Just up Cortez Hill from the under-development SmartCorner that was featured in the previous post, some of the owners and neighbors of the historic El Cortez are organizing to stop the proposed 777 Beech development which is proposed for the same block as the El Cortez.
I have no idea if all of the accusations on the elcortez.info website are true but they are very much worth a read. I did not know that the highly touted Mills Act property tax discount is being debated. I am also suspect of the sales practices of condo developments so I'm not surprised about some of the accusations.
I do think some more retail, which 777 Beech is proposing, would be very beneficial to Cortez Hill.
http://www.elcortez.info/
6 comments:
I have friends who bought into the El Cortez condo conversion and there is no doubt that they were royally screwed by the developers, Peter Janopaul & Anthony Block.
CCDC also is guilty of dumping the developers' financial problems onto an unsuspecting HOA, and now CCDC is contemplating allowing Janopaul to build some monstrosity that would not only destroy the beauty of this historic building, but would make life absolutely miserable for residents of the El Cortez - and their neighbors.
CCDC never should have allowed Janopaul-Block to split off the northern 1/3 of the block into a separate parcel - they like to point the finger at the city for that fiasco - but CCDC is responsible for what goes on downtown - especially in projects like the El Cortez that they helped finance.
The 777 Beech proposal takes away half of the current residents' valet parking, already a costly and inconvenient problem, the historic pool they use, historic palm trees, and actually threatens the stability of the historic building by digging down 4 levels below grade immediately next to its 80 year old foundation.
As far as retail goes, anyone familiar with the situation know that the so called "retail" will actually be more services for the Don Room private parties (Block, not the HOA, still owns the Don Room) which already causes many problems for El Cortez residents and their immediate neighors.
Hopefully the City Council, if they are not too distracted by other problems, will give a resounding "no" to this proposal. But don't count on it!
Mr. Brightside: There's a listing of a 2b/2ba condo in UTC for $292
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/rfs/209604798.html
which is way under any kind of comp.
Is there a story here?
anon 10:56,
They paid $229K in late 2002 for the property so there is room for them to chop the price to get it sold.
I think the story here is that prices went up so far so fast that a lot of people have room to price cut 30% and still walk away with a check at closing. Of course the people that bought in the last two years are buried by such activity but that is exactly what is taking place.
Still, it (the UTC condo) is 50-75k below its comps. Gotta wonder what's up with that.
I think that's the best way to sell a generic property in this market.
Why else would someone want to buy it?
I am not looking for the housing market to suddenly turn back up on a dime. Too much inventory to work through. Some of that inventory will drop off as sellers cancel their listings (or they expire) as they were unable to sell at prices that are no longer available. These are the ones who didn't have to sell, didn't have to move, didn't have a bad mortgage to refinance, but were willing to sell at inflated prices and didn't pull it off.
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