Tuesday, October 18, 2005

More News on the County Building at 8th and I

Here is the staff report for this week:
http://www.ceo.saccounty.net/pio/press-releases/2005/docs/10/Media-Tip-Sheet-10-17-05.pdf

Looks like the tower will be 295+ units ranging from 700 - 1600 sf priced between 350K - 675K. Plus, 5000 sf retail and 30-45K Office.

They list another reason for going with Horton is due to the fact that this development would target the more moderate buyer, versus the higher-end units that are out there right now.

This is really good.

Some affordable housing units in downtown. (At least compared to the other proposals out there) 1600 sf will go for about $420 a sf, versus well over $500 a sf at Aura or 301 CM. It also mentions the prices are somewhat based on views, elevation, details and penthouse orientation. A place on the lower floor will mostly likey be even more "affordable"

From the report:
"Although there are various ownership residential development proposals currently being proposed downtown, the Selection Committee felt this proposed project addresses a different market, the moderate homebuyer, and is best suited for this area."

3 comments:

Uneasy Rhetoric said...

Sounds like an interesting development, but I think the county is fooling themselves if they think the prices really address a different market. Perhaps a *slightly* more "moderate" market, but not by much. The smallest units, based on your quoted prices, are still $500/sq ft, and any "family sized" unit (lets say 1200 sq ft or more) will still be half a million dollars. Maybe that's moderate in today's market, but it still sounds a little rich to me. Not Aura rich, but still a bit on the higher income side.

I will agree with this part though:
This project offers generous square footage and comparable pricing for downtown properties. The sizes are somewhat more generous than other developments (for the price).

BTW, your link to the staff report isn't working...I think Blogger must have truncated it.

GA said...

Let's try that again...

http://www.ceo.saccounty.net/pio/press-releases/2005/docs/10/Media-Tip-Sheet-10-17-05.pdf

GA said...

Unfortunately, for high-rises, I think this may be about as good as it gets, unless public subsides start kicking in, which the city does have a good amount of redevelopment funds available. I really hope we do see some true affordable projects come along. All income level need to be provided for in what we are seeing become a "new" downtown.

I don’t think we are going to see any high-rise buildings selling for less than $400 a square foot without it.

They are just too damn expensive to build with the increase in building material costs over the last couple of years, land and general cost of developing in California. There was a really good series of articles in the journal a couple weeks ago about housing affordability and obstacles.

A Mid-Rise? I think we could see them get into the $300 per sf.

If you are really looking to buy downtown, I would really look at Capitol Lofts. The city approved a subsidy for that project in back Dec 2002. I would imagine the city and the developer agreed on a specific price in which they can be sold at if a subsidy was going to provided.