Quote:
Originally Posted by sandiegodweller
Since the owners just avoided losing the property to foreclosure and there is very little money available for hotels and even less for highrise condos, I would expect it to happen sometime in 2012.
|
When you say "very little money available for hotels" are you talking profit-potential? Everything I have been able to research points to a high profit potential for hotels downtown right now. Of course, developers will likely pounce on the opportunity and saturate the market with hotels to the point where there are too many, but by that time hopefully the residential condo lull will be on the up-swing
I gues that is how the market works
I do think that 2008 will be a good year for hotel development starting and a "fill-in" year for condos, where the market quiets and vacant condos begin to fill
I also believe that more places to rent - be they affordable housing, mid-level, or high-end rentals are very profitable right now. Strata seems to be trying an interesting tactic by building a large luxury RENTAL tower, I actually think they are tapping into something that is needed. I have a friend from work who just transferred here and I went looking for rentals with them and the market is VERY tight right now. Many more people looking to rent as opposed to buying at the moment.
Alot of companies have colleagues who come to town for secondments, staying 6 months or a year or a couple of years. They are not looking to buy since they know they will not be here permanently. Currently, there are places to appease this need in the UTC and Sorrento area, but not alot downtown. Alot of these business people on secondment are younger, single people moving from large East Coast metros like Boston, NY, etc, and they really would prefer living DT as opposed to UTC even if that means having to commute. I know people in this situation and they say they would lease a car and commute because they are so miserable living in UTC where there's nothing to do. They also (since the company pays the rent) would be looking to rent higher-end. I think Strata is on to something
I really think in the long-run the housing slump will HELP downtown, because it is forcing us to diversify. DT really needs a combination of rentals, condos, hotels, businesses (office), businesses (retail) and affordable and mid-level housing to go along with the high-end. Unfortunately, the one area that will STILL be lacking, as is always the case here in SD, is INFRASTRUCTURE and CIVIC space. That will be the real determination of how far DT SD will go, not the housing market. So far, I would give our city a "D" when it comes to infrastructure and civic development downtown