I’ve been to the sales office recently and have a number of interesting tidbits to report. Of the most interesting is that the construction company has finished the creation of a schedule/timeline for the entire project. As that schedule stands today and per email to the sales team, the project is scheduled to complete in or around December of 2009. That said and I was cautioned about the full meaning of the information, schedules are often modified during a project and it should be expected that the completion date could fall on either side or head on.
As example, I was told that one of their other projects was running two months ahead of schedule with residents now residing in the first lower 15 floors.
For those interested in purchasing a unit, I would expect a price increase in the very near future. Sales representatives told me that they felt an overall price increase would be coming shortly after or on the start of construction. This made good sense to me in that the status of the project would at that time leave the drawing board and begin taking place in real life.
Also of interest, I was told that penthouse sales took off quiet earnestly. I believe that I was told that six of the units have been sold already. Only the two top floors contain penthouse units and they range in size from around 2364 square feet to just over 3869 square feet.
Most oddly, Magellan Realty keeps an online posting of many of the units for sale at Aqua up to date on their own website. I found the link while investigating all the many details of the Lakeshore East website.
http://www.magellansells.com/properties.php?catID=2
This link contains unit identification, pricing, floor plans and other interesting details. As best I can tell it is also kept fairly current. My only confusion about the listing is that it does not contain all the units currently available and why that is, is a mystery to me.
Another interesting point regards anticipated future value of the units being sold. I recently got a glimpse of one of their property reports and found that the property in question had an estimated closing value (a 2009/2010 value) 116% of the sale value. From an investment perspective, this is a rather phenomenal investment, but there are some rather strong caveats. If you fail to close (ie. fail to get financing), you lose your earnest monies. Once you do close, you may not sell the unit for a period of one year. That said, such restrictions are not dissimilar to other projects and in good keeping with the development of a strong neighborhood not full of empty units purchased by investors trying to roll over property.
Most interesting to me in regards to this project is that Aqua is supposed to provide an extension of the pedway. While parts of the pedway are just long corridors with little or no commercial presence, even disconnected elements such as what exists under the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building, all of the pedway up to Aqua is provisioned with extensive commercial infrastructure, although not all of it currently under contract. The retail elements of Aqua are currently planned and extensive. I was told that Bed, Bath & Beyond had made a commitment to a large retail space in the mall beneath Aqua and that two smaller tenants were also committed. What I could not resolve with sales was how the pedway would be extended to provide access to these tenants (a completely indoor mall like environment as currently exists throughout the pedway or some less desirable corridor solution simply providing a means of access to the store frontage along the interior of the Lakeshore East park). I am hopeful of a full mall experience as I expect commercial interest in the pedway to increase radically by 2010 with the addition of nearly 5000 families to Lakeshore East. In the heart of winter, residents will find the extensive malls throughout the pedway an incredible winter retreat and businesses will likely move to a full seven day service schedule to accommodate.
Also of interest to the overall surroundings of Aqua involves some smaller projects that will compliment the entire neighborhood. The entire LakeShore East mall (which includes the Treasure Island food store) and all of the Park Homes located on the SE corner of the park are expected to deliver by the end of 2007, per the sales team. That seemed a rather fast construction schedule so I would not rule out a misunderstanding on my part, but nevertheless, soon. There is no status on the K-8th grade per the sales team. As regards Aqua and Lakeshore East, this development is a family magnet and I would assume a key value central to sales at Aqua as well as all the developments at LE.
Hope this info is of interest and with a few conjectures of my own, hope to spark of few conversations going forward. I expect great things ahead happening soon.
Prev
Linear Mode
