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Zona Lofts, Zona Village, Chrysler Building


orulz

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  • 2 weeks later...

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  • 2 months later...

Hey, it's been a good while since the last update on this one. Any progress? Excavation, foundation work, etc? I can imagine foundation (caisson) work on this one will be somewhat complicated, since Coxe Avenue was built in the 20s on a valley filled in with dirt and rocks left over from the removal of Battery Hill for the construction of the Grove Arcade. I won't have a chance to check it out myself until after Christmas.

I do think they had to change contractors at a pretty late stage, but that was months ago so a lack of progress at this point would probably indicate that their financing fell through (or was actually never achieved.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are still ads for the Zona Lofts project in the paper, I've noticed. Do on-hold projects still advertise?

Yes they do, generally you pay for certain cycles of advertising ahead of time, so yes, on-hold projects sometimes still have ads running. I just saw an ad for One Charlotte that was put on hold more than a year ago when I was working as an designer for the Robb Report a few months back.

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  • 4 months later...

The 79-year old building is getting rehabbed in 'green' garb, including a green roof, and an innovative HVAC system.

That building is nowhere near green. The floors are epoxy....that is peeling up all over the building. The HVAC system doesn't work that well, talk to the occupants on the 2nd and 3rd floors and they have problems with the temperatures staying within reasonable levels. It's a horror scene to many.

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Nothing's changed as of yesterday. The fence is up, there's a big hole in the ground, and there was heavy equipment parked at the back of the lot.

The last piece of heavy equipment was moved out of there a few months ago, it's now a big hole in the ground. Some of the fencing has fallen over but they've put it up. The signs that had on the green fencing are gone.

Rentenbach is out of the picture, they have been since the fall. Building was to have started in the fall, no action since. Last summer a new developer was brought in. A few weeks ago the electrical drop at the construction staging area was removed.

The company is moving people around, they were AR now they're Altura and AR manages the Chrysler Building.

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  • 2 months later...

Saw on Bidclerk the following entry:

Site work and new construction of a multi-residential structure in Asheville. Completed working drawings call for the construction of a 15-story, 202,205-square-foot multi-residential facility. Plans also include an above ground parking facility on the first and third floors.

This was posted on June 24th and was supposed to go to bid on July 9th, with construction starting in August. Wonder if this means Zona will actually get moving? According to their website they've sold 95 out of 161 units, or 59%.

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Saw on Bidclerk the following entry:

This was posted on June 24th and was supposed to go to bid on July 9th, with construction starting in August. Wonder if this means Zona will actually get moving? According to their website they've sold 95 out of 161 units, or 59%.

I bloody well hope so. Asheville desperately needs moderately-priced, attractive urban housing. One successful project could lead to an avalanche of others.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a friend who bought one, she was told that building would start in March. After nothing happened at all she pulled out and several others are trying now too. It seems like the Indigo Hotel, which started after Zona, will be done before Zona even gets past the hole in the ground stage. Make that a hole in the ground breeding mosquitoes stage.

I wonder if they've gotten into financial troubles.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update on ZL.

Construction is now to begin on September 16th. Talked to a few people that work in that building, AR seems to be running out of money. Janitorial services have been cut a bunch and many repairs and general maintenance are going unresolved....grass outside hasn't been trimmed in a while, 1 toilet has been out of order for well over a month, etc. Was downtown and heard that they might be changing contractors again.

Meanwhile the foundation for the building is a puddle of mud with several inches of water sitting there with some grass growing. Most of the fencing they put around it is falling down.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

So there's still absolutely nothing going on at this site. It's a giant mud puddle. Looked pretty deep, too.

I know, I was down there this evening. Huge lake and little more.

Talked to someone who works in that building and they said that the gravel lot to the east of the lake (building site) was to be the staging area. I say "was" because they parked in that lot not too long ago and were told to move it as the AR people hadn't paid the rent on it and could no longer use it. The power drop in the lot for the construction trailer is gone. Considering that they were supposed to be gearing up to start construction in September one would think that they would have a staging area/site trailer already in place. There is nothing there, no sign of any work at all. I asked if they've seen anyone out there, they said nope.

I'm tempted to toss a mosquito puck in there so the things don't start breeding in there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Never a dull moment on this one.

The dumpster for 162 was removed for non payment. The old printshop building next door (east of 162) that was supposedly to be bought by AR is how in the hands of the original owner, they've cleaned it up and are trying to rent it out. The gravel lot behind ZL (between it and the supplies place) is no longer available for AR use due to non payment (a clue since the staging stuff - trailer, drops, etc left a long time ago). Another building there that they supposedly had purchased is also back in the hands of the original owner. Original real estate agent on this one apparently has been dropped, was dropped months ago.

I think ZonaLofts is going to be renamed to ZonaPit, as that's what it is right now, a huge hole in the ground.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lots of activity here over the past few days.

Some of the warehouse space in that area is now up for lease again. The gray building on the SE corner of Buxton/Collier Alley how has a "for lease" sign on it and some of the space on the north side of Buxton (just west of Dirty Jack's) is now up for lease. The lady who owns the building that was once a printer/wine shop (just east of 162 Coxe) is up for lease also.

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I have a theory about this development. This is only speculation.

They rapidly sold out more than half of the units. Normally, that means construction can begin right away, but in Zona's case, the units that sold well were the cheap, small, low-floor ones, that therefore represented much less less than half of the total cost of construction. The low-floor units were so much cheaper than the upper floor units that it struck me that the developer was trying to subsidize the low prices for the lower-floor units with the higher prices of the upper-floor units and penthouses.

As for what this would accomplish:

(1) Sway public opinion: providing condos at a price point people can afford, therefore encounter less opposition.

(2) Can meet the lender's criteria of 50% sales very quickly.

However, perhaps the banks saw through this and never came through with a construction loan?

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However, perhaps the banks saw through this and never came through with a construction loan?

Good points indeed. A friend did some more searching, it looks like they took out a 3.2 mil loan and still owe the 3.2.....I can't believe that the 162 Coxe project cost 3.2, if so they got taken.

One thing that irked me about this project was that the design presented to council looked good....what was getting built was something totally different. Asheville needs to stop that, if you present building A then build it, not something stripped down and gutted.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It looks like Altura - who was working on Zona - is being circled by the vultures.

http://www.citizen-t...EWS01/301300033

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100212/NEWS01/100212038

WOODFIN — The company developing the upscale Altura community here has filed for Chapter 11bankruptcy, saying it has $40.6 million in debts.

The filing Monday allows Altura Communities LLC to stay in business while it reorganizes. It stops for now completion of the foreclosure sale of about 90 acres of its property that was the subject of an auction that began on the steps of the county courthouse Jan. 29, an official with related company Altura Global LLC said.

Several creditors have filed legal actions seeking collection of Altura Communities debt.

Altura Global CEO Frank Peterson said the company is “very confident” that it will get funding to continue development of the community, located about half a mile north of the Metropolitan Sewerage District treatment plant.

“Our funding will be in place in the next few weeks and we will begin to work through issues. We look forward to re-energizing the projects and creating a lot of new jobs for the local economy,” Peterson said.

Monday’s filing says Altura Communities had $6.5 million in income in 2007 and $3.7 million in 2008 and only $13,000 in assets. County tax records say Altura owns considerable acreage in the Altura development, which is planned to include about 200 acres.

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