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1415 Lake Drive - Kingsley Bldg - Redevelopment


GRDadof3

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Sweet!* Many's the time I've sat outside Kava House or Bombay Cuisine and imagined the inside of that place hollowed out with four, steep balconies looking down on a stage. Usually an in-the-round performance by Rolling Stones for an intimate crowd of about 1,500 . I suppose retail would be my second choice ;)

* I reserve the right to be less enthused when floors of high-end apartments are announced for the upper floors.

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Sweet!* Many's the time I've sat outside Kava House or Bombay Cuisine and imagined the inside of that place hollowed out with four, steep balconies looking down on a stage. Usually an in-the-round performance by Rolling Stones for an intimate crowd of about 1,500 . I suppose retail would be my second choice ;)

* I reserve the right to be less enthused when floors of high-end apartments are announced for the upper floors.

Whoa, that would be sweet. I'm not sure what he has planned for the upper floors.

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Yea, it would be really nice if this whole building was redone and the upper floors were converted into apartments. No, not high end apartments, or even income based apartments, just regular ol apartments that people who work in the neighborhood can afford. I dunno how this eyesore blended in to other people, but I'm glad something is finally happening to it. They ought to add a few windows on the upper floors while their at it!

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I thought I read somewhere (here?) a few years ago that the upper floors of this building were not suitable for development because they aren't tall enough. (Unless he's planning on high-rise hobbit housing.)

Yes, that's what Nitro told us back when he was still posting inside information, post #6 in this thread:

Nitro's post

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Nice find Walker - I thought was interesting as well. I forgot we had been here before:

So Sad!

"Bazzani had designs on the potential-filled Kent Record Management/Zondervan warehouse building, but those came apart when the state said no to the historic tax credits that would have been needed to convert the building into apartments and retail space"

So do you think he's getting help from the state this time? The articles don't say.

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Nice find Walker - I thought was interesting as well. I forgot we had been here before:

So do you think he's getting help from the state this time? The articles don't say.

Doubt it. Kent Record has a huge facility elsewhere, and I think this facility is no longer significantly used. My guess is the current owners are keeping it and opening up the bottom floor to attempt to get some extra revenue, without any State aid. I could be wrong, but we'll see. Opening by fall would be a pretty quick time for something with red tape attached.

As far as selling it with some major reinvestment, there is nothing to indicate the building has been sold. Last time anything happened was a land contract at $1.735mm (which looks like it was an inter-family thing or partnership shakeup). Good luck getting even close to that today after it was reassessed from 370k to $1mm in '09. Current owners are capped in at 370k. Sell it, and the taxes jump $31,000.00 a year, which has the overall affect of making this thing worth ~$400,000.00 less than it used to be. Ouch. Of course, maybe that's their own fault for advertising it for a way-too-high $1.9 million. Really? It's a WAREHOUSE spread over a few floors (who wants that for warehouse use these days), and only has two dock doors, and they wanted $22.00 a foot. Uh-huh. Market for that is less than half of that unless you can find some specuvestor with Eastown condo dreams.

Long run, though, it really would be nice to see some use made of the additional floors in this building. It suspect there is good potential for something that could use large amounts of warehousing with a small store frontage. More antique stores, perhaps, or a downtown movie emporium? Heck, why not a multi-level Meijer? :)

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. . . Long run, though, it really would be nice to see some use made of the additional floors in this building. It suspect there is good potential for something that could use large amounts of warehousing with a small store frontage. More antique stores, perhaps, or a downtown movie emporium? Heck, why not a multi-level Meijer? :)

This space reminds me of the old wholesale furniture showroom buildings that the manufacturers had back in the residential "Furniture Capital" days. Being that it is near the border of a high income area, maybe an imaginative high-end furniture retailer (or some other retailer that needs low rent showroom space) could make a go of it here if the price was right. Maybe this is where Bob Isreals should have put Klingman's instead of on 28th Street in Wyoming. But then maybe my thinking is just as impractical as his turned out to be.

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Doubt it. Kent Record has a huge facility elsewhere, and I think this facility is no longer significantly used. My guess is the current owners are keeping it and opening up the bottom floor to attempt to get some extra revenue, without any State aid. I could be wrong, but we'll see. Opening by fall would be a pretty quick time for something with red tape attached.

As far as selling it with some major reinvestment, there is nothing to indicate the building has been sold. Last time anything happened was a land contract at $1.735mm (which looks like it was an inter-family thing or partnership shakeup). Good luck getting even close to that today after it was reassessed from 370k to $1mm in '09. Current owners are capped in at 370k. Sell it, and the taxes jump $31,000.00 a year, which has the overall affect of making this thing worth ~$400,000.00 less than it used to be. Ouch. Of course, maybe that's their own fault for advertising it for a way-too-high $1.9 million. Really? It's a WAREHOUSE spread over a few floors (who wants that for warehouse use these days), and only has two dock doors, and they wanted $22.00 a foot. Uh-huh. Market for that is less than half of that unless you can find some specuvestor with Eastown condo dreams.

Long run, though, it really would be nice to see some use made of the additional floors in this building. It suspect there is good potential for something that could use large amounts of warehousing with a small store frontage. More antique stores, perhaps, or a downtown movie emporium? Heck, why not a multi-level Meijer? :)

It always seemed a bit high to me as well. eventually they will come to their senses and adjust their price. it takes a while for reality to set in unfortunately for some people.

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Still the best source of local information.

We're just resting. (practicing for Monty Python Status Day)

I've determined that many of them are basically lazy. I should make up stuff and watch them chase it around for a while. :rofl:

Oh wait, I've already done that before...

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It's too bad the Sheldon Cleaners @ Lake Dr/Robinson couldn't be persuaded to relocate. With that eyesore gone, the renovation Bazzani is planning would have a much higher visibility. That, coupled with the rehab of the old bank building across the street would certainly make a great entrance to Eastown coming from the west. (In my mind, I see one of Apples glass entry cubes, welcoming you to their new Eastown store but my mind has been known to wander pretty far off the beaten path.)

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Are they going to restore the clock? Read an article years ago when Kent Records put a plastic clock over the top of the original (beautiful) clock. The owner of Kent Records was very careful to not damage the old clock, hoping it would be restored in the future; he just didn't have the funds to restore it then. Hope it is part of this project.

Joe

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Kent Record has a huge facility elsewhere, and I think this facility is no longer significantly used. My guess is the current owners are keeping it and opening up the bottom floor to attempt to get some extra revenue, without any State aid.

Pretty close.

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A big chunk of the old first floor wall was uncovered as of about 10AM this morning, with some nice archways and terra cotta tile starting to peek through. A big thanks to Kent Record and Bazzani for finally getting this building back to the way it always should have been.

Looked like they had a dumpster out front today. Exciting to see this moving already!

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A big chunk of the old first floor wall was uncovered as of about 10AM this morning, with some nice archways and terra cotta tile starting to peek through. A big thanks to Kent Record and Bazzani for finally getting this building back to the way it always should have been.

Omg someone get pics pleeaase!!!

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On closer inspection yesterday, the terra cotta is in decent shape, but there's going to be some fairly significant repair required. The faux "pebble finish" looks like it was held down by 2x4s which were anchored into the original glazed terra cotta tiles. There are also a number of cracks that look like they may have been inappropriately filled with portland cement-based concrete in the past, which will likely cause some spalling if it hasn't already. Fortunately, there are some really nice products on the market today for repairing terra cotta tiles. I'm just crossing my fingers that "acrylic latex caulk" isn't in the list of material to be used for repairs. :)

On the bright side, the whole thing was saved from more than 50 years of weathering, which should have helped the rest of it quite nicely.

Omg someone get pics pleeaase!!!

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