On a sunny, warm Thursday morning in January, various representatives from Calgary's development and construction industry gathered at the top of Fram+Slokker's Verve condominium tower in Calgary's East Village to celebrate an important milestone: Verve is now topped off after reaching its final height of 82.6 metres.

Scaling Verve, image by Kevin Cappis

The 25-storey residential tower, designed by Giannone Petricone Associates is Fram+Slokker's second Calgary project, after the two developers partnered together to complete their inaugural project, the aptly named First.

Ceremonial cement pour signifies Verve's top out, image by Kevin Cappis

The project is not only an important milestone for Fram+Slokker, it's also an important milestone for Calgary's East Village community. It's an extra 288 residential units added to the neighbourhood, along with added retail — Good Earth Coffeehouse, Panago Pizza, and Barber Culture have already committed to locating at Verve.

And that's not all. Verve is also the first project to be developed along 'The Riff', a master-planned diagonal pedestrian thoroughfare running through East Village.

Kevin Conlon, Elio Ciccotelli, Mark Grimes, Jim McLeod, Fred Serrafero, Brent Ollund (left to right), image by Kevin Cappis

Verve is expecting residents to begin moving in sometime in the fall, and is planning to have all homebuyers moved in before the end of the year. The building will feature an amenities area on the sixth floor and a rooftop internet lounge with north-facing views. The internet lounge is indoors, but will sit alongside some outdoor rooftop space as a social area.

Verve's view to the west and southwest, image by Kevin Cappis

With 90 percent of the 288 units sold, one might wonder what's next for the Greater Toronto Area-based development team. Fred Serrafero, vice president of development and construction at FRAM Building Group, mentioned that 'Vibe', the second phase of the project, would likely be next, with a possible start date pegged for this year.

We will continue to follow the progress of this project right to the end, and will keep up to date on this project, check in with our main page for news items, and for photo updates and discussion, check out our Forum related page.