12 hours Ago By Andrea Cox
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. A stunning custom-designed Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home with sweeping views of the Cochrane Valley valued at $1.
35 million has hit the market in support of pediatric transport teams at two Alberta children’s hospitals. The giving back initiative, coined Homes for Hope, is spearheaded by Castellano Custom Homes and is the brainchild of company founder Sam Iaquinta and his wife Suzanne Iaquinta. “This is a personal journey for us,” says Sam Iaquinta, who co-founded Castellano Custom Homes 20 years ago with the purchase of a single-family lot in West Springs.
In 2013, the Iaquinta’s twin son Ben, who at the time was just two years old, became ill with a lung infection and couldn’t breathe on his own. He had to be transported via the pediatric transport unit, first receiving care at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary (he was put on a life-support machine) and then at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. After Ben’s recovery, the couple set their minds to creating an initiative that would support both of the hospitals that had provided such exceptional care to their young son.
The result was Homes for Hope. “When you go through something like that as a parent, it changes you,” says Iaquinta. “We wanted to make a real impact for families facing those terrifying moments.
This home is our way of giving back.” The 2025 Homes for Hope campaign launched in March in the Cochrane community of Pinnacle Estates at Sunset Ridge, a community developed by Melcor Developments. This is the second Homes for Hope to be unveiled.
The first launched in 2021 in the community of King’s Heights in Airdrie, also a Melcor development. “We feel so fortunate that we were able to participate in this. And we’re really happy that Sam picked this lot because we think it is one of the most beautiful areas that we develop in and hopefully it will help to sell the house.
We’re really proud of this development,” says Graeme Melton, vice-president of community development for Melcor, the developer behind Sunset Ridge. The company played an instrumental part in the initiative. The 2025 Home for Hope graces a ridge lot that faces southeast across the Cochrane Valley in the newly released estate community of Pinnacle Estates within the community of Sunset Ridge in Cochrane.
As Sam Iaquinta says, “We couldn’t have done this without Melcor.” More than 61 companies and 213 trade specialists were involved with the build, with many volunteering their time. Because of the generosity of so many, 100 per cent of the net proceeds from the sale of the home can go directly to supporting the pediatric critical care transport teams at both the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton and Calgary’s Alberta Children’s Hospital.
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