Construction Maison

Local investors beware: Central Pennsylvania is on the map for outside groups looking for higher returns. Last month, The Solomon Organization , a New Jersey-based operator of multifamily properties, closed on a $25.7 million purchase of the newly built Ivy Ridge Apartments in Swatara Township . That price — $117,913 per unit — is the highest in the Harrisburg market this year. It also marked the company's first foray into the Harrisburg area after landing in Lancaster County six years ago. It owns six communities in Lancaster County and more than 1,200 units. "Two years ago, you said 'Harrisburg' and people would just hang up the phone," said Zachary Pierce, director of the National Multi Housing Group in Philadelphia for Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services . Outside investors were interested only in primary markets such as New York City and Washington, D.C., and maybe Philadelphia, he said. But as prices have shot up in those prime areas, th...

TOLLING THE TYCOONS — Albanese calls for 'politically popular' pied-à-terre tax, by POLITICO New York’s Conor Skelding : Foreign "oligarchs" who own real estate in New York but don't live in the city should have to pay two or three times what they pay now in property taxes, Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese said Wednesday. The "politically popular" new tax's revenue, which Albanese said would amount to billions, could then be put toward the development of affordable housing . "Look, there's a lot of money across the world that people want to outsource," he said during a news conference outside the gates of City Hall. "There's a lot of money there, and we can use that to build real affordable housing ." Mayor Bill de Blasio promised years ago to "take a look" at a pied-à-terre tax, but the proposal is opposed by many of the city's real estate interests . "They own Bill de Blasio , big real estat...

1. If you can make it here… New York has long been the ultimate testing ground for businesses. But the city’s population density also makes it an important laboratory for startups, especially in today’s on-demand economy. Food- delivery pioneer Seamless survived the dot-com crash, paving the way for the arrival of meal-kit services such as Blue Apron and Plated a decade later. Related View this story in its original print layout Density has also been instrumental to the growth of ride-hailing and car-sharing companies. Most of them, including Uber and Lyft first gained their footing in smaller cities, then made New York their biggest market. Via, the on-demand ride-pooling service, launched here in 2013, is the exception: Its founders chose New York, figuring riders packed together on subways and buses wouldn’t need much persuading to share a car with strangers, especially when it cost just $5. article continues below advertisement App- based transportation startups have flocked t...

A new study maintains that two-thirds of Denver renters plan to move to another city, a figure higher than the national average, with most listing high rent costs in the Mile High City  as the main reason. At the same time, however, so many people from other places want to move here that the actual number of renters in Denver is likely to remain steady in the near future and could actually rise. These are among the findings in a provocative report from Apartment List. As laid out in the following Q&A with analyst Sydney Bennet , who was heavily involved in the project, renting Denverites have a variety of reasons for wanting to relocate. But the number of those who are considering such a move because of long commute times or concerns about safety, for instance, pale in comparison to folks who simply are having a hard time stretching their dollars far enough to keep a decent roof over their head. As the study notes, the 67 percent of Denver renters who are looking at other lan...

Is NYC going through an affordable housing crisis ? To get a better understanding of the city’s rental market, RentHop compared median rents for a two-bedroom apartment in various parts of the city to the most recent median income data available at the neighborhood level. It turns out that just nine out of the 139 neighborhoods included in the study had median asking rents that could be afforded with 35 percent of the neighborhood’s median income. RentHop added an additional 5 percent to the recommended affordability of 30 percent to make room for the income growth that has taken place since the Census data was released. The map above shows the median asking rent of two-bedroom apartments in neighborhood tabulation areas (NTAs) across New York City and how that relates to the income of those neighborhoods. Darker shades of red indicate lower affordability , while the few green areas indicate that median asking rents are within reach for the neighborhood’s median household income . M...

Author John Freeman Gill takes Fodor’s on an urban safari. If you make the effort to gaze skyward in New York, you will discover (hiding in plain sight) a city teeming with remarkable architectural sculptures : gryphons and sea monsters, cherubs and pelicans, goddesses and kings. These exuberantly expressive artworks were the creation of gifted immigrant stone carvers who poured into New York in the late 19th and early 20th centuries , most of them from the British Isles, Germany, and Italy. The ornament on the grandest edifices was typically specified by architects, but on the vast majority of city buildings , the design of the carvings was left up to the individual stoneworker. The carvers took this freedom and ran with it, incising their imaginations into New York’s skyline and transforming its streetscape into a marvelously quirky public art gallery . 555 Washington Avenue John Freeman Gill Ever since my novel, The Gargoyle Hunters , was published, I’ve been besieged by readers a...