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Dispatch: Weinland Park work fueled by tax dollars

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Started 4 months ago by lazyfish
Latest reply from labi

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weinland park

lazyfish

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Weinland Park work fueled by tax dollars
By Mark Ferenchik
The Columbus Dispatch
Monday January 23, 2012 6:51 AM

A wall in an office of Wagenbrenner Development is plastered with dozens of photos of houses in the Weinland Park neighborhood. Wagenbrenner is tracking about 120 houses in the area near Ohio State University to see who is buying them and whether the company should acquire those properties that were abandoned.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/23/weinland-park-work-fueled-by-tax-dollars.html

Posted 4 months ago #
Snarf
Dystopia
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how is it that it costs $233,698 to renovate a house that will sell for $130-160k?

Posted 4 months ago #
jimbach
Short North (WP division)
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Because a lot more work went into the redevelopment than simply putting up houses.

Posted 4 months ago #
rus

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Snarf said:
how is it that it costs $233,698 to renovate a house that will sell for $130-160k?

How does that make sense? Sounds like they're putting in more money than the thing is worth.

Posted 4 months ago #
dubdave00
Dublin
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I haven't been over there in a while. By "redeveloping", do they mean rehabbing the existing home?
Or did they tear down the old house and build new?

Posted 4 months ago #
cbus11

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rus said:
How does that make sense? Sounds like they're putting in more money than the thing is worth.

They are. The idea is that nice houses will attract good neighbors which will bring the area up. I am a little surprised they renovated a duplex though and kept it multi-family. It says they will live in one half while presumably renting out the other. I like the idea of renovating single family structures (which there are plenty) but keeping rental property in a tax abated, tax-payer subsidized, renovated house seems a little much. This seems especially true as property taxes have risen dramatically in the southern section of Wienland Park during the last assesment.

Posted 4 months ago #
rus

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cbus11 said:
They are. The idea is that nice houses will attract good nighbors which will bring the area up. I am a little surprised they renovated a duplex though and kept it multi-family. It says they will live in one half while presumably renting out the other. I like the idea of renovating single family structures (which there are plenty) but keeping rental property in a tax abated house seems a little much. This seems especially true as property taxes have risen dramatically in the southern section of Wienland Park during the last assesment.

Nice racket if you can get it, I guess.

Posted 4 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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dubdave00 said:
I haven't been over there in a while. By "redeveloping", do they mean rehabbing the existing home?
Or did they tear down the old house and build new?

Most of what Wagenbrenner has done so far is rebuild existing homes, but there are new builds on the way as well. Some photos, here:

http://www.columbusunderground.com/the-rebirth-of-weinland-park

Posted 4 months ago #
ExileOn6thSt
Weinland Park
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cbus11 said:
They are. The idea is that nice houses will attract good neighbors which will bring the area up. I am a little surprised they renovated a duplex though and kept it multi-family. It says they will live in one half while presumably renting out the other. I like the idea of renovating single family structures (which there are plenty) but keeping rental property in a tax abated, tax-payer subsidized, renovated house seems a little much. This seems especially true as property taxes have risen dramatically in the southern section of Wienland Park during the last assesment.

That was actually a mistake in the article. The rehabbed doubles have been turned into single family homes.

Posted 4 months ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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dubdave00 said:
I haven't been over there in a while. By "redeveloping", do they mean rehabbing the existing home?
Or did they tear down the old house and build new?

Most of the projects are gut rehabs. In a few cases, they have found too many structural issues to be able to save the house, so will demolish and start over. All of this follows design principles that were developed with neighborhood input, to ensure compatibility of new builds with the historic housing.

Meeting energy conservation/sustainability standards set at the city and federal levels increased the rehab costs quite a bit. Also, I believe all the houses are getting 2-car garages, so that pushes the cost/value higher as well. It was decided that these were necessary to make the rehabbed properties salable. Both things are rare in existing properties in WP, so comp values aren't really comparable.

Posted 4 months ago #
dubdave00
Dublin
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Thanks. I was just curious. I think the question that loomed in my head was, "Is it cheaper to rehab or just demolish and rebuild?" I don't ask that to suggest something should have been done differently. Lord knows I know very little about that stuff.

I've never done cost analysis but when I see a suburban new build that's larger than these homes, selling for a little bit more, and being built for less, I'm curious as to where the additional expenses are? Removal of old materials? The energy standards? Older infrastructure? City codes vs suburban codes? Or is it a combo of all of that which simply adds up? Sorry for being a tad clueless.

Posted 4 months ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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Everything is cheaper and easier to do when you're starting from scratch, compared to working around existing structure and conditions in a standing house. But we've really pushed to have as little demolition as possible in WP, because the character of the almost-intact historic housing stock is irreplaceable. It makes our neighborhood special.

I don't really know about city vs suburban building codes, but everything else you mention goes into the higher cost - in addition to how some pieces/parts for historic house rehabs just aren't the run-of-the-mill sizes and shapes that you can buy off the shelf now. Maybe others can comment more specifically. Some of the finishes in the WP rehabs may be nicer than in some suburban developments as well.

Posted 4 months ago #
rory
NW Short North
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dubdave00 said:
Thanks. I was just curious. I think the question that loomed in my head was, "Is it cheaper to rehab or just demolish and rebuild?" I don't ask that to suggest something should have been done differently. Lord knows I know very little about that stuff.

I've never done cost analysis but when I see a suburban new build that's larger than these homes, selling for a little bit more, and being built for less, I'm curious as to where the additional expenses are? Removal of old materials? The energy standards? Older infrastructure? City codes vs suburban codes? Or is it a combo of all of that which simply adds up? Sorry for being a tad clueless.

I believe what adds to the cost that you wouldn't get in a new build is the lead and asbestos abatement as far as removal goes. And you have to add some things. Since most houses are balloon framed you need to add fire blocks between the floors and replace the wooden girder holding up the first floor joists with a steel beam. Some of them, like the converted duplexes, have reconfigured floor plans so that adds up with new stairs etc. But quite a few studies show that revitalized historic neighborhoods appreciate faster than their new build counterparts so eventually the preserved street scape and extra added costs will pay off. So far everyone has been helpful in trying to preserve as much as possible of the historic housing stock. After all Weinland Park already has 97 buildings in the National Register and much of the rest is probably eligible too.

Posted 4 months ago #
christylwilliams
Olde Towne East
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Suburban builds are often done by large companies like M/I or Dominion, which benefit from economies of scale. They have cookie-cutter model packages where the costs are heavily managed and easily predictable. Plus, land is cheap and limitless out in nowheresville.

Posted 4 months ago #
dubdave00
Dublin
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rory said:
But quite a few studies show that revitalized historic neighborhoods appreciate faster than their new build counterparts so eventually the preserved street scape and extra added costs will pay off.

I have no doubt of that.
Thanks!

Posted 4 months ago #
cheap
Westgate
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christylwilliams said:
Suburban builds are often done by large companies like M/I or Dominion, which benefit from economies of scale. They have cookie-cutter model packages where the costs are heavily managed and easily predictable. Plus, land is cheap and limitless out in nowheresville.

ahh,the sweet fragrance of suburban hater bullshit.

nowheresville?land is cheap?lmao

what do the new houses being built in weiland park look like?

Posted 4 months ago #
hivner1
clintonville
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The headline is silly and pandering to the Dispatch commenters. Weird.

Posted 4 months ago #
mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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lol...I see one of the houses I am thinking about buying on the Wagenbrenner wall.

Posted 4 months ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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cheap said:
what do the new houses being built in weiNland park look like?

There are several photos in the thread Walker posted above:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/the-rebirth-of-weinland-park

Posted 4 months ago #