Realtor Kevin Gueco writes a very sunny review for the coming soon Mosiaica 601 condo project (pictured above) in his SFNewDevelopments blog. There’s definitely some room for pleasant surprise in the announced price (pleasant to me, anyway, since I selfishly find all condos I cannot afford to be unpleasant):
“Mosaica 601 announced last week that it plans to start pricing of its 3 bedroom / 2 bath condos in the low $600s! This is an incredible value considering each home is around 1400 square feet.”
Of course, putting aside Gueco’s near-by restaurant list, the area (where Mission meets Potrero) is a little rough, but the price still seems all right to me. Perhaps the developers see the price cuts so many other condo developers have had to make recently, and are starting lower to begin with?
Also coming soon (but not as soon) are a more mysterious set of housing units. Just off West Portal and 16th Ave., in front of Arden Wood, you can see the pushed-up dirt, huge bulldozers, and thin wood skeletons that signal housing to come, and their sectioning looks multi-unit. Thus I suspect these are the long awaited condos that were subject of news and speculation in 2006. In fact, that’s still the only information I can find on this construction: 2 years old, via SFHomeBlog and J.K. Dineen. Someone has to have a more updated scoop here. Anyone?
Meanwhile, still a pipe-dream (ha ha! Really, Haight Street, how many pipe stores can one street support?), but with the supervisorial green light is the Whole Foods/condo complex, slated to replace long-dead Cala Foods at the corner of Stanyan and Haight. The Chronicle outlines the plan here:
“The large, four-story project, which also includes some 60 high-end, market-rate housing units, was expected to be controversial, but the commission voted 6-0 to approve the conditional use permit – a result supporters think had a lot to do with their organized turnout.”
Right, agreed: Haight could use a face-lift and perhaps a gentle reminder that THE 60’S ARE OVER. Also, I like Whole Foods, but I’m saving for one of those condos, so I’ll stick to Trader Joe’s (with a new one also coming soon!). I’m curious what “market rate” will be when those units go up, since so many new developments are struggling to sell out units already. The Frontstep’s own banker/blogger, aptly known as “The Banker,” says: “We are overbuilt. . .and it is next to near impossible to get financing!”
What do you say?
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Construction photo via SFNewDevelopments
I don’t get overbuilt- if there was too much housing, rent could not be so high. I di get that we are overbuilt with pricey real esate. If only 12% or whatever of the population can afford to buy, well, do the math.
The Arden Wood building is not high density, but rather 5 townhouses I believe. Why they are not building five story, high density there I do not know.
I live in the building across the street from the buildings going up on the former Arden Wood property. Some of the owners of Barbagelata have an apt in the bldg, and another tenant told me they are repping the buildigns, which are five insanely ginormous detached houses (not townhomes) that are waaaayyyy too big for their lots. I hear the developer had originally had hoped to squeeze in eight of these monsters but were told no.
Thanks Nikta and Fluj– I have to say I’m disappointed. Could have been a lot better use of that space.
I live in the West Portal hood too. These are detached houses, and there will be 6. They are 2 story over garage, so they are not that big. (Nikta, if you live accross the street then your house is as big, if you live in the apartment building then you know it’s 6 stories). They are on short lots, and have 5-6 between each house. This should have been much bigger. I would like to have seen 20+ units and 4 stories or something. This is on train lines, near the tunnel, and at a commercial area. If we can’t build dense here then where?
Also, the other build discussed in the post will be much bigger, but it looks like without the towers. It will be between Ardenwood and 19th. It will not have access to West Portal or Wawona, only 19th. So it’s better density, but not with access to the public transportation. Both builds get lots of garage space. What a waste.
Arg, Sparky- more stupid “planning.” WTF!
Actually, they got approved for 7 4000 sq/ft houses on the site. The reason you only see 6 now is they need the last lot to stage the construction. They are slamming these things up, working 7 days a week and from my observation the construction looks to be really shoddy… Next years buyers beware! All Plywood all the time!!!
I definitely noticed the plywood. Well put, Rebecca.
You mean plywood sheathing on the framing and the hardi-frames. There is nothing shoddy about this build. Would you rather have them built the old way with the siding on the framing, and the roofing on slats of wood. Have you ever seen a house built? Perhaps you didn’t see all the re-bar going in, or the retaining walls and holddowns. Are you wondering why they didn’t build in brick? Shoddy, WOW, you could not be more wrong.
Wait maybe you mean the 2×6 framing on the second story. Why would they use 2×6 and not 2×4..shoddy
Or maybe you mean the clad wood Marvin windows. Why use those and not vinyl…shoddy.
ha-ha! sparky is right. put that in your pipe rebecca.
or maybe you just did not articulate why you specifically felt that the work is shoddy? maybe you do know what the hell you are talking about? or maybe you do not.
Woah! Down boys. All she sees now is plywood, as that’s all there is now. Later we can all watch the awesome materials as they are added, layer by layer. Still wish they’s made a better use (i.e. more units) of the space.
No she said “shoddy”, and “buyer beware”, and that’s what I called her on.
okey doke. Thanks for setting the record straight. I imagine they’ll be super nice luxury homes, but as you point out, just 6 or 7 pricey homes isn’t much use to us right now!
That site would have been absolutely perfect for a mid-size condominium complex, market rate, with some bmrs mixed in per code. They could have gone five or six stories high like the one across the street. Instead how much space was wasted between the homes? I don’t get it at all.