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Optimist Park / Belmont Projects


dubone

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Ontap...the public housing at Seigle Point has already been built and people have already moved into the new apartments. Also CHA has opened a couple other net new apartment complexes in Belmont outside of Seigle Point in recent years.

I understand that people began moving in a few weeks ago. I just thought that the Charlotte Housing Authority should use all of the land they "reclaimed" to build housing for those in need. Maybe your reasoning is right on, maybe the housing authority reached their "quota" on this site and in this area. I know there are more families in need of housing assistance. I was just thinking about building rooftops instead of retail. The CHA has done a lot of good and I would like to see that continue. The easiest way would be for them to stick with their mission of providing affordable housing and staying out of office & retail development.

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This office development was planned before the Kroc Center was ever a possibility, so I can say it has been part of the long term plan, and at one point, was to be relocation of the offices currently at 1201 South Blvd. I don't know if that is still the case. The point being, even with the commercial piece, there will still be a net gain in total housing to this site. The Charlotte Housing Authority won't be the developer of the office, they are joint venturing (I think with Grubb), so their stake is really just the land.

My personal opinion is that mixing uses is a better development strategy for any neighborhood, and my concern with additional subsidized housing is that concentrations of poverty leads to the level of decline that earlier strictly public-housing sites have encountered.

The current objectives of the CHA is to realize the full value of their current sites, so in turn that equity can be reinvested in housing over a more dispersed area. That is what is occuring here, whether or not everyone agrees with what their current mission is.

Finally, I just want to clarify that the new apartments that recently opened are not all public housing. In fact, I think only about 30% are true public housing. The remainder are affordable to people making certain below certain income levels, but for the most part, are not below the poverty line that the majority of public housing residents are.

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  • 1 month later...

Have there been any specific details about the "naked flats" being offered from Bloc90?

We contacted My Town Home and we've already received info that conflicts with the what the website says, but some info was not on the site so it helped.

What was said is that as long as the purchase of the unit was made before it had passed the point of it being a "naked flat" it would be sold as such. This is an incentive since we do not have a defined idea of what we want just yet.

The info that conflicted was that cabinets were the only things required to be installed by the purchaser, but the site says flooring, fixtures, and cabinets.

Can anybody fill us in on what they've read or heard?

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^I don't know anything about the purchase agreements, but I can tell you that NOTHING has happened onsite in about 2 or 3 months. The building is standing... but I can't really tell how close it looks to being completed, because the whole spin on this building is that it isn't completed until the purchaser completes it. The exterior walls are up (and painted the color to match the renderings) the windows and doors are up (except a few plywood windows), but the site is still mud and gravel with a retaining barrier to the street.

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^ I've got a couple of friends that bought into Bloc90 and are hearing squat from Tuscan. A few months ago the story was that they were waiting on their steel fabricator to deliver the stairs and balconies (both of which, incidentally, are still missing). But that was back in September or so. At this point, I really believe financing issues for the contractor and subs has ground the project to a virtual halt.

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Have there been any specific details about the "naked flats" being offered from Bloc90?

We contacted My Town Home and we've already received info that conflicts with the what the website says, but some info was not on the site so it helped.

What was said is that as long as the purchase of the unit was made before it had passed the point of it being a "naked flat" it would be sold as such. This is an incentive since we do not have a defined idea of what we want just yet.

The info that conflicted was that cabinets were the only things required to be installed by the purchaser, but the site says flooring, fixtures, and cabinets.

Can anybody fill us in on what they've read or heard?

This is a great concept for someone that wants to finish a space themself -- making it their own and saving money. We bought our condo this way a couple years ago in uptown. Problem is I don't think you'd be able to readily find financing for something like this. Financing underwriting is tougher than ever now, and we had a hard time back then. We had to install a bunch of basic junk (which was later removed for what we really wanted -- then put in a home that a friend was updating) just to get the appraisal done and the bank to close -- this with 20% to put down and good credit in a market where banks were throwing money out of cannons at buyers.

I'm not saying one couldn't find a lender to finance a shell space (or 'naked flat'), but it would be very difficult and likely a construction loan if you found it -- not the great rates you'd get right now for a basic purchase.

Edited by Charlotte_native
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This is a great concept for someone that wants to finish a space themself -- making it their own and saving money. We bought our condo this way a couple years ago in uptown. Problem is I don't think you'd be able to readily find financing for something like this. Financing underwriting is tougher than ever now, and we had a hard time back then. We had to install a bunch of basic junk (which was later removed for what we really wanted -- then put in a home that a friend was updating) just to get the appraisal done and the bank to close -- this with 20% to put down and good credit in a market where banks were throwing money out of cannons at buyers.

I'm not saying one couldn't find a lender to finance a shell space (or 'naked flat'), but it would be very difficult and likely a construction loan if you found it -- not the great rates you'd get right now for a basic purchase.

Wow, I never thought of that. But at the same time you would think there's some arrangement setup by the developer to open lending for this. Well you would HOPE that's the case it was arranged before things went sour.

Anywho, there is far more information we need to retrieve before truly pursuing this. I actually would love to find a reasonable home near uptown and fix it up. Our thoughts are to buy into property for investing purposes but that's long term plans.

There are a lot of developments we do like it's just hard to live in Chicago and only look at websites!

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.... I actually would love to find a reasonable home near uptown and fix it up. Our thoughts are to buy into property for investing purposes but that's long term plans......
If you are looking to make investment bucks then you are rolling the dice. I suggest heading to Las Vegas instead and playing BlackJack. Your odds are better and frankly Charlotte doesn't need any more of this.

If you are actually looking for a place to live and to make a positive contribution as a member of the community then I would say wait about 8 months and look at the market at the end of August.

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We are open to the possibility of waiting on buying a place. I understand that investors tend to be viewed as more bad than good. I will live in Charlotte and do want to make a contribution to the city. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses or sell something to you but I couldn't let my convictions of what I believe be crossed by the dollar in this case. Our goal would be to improve versus abuse. If it doesn't work out it doesn't work out.

I wish there were more properties like that in Chicago, the typical three or four flat building. Renovate the property to efficient standards, pending cost, maybe even up to LEED standards, to provide lower cost of living for buyers or renters.

Many wonder why we would do that but that's just our belief in what should be done.

Edited by jhaugens
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We are open to the possibility of waiting on buying a place. I understand that investors tend to be viewed as more bad than good. I will live in Charlotte and do want to make a contribution to the city. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses or sell something to you but I couldn't let my convictions of what I believe be crossed by the dollar in this case. Our goal would be to improve versus abuse. If it doesn't work out it doesn't work out.

I wish there were more properties like that in Chicago, the typical three or four flat building. Renovate the property to efficient standards, pending cost, maybe even up to LEED standards, to provide lower cost of living for buyers or renters.

Many wonder why we would do that but that's just our belief in what should be done.

There aren't many, but there are small multi unit buildings in the central neighborhoods, a few of which are available now. Waiting a couple months to see what happens to the finance and real estate market certainly isn't a bad idea, but if you plan on staying put for a while, have good to decent income, money to put down, and the market doesn't deteriorate any more than it has, this is possibly a great time to buy. Low intereest rates, new tax credits, and diminished pricing make for a good combination...

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To throw out more information, it sounds as though low-cost finishings are installed. Idea behind that is you remove those finishings and then install what you want.

That makes more sense -- it is what we did for our place. Habitat for Humanity will also happily take the low-cost finishes and fixtures you are going to remove to sell at their Re-Store.

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  • 1 month later...

The for sale townhomes at Seigle Point. I wish that the color scheme for this whole development wasn't so yellow/brown/off-white centric. Until trees mature, it's going to look pretty bland.

post-1289-1235079375_thumb.jpg

I took a picture of Bloc90, but no need to post it. Nothing has changed since last fall.

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  • 1 month later...

The for sale townhomes at Seigle Point. I wish that the color scheme for this whole development wasn't so yellow/brown/off-white centric. Until trees mature, it's going to look pretty bland.

post-1289-1235079375_thumb.jpg

I took a picture of Bloc90, but no need to post it. Nothing has changed since last fall.

Sad but trure!!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/927203.html

This area has changed so much in recent years, and we can be glad it succeeded during the boom years. Alexander St Park, which is basically an expanded area around Little Sugar Creek Greenway, has now been dedicated and is there for families in First Ward, Optimist Park, and Belmont to use.

These are facilities that are partially paid for by Trinity Episcopal School for their students, so we can thank them for their dedication to area, too. Having those children chaperoned in that park during the day will go a long way to making the area feel safer for people.

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Great news! What was the ultimate decision on this park relative to the CATS planned building? If I recall, there was some sort of a debate that was holding this up.

City council told CATS to go back to the drawing board. They said that the plan they had submitted was simply "the easiest way out," and not necessarily "the best way." That's a pretty big step for the board. I applaud them.

Of course, I am not sure if CATS actually went back to the drawing board or not. After all, the impetus for this project was free money from the stimulus plan.

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