Investment Property?

[hyunelan2]

The "downtown" that is being built for the city I work for is underway. Channahon never had a "central business district" like most towns, due to the fact that after the I&M canal was no longer important, and the railroad went through the next town over - the town basically died in the early 1900s. Since housing developments started in the 1970s, there's been steady developments of homes, but still no central business district.

So, the city held a design contest a few years ago, to "design a town center". It is going to be architecturally styled like an older downtown development, but is brand new. The 4 model homes they have built are all priced between $400K and $1 million. However, these are for the upper level housing of the area.

What I'm interested in, are the "brownstone houses." The best way to think of them is "Cosby show". The tall, somewhat-narrow brick 3 story houses. i just received final architecture plans on them last week:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/3storyrenderFINALLarge.jpg

When this was all under discussion a while ago, the projected price point of the brownstones was starting at $300K (probably more now). Expensive, yes. But can you imagine how much owning downtown property will be worth when all is said and done? When Naperville redeveloped their downtown, no-one expected that homes would all be selling for +$2million a few years later.


Floor plans range from about 3300 - 3600 feet.
http://ppthomes.com/ <- click on brownstones on that page

Here's the Site Plan (http://ppthomes.com/graphics/channahon_siteplan.jpg). The only things currently built are the Village Hall (where I work) and St. Ann's Church.

It's interesting to look at, even if not completely possible/plausible at the moment. So, who's got an extra few-hundred thousand $ laying around?

[kennef]

Looks like a neat project. That said, there are a ton of these master-planned mixed-use "towns" in the Metro Washington DC area. (side note: Washington DC is considered a master-planned city) It takes an unbelieveable amount of capital to make these work. I'm not sure where this might be located and what might be around this particular site but $1 million is a heck of a lot to pay for something like that. You can buy a row house similar to that for the same price in a very nice neighborhood in Washington DC, the inner harbor in Baltimore, etc.

The only true "Central Business Districts" around me are a hundred+ years old. They were created out of necessity. We're so lazy and our need for independence is so great these days, I'm not sure if the aging population (with the million dollars to spend) will warm up to this method of living.

So count me and my million dollars out on this particular investment. Now does anyone want to go in on a $50,000 shell of a row house in Baltimore? As long as you don't mind getting shot in one of the most dangerous cities in the US, it might be a fun project....

[xxxmonoxidechil]

what town are you from?

think of it this way, at least you dont have the problem we have in rockford with urban sprawl. this town was the production back bone of the state for too long, then just died out. there just now finding things to use the old factory's down town for such as high priced condo's and lofts and such.

[hyunelan2]

Yeah, I've got friends in Rockford, I'm up there probably about one weekend every 6 weeks.

I'm from just south of Plainfield. (which is just south of Aurora where the last meet was, for comparison's sake).

but $1 million is a heck of a lot to pay for something like that. You can buy a row house similar to that for the same price in a very nice neighborhood in Washington DC, the inner harbor in Baltimore, etc.


They're in the $300s, it's the single family ''mansions'' that are going for close to a million.

I don't think they'll go for as high as they are in Naperville (also near Aurora) - as that's yuppier than here, but our new subdivisions are catching up in price. The latest one that was just approved is starting at $499K.