Interested in Appleton

[yo vanilla]

Originally Posted by argyle

Appleton is really a great town. My in-laws live there and we were just discussing the new RiverHeath 15-acre development which sits along the Fox river. The neighborhood will consist of condos, offices, shops, trails and restaurants that will be run by hydroelectric power on the site of the vacant Consolidated Papers mill, which will be demolished. Construction starts this summer and finishes in late summer 2009. There are already two restaurants committed to the site, a sushi place and one based on a Napa Valley type restaurant that will focus on locally grown produce, meat, fish and seasonal products. Both are freestanding, face the water and have outdoor patios. You can go to River Heath, Waterfront Living & Workspace, Appleton Wisconsin to check out the plans.

Honestly I'm looking at the RiverHealth website and seeing fail written all over it. It's a great idea in concept, and everyone will be (or is) talking about how great it is to know that it is there, but I don't believe it will actually execute well enough around here. It looks like alot of 1 and 2 bedroom condos that will have asking prices way way over their worth, and I bet many will sit vacant for a long, long time. Just like the Richmond Terrace complex that went up on Richmond and Packard just two or three years ago - if I'm not mistaken every retail space is still vacant, and is the building up for sale? I recall that I was shocked at the condo prices when it was new (I just found a condo for sale there for half what they were going for new). Yeah sure its not on the river but still.

And I think that sucks because I actually would not mind living in a place like that, down by the river. I love being by the river, I'm a couple blocks from it now and walk by it all the time. For instance, I'm looking right now at some of the first floor units with garages. Unit 106, 1200 sq feet and 1 bdrm w/ garage, I bet it'll have an asking price clearing $200K. Who's going to buy a 1 bedroom condo for $200K around here? If there was a three bedroom with garage I bet I could talk my wife into it, but I can imagine that would clear $300K, and you can get a really great house in Appleton for $300K.

[yo vanilla]

Originally Posted by Cowboyz15

I live in Maine, but I am considering relocating to the Appleton area. One thing that I really enjoy about Maine is some of the very quaint residential neighborhoods, including both newer neighborhoods and old ones. At least where I live, the streets are sort of small and curve around a lot. It seems a lot more like the roads and houses were built with an effort to keep the trees and aesthetic appeal around the neighborhood intact. By comparison, in some of the neighborhoods that I have seen in the South and in other places like Colorado and even in some parts of the Midwest, it is obvious that trees and vegetation were leveled and mass-manufactured housing was erected in its place. Can anyone describe the neighborhoods in and around Appleton in terms of character or the quaintness that I have described where I presently live?

There is some of both around here: leveling and building for pure profit and building to keep nature and asthetic qualities. If you want quaint neighborhoods you can find them here; look on the hills just above Peabody Park for instance where the streets are narrow, the houses are old but many are preserved. Likewise just southwest of Laurence U. There are a few quaint streets near Pierce, Erb and Alicia parks too but they are mixed in with some just ok older houses. By Horizon school there is some newer streets you'd like with more expensive houses.

If you go out to the Harrison or Darboy townships you get all the mass-erected crap with wide open space and not a tree in sight. (There's a bit of that in the newer Appleton developments too, say north of hwy 41 near North HS and the soccer complex)