Construction Maison

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin has asked the city attorney to explore legislation to impose a vacancy tax on large property owners who leave residential and commercial buildings empty . During a supervisors meeting this month, Peskin said he continues to receive complaints about the impact of “ghost buildings” on neighborhoods. The problem is, nobody really knows how many vacant homes there are in the city and whether a vacancy tax would be legal or effective in freeing up much-needed housing. In an interview, Peskin cited a 28- unit apartment building at 1656 Powell St. that was vacated after a fire damaged some units in December 2013. It remains empty. The three-story building is in a prime North Beach location across from Washington Square Park . Four businesses on the building’s ground floor — a liquor store, a bar, a Thai restaurant and a seafood restaurant — are open, but the apartments above still have boarded-up windows and a littered lobby. Some work was done in the...

See more of the story Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of discussion about what to do with a small, narrow piece of land on Washington Avenue near the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis . Plans for the duly named Guthrie Liner Parcel fell through when Mortenson Development announced earlier this month it was abandoning a plan to build a 10-story tower with a 235- room Hyatt Centric hotel on the property. The development was also supposed to have offices for the American Academy of Neurology and restaurant or retail space. If the new plans for the site have a residential component, Joe Tamburino, chairman of the influential Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association , said he hoped they would be condominiums. In Tamburino’s view, the Mill District is already flooded with apartments and affordable housing and could use more owner- occupied units . “The Mill District was built on owner-occupied,” he said. “The anchors of the neighborhood were not rentals. T...

By Georgette BraunRockford Register Star Forest Glen's name has been popping up in conversations the past few months among movers and shakers in Rockford. They're saying the 140- unit apartment complex near McFarland Road and East Riverside Boulevard — with a swimming pool, tennis courts, garages and manicured landscaping, as well as comparatively little crime surrounding it — is a good example of what affordable housing should be: 56 units are set aside for income-restricted renters.  The talk about Forest Glen Apartments has been fueled by a plan that was pulled back last week by a Wisconsin-based developer to build 65 apartments in east Rockford off South New Towne Drive. Eighty-eight percent would be for low-income renters. The plan called for housing about 150 residents, most from the 650- resident Fairgrounds Valley , a decaying property on the west side that the Rockford Housing Authority wants to raze. The 210-unit complex is 47 years old. Residents of the New T...

CLOSE Collier County will consider four public sites in East Naples and North Naples to encourage the development of affordable housing. Greg Stanley/Naples Daily News Credit: Andy Dean Photography via iStock (Photo: Andy Dean Photography via iStock) A developer wants to put up an apartment complex on Bayshore Drive and rent out nearly half of its units as affordable housing. The property, a vacant lot at the northeast corner of Bayshore and Thomasson drives, has been slated for affordable housing since 2005. But it has always been the county's plan for the East Naples site that the housing on it — either condominiums or single family homes — would be owned and not rented. In a 2005 agreement with the owners of the property, called the Cirrus Pointe Planned Unit Development , the county gave developers permission to build more units than is typically allowed in exchange for keeping 44 of those condos or homes affordable. More:  Four sites owned by Collier County could be us...

WINSTON-SALEM- The city of Winston-Salem says it's stepping in to deal with problems at the Rolling Hills apartment complex . City officials say they're going to start assessing heavy fines over problems like leaky toilets and other issues at the apartments off Martin Luther King drive . For years the units at Rolling Hills apartments have gone through inspections and Winston- Salem city leader say for years a majority of them failed. City Councilman Derwin Montgomery said the city had been fair to ownership. "They're the worst I've seen in Rolling Hills over the time I've been on council and seen some of the issues we've had there,” said Montgomery. On Thursday, they made it clear they won't stand for negligent property managers after 110 units went through inspections, yet again. "Out of those, more than 90 of those units found violations of minimum housing code . Orders have been sent out to the owners to repair those units,” said Montgom...

Most of Canada's rental markets have seen substantial rate hikes over the past year, with Toronto and Vancouver prices for one-bedroom units now heading for the $2,000 mark. And it's becoming decidedly difficult to rent an apartment in most major Canadian cities (and some minor ones) for under $1,000. For the first time ever, Padmapper's monthly survey of rental rates found that the median price for a one- bedroom apartment topped $1,000 in Canada's 10 priciest cities. The survey launched last June. Padmapper The Padmapper data shows the median price for a one- bedroom apartment in Vancouver is $1,990 this month, up 13.7 per cent in a year. Harder-to-find two-bedroom units were up 3.2 per cent, to $3,200. The city remains the priciest region to rent an apartment in Canada. Toronto has seen one- bedroom rents climb 8 .8 per cent in the past year, to $1,850. Two- bedroom units rose to $2,450, up 14 per cent in a year. Market experts say Toronto and Vancouver are...

By MELISSA PROULX Union Leader Correspondent July 20. 2017 9:37PM Eastern Trails project in Milford is expected to finish mid-August."> Construction on the first building in the first phase of the Ridge at Eastern Trails project in Milford is expected to finish mid-August.  (MELISSA PROULX/CORRESPONDENT) MILFORD — Construction of an upscale apartment complex in this Southern New Hampshire community is getting ready for occupancy as vacancy rates in the state remain low . The Ridge at Eastern Trails are expected to wrap up the first phase of a 124 unit proposed development sometime in the coming weeks. The new apartments and townhouses are located off Route 101A, behind the Milford branch of Nashua Eye Associates . The Ridge offers some of the first newly constructed apartment buildings in that region in years, said Ron Dupont, president of Red Oak Apartments , a Manchester-based company that owns the Milford development. “There hasn’t been anything built here i...

The Saco Planning Board is considering a project that calls for 22 “micro-apartments” to be built in a former mill building on Saco Island. Saco Island West LLC wants to build the 470-square-foot apartments on two floors above the popular Run of the Mill Public House and Brewery on Saco Island, which sits between downtown Saco and Biddeford. If approved, the project would join others in both cities that offer apartments in renovated mill buildings that also house businesses. The project would also be the second in Saco to feature micro-apartments. The former Notre Dame de Lourdes church on Cutts Avenue will become 80 units ranging from 600 to 800 square feet as part of a three- phase project expected to begin late this year. The “Saco Island SmartLofts” plan presented by Saco Island West LLC to the planning board includes a commercial space on the second floor and a total of 22 micro-apartments on the third and fourth floors. The micro-apartments will attract young residents t...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Lyndhurst hotel and a pair of projects that will bring nearly 500 apartments to Cleveland won financing support Tuesday from the Cleveland- Cuyahoga County Port Authority . The port's board signed off on nearly $200 million in real estate- related bond transactions , setting the stage for construction to start within months on a trio of projects. The agency acts as a conduit for development financing, issuing bonds and helping to structure deals that involve longer terms , lower interest rates or cheaper construction materials than a borrower might find in the private market. Tuesday's headline deals were: A  Hyatt Place hotel and a 355- space parking garage at the Legacy Village shopping center in Lyndhurst. Developer Mitchell Schneider hopes to start construction in May and to complete the $33 million project by June 2016, in hopes of grabbing hotel- room demand generated by the Republican National Convention in July. The 135-room hotel and gara...

Affiliates of Toronto-based Republic Funds paid $17 million last month to buy two Little Rock apartment complexes with a total of 482 units. Republic Spanish Rock , a limited partnership, paid $11 million for the 258- unit Spanish Rock Apartments in the Markham Mesa subdivision . Spanish Rock is the combination of several complexes from eight units to 162 units. Another limited partnership, Republic Spanish Jon , paid $6 million for the 224- unit Spanish Jon Apartments at 5001 W. 65th St. Pete Hartnett, senior vice president of Dallas- based Rowan Properties , represented Republic Funds as well as the "large Texas-based seller that owns thousands and thousands of Class C units," he said. In an interview, Hartnett declined to identify the Texas seller. Both properties underwent significant interior and exterior renovations, which were completed before the sale, Rowan Properties said in a news release. Spanish Jon Apartments had a low cost housing program agreement th...

SEGUIN - Two large apartment complexes have opened this year in the city, and management teams at both complexes are being kept busy with inquiries from prospective residents. The Ranch at State Highway 123, a 180-unit complex, opened in March in the 3000 block of North 123 Bypass, and Oak Hollow, a 160-unit complex, began leasing in July at its location on Jim Barnes Drive east of the intersection of South 123 Bypass and Barnes Drive. Oak Hollow's management describes it as "a community of apartment homes." It consists of 80 one-bedroom apartments, 72 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units. "It's not your everyday apartment complex ," said Lacey Garner, assistant vice president with Greystone Asset Management . "Our builders and our owners have taken into consideration trying to reduce our carbon footprint. "We want to help Seguin ‘go green,'" Garner said. Oak Hollow was constructed of sustainable materials and provides energy...

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL - ZOM Florida and The NRP Group recently celebrated the completion and grand opening of Monterra Apartments,  a workforce housing community in Cooper City, south Broward County , Florida. The new 300 unit community began pre -leasing in February 2012 and was 100% leased in April. The units will be 100% occupied in mid July. The property boasts a variety of spacious 1, 2 and 3- bedroom floor plans , featuring nine foot ceilings, and walk in closets. The centerpiece of the Monterra community is a large upscale clubhouse facility , which includes a swimming pool, clubroom with computer work stations , and a 24- hour fitness center . Additional project features include energy efficient appliance and lighting packages, a playground, a covered barbeque area , and a dog park. Project financing included approximately $26 million in NIBP bonds issued by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation , HOME loan funding , and additional loans provided under...

In the summer of 1995, Doug Robb and his friends snuck into Agoura High School in the middle of the night. Dressed in all black, they found the set of portable stages their alma mater used for its commencement ceremonies and wheeled them through a dirt track and onto the beds of pickup trucks they’d borrowed for the occasion. The next day, they set up the foldout stages in Robb’s parents’ backyard to play their first show as Hoobastank, a metal- influenced band they’d formed about six months prior. Robb eventually returned the stages to the school, but not before using them during a massive rager that attracted teens and 20-somethings from all over the area. Among them were the then-unknown members of Incubus and Linkin Park—bands that, along with Hoobastank, would go on to produce some of the biggest hits of the next century. What could’ve easily been just another house party thrown by bored kids in a wealthy LA suburb turned out to be the beginning of a rock-music scene that was...