More than three years after it was installed, the steel and foundation at the site of the stalled Savoy development could be coming out soon.
Continue reading Steel, foundation to be removed at Savoy site
Tag Archives: foreclosure
Short sales at Carriage City Plaza
With foreclosure looming for Carriage City Plaza, one two short sales in the building went on the market two weeks ago within the past month. A check of Realtor.com shows at least four units in the 16-story building on the market by owners.
About 62 of the 222 units were sold since the building opened in 2008. Another 72 leased were through the developer — Carriage City Properties (CCP)/Silcon, Inc. — leaving 88 units unsold or not leased. All 160 units owned by CCP — not the 62 owned by individuals — are expected to go into foreclosure, along with the hotel and retail space on the first three floors.
Among the first 30 or so units that sold in the building, Unit 512 went for $231,250 in September 2008 and at one point was listed for rent at $1,700 per month. The one-bed/one-bath, which appears to have some upgrades, is now on the market for $139,900.Unit 1002, a two-bed/two-bath, closed for $395,250 in December 2008 – two years ago tomorrow, to be precise. It listed on Realtor.com for $199,900 earlier this week and today is $99,000. Base units, sans upgrades, at Carriage City Plaza were starting at about $220,000 during the pre-construction phase in 2006.
Meanwhile, New York City-based Spandrel Property Services was named this week to manage the remaining unsold units being marketed as rentals in Skyview at Carriage City Plaza.
What exactly is a short sale? Wikipedia explains here: “When sale proceeds fall short of the balance owed on the loan, often when a borrower cannot pay the loan on the property but the lender decides selling at a moderate loss is better than pressing the borrower.”Note: This original post was updated Dec. 10 to reflect the 1002 short sale.
Foreclosure for Carriage City Plaza
Foreclosure proceedings will begin on Carriage City Plaza, a 16-story hotel and condo project that was the centerpiece of redevelopment efforts the past decade. Of the 222 units at Sky View at Carriage City Plaza, 62 units have closed and another 72 leased, leaving 88 units.
$350k judgment on Riverwalk foreclosure
The Redevelopment Agency received a $350,000 judgment against the developers of Riverwalk.
A look back at 2009
What kind of a year was 2009 in redevelopment? Perhaps up-and-down might be the most accurate description.
Catching up on some reading
I’m a little late with this but in case you missed last Sunday’s Ledger, here’s their story about Union County home sales in the first half of 2009. It was a county-by-county breakdown of a larger project, “N.J. real estate bust hits urban home sales the hardest.”
Compared to the first half of 2008, “prices dipped 8 percent” in Union County, with only Elizabeth, Fanwood and Springfield seeing more home sales during the first half of this year compared to the same time in 2008. Berkeley Heights (0%) and Scotch Plains (7%) were the lone towns to see median home prices remain the same or rise over last year, and nine towns saw double-digit declines. Only Summit (2%) was up last year over 2005 median prices.
For Rahway, the analysis indicated a median price of $267,000 this year, compared to $307,500 last year (-13%) and $281,000 in 2005 (-5%). Those figures were still good enough to rank Rahway among the top third among the 21 Union County towns in both years, matching Clark and Mountainside in 2008.
The number of home sales was down 18 percent in Rahway for the first half of this year, which was about the ninth lowest rate within the county.
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I also came across this New York Times piece yesterday. It talked about “municipal governments and arts groups pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into larger, flashier exhibit spaces and performance halls,” believing it was “the answer to what ailed cities everywhere — a way to lure tour
ists and economic development — and a potential boon to cultural institutions.”
The specific projects mentioned are of a much larger scale and in some cases very different, but it did bring to mind the $6-million expansion and acquisition of the local arts center by Union County, which also was pushed in part by the idea of spurring economic development earlier this decade.
The most provocative quote came from a senior fellow at the University of Chicago studying these projects: “These were situations in which ‘nobody actually asked: Is there a need here? If they build it, will they come?'”
Developer interested in 19 unsold Riverwalk units
A developer is negotiating with Bank of America to acquire the 19 unsold Riverwalk units that have gone into foreclosure.
Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan told commissioners last week that the city has provided the developer with information regarding the outstanding issues at Riverwalk, namely on-site improvements that remain undone and reimbursement to the city for work that was completed in the spring. The developer requested that the city not identify them, Regan said, adding that the developer is familiar with the city and and its redevelopment efforts.
Bank of America has started the foreclosure process on 19 unsold Riverwalk units, seven of which the city planned to pursue for property taxes. Diversified Communities built a total 86 townhouses in the Riverwalk project. The developer had ideas to build another 40 on adjacent property but did not due to the cost of remediating environmental issues, and at one point was a player in the Town Center project that was proposed three years ago.
A visit to Diversified’s ‘headquarters’
The talk of foreclosure at Riverwalk and the story from North Carolina about another project abandoned by Diversified Communities got me curious.
I didn’t expect much when I paid a visit to the (former) “corporate headquarters” of Diversified this week and wasn’t disappointed. I’m not sure how long the Parsippany office of Diversified has been vacant, but Suite 110 most certainly is (photo above), despite being listed on the building directory. Actually, most of the building is empty except for what looks like one tenant (photo below).
Although Accent Title Agency hasn’t had its Web site shut down, unlike Diversified, phone numbers for both are disconnected. Accent is described as an independently operated affiliate of Diversified (.pdf, of a brochure), which was founded in 2002 by Ken Schwartz and Richard Weis
sman.
Almost all of the unsold 19 units at Riverwalk are those with balconies facing the Kings Inn motel and incinerator across Routes 1/9, City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Only seven of the 86 units have not paid their property taxes, he added.
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Jim McKeon’s Broken Hearts Memorial, which was installed at Train Station Plaza this past summer, was picked by MSNBC in a Web-exclusive video story (2:29) this week. You can check it out here.