UPdate on DOWNtown - Keys to Urban Housing - June 3 Noon - CMC

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UPdate on DOWNtown - Keys to Urban Housing - June 3 Noon - CMC

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Started 3 years ago by Walker
Latest reply from Walker

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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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UPdate on DOWNtown
Keys to Urban Housing

Michael DeAscentis, Principle, Lifestyle Communities; Jeff Edwards, The Edwards Companies; Kyle Katz, The Katz Interests; Kevin Wood, M E Companies, co-founder Downtown ResidentsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Association of Columbus (DRAC); Moderator, Walker Evans, Founder, ColumbusUnderground.com

Ever since Mayor Michael Coleman threw out the challenge to local developers to produce 10,000 units, building downtown housing has been all the rage.

HowÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s that working out for you?

In some cases, great. Others, not so good. One project sells before units are finished and others languish on the realtor websites. So what is it that creates hot demand for some downtown housing and other units gather cobwebs?

LetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s find out from some of the leading developers of downtown housing.

With Support from: The Athletic Club of Columbus

More here: http://www.columbusmetroclub.org/Default.aspx?pageId=49313&eventId=61455&EventViewMode=EventDetails

Posted 3 years ago #
Columbusite
Minneapolis
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The reason there are only a few new developments going on now (it was all the rage when several developments were occurring) is due to what I stated before and that is developers not understanding how to make their development work in an urban context. We all know that much of Downtown just outside of Capitol Square is parking lots with nothing else nearby. They did not capitalize by all building in one small area of Downtown with great potential (Gay & High area) to create energy that would benefit all of them. We could have filled in that lot off of that intersection on High with numerous condos w/retail to help revitalize that empty stretch of High St making it and Gay St a great duo. Unfortunately, the city is to have some blame since they offered developers incentives to build anywhere Downtown without pointing them to the best locations. Developers obviously could have used the advice. Unlike the burbs, you can't just plop a condo in the middle of nowhere, expect people to gobble it up, and see lots of other development sprout up around it. Doesn't work that way. If you're buying in an urban location you want urban amenities and much of Downtown lacks these.

I've touched upon the effects of the "Cars are king" layout that exists in much of Downtown in other threads relevant to developments (lower property values, etc). In this case I hope the city learned that developers want calmed, two-way streets. Without Edwards and Lifestyles, Gay and Front would never be converted to two-way streets. The city needs to be proactive in providing a network of these which connects to neighborhoods bordering Downtown, or at least up to the highway barrier between them. I'll have to DVR this when it's on TV.

edit: Any graph with the number of Downtown residents starting in the year when they started this effort? It almost doubled awhile ago to 5,500 being the highest figure, but I have seen a new figure for quite some time. Oh well, we only need 5,500 more (residents, not empty units) to reach critical mass by 2012, but unfortunately, I don't remember where that figure is from and it may not be a very conservative estimate. In any case, it would certainly not result in all of Downtown being a lively place, only a smaller, but sizeable fraction.

Posted 3 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Columbusite wrote >>
The reason there are only a few new developments going on now...

I agree that a concentrated effort works out better than one more spread out... but don't you think that the main reason that development has slowed (everywhere) has more to do with the troubles that many financial institutions are finding themselves in lately?

Posted 3 years ago #
Columbusite
Minneapolis
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In part, yes, but if developers had focused on one area to re-energize I'm certain that we'd have seen more development already under construction than we're seeing now. The bad economy doesn't seem to answer why Grandview Yard and all the new residential development north of 270 are going forward.

Posted 3 years ago #
ThisGuy

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So what you are saying is that all of the competing developers should have gotten together and decided that they would all focus on developing in one small area of the downtown? Seriously?

Posted 3 years ago #
Columbusite
Minneapolis
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They can build/renovate a condo building in the middle of nothing and see what happens. Oh wait, they did and that didn't work out so well. Developers should have known which few locations Downtown are best suited for revitalization.

Posted 3 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Today! :D

Posted 2 years ago #
KenOC
Columbus
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Looking forward to it...

Posted 2 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Thanks to everyone who came out for this. Great panel of speakers and good crowd. :D

Posted 2 years ago #
JimSweeney
E. Fton
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Great job Walker. It was very interesting. Too bad there wasn't more time though.

Posted 2 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Yeah, it's definitely a topic that we could spend days discussing. :D

Posted 2 years ago #
KenOC
Columbus
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Good job walker.

I enjoyed it.

Posted 2 years ago #
Likes Old Houses
Harrison West
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Will a replay or transcript be available soon?

Posted 2 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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They record the events and post them on their website as well as air them on TV. It usually takes a few weeks for them to appear, and I'll be sure to post up a link. :D

Posted 2 years ago #
jpizzow
580 N. Park St.
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Any mention of new developments in the pipeline??

Posted 2 years ago #
ZHC
101 East Main Street, Downtown
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Hunh was interesting (nice to meet you KenOC), more or less reconfirmed what I already thought/knew about the downtown housing situation.

Posted 2 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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jpizzow wrote >>
Any mention of new developments in the pipeline??

Not from these specific developers, no. This was more of an assessment of the current housing scenario, as ZHC just mentioned, not a press conference to announce new developments. They shared a lot of good information on some of the challenges that they've faced with developing downtown, talking about the current state of the market, and provided a bit of insight (although not quite as many predictions) looking forward into the future over the next few years.

Overall, I'd say that these developers and experts seem cautiously optimistic. The national market is still hurting right now, but there are projects still moving forward with construction downtown, and I think that while everyone is expecting the start of a rebound soon, nobody wants to make any outlandish overestimations on when we'll see the next projects taking place.

Personally, I love speculating. It's fun. But I also don't have my finances or my business riding on that speculation like they do. If I did, I'm sure I'd be much more conservative in my outlook on the short-term future of the real estate market.

Posted 2 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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This has been available on OhioChannel.org for quite awhile now, but I forgot to post up a video link to it. So here it is. If you'd like to reminisce about the state of Downtown Housing back in June 2009, then click on the image below to watch.

Posted 2 years ago #