creative Class has sought out areas that aren't yet "trendy" but clearly have potential and often feature a blend of industrial functionality and a creative flair. The Westgate neighbourhood - close to downtown, not yet "discovered," and sporting a somewhat gritty reputation - was an ideal fit.

Although locals had negative associations with the "Westgate" name (the Westgate Hotel on the site had earned an unsavoury reputation), it nonetheless was an appropriate description for what would become the western entrance to Calgary, and was the accepted name for the development site. Considerable effort would be needed to describe or sell the area under a completely different name.

Instead, Fleming Design added the "Park" suffix, leveraging the recognition equity of Westgate and reframing it with a nod to extensive landscaping and golf course views while establishing a sense of growth and rebirth of the neighbourhood.

Each phase of Westgate Park would carry on this theme by using a name to suggest celebration of a neighbourhood transformed: Brava is first and will be followed by Encore and Ovation. "Celebrate the height of luxury living" became the positioning line, drawing reference from the tremendous views overlooking the Shaganappi golf course and westward to the Rocky Mountains - vistas virtually unavailable from any other project in Calgary.

With the creative direction now in place, Fleming Design transformed an old restaurant on the Westgate property into a stylish sales centre, with enormous external signage serving dual purposes of hiding an outdated façade while attracting attention from a steady flow of commuters passing by.

Select clientele were invited to a VIP-only preview. Over 30 units were immediately pre-sold. The general public would have to wait another two months before the sales centre officially opened, but the buzz was on: Westgate Park was suddenly THE community for savvy Calgarians able to envision great things to come.

Thrilled with the pre-sales response, Intergulf Cidex and Fleming Design are looking forward to an equally successful campaign for encore at Westgate Park.

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