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The Rotunda Building conversion


juancapitalcitydc

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They just had a ground breaking party for the Rotunda last weekend. They are supposed to begin major gutting and construction work soon, I was hearing this week!

Interesting. I moved my desk at work and now stare at it all day long. So far I haven't seen any action.

The makeover is an improvement, even if what is being sold is overpriced ($300k starting for a tiny apartment where you own no land -- the most expensive part of construction? Bizzare). It is crucial that all of these condo projects get underway ASAP, as they will add to the inventory in the downturn, leading to further affordability for the working citizens of Hampton Roads! It's going to be great!

Hmm I should work on making ikea style furniture that isn't square so it fits in the corners of the living spaces in that building :-)

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What a view! The Rotunda is more impressive than I thought.

Is there any progress on the exterior?

Well, there is obviously work going on around the building but as far as a different look it hasn't changed yet.

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What a view! The Rotunda is more impressive than I thought.

Is there any progress on the exterior?

Spoke with the agent a few days ago. The ground breaking ceremony last weekend was supposed to mark the "official" start of construction and therefore the clock to move-in (14 months after official ground-breaking). Apparently, that will not happen until the actual shell comes down. That is supposed to happen soon although they could not give me a date. They need to hit the banks required sales mark I presume (70% I think, which seems high?) At any rate, they are supposed to inform those interested prior to the shell dropping so that anyone interested could watch.

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Spoke with the agent a few days ago. The ground breaking ceremony last weekend was supposed to mark the "official" start of construction and therefore the clock to move-in (14 months after official ground-breaking). Apparently, that will not happen until the actual shell comes down. That is supposed to happen soon although they could not give me a date. They need to hit the banks required sales mark I presume (70% I think, which seems high?) At any rate, they are supposed to inform those interested prior to the shell dropping so that anyone interested could watch.

Thanks for the info and welcome to the forum! :thumbsup:

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If you find out when the shell is supposed to be torn off. let me know. Some of my coworkers (as well as I) play with digital cameras also so maybe I can setup to do a nice animation time lapse style, at 7 megapixels :-)

Right now, it's sort of like a round version of the Jail building a block or two away :-)

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Okay, I'm looking at this PDF! AWESOME!!!

First off, it has Van Rose in the picture. BOOO! I've listened to his lame show on WNIS/WTAR. They say they are going to take calls, but never actually do. I need to call in and rip it up sometime. The most interesting thing I learned.... Van Rose was talking about the ODU real estate report that came out some time ago that says bubble trouble will never hit Hampton Roads, and in his masterbatory egotistical blabbering he mentioned that a relative of his I believe was involved in it. INSIDER! It makes me curious as to who actually funded the study. Any attempt to ask questions of those that wrote it went unanswered. There recently was a study from Harvard that has been cited, and it turns out it was pretty much 100% funded by real estate people, construction people and the like. The thing is practically garbage, paid for by those who want to see hardworking Americans suffering under tremendous debt load.

So lets look at THE ROTUNDA!

In the article it's the normal drivel about high speed internet wiring (They run cat 5e instead of cat 3 to the phone jack in the place, this is total marketing boredom, I hope people don't fall for it). The truth is, it's got to be painful trying to run HDMI or R+G+B+Vs+Hs cables for high resolution projection systems and cables for self-made home automation color touchscreens and stuff. If these people have half a brain at this price point, they would run conduit from the telco DEMARC point to each unit. In each conduit would exist the cat 5e cable, along with a pull string to be used in pulling replacement cabling in the future when say, FIOS hits. They probably don't do this to skimp on costs.

But stuff like this makes me ROFL! "to state-of-the-art conveniences, including washers and dryers" ... HAHA!?!?! $300K and probably $200+ a month in Condo fees and your convience is a washer and dryer. You get no land. I don't see a pool. But hey, heres a washer and dryer. I'm sure it's stainless steel, and granite countertops (these two things are an official "trend of the bubble").

These stupid condos should be $90k starter condos. THEN IT WOULD BE GOOD! THEN I WOULD PRAISE IT! But at a cost that exceeds 2600 square feet homes in Virginia Beach 3 years ago by $100k for basically a room, I will laugh at it.

After all, when I looked up the Norfolk value on the building before it wasn't that high (pre-bubble). I think it was bought for $1.1 million?

"With a generous allowance for interior finishes, buyers can add the finishing touches that would mean the most to them personally" ... can you get it elsewhere and have this trimmed off of the cost? When you pay a builder for this stuff your probably paying 2 to 3 times the street value. Heck, I've already seen people hocking their Stainless steel fridges on Craigslist. Probably selling off all the fixtures from their home to cover their rising ARM payments.

They also don't mention that your closer to the ghetto than the Monticello arcade... and it's going to be a while before Norfolk can get all of the poor people out of here and up to Newport News. And even once they do, for a $1.80 (or at least thats what the bums always ask for) gets them back to here via HRT to beg more. Heh.

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gotta love your upbeat postings. -_-

I used to be really upbeat, until the local market went into mania mode. I can understand the bigger markets, but HR doesn't have that great of a job base. When I post about our market on other forums, I've seen at least one guy in DC admit his coworker had purchased 3 properties here to flip (2 townhomes and one condo) using equity out of her house in DC/NoVA. He said she is struggling with them. That made my day.

Too bad all this effort didn't go into doing something good for society! America can't live on selling real estate to each other forever. At some point we will have to become productive again.

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I'm just going to take a guess here, but Telmnstr you seem a bit frustrated. Almost overly frustrated. I can identify with that frustration, particularly if you feel priced out of the market. However, I'd challenge you to take a different perspective as well. Perhaps, look at it two ways - the way you are looking at it, and a more optimistic way.

For example, yes, the market has shot up and now house values seem inflated. I agree with you. However, on the other hand, the economy was in a slump and the housing boom did provide jobs for a lot of people that normal "bubbles" do not provide for. For example, the tech bubble drove a lot of wealth to IT folks, but it didn't do a lot for your normal blue collar workers. This bubble has created a lot of wealth for real estate folks, but it has also provided a lot of wealth/opportunity for people across a very wide spectrum of occupations: plumbers, attorneys, masons, carpenters, inspectors etc. etc. etc.

Point being that there are always at least a couple of ways of looking at things. Markets go up and markets go down. Hopefully, soon, things will be more affordable. It'd be nice to see a happy medium where pro-growth strategies continue to reward builders/contractors etc., but also make things more affordable for folks who make the median income and less.

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Tel's whole purpose here is to antagonize the regular reader's of this forum. :angry: It's time we ignore his post and not reply. This will be the last time for me! -_-

i agree that the tone he posts in definitely fits your description as being antagonistic. However, he brings up valid points when he talks about distance to the poorer areas of norfolk and the pricing of the rotunda. Those by themselves dont match up, on top of the fact that the prices of the condos seem very high for this area. There doesnt seem to be a rhyme or reason why this area is pricing the condos so high, and it is hard to project who is buying them. Either way however, they seem to be selling, so maybe there is more money in this metro or coming into this metro than we give it credit for. I agree we are a blue collar metro, however, we do have expanding white collar businesses and older or retired rich people who could afford these developments.

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i agree that the tone he posts in definitely fits your description as being antagonistic. However, he brings up valid points when he talks about distance to the poorer areas of norfolk and the pricing of the rotunda. Those by themselves dont match up, on top of the fact that the prices of the condos seem very high for this area. There doesnt seem to be a rhyme or reason why this area is pricing the condos so high, and it is hard to project who is buying them. Either way however, they seem to be selling, so maybe there is more money in this metro or coming into this metro than we give it credit for. I agree we are a blue collar metro, however, we do have expanding white collar businesses and older or retired rich people who could afford these developments.

Exactly. I'm not quite sure who is buying them either. I have one friend is who interested in Granby Towers, because him and his wife never plan to have kids. He is a network engineer for a city, she teaches. She has issues with the 2 bedroom, fairly nice apartment they are in not having storage space. It's wierd, because he loves living downtown, but won't walk anywhere :-) (I live in the same building, work downtown also and sometimes do walk to work).

The software developers at the company I'm working at can't afford conventional lending on these places AFAIK. One bought down in NC and is now suffering from the commute/fuel prices (He telecommutes now, which is the way the majority of the developers work (From Austrailia, UK, etc). Others employees had equity in previous properties when they worked for Microsoft and Intel, so they were able to buy into the market without too much issue. One got a standard middle income house (if he was 3 years earlier it would have been half the price). Other has a huge place from my understanding. Most of the company telecommutes because few are willing to relocate to our area (I'm not trying to put down my backyard, I'm telling it like it is).

I would *NOT* be surprised if the majority of the condo units are being bought by speculators, either people with money extracted from other properties with hopes of making a quick $60K-$100K. Many buildings have a rule that the place must be held 1 year, so in other markets where the buildings are complete the unit sits for a year empty then gets listed with the fat markup. This is a popular thing. TLC and other TV stations have shows like Property Ladder and Flip this House. Late night TV is full of people pedding get rich real estate programs. People see their property appreciating, and see and hear stories about others who made an easy load of money that beats all other legal investments of recent.

I like tall shiney buildings and cool skylines (and notice a lack of architectural lighting in HR , especially of the DMX-512 controlled variety)... but I also like to be able to think that I could somehow actually be able to afford a place to live, considering I'm coming close to the top of the wage earning opportunities in the market.

There is another side I haven't touched on... once the mortgages start to adjust it is going to soak up lots of money, which is going to show up as decreased sales at resturants and other local businesses. This is already showing up in the recent car sales (possibly due to massive slowdown of home equity extraction that has been fueling the good times). I notice the office park that I have my office/clubhouse in has for rent signs in front of every building. Small businesses come and go, I admit so there may be no real meaning to it. If I could just get the rent to go down to compensate for my new friend, the $700 power bill :wacko: Summer rates became winter rates, and summer rates went up. And not a pro-nuclear bumper sticker to be found on the internet.

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I fail to understand this continued hand wringing over the price of condo's. The real estate price increases for condo's are matched by increases in the price of single family homes. It is just supply and demand. As far as downtown Norfolk, it has become a very desireable place to live. There are just a few options to consider if you want to live downtown. Most of them are pretty expensive. Even apartments like The Heritage are pretty expensive to rent.

As far as "who are these people" buying condo's downtown, I don't think it is any big secret. It is "mostly"retired folks with money, empty nesters like my wife and me, or some singles. When I think of my condo, I see, as an example: retired couple, harbor pilot and hospitality firm owner spouse, doctor, real estate developer, retired military officer now educator and mortgage officer spouse, retired food supply owner, banker and homemaker, retired doctor, minister and educator spouse, financial executive and educator spouse, retired military officer now consultant and data base manager spouse, retiree, banker, accountant and new Mom, financial consultant, well off divorcee and educator, CPA and banker spouse.

If folks want to live less expensively they go to Currituck or Elizabeth City or Suffolk or Gloucester or places like that. Norfolk and Virginia Beach are basically full and supply and demand will take prices to where they belong. If the prices go "too high", then they will "not sell". When they "don't sell", the prices will "come down". There will always be some ups and downs, but real estate is mostly up trendwise over the last 30 years or so. Because the "Seven Cities" area, or Hampton Roads, or whatever the name de jour is is not a high income area in general, I really don't think we are seeing out of control real estate/condo development nor rampant speculation by those looking to make a quick buck. If there are some doing that they will likley get stung and the word will spread and life will go on.

As far as the Rotunda, what a great and unique property. If you were someone who worked downtown and liked to shop, what a great location right next to MacArthur Mall! Sure, there is the negative of being next to the Downtown Plaza area, but who knows? In 5-10 years that area may really be something special and the Rorunda owners may be sitting pretty. Are they priced too high now? Who knows? If they sell them, I guess you could say they are not priced too high. You could also say that the buyers are stupid, but stupidity does not generally go up the higher your earnings go. If they don't sell, then either this thing won'y get built or the developer will attempt to lower the prices and reduce quality to some degree.

It will all work out and the condo market will not collapse. There is much more condo supply available now than there was 2-3 years ago. That should promote good competition for the benefit of the future condo owners.

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From the Downtown Norfolk Council August e-newsletter:

Wermers Development and Hampton Roads Housing Company are developing the legendary circular building, which when complete in late summer 2007, will boast 66 condominiums. According to site manager Sherri Paris, 60% of those are already under contract. Pie-shaped units range from lofts to penthouses and sweeping views are a "standard feature" in all units. Within the next thirty days, the exterior transformation of the building will commence in earnest when the demolition of the exterior cladding will begin.

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From the Downtown Norfolk Council August e-newsletter:

Wermers Development and Hampton Roads Housing Company are developing the legendary circular building, which when complete in late summer 2007, will boast 66 condominiums. According to site manager Sherri Paris, 60% of those are already under contract. Pie-shaped units range from lofts to penthouses and sweeping views are a "standard feature" in all units. Within the next thirty days, the exterior transformation of the building will commence in earnest when the demolition of the exterior cladding will begin.

Nice to see that the condos are moving so fast. Guess our market is still fairly strong.

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