The view from the stucco rooftop patio is worth a million bucks,
but what about the 1,700-square-foot condo below?
The view from the stucco rooftop patio is worth a million bucks, but what about the 1,700-square-foot condo below?
The nonprofit Garlic Festival and Tanglewood Construction hope their unique downtown product – which includes 9,000-square-feet in ground-floor office space for the two entities and another 4,000 for two additional tenants – will sell itself in a sour housing market. Just look how the building, a kaleidoscope of soft beige and bold tope, includes underground parking, rooftop access, innovative entertainment set-ups and light-drowned units thanks to the expansive bay windows in every unit, the developers said.
Throughout April developers will determine the exact prices, projected to begin at about $300,000, for the 24 individual condos that fit together like puzzle pieces on the corner of Lewis and Monterey streets, said festival Executive Director Brian Bowe and local developer Jeff Martin.
The two will probably ask the unknown amount they initially planned to, they said, because as the market inflated since construction began in November 2006, so did their original asking prices. As it deflated, though, the two said they reacted by adding amenities like rooftop access, which will make any summertime soiree a hit as downtown music festivals and car shows hum below.
Yes, it’s the best view in town – even eye level with the Eagle Ridge neighborhood off in the hilly distance – but it will take another month before workers tuck away the first-floor insulation ducts hanging from the ceilings like elephant trunks and pick up the discarded screws littering the dusty, echo-friendly stairwells.
The final phase of construction also appears outside the building’s backdoor, where a courtyard rivals the size of a basketball court.
Soon the dirt culverts and small mounds of soil will give way to a barbecue pit, a fountain, trees and concrete walkways. Looking down on the brown maze from a rear balcony, the railroad tracks appear (but the train’s hard to hear through the triple-pane windows), and beyond sits the partially built Cannery project. To sell some of those houses, South County Housing will hold an auction April 20, but Martin said he and his team won’t consider such a sell-off event, although “we’re going to have the benefit of watching the auction.”
“We have a very unique product here, so our lenders are not as testy,” Martin said.
Bowe agreed and said innovations such as his so-called media control panel contributed to that. The white box in each condo’s closet allows residents to assign phone jacks and outlets certain roles (e.g., satellite in the bedroom, DSL in the living room on one side and Verizon phone on the other). This has helped lure about 100 interested buyers who have registered their interest at 7600online.com. Young professionals and so-called empty nesters dominate the roster, they said.
“Maybe I’m foolish, but I’m optimistic – I mean, look at this,” Martin said as he twirled around a vacant, sun-drenched living room, nodding toward the kitchen island’s granite countertop and stainless steel appliances.
“You want to be friends with the guy who owns this place,” Bowe added shortly thereafter out on a rooftop balcony.
This is the Garlic Festival’s first venture into housing, and Bowe said it’s too early to tell whether it will be worth it. Pending successful sales, though, the festival will split any profits evenly with Tanglewood and then reinvest them into the nonprofit Garlic Festival and donate the rest to local charities.
The festival initially planned to buy a mere 6,000-square-foot office building on Eigleberry Street when it decided to move out of the Monterey Street building it shares with the Chamber of Commerce, which will assume the entire building once Bowe and company move out. At least that was the plan until Community Development Director Wendie Rooney stepped in.
“We took a large leap of faith with Wendie (Rooney) prodding us,” said Martin, adding that downtown fee waivers made the larger, multi-use project an attractive option. “It was the perfect storm … This town’s better for this building,” Martin said.
Jaime Sornberger certainly cannot wait for the new residents to move in.
As a stylist at Head to Toes Salon across Lewis Street, Sornberger said the addition of underground parking will make a big difference, and if the condominiums above her have been any indication, she’ll likely get new clients, as well.
“More foot traffic will help us because we’re a new salon that opened in January,” Sornberger said. “I’m definitely excited.”
There are 267 residential units under construction downtown, and 187 units are either under review or already approved by the city, according to planning documents. The 210-unit Cannery Project – part of which has been put on hold temporarily by South County Housing – is the largest of these projects.
Outside earlier this month, dozens of construction workers milled about the property, angling the sidewalk outside the front of the building, mixing concrete and pressure-washing a few mistakes off the stucco here and there. But you couldn’t notice anything from the rooftop.
