Urban-style living in GA's second cities (Atlanta, Columbus: for sale, apartments, foreclosure)

[aboutmetro]

Columbus has a few what you'd call 'apartment' buildings, or 'live-work units' but as far as I know, they're all for either CSU students (downtown) or retirees in downtown or mid-town. In GA's other 'second cities' (outside metro ATL), what towns have developed vertical residential apartment buildings for regular market renters? Provide a website link if you have it...

[southgeorgia]

Valdosta is working on it. A couple of buildings are being renovated for lofts/apartments. Some already exist but they are not rentals. There is a 7-floor apartment building downtown (converted hotel) that is for the elderly.


You have to remember that there is no other place in Georgia besides Atlanta where building vertical makes economic sense. Anywhere else, its just for the appeal of "big-city (type) living".

When you start building up, the building codes change and the cost of building skyrockets. Only in a place where downtown land is astronomically priced does buildling upwards make sense.

[NewtownMacon]

Macon has several new residential and mixed used living projects proposed and/or proposed.

·The $29 million project involves rehabilitating the old Capricorn Recording Studio and the Macon Rescue Mission and turning the property into a mixed-use complex with lofts, retail and commercial space, a boutique hotel and a recording studio. The Rescue Mission will be developed into an 85-room boutique hotel and 45 additional housing units, according to the organization.

·Founders Pond Project-A planned mixed used residential complex

·The Dannenberg Building into 55 loft units, including 10 condominiums for sale, and a restaurant and other retail space.


·Park Hotel at Third and Poplar streets is being renovated for Quantum Dynamics.

·Wharf Street Centre on the east side of Riverside Drive between Rotary Park and Burger King. It would have a four-to five-story building with 180-200 units, swimming pool and parking garage.

·Lofts at 425 New St.-Forty-three units in a “luxury loft apartment community” will be built and should be open by spring 2010.
Work on new downtown Macon lofts may start by summer - Local & State - Macon

·The Silver’s Building at 450 Third St.

·A planned development for mixed-use development in the three-story, 47,000-square-foot building with up to 25 lofts on the upper floors and perhaps a combination of lofts and office or retail on the first floor.

·Another 22-loft is being developed in the 500 block of Cherry Street by private investor Thomas McCook.
Developers say downtown Macon still a good spot for growth - Local & State - Macon (http://www.macon.com/198/story/567378.html - broken link)
NewTown Macon pleased with downtown activity - Local & State - Macon (http://www.macon.com/198/story/486809.html - broken link)

·The College Hill Corridor created by the City of Macon and Mercer University to create a physical, cultural and social path to connect Mercer University and downtown.
http://www.collegehillcorridor.com

Map showing the College Hill Corridor and the parks, destinations, neighborhoods and businesses it connects.
College Hill Corridor on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/newtownmacon/2508144249/ - broken link)

·North Macon Towne Center –An upscale mixed use Residential, Commercial and Retail Project; very similar to Atlantic Station.



The Project Over View



Closer View of the mixed used Project into different phases.





http://www.retailworksusa.com/katapu...property/id/10


http://www.retailworksusa.com/katapu...0Rendering.pdf




Plan for the property near convention center hotel

A local urban design firm presented to a work session of Macon City Council members its vision for developing land across the street from the new convention center Marriott hotel . The new hotels can catch overflow from the Marriott convention center hotel that will open in the fall, and that the new hotels planned for the site would operate at different “price points” so as not to compete with the Marriott. Some existing building on site would continue to be used, such as the Secretary of State offices or the historic mill building that would be renovated.

http://www.macon.com/198/story/661097.html

• Two hotels, one with 180 rooms and another with 96 rooms
• 284 residential flats, 80 residential rowhouse units and 30 residential town home units
• 230,000 square feet of medical office space in two three-story buildings
• A four-story office building with 134,000 square feet of space
• An 8,285 square foot restaurant
• Nearly 23,000 square feet of health club and food court space
• A 27,000 square foot conference hall
• A nearly 2,000 space parking deck
• A 3.5 acre nature park

[aboutmetro]

Originally Posted by NewtownMacon

Macon has several new residential and mixed used living projects proposed and/or proposed.

·The $29 million project involves rehabilitating the old Capricorn Recording Studio and the Macon Rescue Mission and turning the property into a mixed-use complex with lofts, retail and commercial space, a boutique hotel and a recording studio. The Rescue Mission will be developed into an 85-room boutique hotel and 45 additional housing units, according to the organization.

That's all great Newtown, but I was specifically asking about apartment buildings, and more specifically for apartment units not restricted to seniors or students. Vertical residential that is has residential units for rent. I should have been more specific. Many towns are building/converting older buildings for lofts (condos) and/or offices. And just because a development, like Hartley Station, includes a lot of different uses in its master plan doesn't make it mixed-use development, it makes it a 'master planned' community.

[aboutmetro]

Originally Posted by southgeorgia

Valdosta is working on it. A couple of buildings are being renovated for lofts/apartments. Some already exist but they are not rentals. There is a 7-floor apartment building downtown (converted hotel) that is for the elderly.


You have to remember that there is no other place in Georgia besides Atlanta where building vertical makes economic sense. Anywhere else, its just for the appeal of "big-city (type) living".

When you start building up, the building codes change and the cost of building skyrockets. Only in a place where downtown land is astronomically priced does buildling upwards make sense.

I've heard that a lot. I saw a speaker in Columbus called Chris Leinberger, he's made the point that, traditional suburban development in some cases costs more than vertical development. That the cost to local government is much higher for suburban development than for in-town development. Do you happen to know the typical square foot cost for say, a 5 story apartment building? I'm thinking since the rent is comparable to that of a garden-style department in many communities that it's not that much more. But when (not if) gas prices go back up, the cost to the resident will be less, assuming the vertical res is near to work.

[southgeorgia]

Originally Posted by aboutmetro

I've heard that a lot. I saw a speaker in Columbus called Chris Leinberger, he's made the point that, traditional suburban development in some cases costs more than vertical development. That the cost to local government is much higher for suburban development than for in-town development. Do you happen to know the typical square foot cost for say, a 5 story apartment building? I'm thinking since the rent is comparable to that of a garden-style department in many communities that it's not that much more. But when (not if) gas prices go back up, the cost to the resident will be less, assuming the vertical res is near to work.

I can see how there could be some truth to that; I think there are multiple variables to consider when making a decision on whether to build up or not.


Its hard to give a general answer as to what the total sq-ft cost of a 5 story building is; I can tell you when you get above 3 stories, that is when the cost really begins to accelerate.

[lilmusket]

I think only Savannah has the urban density to truly come close to urban living. The density in downtown Savannah gets close to the numbers of Atlanta.. and when you think of it, downtown Atlanta is mainly office buildings and hotels.. so downtown Savannah may even have a greater density of residents. Savannah feels as urban as certain areas of Washington, DC, New Orleans, Boston, and Philadelphia. I don't see any other secondtier city to this point yet. They are on the track but not quite there. They need to have greater residential density in their downtowns and have more of the abandoned space occupied before I would consider them urban style living.

[aboutmetro]

I'm going to try to reel it in here. I'm specifically looking for examples of vertical residential apartment buildings in urban areas of town. It can be part of a master planned community, that's fine. Maybe they just don't exist in Georgia outside Atlanta or for special populations (elderly, students)...

[lilmusket]

vertical, as in how many stories??? DC to me feels more urban than Atlanta, much greater residential density.. yet no buildings are more than 13 stories.. So having a tall condo tower doesn't necessary make an area more urban...you have lots of those along Myrtle Beach... but I wouldn't characterize Myrtle Beach as really all that urban.. not in the sense of Savannah, Atlanta, DC, Boston, New Orleans, etc. It's more about population density rather than highth of buildings. Atlanta has a lot more tall buildings than DC, but DCs population density is greater, and in that sense makes it more urban. You won't see tall buildings in Savannah because there are height restrictions.. but there were not I do believe you would see a high rise condo tower on the riverfront, but city leaders believe that would spoil the image of Savannah. I agree. Having tall building surrounded by a bunch of parking lots (like you have in Atlanta) I think makes an area less urban than if you had more infill devt on those empty parking lots. Now Augusta does have a condo tower in its downtown.. that ugly pink building, called Port Royal. It was built in 1990-91.. it was an initial flop, the condos never sold, not until it went into foreclosure and the units were sold at much lower prices at a loss. Building a high rise condo in Augusta really never made much sense to begin with. Still there is lots of available space downtown where you can have a larger footprint (downtown realestate is still relatively cheap and available.) Now when their is a scarcity of available realestate and increasing demand for more space, then the economics favor building vertically. Savannah actually meets these economic conditions, its downtown realestate is extremely scarce and expensive, but the law forbids building above a certian height (like DC). The other cities have so much available downtopwn space at cheap prices, there is no incentive to build up too high.

[lilmusket]

Originally Posted by aboutmetro

Maybe they just don't exist in Georgia outside Atlanta or for special populations (elderly, students)...

Probably the best examples outside of Atlanta are the highrise dorms in Athens.. they house thousands of students. Then you have some midrise elderly care homes in Augusta... I believe Macon has a few too, as well as Savannah south of the historic district. most were built back in the 60s and 70s.