Weddington Chase, Waxhaw - Announcing a price reduction on 8016 Stonehaven Dr, a 4,430 sq. ft., 4 bath, 5 bdrm single story. Now 
MLS® $575,000 - Well Below Market Value.
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As the real estate market continues to stabilize, sellers may find that their property remains on the market significantly longer than the days of “list today, sold tomorrow.” There is also more competition for buyers. So, it can be frustrating to put your home on the market, expecting a fast sale, only to find that after six months you’re still waiting for an offer. This is especially true if you need to move quickly and leave your unsold home vacant.
Besides creating a marketing challenge, a vacant home can also be a target for vandalism. Here are strategies you can use to hasten a sale and protect your property during the process.
· Instead of producing a spacious appearance, an empty room tends to look smaller than a furnished room. So, leave behind a few select pieces of furniture and keep the window treatments in place. A chair or lamp on a small table will confer a sense of scale and help potential buyers gauge whether their furniture will fit the space.
· If you decide to remove the furniture, have the house cleaned and painted. Furniture, rugs and decorations tend to hide or minimize imperfections. When furniture and artwork have been removed, every blemish and bruise becomes accentuated, faded paint and wallpaper become more noticeable and scratches and nicks stand out.
· Repaint brightly and boldly colored rooms to a neutral tone. What was an eye-popping room when fully-furnished may appear stark and small when empty.
· To thwart unwelcome visits, give the house a lived-in look. Set a couple of lamps on timers, and ask a neighbor or friend check on the house daily to collect mail, park a car in the driveway, and close and open drapes and windows. Continue using a gardening service or hire someone to cut the grass regularly. During the winter months, arrange to have snow shoveled from the walks and driveway.
· If available, consider employing a home manager or house sitter. At little or no cost to homeowners, the house is furnished and decorated for show-to-sell condition. Most companies require home managers to mow the lawn, shovel snow, even pay pool maintenance and utilities. Having someone living on site discourages vandalism, protects against deterioration and weather hazards and may even reduce insurance costs. (Check with your insurance carrier.)
· Leave the utilities connected. Depending on the season, make sure the thermostat in the house is set at a comfortable level. You don't want a potential buyer to run through the home because it is too hot or cold.
· Review your homeowner's insurance policy with your insurance agent to find out what the stipulations and coverage pertain to your vacant home.
· Find a real estate professional with experience selling vacant houses. Often, these sales professionals specialize in relocation. You want to make sure that you are comfortable with your lines of communication. If you will be residing in another town, come up with an agreement on how often your representative will check on the home and what should be done if a problem develops.
Although a vacant house presents certain challenges, it does not need to be difficult to sell.
Charlotte has not been spared from the slumping real estate market that this country has been experienceing in the past 2 years. The bright spot is that we are not getting hammered like some other parts of the country (California, Florida, Nevada) because our market was not feasted upon by all the speculators looking for the quick buck. Charlotte is a conservative banking town and while property values have certainly increased over the past years, they have not run out of control. Is our market down? Yes. But even though sales are off about 35% from last year our property values are not taking a nose dive but have decreased slightly. There are some good opportunities in the market with forclosures and builder discounts, however those sellers who have a good home priced correctly are having good success in moving these properties. Now is a great time to be buying a home. With mortgage rates still in the 6% range and the best selection of homes that this market has seen in quite a few years..... Buy! Buy! Buy! I will caution though not every seller in this market is going to accept your low ball offer for their quality home in a good neighborhood.
I am always looking for new methods to get exposure for my client listings and get these properties sold. You Tube is another means to get exposure for properties. If your real estate agent is not using all the resource to get your listings sold give me a call and let me show you what a marketing program is all about.
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Duration: 1:52
Attachment(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KasthjVMzBU
Park Square, Matthews - Announcing a new property listing 348 Park square Pl, a 1,468 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm 2 story. Now MLS® $172,000 - In the Heart of Matthews.
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Attachment(s): 348 Park Square 017.JPG
Note that this information is outdated.
Forbes magazine article about Charlotte real estate market
Read More
New to the market 1031 Park West Dr, a 1,404 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm 3 story. Now MLS® $277,000 - 3 Bdr Townhome. Award winning David Furman Design. This property is a rare find for the Dilworth area. Walk to shopping, resturants, Freedom Park. Minutes from center city. This property won't last long.
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Attachment(s): 001.JPG
Stage it, sell it
It can pay to market your home before putting it on the market
CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
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DAVID T. FOSTER III/Observer Staff
Chris Slaymon (left) of CORT furniture rental unpacks a picture frame as Michael Moulton, broker-in-charge at Bee Home Solutions, directs the installation of new furnishings brought into one of his company’s houses last week. Moulton often stages a home that he is selling to give prospective buyers an idea of the living space in the house.
A slowing housing market is usually considered bad economic news. But for CORT furniture rental, it has meant business growth.
The Charlotte store has been expanding in a new niche market called staging -- filling a house for sale with simple-but-chic furniture to give it warmth and class. It's using props to engineer an idea of domestic bliss for a marketing edge -- down to artwork, rugs and plants.
As home sales have declined in the Charlotte region amid a national mortgage lending crisis, the trend of staging single family homes has shown up more often in the region. A chapter of the national organization of professional stagers opened here two years ago and membership has doubled in just the past year to 20.
CORT, a Virginia-based nationwide chain, has seen its staging business for private homes grow in the Charlotte area from almost nothing three years ago to about $30,000 a month, said Jarrod Clay, senior account executive for Charlotte's only CORT location. Staging accounts for about 15 percent of the store's revenue, surging in the past year, he said. "It's more than quadrupled. It's leaps and bounds."
CORT provides furniture directly to homeowners, who can rent prepackaged rooms already designed that are delivered and later picked up. The store also rents to the independent professionals or "stagers" popping up on the Charlotte scene. They work with homeowners, real estate investors and homebuilders. They rent furniture or have their own stock, Clay said.
Homes used to sell so quickly in Charlotte there wasn't the need for private homeowners to stage or for agents to consider unorthodox marketing strategies, said Lisa Hines, an accredited stager in Charlotte and real estate agent with Wilkinson and Associates.
"Now, it's slower, and agents are having to do everything they can to sell those homes," she said.
Local housing sales fluctuated up and down by single-digit percentages starting in September 2006, which saw the first drop in closings in more than three years. Then came the summertime sales blues, which brought falling closings by double-digit percentages for each summer month compared to last year.
Local stagers, who often have backgrounds in design, say homes sell quicker after they've been decked out. The statistics bear it out, says Phyllis Graham, who owns Charlotte's Show Homes franchise and is also president of the Charlotte chapter of staging professionals.
The International Association of Home Staging Professionals says that nationally the homes sell in roughly half the time.
Staging is not a panacea for a dead market or an inferior home, Graham said. Some houses just won't sell quickly or near the asking price, no matter how the furniture is arranged. But for most homes, the effect can be dramatic, she said.
Graham staged a Charlotte home for Mason "Chip" Smith. His now-80-year-old mother lived there for 10 years but needed to move into an assisted living facility. Graham moved out much of the older furniture, which was "wall-to-wall" and had cluttered the house.
She put in some of her own furniture and paid attention to the smaller details, such as replacing a bed comforter and playing background music during showings, Smith said. It sold last spring inside of two months for close to the asking price, Smith said.
"It was so dramatic. She made the small house seem so big," said Smith, who is chief executive of Mullen Publications, which prints newspapers for high schools and colleges. "It's really perfect for baby boomers. You're already caregivers for your parents, and then you have to go in and market their home."
Staging first took shape in Charlotte about three years ago with homebuilders dressing up their newly built properties. The phenomenon moved from new homes to existing homes as real estate agents began looking for an extra edge in the slowing market.
Marcyne Touchton started Domaine Staging in Charlotte only a year ago but said she feels like a veteran in the young Charlotte industry.
"I've had three clients in a month and a half, and they want it staged before they even got an agent," she said. "It increases your chances. What do you do when you go to sell your car? You detail it, of course."
Independent designers and CORT have been staging homes since the 1980s in California, where it first became commonplace. "You wouldn't consider selling a home there without first having it staged," Graham said.
The concept crept eastward due in part to the recent popularity of home makeover reality shows. It has reached extremes in other cities, where some sellers have added stand-in family pets and hired attractive actors to pose as husband and wife engaged in domestic banter.
But stagers usually recommend staying away from those faux personal touches because each buyer should be able to imagine the home belongs to them.
Graham said staging is smart real estate marketing but hiring actors can cross an ethical line. She includes a plaque at each house saying it's been staged. She also advertises the homes as staged to let real estate agents know the properties will be made up and worth a visit, she said.
Hines said successful staging works on the principle that the open space of a home should flow. Clutter is the enemy because buyers can be distracted or turned off, she said. She has to fight to persuade clients to box up and hide their stacks of books and papers, and collections of figurines. She said they resist: "It's a lot of work, basically moving out while you're still living there."
Real estate investor Michael Moulton, whose company Bee Home Solutions buys four or five investment properties a month, started staging about eight months ago. He studied sales figures last month and decided a house he wanted to sell on the edge of the modest Merry Oaks neighborhood needed to be staged.
He hired CORT to deliver furniture Monday to the remodeled, three-bedroom house. He chose furniture with earth tones and simple styles, as well as artwork and a bowl of potpourri. The queen bed in the back bedroom would not be slept in. No one would eat dinner at the dark wood table in the kitchen.
Moulton said there's no way to know for sure the effect on any particular property for sale. But he believes it improves the chances of selling a home faster and close to the asking price than if it were left empty or filled with too much furniture. Bee Home buys and sells investment properties and also rents. The 1,400-square-foot house staged Monday has been on the market since the previous week and is listed at $194,500, he said.
"We want them to imagine this is their home," Moulton said. "A lot of the buyers don't have any imagination at all."
Christopher D. Kirkpatrick:704-358-5169
SETTING THE STAGE YOURSELF
Homeowners can go to www.stagedhomes.com for tips on preparing homes for sale. Those include:
• Clear unnecessary objects from furniture and kitchen countertops. If it hasn't been used for three months, put it away.
• Clear refrigerator fronts of messages and pictures. A sparse kitchen helps the buyer mentally move their own things into your kitchen.
• Remove unnecessary items from bathroom countertops, tubs, shower stalls and toilet tops. Keep only the most needed items in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels to one or two colors.
• Rearrange or remove some of the furniture in the house, if necessary. Thin out as much as possible to make rooms appear larger. Take down or rearrange certain pictures or objects on walls.
• During showings turn on all lights and lamps. Have radio on during the day for viewings.
• Clear patios or decks of all small items, such as small planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbecues and toys.
• Check paint condition of the house -- especially the front door and trim.
Source: Stagedhomes.com
TO STAGE OR NOT TO STAGE?
• The International Association of Home Staging Professionals, which has a two-year-old Charlotte chapter and offers professional seminars, says staged homes sell faster. The chapter's membership handled 20 Charlotte-area homes in the past three months that sold after an average 42 days on the market, according to its president, Phyllis Graham. That compares to a 116-day average for the broader, Charlotte market, according to August figures from Carolina Multiple Listing Services.
• Homeowners looking to transform the interior of their property for a sale can hire a professional stager or take some basic steps on their own to entice potential buyers. Phyllis Graham, president of the local chapter, says homeowners should expect to pay $1 to $1.25 a square foot, or 1 percent of the list price, for a professional, who will furnish and arrange the interiors. Stagers also work with homeowners' existing furniture. CORT furniture rental allows homeowners to do some of their own staging. The company offers prepackaged rooms of furniture from $500 to $3,000 a month, depending on the size of the house.
Parking in high style
Luxury condo project's car elevators save enough space so historic Carolina Theatre can stay intact
DOUG SMITH
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Liquid Designs
Elevators in Charlotte's next condo high-rise will deliver owners and their cars right to the door.
It's an innovative way to ensure privacy -- you stay in the car as you rise to your unit -- but it also saves space that would be chewed up by parking ramps.
The developers of 20-story Encore, billed as "showplace living at the Carolina Theatre," plan to install car elevators along with passenger elevators to help preserve the 80-year-old theater at North Tryon and East Sixth streets.
Charlottean Jim Donnelly's Pursuit Group LLC has taken over as lead developer and revised the $65 million project since the city approved partner Camden Management Partners' contract in April 2006 to buy the property.
Pursuit Group plans 20 "boutique" units selling for $1.7 million to $5 million instead of Camden's earlier proposed 35-story, 125-unit tower, where the most expensive condos would have been priced in the low $300,000s.
As lenders tighten credit in a slowing housing market, Donnelly believes small, unique projects have a better chance of getting financing and selling out.
The Trust, his eight-unit conversion of the former Home Federal Savings and Loan Building at 139 S. Tryon St. sold out at prices ranging from $1.5 to $3 million. Residents are to move in starting in February.
In that upper-end niche, Donnelly said, buyers are more financially secure and less focused on short-term capital markets and interest rates.
On Encore, he said his team is evaluating financing terms offered by three large banks.
He's not concerned that lenders typically require at least 50 percent of the units be sold in advance of construction.
Donnelly said he doesn't believe he will have difficulty selling 10 condos based on his experience at The Trust, where buyers had to be turned away.
Encore is more than just dwelling units.
The project would include three floors of offices (5,000 square feet each), a restaurant level, a theater lounge floor, an amenities floor for residents and a 1,400-seat auditorium for movies, live entertainment, charitable benefits and corporate events.
For Charlotte history lovers, who have been trying to secure a future for the Carolina since it went dark in 1978, there's no question this is a Next Big Thing.
Carolina Theatre Preservation Society President Charlie Clayton is pleased with the redesign.
"They've had me involved from the very beginning," he said. "I like the architecture. I like the way they incorporate the original facade and emphasize the marquee out front."
The developers expect to spend $5 million on the theater, and the society plans to raise millions more to return it to its original grandeur, Clayton said.
The city has agreed to help the developers and theater operator Ark Management with arts programming through annual grants based on the project's property taxes.
Mitigating the impact of parking was perhaps the most significant change Donnelly's team made to keep the theater in tact and improve the project's feasibility, Clayton said.
Past proposals included spiral ramps that would have required shaving off some of the theater to build condos atop several parking levels, he said.
"This would have been done a long time ago if it hadn't been for the parking problem," Clayton said.
Clay Landers of Atlanta-based Camden said, "Parking was the biggest constraint to the site" when he initiated the project three years ago. "This is a very creative solution," he said.
Car elevators are more common in cities where land is expensive and scarce. Donnelly, who co-founded an Internet travel site named IgoUgo.com, said he became acquainted with the technology during his travels.
Encore owners would enter the garage and condos on the Sixth Street side. Theater patrons would have a separate entrance on the Tryon Street side to the Carolina lobby and no access to the residential portion.
Donnelly said the project was designed so condo owners can be as private as they like, never mingling unless they choose to do so.
A restaurant would be cantilevered over Tryon Street at the seventh level.
A rooftop terrace with a lap pool for swimming and a smaller pool for cooling off would be open only to residents.
Residential condos with balconies overlooking Tryon would be on floors eight through 20 with one or two units, 3,000 to 7,000 square feet, per floor.
Pre-construction buyers would have some flexibility to design their spaces and window configurations. High-end finishes, fixtures and appliances would be standard. Owners could combine units horizontally or vertically.
Each condo would have either two or four parking spaces within a few feet of the owner's door. Residents who don't need as many spaces could convert them to other uses.
Separate passenger elevators open directly into residences.
Donnelly said the developers expected to sell the office space but would consider leasing. No commercial prices have been set.
He would like to break ground in March and complete the project by late fall 2009.
The next step is an extension of the developers' theater purchase agreement with the city.
City economic development director Tom Flynn, who's familiar with the plan, said his staff will recommend an extension to the City Council next month.
Developers Change With the Market
Encore shows how condo developers adjust to conditions in a changing housing market.Clay Landers of Camden Management Partners said that in the three years since he initiated a plan for a 35-story tower with 125 units on the Carolina Theatre site, construction prices and interest rates rose, meaning he would have to raise prices higher than his maximum $300,000s to make that project work.
"That got out of the scope of what my company does," he said. "We don't understand that higher price point."
He went shopping for a partner and found Jim Donnelly of Pursuit Group, who has experience with high-end condos.
Donnelly, believing that the market now favors a smaller, more upscale product revised the project to include just 20 units priced from $1.7 million to $5 million.
In light of the housing downturn, real estate analysts are paying close attention to uptown, where 20 high-rise projects are open, under construction or being considered.
Boulevard Centro became the first developer to pull the plug on a tower, when it dropped plans in April for a 25-story condo-hotel next to Bobcats Arena. Eighty buyers had signed up for 117 units, but the developer said constraints of the small site and rising construction costs made it impossible to build.
Encore Overview
• Location: North Tryon and East Sixth streets, incorporating the historic Carolina Theatre.
• Size: 20 stories with restored theater, restaurant, offices and 20 residential condos.
• Prices: $1.7 to $5 million for 3,000- to 7,000-square-foot units.
• Theater: To be operated by Ark Management with plans for live entertainment, movies, charitable benefits, corporate meetings.
• Condo amenities: Car elevators, rooftop terrace with pools, balconies, residents' amenities floor.
• Developers: Pursuit Group LLC with Camden Management Partners. Pursuit's main team consists of Jim Donnelly, Scott Bianchi and Jim Kunevicius.
• Architect: Liquid Design.
• Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease.
• History: Project started three years ago when lawyer Ruffin Pearce Jr. of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, then a Carolina Theatre Preservation Society member, began working with Camden's Clay Landers on a development-restoration idea.
• Sales Center: 221 S. Tryon St.
• Information: www.encorecharlotte.com
Doug Smith
Brandywine, Matthews - The 2 story at 2308 Chateau Ct has been sold.
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Brandywine, Matthews - We invite everyone to visit our open house at 2308 Chateau Ct on June 16 from 2:00 AM to 5:00 AM.
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Brandywine, Matthews - Announcing a price reduction on 2308 Chateau Ct, a 2,122 sq. ft., 2 bath, 4 bdrm 2 story. Now MLS® #683438 $227,000 - Immaculate home.
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New to the market
• 2,122 sq. ft., 2 bath, 4 bdrm 2 story - MLS® #683438 $229,500 - Immaculate home
Brandywine, Matthews - This is a wonderful home in the Matthews area with great curb appeal and pride of ownership. Sellers have just finished painting the interior and exterior with a designer paint scheme. 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths make this an ideal home. 42 inch cabinets in the kitchen. Gas logs in the family room. Fantastic lanscaping front and back with a large deck. Prepare to be impressed.
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DEVELOPMENT
Third Ward park is towers' draw
Green space helps buildings come to fruition
DOUG SMITH
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Rendering courtesy of LS3P Associates Ltd.
300 South Tryon, a mixed-use project, will overlook the potential site of a proposed uptown park and baseball stadium. The complex’s 32-story tower will have two fronts, one on the Tryon side and one on the park side. A promenade along Third Street will connect the park to Tryon Street.
Charlotte's Next Big Thing in center city projects will be a mixed-use development reaching into the sky.
Condos, offices, shops and restaurants will come together in two new towers, 32 stories and 14 stories, at Tryon and Third streets.
Residents will have a 16-floor "sky terrace" with a pool, hot tub and fitness center; a second-floor health club and spa; concierge service, and, of course, skyline views from balconies and floor-to-ceiling windows.
The modernistic buildings will be the 19th and 20th announced or started during uptown's four-year high-rise residential surge.
Spectrum Properties and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers are jointly developing the project -- named 300 South Tryon -- on a parking lot between Tryon and Church streets next to the historic Latta Arcade.
Michael Smith, president of Charlotte Center City Partners, believes it will be pivotal, creating a promenade along Third Street to a planned Third Ward park, putting more housing on Tryon and helping alleviate an uptown office space crunch.
"If you do pedestrian counts on South Tryon, there's just great activity there," he said. "Add to that the urban park and the amount of housing planned around it in Third Ward, and you have support for the retail."
The developers plan to start work on the 32-story mixed-use tower on the Tryon side in June and follow later with the 14-story condo tower on the Church Street side overlooking the planned park.
Spectrum Properties expects to complete the project by late 2009.
The tallest tower will have two floors of shops and restaurants -- about 40,000 square feet -- at the base, 168 residential condos selling from just under $250,000 to more than $900,000 on the highest floors and 316,000 square feet of office space in between.
Spectrum said the shorter building will total 151 units. Exact sizes, pricing and a construction timetable are to be determined.
Real estate watchers flinch at so much condo activity at a time when other large metropolitan areas are experiencing overbuilding and slumping sales.
But the addition of this project doesn't concern multi-family analyst Emma Littlejohn of The Littlejohn Group, who follows the urban market perhaps closer than anyone else in the city.
Openings of all those announced projects will be spread through the end of this decade and into the next, she said, boosting center city population from about 11,000 today to more than 21,000.
And, Littlejohn adds, demand for condos in the center city remains strong while the supply of luxury units like those planned at 300 South Tryon is limited.
"This announcement doesn't scare me at all," Littlejohn said. "I think their combination of location and amenities is going to be a home run."
The office space also seems to be timed appropriately.
Oversupply was a major issue uptown a few years ago, but the situation has changed dramatically over the past couple of years with the healthy growth of uptown's banks and financial services business.
Now, experts say, more offices are needed, even though uptown expects to add about 1 million square feet of speculative space by 2010 in three earlier announced towers.
Cornerstone and Spectrum felt confident enough about the market's strength to unveil the project and start construction without having the space leased up in advance.
Smith said the uptown vacancy rate has dropped to the 4 percent range, creating such a tight market that "you literally don't have enough space to recruit new businesses."
The developers made way for a 28-story office tower at Tryon and Third about eight years by demolishing several buildings, including Jake's restaurant and a mid-1920s office complex called Film Row.
Development was delayed, however, in the wake of a slumping real estate market.
Once discussions began a few years ago on the Third Ward park and a potential minor-league baseball stadium, the developers decided to re-evaluate.
"This project is all about the park," said Spectrum Chairman Jim Dulin. "It has that extra density because of the park."
The city, county and school system could complete details of a land swap in April or May, clearing the way for a baseball stadium next to the park.
Cornerstone, the real estate investment arm of Mass Mutual, is involved in the swap because it owns some of the property that would be used for the park.
"This is a fine example of how developments are accelerated and their density increased when projects like the land swap carry the day," Smith said.
Spectrum is pushing for approval of the swap, but officials said it's not mandatory for them to proceed with the estimated $200 million construction of 300 South Tryon.
They plan to start marketing commercial space and first phase condos in May and second phase condos in spring 2008.
300 SOUTH TRYON DETAILS
• 32-story tower with two levels of retail at the base, 13 floors of offices, 17 floors of condos.
• Architectural features include an eye-catching two-story "jewel box" retail structure at the Tryon and Third corner and a subtle flowing building design that draws attention down Third to the park.
• Each office floor has 25,000 square feet of space, 9-foot ceilings on lower floors, 12-foot ceilings on top two floors plus executive balcony on top office floor.
• Anchor tenant can put signage on building.
• Retail tenants to include a high-end restaurant, a sports bar/tavern, coffee shop, gourmet market.
• Condos in tower will have floor-to-ceiling glass and balconies or private terraces. Sizes range from studios (550 square feet) to two-bedroom units (1,100 square feet) and prices from under $250,000 to about $500,000. Seven penthouses on top three floors, 2,000 to 6,000 square feet each. Starting price: $900,000.
• Amenities to include 16th-floor sky terrace with pool and hot tub, fitness center, community room, wine room, theater room, pet park, private party terrace.
• Project features to include Club 300, a high-end health club and spa on second floor, concierge, large conference center, roof terrace in breakout area.
• Parking will be on four levels below building. Condo owners will have one space per bedroom (maximum: two). Office tenants will have additional parking in neighboring deck at Spectrum's 230 South Tryon condos.
• 14-story condo tower in phase two with a private party terrace connected to larger tower's amenities level by sky bridge. Penthouses, 1,900 to 3,000 square feet on top floor.
Development team
Developers: Spectrum Properties and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers.
Architect: LS3P Associates Ltd.
Contractor: R.J. Griffin & Co.
Condo sales: Helen Adams Realty.
Office leasing: Spectrum Properties, Ted Lee.
Info: 300southtryon.com.
Luxury trend finds Wesley Heights
Neighborhood near uptown has affordable housing, and is adding condos
Luxury trend finds Wesley Heights Neighborhood near uptown has affordable housing, and is adding condos
Luxury condominiums pop up like spring flowers in the neighborhoods of south Charlotte.
Now, a similar trend is emerging in the burgeoning Wesley Heights revitalization area just west of uptown.
Origin Development LLC plans what it says will be the city's "greenest" and among the neighborhood's largest condos, off West Fourth Street Extension slightly west of the Interstate 77-Interstate 277 loop.
Prices at 24-unit Celadon will range from the mid-$200,000s to the mid-$400,000s for 900- to 2,076-square-foot townhome-style condos with such touches as Italian design gourmet kitchens and spa-like master suites.
Most of the condo and townhome development there so far has been tilted toward smaller units with fewer high-end features to keep prices in check.
"This is the first to take a more boutique approach," said real estate analyst Emma Littlejohn of The Littlejohn Group. "It indicates Wesley Heights is being propelled into a much more market rate neighborhood."
The project's Next Big Thing potential, real estate experts say, lies in the diversity it could bring to Wesley Heights. So-called workforce and affordable housing could be joined by more luxury townhomes and condos.
"The neighborhood is beginning to appeal to more upper end households," said developer Bobby Drakeford of The Drakeford Co. "This could be the start of a trend -- like in SouthPark."
He's developing Walnut Hill, about 40 condos (995 to 1,500 square feet, $170,000s to $250,000s) off Wesley Heights Way near West Trade Street.
Only 10 units remain for sale in the project, to be finished in July.
Most buyers, Drakeford said, are young people who see the potential of Wesley Heights and are willing to stretch financially to invest in the neighborhood.
Urban planners are encouraging residential developers to "jump" the I-277 barrier with housing projects that help fill the gap between uptown and westside neighborhoods.
Wesley Heights got a major boost in 2003 when developer Frank Martin's Landcraft Properties bought 25 acres between Stewart Creek and Woodruff Place for Lela Court, a 147-home infill development.
Any developer who wasn't watching then certainly is now.
Origin Development principal James Funderburk Jr. and partner Jim Hock discovered their wooded 1.4-acre site on West Fourth Street Extension through a real estate broker.
"It was perfectly oriented," Funderburk said. "It's on the greenway, on a mass transit route and only a quarter mile from the inner ring of Interstate 277."
The site is so close to the center city that a condo owner could bike or walk and leave the car in the garage.
From the start, Funderburk said, the developers saw an opportunity to do something special by saving a third of the trees and combining modern-minimalist design with environmental sensitivity and energy efficiency.
"Retaining the heavily wooded feel was important to me," Funderburk said. "I think a modern structure in the midst of the woods is a beautiful contrast."
Saving trees is aesthetically important to the neighborhood, he said, but it also reduces stormwater runoff, enhances the project's passive solar design and provides "a slice of nature" to townhome owners.
Some units will be larger than 2,000 square feet, comparable to what buyers might find in SouthPark or Dilworth, but they won't be as pricey, he said.
Funderburk estimates the average price per square foot at $220, roughly $100 less he says than a similar condo in Dilworth where land prices are higher.
Origin Development plans to start construction of the $8.7 million project in May and complete work in early 2008.
Developers make green housing less costly
Origin Development principals James Funderburk Jr. and Jim Hock spent nearly two years researching and planning Celadon.Their quest for ideas and techniques took them to green building conferences in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Calif.
They wondered why modern green design was so scarce in multi-family development.
"What we found was that development often follows the path of least resistance, which can tend to stifle innovation," Hock said.
Nationally, home builders say buyers are resistant to paying more for green features.
Convinced that eco-friendly features can be cost effective, they hired Liquid Design's Michael Williams and Gaurav Gupte, who are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified.
Among the green features they've included:
• A light-reflective roof that incorporates "cool roof" technology.
• Dual-flush toilets to reduce water consumption.
• Energy efficient Fisher & Paykel appliances to reduce energy consumption.
• Recycled materials used for sound and thermal insulation.
• Bamboo flooring, which is grown sustainably without fertilizers or pesticides.
• Slow growing, native and drought resistant plants used in landscaping.
• Kitchen cabinets built to stringent European standards to greatly reduce urea-formaldehyde emissions.
• Recycling during construction with a goal of diverting 70 percent of construction waste from landfills.
• Materials generated by Celadon land clearing and excavating to be reused on the site.
Celadon Overview
SIZE: 24 "eco-chic" three-story, townhome-style condos on 1.4 acres site on West Fourth Street Extension about a mile from the intersection of Trade and Tryon streets.
UNITS: One-, two- and three-bedroom townhomes from 900 to 2,076 square feet, priced from the mid-$200,000s to the mid-$400,000s.
FEATURES: private garages, balconies, dual lavatories and vanities in master suites, 10- to 20-foot ceilings, large windows, custom gourmet island kitchens.
DEVELOPERS: James Funderburk Jr., real estate investor whose career includes founding such clothing chains as Lotus, Civilian and Urban Evolution. Jim Hock, an experienced project manager and former vice president of marketing with Wachovia Securities.
ARCHITECTS/PROJECT MANAGERS: Liquid Design's Michael Williams and Gaurav Gupte.
CONTRACTOR: Sagehorn & Co., Inc.
SALES: Shane McDevitt and John Geuss of Helen Adams Realty. Sales and design gallery to open April 14 at 1430 S. Mint Street.
INFORMATION: www.celadongreenway.com.