Blount Street Commons

[Jones_]

That map has changed some....after visiting the sales center I found out the Merrimon House (huge white mansion overlooking the Archdale Building) is being moved to the corner of Blount and Polk reducing the number of B lots there from 3 to 2. That will then have the Merrimon House next to (accross Polk) from the Lucy Capeheart House(Tan Brick, Romanesque style maybe?), your favorite I believe Jojo. The groupings are smart I believe, with the biggest being put along Blount, and the smaller ones along Person St. The Brown one along Wilmington (facing Revenue) will be turned around and brought straight back to Blount, the Blue one at Peace/Wilminton wil also be turned around and brought straight back to Blount and the green one facing the new AIA site will be brought over with the other two by Murphy School (6 total moves county the two already moved). The Andrews-London dependency is also being moved closer to its rear (accross North from the "Munster" Heck-Andrews House), for a total of 7 moved structures.

[JeffC]

Are any traffic calming measures planned along Wilmington headed towards Peace from Jones and Lane? I see cars routinely hit 45 mph+ roaring down that strip like it is the speedway. Parallel parking on both sides of the street would help, so would conversion to two way traffic, although that would screw up all the traffic patterns and parking ingress/egress all around the Halifax Mall.

[ncwebguy]

Yes, the Merrimon house is being moved to the "B" site on the NE Polk/Blount corner. I made the mistake of suggesting we stop by the sales center a few weekends ago and my wife has been stalking/coveting the moved Merrimon house since. It has seen its share of neglect, but will be an amazing residence for someone with the deep pockets to restore it properly.

I'd love to see a stoplight or raised crosswalk on Wilmington at North and/or Polk, but won't be holding my breath on that one. Maybe a bike lane on the west side, two lanes, and angled parking on the east side in front of the garden flats, minus the bus stop area?

[Jones_]

Unrestored the Merrimon House will still be in the 600-800k range with the lot. Restored value should exceed a million. I forget the exact number but I believe its over 4000 sqft.

[richthofen]

So from what I'm seeing the Heck-Andrews house is *not* included in this project? That's kind of depressing...definitely my favorite house in Raleigh and I wish it would see the benefit of a private owner restoration. Granted, the state did a very nice job with the exterior when they fixed it up a few years ago, but as I understand it there's still basically nothing inside...

[Jones_]

So from what I'm seeing the Heck-Andrews house is *not* included in this project? That's kind of depressing...definitely my favorite house in Raleigh and I wish it would see the benefit of a private owner restoration. Granted, the state did a very nice job with the exterior when they fixed it up a few years ago, but as I understand it there's still basically nothing inside...

Correct, Heck-Andrews is being kept by the State for formal entertaining and events that include the high-ups such as the governor...

[miamiblue]

Got this email today from the Blount St Commons sales team:

April 19^th we

[bsc]

Those lots have design covenants on them, don't they? I mean, you couldn't go and put up a gas station or Walgreens, could you? That would totally defeat the purpose of the complex, wouldn't it?

This is definitely a situation where you need egotistical rich people. ERP's have built most of the world's greatest residential architecture...

Because these lots are in the historic district overlay, anything built on the lots must be approved by the Historic District Commission and their goal is to keep the character of the neighborhood that currently exists.

[bsc]

The Row Homes, Carriage Homes, Residences at Person's Corner, Retail space, homesites and several historic homes are all for sale. There were 5 historic homes for sale, but 3 have reservations on them and 2 of the 6 homesites have reservations. Things are going well!

[tdiddyncsu]

I looked at potentially reserving & purchasing a Row Home back when they were first available for reservation. While I found the prices pretty reasonable for what you got (size, quality & location), I was astonished at just how high the HOA dues were. If I remember correctly they were going to be $225 a month! I just couldn't justify that cost, so sadly had to pass...

[Jones_]

I looked at potentially reserving & purchasing a Row Home back when they were first available for reservation. While I found the prices pretty reasonable for what you got (size, quality & location), I was astonished at just how high the HOA dues were. If I remember correctly they were going to be $225 a month! I just couldn't justify that cost, so sadly had to pass...

Not to sound like a jerk, but you are not up to speed on what it takes to run an HOA nowadays. My HOA is 300 (I am on the board) and we bank less than we would like to for long term stuff. We have lots of amenities (pool, huge grounds, big weight room, security)and utilities (water/sewer, trash, cable TV). People living in our community never complain...its only the potential buyers. For such huge amounts of open space to mantain, paved areas that need to be replaced down the road, insurance, management fees, I think $225 is about right. Did you ask what it includes?

[Gard]

I looked at potentially reserving & purchasing a Row Home back when they were first available for reservation. While I found the prices pretty reasonable for what you got (size, quality & location), I was astonished at just how high the HOA dues were. If I remember correctly they were going to be $225 a month! I just couldn't justify that cost, so sadly had to pass...

Wow thats pretty high for what I'm accustomed to for HOA dues. Mine is a whole $79/month, but we have no pool, no nothing. It covers the basics and thats pretty much it.

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

Not to sound like a jerk, but you are not up to speed on what it takes to run an HOA nowadays. My HOA is 300 (I am on the board) and we bank less than we would like to for long term stuff. We have lots of amenities (pool, huge grounds, big weight room, security)and utilities (water/sewer, trash, cable TV). People living in our community never complain...its only the potential buyers. For such huge amounts of open space to mantain, paved areas that need to be replaced down the road, insurance, management fees, I think $225 is about right. Did you ask what it includes?

If my HOA included all that you list above then yea, $300 is a bargin, but most places don't include water, sewer, trash, cable tv. IMHO most simply include yard maintance and the outside/roof of the buildings...and $300 then would be WAY out of line...IMHO!!!

[ChiefJoJo]

The Row Homes, Carriage Homes, Residences at Person's Corner, Retail space, homesites and several historic homes are all for sale. There were 5 historic homes for sale, but 3 have reservations on them and 2 of the 6 homesites have reservations. Things are going well!

Back on the topic of BSC... that's good to hear. Wonder what the construction schedule is for the different tracts? Last I saw of the site, it appeared everything was graded out and utilities were mostly prepared. I'd love to see the Peace/Person corner built ASAP to add some much needed street retail to that area.

[miamiblue]

I looked at potentially reserving & purchasing a Row Home back when they were first available for reservation. While I found the prices pretty reasonable for what you got (size, quality & location), I was astonished at just how high the HOA dues were. If I remember correctly they were going to be $225 a month! I just couldn't justify that cost, so sadly had to pass...

Huh? Something doesn't compute here. You are willing to plunk down $300k+ for a Row Home, but you're complaning about $225 a month HOA dues?

I am not familiar with how HOA works for Row Homes. Does it include any structural insurance like a condo, or does it just cover maintenance? As a comparison, the townhouse style condos in the Cameron Village area are selling for about half of what the Row Homes are going for and the HOA is $185/month, but I am not sure what this covers.

[tdiddyncsu]

The HOA dues for the Row Homes included landscaping and external maintenance of the home. It did not include any utilities, no weight room, no pool, etc. Maybe I am out of touch with HOA dues, but currently I live in a nice townhome community with an olympic size outdoor pool, an indoor pool, large weight room, tennis court, sand volleyball court, a clubhouse and my dues are $110 a month.

If I had a choice, I would pay a higher purchase price for the home rather than pay high HOA dues because at least you can recover that when you sell. HOA dues, while necessary for maintenance (to a point), obviously cannot be recovered. Thus, the higher they are, the more of a deterrent to me when considering a purchase.

[Jones_]

The HOA dues for the Row Homes included landscaping and external maintenance of the home. It did not include any utilities, no weight room, no pool, etc. Maybe I am out of touch with HOA dues, but currently I live in a nice townhome community with an olympic size outdoor pool, an indoor pool, large weight room, tennis court, sand volleyball court, a clubhouse and my dues are $110 a month.

If I had a choice, I would pay a higher purchase price for the home rather than pay high HOA dues because at least you can recover that when you sell. HOA dues, while necessary for maintenance (to a point), obviously cannot be recovered. Thus, the higher they are, the more of a deterrent to me when considering a purchase.

Townhomes and Condos have very different needs. In a condo, a building-wide insurance policy is necessary, in a townhome you completely insure your own structure. Condos often have different fire protection requirments...we maintain a company to inspect and monitor the sprinkler and alarm system. Also condos have a large tax bill to pay for the common property. It does sound high if they are deeded as townhomes. As condos (even if the floorplan looks like a townhome) and it makes better sense. Landscaping contracts are very expensive...just pinestraw runs many thousands of dollars and BSC has many more acres to take care of and not many more residences than my place so maybe it makes sense.

Having agreed with you that they may be a little high (trust me its better than them being low then finding out your HOA is broke later on) I disagree on the recovery of costs etc. HOA dues function just like the price of your house roof, fixing broken driveways, taking a tree off your garage, mowing your grass, etc does at your home. These necessary cost(s) maintain your investment. But the value does not increase necessarily according to how much you spend on upkeep...you really have no way of knowing how much your house will go up in value so you have no idea how much of your maintenance costs will be recovered. Regardless, everyone in my neighborhood agrees that they spend far far less in dues than they ever did over a year to maintain a house. All in all, after being on a HOA board, I can assure you, I will never by a condo or townhome without first looking over the finances of the HOA in detail. For BSC, I would encourage you to ask for a detailed budget and judge the future stability of the HOA on that. A stable HOA is excellent security for your investment, which is a big part of why they exist.

I get the sense that BSC is being smartly put together, so really I am just trying to get you to not be so quickly deterred.

[tdiddyncsu]

I apologize if my comments on the HOA dues have indicated that I don't like BSC as a project - I honestly think it's a great idea. Just a comment as to why I decided against moving forward with a purchase (just a personal opinion).

Also, to clarify - the Row Homes and the Carriage Homes are essentially townhomes. The Live/Work/Play dwellings are condos.

[Jones_]

I apologize if my comments on the HOA dues have indicated that I don't like BSC as a project - I honestly think it's a great idea. Just a comment as to why I decided against moving forward with a purchase (just a personal opinion).

Also, to clarify - the Row Homes and the Carriage Homes are essentially townhomes. The Live/Work/Play dwellings are condos.

I think its a good thing to talk about though, so thanks for bringing it up. "Essentially" doesn't matter. They could still be deeded as condos and that should be clarified to buyers. In a condo you never own any structure or land("paint to paint"). In a townhome, you own both.

[ncwebguy]

I keep meaning to update this, but forget since it was not on the top page.

The old DMV building at Peace and Blount was torn down and a fence was erected from Blount to where Wilmington would have intersected with Peace Street.

Also, the two houses closest to Peace College near what used to be the SE Wilmington/Peace corner are being prepped to move. But the Hinsdale house (white, set further back) did not look like it had been touched yet. This is the area where the AIA is moving to. The houses will be moved to Blount for the "Millionaire's row" being pieced together there.

I don't know when the houses are going to be moved, but I didn't see any foundations poured so it may be a few weeks yet.

[Jones_]

I keep meaning to update this, but forget since it was not on the top page.

The old DMV building at Peace and Blount was torn down and a fence was erected from Blount to where Wilmington would have intersected with Peace Street.

Also, the two houses closest to Peace College near what used to be the SE Wilmington/Peace corner are being prepped to move. But the Hinsdale house (white, set further back) did not look like it had been touched yet. This is the area where the AIA is moving to. The houses will be moved to Blount for the "Millionaire's row" being pieced together there.

I don't know when the houses are going to be moved, but I didn't see any foundations poured so it may be a few weeks yet.

The green house is going to Wilminton St near Murphy School, and its footings appeared to be in place with rebar. I think what you call the Hinsdale house is really the Merrimon. (The blue one is the Jordan house, not sure about the green one). AIA is going in the triangle shaped sliver between old Wilminton and the curved realignment...not sure if thats what you meant or not....I think the site plan had a commercial building on the old squared off alignment of Wilmington.

[ncwebguy]

The Dodd-Hinsdale house, now Second Empire Restaurant, in its "bad old days" reminded me of the Merriman house for some reason, and I've been getting their names confused since my wife found out the Merriman house's name from the sales center.

From this master plan posted by ChiefJoJo earlier, the AIA will take the "site H office" next to the gardens between it and Peace St. As you posted after that, the plan has since been revised, moving the Merriman house to the NE Blount/Polk corner.

I guess that will all be greenspace, but it seems like a lot considering there is another greenspace a block over in the state govt. complex.

[Jones_]

Dodd-Hinsdale 1879, Merrimon 1876, so there are lots of architectural similarities.

[bsc]

The green house is going to Wilminton St near Murphy School, and its footings appeared to be in place with rebar. I think what you call the Hinsdale house is really the Merrimon. (The blue one is the Jordan house, not sure about the green one). AIA is going in the triangle shaped sliver between old Wilminton and the curved realignment...not sure if thats what you meant or not....I think the site plan had a commercial building on the old squared off alignment of Wilmington.

The Jordan house is being moved to the corner of Blount and Peace where the DMV building was just torn down. It's foundation will be dug towards the end of June and the house will be moved shortly after that. Towards the end of July, the Watson house (green) will be moved and it's going by the Murphy School where you all mentioned. Lastly, the Merrimon Wynne house will move to the NE corner of Blount and Polk where lots will be combined for a grand setting.

Now, four of six lots are reserved and three of the five historic homes are reserved. New construction sales are going well too and the construction for Row Homes and Carriage Homes should start really soon.

The HOA does include fire insurance on the Carriage Homes and Row Homes because they are deeded as condos. The $225 includes the master association fees (parks and road maintenance) as well as the sub-association fees (insurance, exterior maintenance, building landscaping, etc).

[miamiblue]

The HOA does include fire insurance on the Carriage Homes and Row Homes because they are deeded as condos. The $225 includes the master association fees (parks and road maintenance) as well as the sub-association fees (insurance, exterior maintenance, building landscaping, etc).

That clears things up. To me, that sounds like a reasonable HOA fee considering it includes all of those things for homes at that price point.