[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaQXh08WY2U]Two months after I posted about NYC's thinnest townhouses, the skinniest of them all is apparently renovated and for sale, whipping the real estate gossip mill into high gear. From Sara Polsky at Curbed (with before and after photos of renovation): "'The half is back!' proclaimed an excited e-mail from a tipster this morning. And indeed it is: 75 1/2 Bedford Street, NYC's skinniest house, is back on the market. Dramatic price increases with each flip attempt are nothing new for the townhouse, which sold for $1.6 million in 2000, was asking $2.75 million in 2009, and found a buyer willing to pay $2.175 million in early 2010. Even so, the new price is a whopper at $4.3 million. " From the London Daily Mail (with images including floorplans): "The narrowest house in the city, once home to Cary Grant and a modern tourist attraction in its own right, has gone on sale for a whopping $4.3million - double what it sold for just one year ago. That's some $4,343 per square foot. The hefty price increase is down to the renovations at number 75 1/2 Bedford St - though at just 9.5ft wide and 30ft deep, it's hard to envision what sort of renovations could have justified such a cost." From Stacey Doyle at the Examiner: "Proving size doesn't matter when it comes to coveted housing in New York City, the skinniest house in the city just hit the market for $4.3 million. It was built in the mid 1800s to fill in a carriage entrace leading to the property next door. The home was host to famous folks such as John Barrymore, Cary Grant, Margaret Mead and Edna St. Vincent Millay. The Greenwich Village home is three-story, 990-square feet. A balcony overlooks a garden." Bloomberg even has video (from last sale).
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Update on Over-the-Rhine Revitalization
Back in the fall my previous employer sent me to Cincinnati for a few days, and I got an education. Not only are old townhouses being preserved and new ones built, but such efforts are part of a larger economic development agenda with broad stakeholder support -- neighborhood revitalization the way it was meant to be. This past weekend the newspaper of record, the New York Times, took note of Over-the-Rhine's success with a slideshow of new shops and restaurants (click to see the NYT photos, which are copy protected; the photo above is mine).
For the Man Who Has It All, Townhouse #2
A year after the WSJ reported that the worlds' richest person bought the last 5th Ave townhouse in NYC, New York Post writer Steve Cuozzo reports on the purchase of NYC townhouse #2: "The world's richest man, Carlos Slim, has bought the former Felissimo townhouse on 56th Street for $15.5 million in cash, Realty Check has learned. We expect Slim's people to deny it, but reliable sources said the LLC is a front for Grupo Carso, the conglomerate controlled by the Mexican mogul. The whirlwind deal closed last week within five days of the cash offer." Full article here.
Photos, Part 3 with Rant About Required Parking
The final installment of the latest flurry of Flickr pool activity is a gallery of South Beach small commercial buildings (non-residential, mostly non-hotel) on the main commercial streets. These buildings are attached or not wide, and are at least two stories at or near the sidewalk. There are a variety of styles, but an overall absence of finesse. (I apologize for the fingerprint smudge on the last several photos.) Note the lack of garage or other on-site parking, allowing the small lots and buildings to be more efficient in creating rentable square feet and taxable property value. Required parking may be the largest single threat to the preservation of old small buildings because any new building requires a garage, which requires a large assembly of land, i.e. demolishing a group of old small buildings, and then the new building with parking renders any remaining old small buildings that much more obsolete and unattractive for investment. Regarding new small-scale urban infill development as opposed to preservation, the largest single obstacle to such new small development is without a doubt required parking.
In Brooklyn, While Big Waits, Small Moves Ahead
From WSJ writer Joseph de Avila: "Like projects in many sections of Brooklyn, numerous condo developments planned for Bedford-Stuyvesant and Clinton Hill got caught up in the financial crisis and were never finished. But while many of those plans remain in limbo, some smaller developments are on the horizon for the two neighborhoods. Lenders remain skittish about funding large condo projects in Brooklyn. The expiration of a popular city tax break for new construction has also made larger condo developments difficult to get built, driving some developers to smaller projects. Townhomes, however, are less costly and easier to finance. 'The primary appetite for land we are seeing is for townhome development,' said Michael Amirkhanian, director of sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services. Construction is nearly complete on five townhomes on Stockton Street [pictured] in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn." Full article here. (Photo credit: Philip Montgomery.)
How Much Does a Stoop Cost?
From New York Times writer Christopher Gray: "The Landmarks Preservation Commission has proposed three sprawling West End Avenue historic districts. They happen to capture a particularly picturesque little row of houses at 316-326 West 85th Street, among the earliest of the designs by the remarkable Clarence True. In 1890, he made a sudden and successful entry into the Manhattan market, with 22 houses in a single year on the Upper West Side [including] a three-house row for the west side of West End Avenue, from 88th to 89th Streets, no longer standing. Built for the developer Richard G. Platt, these were in a pleasant Renaissance style, but instead of the usual 10- or 12-step stoop, their entrances were nearly at grade, only two or three steps up. In early 1893 True spoke on the subject of domestic architecture with The Real Estate Record and Guide. He considered the money spent on the high stoop wasted — half the cost of the entire front." Full article here. (Photo credit: Marilynn Yee.)
Small Urban Building Photo Parade, Part 2
This latest gallery added to the Townhouse Center Flickr photo pool is of Amsterdam's Eastern Docklands, aka Borneo-Sporenburg, a massive redevelopment project that transformed three industrial piers into maybe the largest collection of contemporary townhouses in the world, planned by West 8 and designed by MVRDV. At first glance the townhouses display wild variety, even among the several models that are repeated, but upon closer inspection a few consistent design elements tie it all together, such as a rigid cornice line or a palate of brick, concrete, wood, and other natural materials. Next up: South Beach. Please join the pool and add you small urban building photos.
Small Urban Building Photo Parade, Part 1
The Townhouse Center Flickr pool will be seeing a bit of action in the next several days. Prompted by moving some photos from an old account, I remembered some photo sets from my wanderings, some of which I have posted elsewhere (but will be new to Townhouse Center), and some never-before-posted-anywhere. In today's edition: every building in Miami's central business district (Flagler Street and surrounding) that is approximately 50 feet wide or narrower. Many variations, but what is the theme? There should be more of them and less vacant land in the CBD. Coming soon: Amsterdam's Eastern Docklands. Please join the pool and add you small urban building photos.
Small Lot, Big Outdoor Space in the City
From the New York Post writer Katherine Dykstra: "After a crushing winter, the entire city is now delirious with spring — just witness the swarms of people standing dazed on street corners, soaking up the sun. What’s even better — if far rarer — is having your own private space in which to bask. Over at a new boutique five-unit building on E 30 St, outdoor space comes with each and every apartment. When the building’s developer, Mark Pariti, first happened upon the lot, it housed a three-story Federal-style townhouse with office space and two floors of residential on top. Pariti, owner and president of MP Design Consulting, who purchased the Kips Bay property in 2008, says: 'My vision was to bring a little brownstone Brooklyn . . . to the East Side.' He did this by maximizing the 25-by-99-foot lot for outdoor space, which included excavating a courtyard one floor below street level for the first-floor duplex apartment. He also used the top of the duplex, which winds L-shaped around the courtyard, to create a terrace for the apartment above it. In fact, the five new units boast a whopping four different types of outdoor space, including a roof deck and 4-by-12-foot Juliet balconies, in addition to the courtyard and terrace." Full article here. (Photo credit: Lorenzo Ciniglio.)
Australia's Most Beautiful Buildings Are Townhouses
From the North Shore Times: "A group of eco townhouses in Lane Cove have been declared the greenest and most beautifully designed in the country. The six luxury townhouses [developed by Evergreen Living] won three categories of the 2011 Building Design Association Excellence Award including best townhouse and environmental sustainability. James Cooper, who designed the townhouses, was awarded the overall excellence award for the best designed development in Australia. Mr. Cooper, who is director of Sanctum Design, said the owner and builder had gone well beyond the usual 'greenwash' outcomes. 'The builder embraced recycling on the building site and we had a lot of recycling bays for different materials. We also used recycled sandstone, timber and bricks as part of the development.' And despite ideas to the contrary, building in a sustainable way did not cost more, he said." Full article here.
Real Estate Must Change, Townhouses Are Change
In Urban Land magazine, Jim Heid of Urban Green sums up the larger conversation that this blog is trying to be part of: "The still looming waterfall of maturing commercial mortgage – backed securities, the slowly thawing capital markets, and the ongoing uncertainty about where the next market will come from have left real estate professionals searching for solid ground. But is the industry retooling?
"After World War II, real estate development changed from an industry of locally focused entrepreneurs who took great pride and responsibility in their communities, to one of a global nature that delivered a range of 'products.' As companies sought to make these products conform to a formula or easily replicated template — be they garden apartments, grocery-anchored shopping centers, subdivisions, or suburban office parks — they provided diminishing returns in terms of their contribution to the natural environment and society.
"Recently, industry leaders are shifting the discussion from the topic of real estate to the built environment. Changing how the industry thinks about what it does as less 'immovable land and improvements' and more 'providing the setting for human activity' is anything but subtle. While similar predictions for change have been heard at the end of previous downturns, there are reasons why this time can be different:
- The changing calculus of value. Buyers and tenants in the next cycle will be calculating costs and value in a more multidimensional way than ever before. Quality of life, walkability, access to cultural facilities and events, a smaller environmental footprint, and even being part of the 'urban vibe' are among a more complicated set of variables that will help users determine perceived value. Cost of place — housing cost plus transportation burden — has become more evident in an era pushing toward $4-a-gallon gasoline. The WalkScore phenomenon and its increasing role in real estate listings is evidence of this new calculus of value.
- A movement from niche to portfolio. Today, responsible real estate investment is rapidly moving into the mainstream, fueled by institutional investors who see green as a proxy for increased long-term value—an insurance policy against future obsolescence, a sign of higher-quality construction, and a more holistic definition of their fiduciary responsibility.
"The next 24 months provide the industry with a strategic opportunity to build on what it does well, while adding the additional skills needed to emerge from the downturn as a powerful force for solving many of today’s most challenging problems. This moment presents a wonderful opportunity to retool the profession, reteach company teams, and expand the definition of value." Full article here (must be ULI member), and six practical suggestions from the author here.
Boca Raton Townhouses Save the Day
Yesterday I went to a fascinating presentation about a development rescued by townhouses. The original proposal for the community called Centra in Boca Raton, Florida was a mix of expensive 3-story townhouses and detached houses, but then 2008 happened and the respected developer, Stiles, found itself with no sales, a piece of land, and a $25M debt to Bank of America with a personal guarantee for $12.5M. The land appraised for $6M and Stiles' top priority was not to have to write a check for the other $6.5M. Stiles considered drastically changing the site plan to garden apartment buildings, but BoA did not want the delay of such change. So Stiles turned to Label & Co. to come up with an innovation, a similar site plan but with more density of a product familiar enough to sell but differentiated enough not to compete with foreclosed detached houses. The answer: moderately-priced, 2-story townhouses. But if Stiles was going to develop its way out of debt, it would need a construction loan, so BoA agreed to an additional $7.5M revolving loan. Currently, once Stiles has pre-sold a certain number of units, BoA releases the funds to build them ($48 PSF hard costs), and Stiles sells the units to pay down the construction loan and personal guarantee, while continuing to pre-sell units for the next phase. Stiles said during the presentation that it looks like it will be able to pay back all its obligations. (Stiles also said that, as buyers got comfortable with the 2-story unit, some asked for more space, so now Stiles is selling one of the 2-story models with an 3rd-floor, 800 SF "bonus room" and higher price.) I think that if Stiles could start over now, buying the land for $6M, it would be making an attractive return, so note to other developers: let's get started building more townhouses!
Brownstone Harlem Named Neighborhood of the Year
From the Financial Times: "Even for normally unflappable New Yorkers, the news that Harlem’s Frederick Douglass Boulevard was named 'Neighbourhood of the Year' by the popular real estate blog Curbed was event-worthy. Urban amenities are still scarcer than the districts below 96th Street. But a recent spate of shop and hotel openings suggests a commercial critical mass may be forthcoming. Beyond the increase in amenities, Harlem’s most immediate appeal remains its affordability. According to Stephen Kliegerman, executive director of development marketing at Halstead Property, premium Harlem homes are priced between $500 and $700 per sq ft – compared with at least $1,000 per sq ft just 15 minutes south on the Upper West Side. That market – much like Harlem itself – is as vast as it is varied. At one extreme are Harlem’s historic brownstones – row-houses built mostly in the 1920s and often abandoned during the crack-fuelled blight of the 1980s. But amid the decay lies a level of architectural detail virtually unrivalled in most of Manhattan: neoclassical façades, elegant wooden banisters, hardwood floors – even colourful stained-glass windows. 'Because of the area’s poverty, these buildings were usually left untouched,' says Janet Forman, a journalist and film producer who bought an empty brownstone for just under $1m with her husband in 2006." Full story here. (Image credit: Jennifer Taylor.)
Debate the Future of Urban, Attached Housing
From the Atlantic Monthtly writer Christopher B. Leinberger: "Twenty years ago, urban housing was a bargain in most central cities. Today, it carries an enormous price premium. There will almost certainly be more of a balance between walkable and drivable communities — allowing people in most areas a wider variety of choices. This future is not likely to wear well on suburban housing. Many of the inner-city neighborhoods that began their decline in the 1960s consisted of sturdily built, turn-of-the-century row houses, tough enough to withstand being broken up into apartments, and requiring relatively little upkeep. By comparison, modern suburban houses are cheaply built." Full article here.
From Planetizen writer Todd Litman: "Alan Pisarski writes in a recent blog, 'It is clear that most people, excepting a small but often very loud minority, opt for lower density living when income permits.' Smart growth criticism rests primarily on this claim. Is it true? I investigate this question in my new report, Where We Want To Be: Home Location Preferences And Their Implications For Smart Growth. Households chose dispersed housing locations with little consideration to the resulting increase in transport costs. Increased congestion, rising fuel prices, health and environmental concerns are forcing consumers to be more rational. The current stock of large-lot housing should be adequate for decades, but the supply of small-lot and attached housing will need to approximately double by 2025 to meet consumer demands." Full article here.
From New Geography writer Wendell Cox: "The University of Utah's Arthur 'Chris' Nelson, indicated in an article entitled 'Leadership in a New Era' that in 2003, 75% of the housing stock was detached. By 2025 he predicts that only 62% of consumer will favor detached homes. This predication is largely made on the basis of 'stated preference' surveys which Emil Malizia of the University of North Carolina (commenting on the article) and others indicate may not accurately reflect the choices that consumers will actually make [see bar graph above]." Full article here. Peter Calthorpe predicts consumers will actually choose only 54% detached by 2050.
More About Bangkok Shophouse Transformation
More about a shophouse renovation in Bangkok from one of the designers, Rachaporn Choochuey of all(zone), in Domus magaine: "Bangkok's urban fabric today is full of underutilized shophouses in most of its prime areas. The project is an attempt to experiment with and transform the shophouse typology. Our transformation offers the new spatial arrangement where each floor can be accessed independently from the common stair (the key obstacle of the old shophouse typology is that each floor is accessed back stairs). Every floor is transformed into a live-work unit, which is quite rare in Bangkok. The division between commercial space and residential space is no longer needed. We explored the possibilities of how to make the facade double as a security screen as well as sun shading panels. Stefano came up with the idea of using common and very cheap concrete blocks found in very DIY buildings as a main feature of the facades." Full article here.
Commentary by Urban Choreography: "The shophouse that we are familiar with from all over the East and other countries, which we search out when we walk through our favorite cities, is an integral form that stretches back centuries and can be seen in the petrified houses of Pompeii, but has been virtually eradicated by new developments which seek to implant the Western shopping culture of Malls and Shopping Centers. The shophouse is, as Fabio Todeschini of the University of Cape Town’s Urban Design program has been pointing out, an ideal model for developing middle density urban areas in keeping with the local environments and familiar to most inhabitants."
Montreal Townhouse Green Renovation
From the Montreal Gazette: "Duncan Morrison, a veteran general contractor with a degree in urban planning, got together with entrepreneur and eco-housing enthusiast Paul King to look for properties in which they could invest. 'The Point St. Charles area is being gentrified - it's full of history, near the Atwater Market and near downtown,' said Morrison. So along with architect Eric Madjer, they decided to begin Phase 1 of their new business, eco-Habitat, focusing on green building technologies and as many eco-features as they could put into a 2,100-square-foot, three-storey space. They've done this by creating a house with an airtight building envelope due to soya insulation, a heat pump for heating and cooling, air exchanger so the tight seal can allow the transfer of fresh air, low flow faucets and shower heads and dual flush toilets, recycled materials in the metal siding and quartz kitchen counters and a rainwater collection system for garden irrigation. As much as possible, they've sourced all their building materials locally, including bricks, lumber, gyproc and flooring. The main floor houses an open plan living and dining area, filled with light streaming from the front windows - retained in their original form as a government building requirement. Creating an open space for living and dining did have its challenges, like where to put the hall closet, which they solved by creating a free-standing closet made of locally-sourced 12-inch cedar planks, as much a standing work of art as a functional enclosure." Full article here.
New Construction Townhouses in Scotland
From What House?, news about townhouses in Scotland: "Townhouses have gained in popularity over the last few years at many schemes of new homes and offer a nice middle ground between apartment living and large detached homes. There are no upstairs neighbours to hear clumping around and exterior maintenance is often lower than that of a detached property." The full article mentions several new townhouse models:
- The Forbes model at Cairnhill Part in Airdrie, developed by David Wilson Homes ("short walk from Airdrie town centre").
- The Drummond model at Kepplestone in Aberdeen, developed by Stewart Milne Homes ("walking distance of the city centre yet its landscaped grounds give it a secluded, private feel").
- The Islay model (pictured above) at Birchwood in Cowdenbeath, developed by Bellway Homes ("Amenities within walking distance include schools, supermarkets and the town's High Street").
- The Luss model at Route 1 West in Glasgow, developed by Redrow Homes ("good public transport links to the city centre").
- The Norbury model at The Sidings in Baillieston, developed by Barratt Homes.
Do They Still Make Brown Stones?
From the Wall Street Journal: "On a quiet Park Slope block, the rarest of buildings has taken shape — a brand new brownstone. A lot measuring 16 feet by 100 feet was big enough for just one house, and that's what developer Seth Brown and landowners Herb and Gayle Solomon have built — a home with four stories for a single family, an additional garden apartment, and a brownstone-colored facade. Charles Lockwood, author of "Bricks and Brownstone: The New York Townhouse 1783-1929," says that when the Park Slope area first took shape in 1860, the houses weren't usually built one at a time. 'Houses were put up by builders in groups, just like the suburbs,' Mr. Lockwood says. Modern engineering allowed some changes from a typical brownstone layout. For example, there's no load-bearing wall splitting the front parlor from the interior stairs. Features inside include a bathroom on each floor and tall front windows." Full article here. (Photo credit Natalie Keyssar.)
Astute readers will note that above it says "brownstone-colored", not actual brownstone. The New York Post reports on a proposed one-up: "For the first time in decades, if not a century, a townhouse made from actual brownstone quarried from its original source is being built in the borough that made the architectural style famous. Designer Tom van den Bout said his retro-chic townhouse would use stone sourced from Portland Brownstone Quarries in Connecticut. The new house on a long-vacant lot will likely get the necessary approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. After all, Van den Bout consulted neighbors to tweak the finished design and the Brooklyn Heights Association supports the plan. 'It’s an appropriate thing if you’re building a new building in a neighborhood dominated by brownstones,' said architectural historian Francis Morrone. Brownstone was a fad in the latter half of the 19th century, not only because architects in the Victorian age liked earth tones, but because it was cheap. As the city and its middle class grew, people started living further from work and developers built up Brooklyn as a suburban spot. Like the last housing bubble, homes began to get bigger, more pretentious — and more shoddily built. 'These were like the first McMansions and this was the first urban sprawl,' said Morrone." Full article here.
Lima, Peru Townhouses by Miami Architect
Miami architect Alejandro Zizold recently sent me some info about townhouses he designed in Lima, Peru: "The development is comprised of four townhouses in 'La Encantada de Lima', a neighborhood that was originally platted in the 1960s for large single-family estate homes. When designing the main façade of the units, close attention was paid to proportions as well as the relationship between volumes and voids. The main body of each townhouse is two stories and is flanked by a one-story element on one side and a void (side yard) on the other. All of these different elements are put together using geometric proportions to tie them together and create a playful overall façade for the development. The architectural vocabulary and interior layout of the townhouses are very formal and include well-defined spaces, ten-foot ceilings, and details which are reminiscent of colonial or neo-colonial architecture in historic areas in Chorrillos or nearby Barranco. Each townhouse includes three bedrooms, two and one half bathrooms, and den plus maid’s quarters within 1,700 square feet of living area."
Singapore Shophouse Sales and Prices Rise
From the Straits Times via the China Post: "It was the Asian financial crisis in 1997 that got investor Anil Thadani interested in the seemingly unglamorous idea of putting money into shophouses. Property prices then were at an all-time low and Thadani, 46, used his savings to snap up three adjoining units in Dunlop Street. Shophouses have become an increasingly attractive option for seasoned property investors, especially in the wake of government measures to cool the housing market, said Ong Kah Seng, property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield's senior manager for Asia-Pacific research. Rising office rents have also prompted small businesses to look for cheaper space, creating greater demand for alternative properties including shophouses. Cushman and Wakefield's analysis of Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) data shows that there were 380 shophouse transactions last year, up 44 percent on the 263 sales in 2009. Ong said prices of shophouses went up 10 percent last year, with rental yields at about 4 percent. 'Rents of shophouses have held steadier in comparison to strata shops in malls, as shophouses are generally unique and the supply is limited,' Ong said." Full article here. (Photo credit Calvin Teo.)