News, Reviews and Commentary about High-Rise Living
Charleston has a zoning law that prohibits any new building from being over four stories high. So these existing few Charleston Condos over four stories are the only game in town if you want to live with a view.
There are high-rises in some of the cities around Charleston, like Mt. Pleasant and Isle of Palms. However if you want to live in Charleston, these are your options for high-rise living:
Two of my favorite things are about to come together. Not chocolate and peanut butter… that’s been done. The two things I’m talking about are New York City and Park Hyatt Hotels. And here’s the best part – now you can live in the same building. Extell Development has begun marketing 95 condominium homes located at One57, the 90-story tower located at 157 West 57th Street. The building will house a Park Hyatt, so residents who purchase a home will have access to the hotel’s amenities.
That list of amenities is long, and includes a 24-hour doorman and concierge, screening and performance space, on-site parking, triple-height indoor swimming pool and custom Jacuzzi, library, catering kitchen, function room, arts and crafts room, state-of-the-art fitness center, yoga studio and even a pet wash room.
Units will start at $6.375M and supposedly go north of $30M from there. When finished, the 1000-foot building will take the city’s tallest residential tower moniker from New York by Gehry. Combine that height with that location and you’ll see why the price of admission is so high… the views in all directions should be phenomenal.
The Associated Press is reporting that the lonely, long-vacant Plaza Tower in New Orleans may be given a new life soon. Local New Orleans developer Bryan Burns has bought the tower and said his plans for the building could include developing it into a a mixed-use residential and commercial complex. The building’s previous owners, Plainfield Capital, bought the building in 2007 and spent over $12 million gutting it and remediating all the mold and asbestos. They were unable to sell the building afterwords and ended up auctioning it off earlier this year.
If only the planets could all align in Central Florida. In the mid-2000′s, condos were so expensive that they weren’t really an option for most first-time home buyers. However mortgages were plentiful for those that could afford them, even with nothing down. Now the pendulum has swung in completely the opposite direction, and the pricing is great for first time home buyers. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the median condo price has dropped from $166,100 in 2006 to only $60,500 this past September putting condos directly in the sweet spot for first-time buyers. The bad news for buyers? lending has dried up to the point that in order to buy one of these cheap condos you have to pay cash. And that’s just not in the cards for most first time buyers. The article in the Sentinel goes on to explain the reasons for the lack of funding but what’s most notable is the idea that Fannie and Freddie overreacted. We would venture to say that the overreaction probably put negative pressure on the prices of all Orlando Condos.