Finish the condos
Looking out from Brewfest at Festival Park last week, it was unsettling to see that a lot of the houses at River Park Place are still vacant. Interior construction appeared to be finished in all of them, so it looked like they were unsold units. The housing market is not in a good state apparently. The Herald reported the other day that Kane County foreclosures are up 38% over last year.
Earlier this year, Tom Sandor asked the city to follow up on the question of why River Park Place condo construction wasn’t underway. According to the city manager, the developers said they would break ground in April. It’s clear that that hasn’t happened yet. What a lot of us must be wondering at this point is whether it’s ever going to happen.
The implications of a housing slowdown are significant. For reasons I don’t understand, the city allowed Fountain Square condos to be completed in two phases, rather than a single-phase project. Now it’s unclear if the second half of that building will ever get completed. We may end up with an unsightly half-building.
That scenario is tragically more likely if River Park Place condo actually gets built, because all developers will be keeping an eye on how many units are built in the downtown and respond accordingly. If the River Park Place guys think that Fountain Square is flooding the market with downtown condos, they certainly will not build on spec. At this point, it’s almost like an either/or. You’re either going to get the other half of Fountain Square condo built or you get River Park Place condo built. This is if you leave things to unfold on their own.
I don’t see the city being aggressive enough in getting these buildings completed, and I think we’re at the point where they need to be more proactive. They need to make sure that phase 2 of Fountain Square begins immediately and that they break ground on River Park Place. Until these two things happen, it seems to me that it would be unwise for there to be any further consideration of Water Street or any other condo projects.
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First of all, the unsold River Park Place townhomes are NOT finished inside; the exterior is done BUT once a unit is sold, the buyer can choose the options they want to finish the interior. Second, new home sales have plummeted everywhere and NOT just in downtown Elgin. Why don’t you call the Villas of Cambridge in Streamwood, for example, and ask them how many units they’ve sold over the past year.
Overall, the award winning River Park Place townhome project has been very successful and in today’s slow market, it’s just going to take time to sell all of them.
Instead of holding a beer in one hand and pointing fingers with your other, why don’t you try to remain positive about downtown Elgin’s progress and appreciate what has happened so far. If you can’t, then why don’t you write up a proposal about how Elgin should approach its downtown planning and present it at the next city council meeting.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comment. Yeah it would be a interesting idea for me to use the public comment period at city council meetings. I’ll think about that.
As for real estate, the only question I’m asking here is at what point are we going to move from having faith that the market will turn around to being proactive, and making sure that these buildings get completed regardless of the market?
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo