| |
Posted Jun 13, 2006, 7:53 PM
|
 |
Witty comment fail
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Prattville, Alabama
Posts: 2,906
|
|
Forgive me if this has already been posted... I didn't see it, but I'm blind as a bat. 
Quote:
High-end housing to test market downtown
Birmingham Business Journal -
by Kaija Wilkinson
Staff
A pair of high-end residential projects are about to see whether Birmingham residents are ready to live on the southeast edge of downtown.
Seaboard Yard townhouses, with units priced at more than $317,000, is beginning to market itself to buyers. And across the street, The Carroll & Green Group Inc. is about to break ground on a $5 million live-work building that will house the construction firm's headquarters on the first floor and luxury condos on the top two.
A rebirth of First Avenue South that started at 22nd Street about five years ago is steadily marching east, and developers such as John Lauriello and Julie Gieger of Southpace Properties Inc., and Cory Mason of Keystone Construction Inc., which built Seaboard Yard, are banking on the prediction that the area will become a residential hotspot and that property values will rise.
They already are. Land prices have gone up three or four times in the three years since the Seaboard Yard developers bought their property, Lauriello says. From 22nd to 32nd street, land that sold for $2 to $3 per square foot in 2003 fetches $10 to $20 per square foot today, he says.
New construction such as the multimillion-dollar Pullman Flats, a pair of buildings being developed by architecture firm Krumdieck A+1 Design Inc. that will house its headquarters and lofts, is driving the appreciation, Lauriello says. He notes that Montgomery architectural and engineering firm Goodwyn Mills & Cawood Inc. also built a $2 million location across from Seaboard Yard.
In all, the stretch of avenue starting at 22nd has been the beneficiary of $30 million to $40 million of investment in the past five years or so, Lauriello says.
Bring 'em on
Just east of the Alabama Ballet, Seaboard Yard townhouses are part of a swath of development on the north side of the avenue that includes live-work space for husband and wife architects Tammy Cohen and Richard Carnaggio, the area's first residents, who moved in more than a year ago, and live-work space for lawyer Archie Lamb, who plans to move into his building later this year.
"The more the merrier," says Lamb. "There are a lot of growth pods throughout the downtown and Lakeview area, all the way from First Avenue to Clairmont. There's a lot going on that you don't really see on the surface, some visionary work that will convert that part of downtown. It's made people like me feel a lot better about our investments."
The Seaboard Yard marketing team, which consists of Sally Tuttle and Jim Wise of Margi Ingram's Condominium Shoppe, hopes potential residents will soon see the value of a $300,000-plus investment, and the appeal of living in an emerging neighborhood.
They plan to market the property by handing out fliers at the Pepper Place farmers' market and holding a cookout for Realtors to show off the just-completed model unit.
And the price for one of the units has been lowered to $299,000 in order to grab the attention of people searching listings in the $300,000 and less range.
So far, three townhouses have sold, two to investors.
"We're just not getting the response we thought we'd get," says Lauriello, blaming the sluggish response in part on the project's being nearly a year behind schedule.
But he and his partners are optimistic buyers will eventually come.
A dozen buyers will do
Based on surveys, developers incorporated "all the bells and whistles," says Lauriello, such as high-end finishes and appliances, gated parking and a maintenance-free facade. To the north, views include the downtown Birmingham skyline and the historic stacks of Sloss Furnaces; to the south are Red Mountain and Vulcan. All units are two bedroom, two-and-a-half baths covering more than 2,000 square feet on two floors.
Lauriello says it's a good sign that investors have purchased two of the units.
"These are pretty prudent real estate people who feel like once that project and some other projects in the area are completed, that a year or two from now there could be a substantial amount of appreciation," he says.
The homes start at less than $160 per square foot. Some high-end properties in the downtown and Southside markets are fetching $215 to $230 per square foot, Lauriello says.
The recent kidnapping of a young lawyer from the front of her loft at Third Avenue North and 20th Street sparked a new wave of concern about safety downtown, but Lauriello says it was an anomaly and that people who are inclined toward urban living will stay that way.
It also helped that the victim was found alive, thanks to vigilant downtown workers, security cameras and "some solid police work," he says.
Seaboard Yard's ideal buyers, says Lauriello, are young professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, and empty nesters who may have a lake or country house but want a place in the city.
He hopes the project's size will work to its advantage.
"We're not trying to do 500 of these. We just think that there are 12 somebodies that this would appeal to."
kwilkinson@bizjournals.com • (205) 443-5637
|
|
|
|
Prev
)
Linear Mode
