Jury's out on what will happen after tax credit for homebuyers expires
By Aldo Svaldi
The Denver Post
First-time homebuyer Jeff Romero has bid on more than 100 foreclosed properties in the past year, desperate to pocket an $8,000 tax credit that expires April 30.
With the clock ticking, Romero doesn't expect to get the Northglenn home he and his girlfriend are pursuing under contract in time. But losing that credit won't stop the 25-year-old from buying his first home.
"I have been very tempted to back out of our current offer and submit other offers," Romero said. "After talking it over with my girlfriend, we have decided that having the house of our dreams is more important than the tax credit."
The first-time-homebuyer tax credit, part of the stimulus package passed early last year, was designed to lure buyers. It and a $6,500 tax break for move-up buyers have done that, leaving some analysts worried that the tax breaks may have done the job too well and cannibalized future sales.
But the most popular view seems to be that housing markets are finally strong enough to stand on their own, without government support.
"Our sense is, based on what has been done and what has been occurring, the market can become self-sustaining by the end of the year," said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.
Last fall, the group pleaded with Congress to extend and expand the tax break, which was scheduled to expire at the end of November, arguing that the market was too weak to manage without it.
Now, the NAR expects home resales will rise about 7 percent this year from last year, even with the credits going away. Homes must be under contract by April 30 and sales completed by June 30 to qualify.
Buyers undeterred
March was a "rock 'n' roll" month in metro Denver for homebuying activity, which should remain strong through June, said Gary Bauer, an independent real-estate analyst who tracks Denver's housing market.
"I fully expect that the market will continue to move along," he said. "Is it going to be a fantastic market? No. Will it be a negative market? No, unless something happens."
The credit definitely motivated Jennifer and Ronnie Holliman, who moved into their Parker home Thursday, to buy sooner rather than later.
"Our lease on our apartment actually isn't up until next December, so we had to break our lease," Jennifer said. "But we only did it because we knew we'd get the tax credit. Had it not gone through, we would have just waited until next year."
The credit covered their $2,500 lease-termination fee, she said.
But the number of homes being put under contract isn't at levels seen last October, when the previous deadline loomed, leading some analysts to conclude the tax breaks are not as important as they once were.
"Everyone has known about it, buyers are glad to get it, but it is no longer a central reason to buy," said Lou Barnes, a mortgage banker with Premier Mortgage Group in Boulder.
Take Romero, who still plans to buy a home without the credit. The credit would have gone to repay his father, buy furniture and create emergency savings.
As for the Hollimans, they plan to use some of the money left over to take their daughter to Disneyland for her birthday.
An even more important, if less visible, support for housing came from a Federal Reserve program that purchased $1.25 trillion in mortgage debt.
That unprecedented intervention, which ended in March, is credited with pushing mortgage rates below 5 percent and reversing a decline in home prices nationally.
Mortgage rates did jump from 5.04 percent on a 30-year loan before the program ended to 5.31 percent April 2, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
That increase also caused an index of mortgage applications to drop by 11 percent, although fewer people refinancing was behind that decline.
Mortgage rates could rise if private buyers don't step up and buy mortgage debt. Interest rates around 6 percent could kill activity, Barnes said.
But it appears the mortgage- rate spike was more the result of a positive jobs report that lifted interest rates rather than the Fed move. In an encouraging move for homebuyers, mortgage rates dropped back to 5.13 percent last week, Barnes said.
While the Fed hasn't bought any new mortgage debt since March 31, it is unlikely to dump the holdings it has. Also, little net new mortgage debt is being created. That means any rate increases should be moderate, said Cameron Findlay, chief economist at online lender LendingTree.
And there is a self-correcting mechanism. If mortgage rates rise, home values, which have been moving higher the past several months, could start falling again to restore equilibrium, Findlay said.
Findlay predicts that the U.S. median home price, now at $165,000 — a level last seen in May 2002 — will fall another 4.4 percent.
Some see trouble ahead
Some market watchers think things could get worse before they get better.
"All in all, I think we are in for a pretty dismal summer home-sales and housing-starts market," said Steve Wood, an economist with Insight Economics in Danville, Calif.
Combine exhausted demand, higher mortgage rates and another surge in distressed properties coming onto the market, and sellers could find themselves high and dry this summer, Wood contends.
Homebuilders who marketed to first-time buyers could end up the most vulnerable, said Lydia Lin, a broker associate with One Realty in Denver.
"They have relied heavily on this credit and retooled most of their new-home product towards the first-time buyer," she said.
And all bets are off if the economy weakens because stimulus funding runs out, employers stop hiring or interest rates shoot up.
Robert Shiller, who created the country's most closely watched home-price index, recently told Bloomberg that he sees the chances of the overall economy and housing markets going into a "double dip" as 50-50.
To understand where housing is headed, don't just watch mortgage rates, foreclosures and home sales, but job creation.
"The real issue for housing and as well as the economy generally is consistent growth in personal income," said Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank president Thomas Hoenig on a recent visit to Denver. "We need to have people with jobs."
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Gimme Shelter: New Ultra-Modern Bus Shelters Pop Up in Detroit Shoreway
If you've been hanging around Gypsy Bean and Baking Company lately, then you've probably noticed the new, ultra-modern bus shelters that have recently been installed here. If not, have your eyes checked. There is nothing boring about these shelters, and we're impressed by the boldness of the designer and the developer.
We did wonder about functionality, however. For instance: How does the bus shelter provide, er, "shelter" when it is pocked by quarter-sized holes that add to the impact of the sleek, modern design? Also, aren't those seats kinda small?
***
Former PURE staffer Genna Petrolla recently won an award from Judson Smart Living. You can read all about it here. Congrats Genna!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Developer MRN Ltd. Secures Financing for First Phase of Uptown Project
Developer MRN Ltd. secures financing for first phase of Uptown neighborhood project at University Circle
By Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A long-discussed project at the heart of University Circle could break ground this summer, creating a residential backbone for the emerging Uptown neighborhood.
New apartments designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz bode well for Uptown
Cleveland developer MRN Ltd. has secured financing commitments to build $44 million worth of apartments, stores and restaurants along Euclid Avenue, northeast of Mayfield Road and Ford Drive. After years of planning, University Circle is poised to make a huge stride in attracting residents to a district known for its educational, medical and cultural behemoths.
"It's the project that everybody's been talking about for decades," said Chris Ronayne, president of the University Circle Inc. community development group. "It's at the epicenter of what could be a turning-of-the-page toward a very vibrant University Circle that is truly mixed-use."
MRN's project is a key anchor for Uptown, a mixed-use redevelopment that stretches from Mayfield to East 117th Street and from Little Italy to the Case Western Reserve University campus. Early phases of Uptown represent an investment of more than $150 million. The Cleveland Institute of Art has started a $55 million renovation and expansion along Euclid. The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is raising money for a $25 million building at Euclid and Mayfield. And various stakeholders are planning millions of dollars in additional development.
Several of these projects, including MRN's buildings, have struggled with fundraising and financing hurdles in a rocky economy. MRN, the Maron family's development company, initially unveiled plans for a multi-phase residential and retail project in mid-2008. At the time, homebuilder Nathan Zaremba planned to build condominiums and apartments with the Marons, who are best-known for creating an entertainment district on East Fourth Street in downtown Cleveland.
Barnes & Noble has remained an anchor retail tenant for Uptown, despite project delays and the challenging economy. The bookstore will sit on the north side of the site, in an apartment building steps away from the Case Western Reserve University campus.Nearly two years later, those plans -- to be revealed publicly at a Cleveland design review meeting today -- look markedly different: MRN is now the sole developer, pitching a smaller first phase. There are no condominiums, which are harder to finance than apartments and have pre-construction sales requirements. Downsizing has helped the Marons secure financing and set a schedule, even as other developments in Northeast Ohio and across the country remain stalled.
"It's a very complex project in terms of all the stakeholders that are involved, not only in the community but as potential financiers of this thing," MRN partner Ari Maron said. "It's taken us a little bit longer than we initially anticipated to put all that together, but we're excited to be close."
The $44 million first phase could be finished in late 2011. It will comprise 102 apartments and 56,000 square feet of stores and restaurants in two J-shaped buildings lining Euclid Avenue. Maron would not share rental rates, but he described the apartments as higher-end residences aimed at nurses, doctors, graduate students and professors. Barnes & Noble still plans to open a two-level store on the north side of Euclid.
An apartment building planned along the south side of Euclid Avenue will curve in front of the Cleveland Institute of Art and terminate in an oval-shaped space designed for a restaurant or other unique tenant.South of Euclid, the Marons hope to create University Circle's answer to East Fourth, lined with restaurants and bars. An entertainment-focused street will be tucked between the J-shaped building and one of CWRU's existing Triangle apartment towers, where the university is planning a ground-floor retail renovation.
Future phases of the MRN project could include additional retail, offices and condominiums.
"We feel very strongly that there is a for-sale market in University Circle, so I want to make that clear," Maron said, citing town houses being built on East 118th Street and in Little Italy. "In terms of moving this project forward, it's easier to point to buildings like Park Lane Villa and the existing Triangle buildings and see that there's clearly a market for residential rental buildings."
The Marons are buying land for the project from CWRU and University Circle Inc., the driving forces behind Uptown. Instead of buying the property all at once, the Marons will purchase only what they need for each phase of the project -- another way to make the development financially feasible.
The $44 million first phase of the Maron family's development in Uptown will include an entertainment street, tucked between a new apartment and retail building and one of Case Western Reserve University's existing Triangle apartment towers. The Maron family is best known for turning downtown Cleveland's East Fourth Street into an entertainment district, and this street in Uptown also will be lined with restaurants and bars.KeyBank and FirstMerit Bank have signed on as lenders, and the Cleveland and Gund foundations are providing loans and grants. Community Development Advisors, an affiliate of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, is using federal New Markets Tax Credits to help finance the project. So is Enterprise Community Investment, a national lender. And Village Capital Corp. of Cleveland has committed loan money to the project.
The city of Cleveland approved $5 million in loans for the project in 2008, through a program designed to help developers revive vacant or little-used properties. The city has made no financing announcements about the project, and a spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
"It's been kind of a monumental task, really, to obtain these multi-layered financing commitments in this credit environment," said Russell Berusch, vice president of real estate for CWRU. "For that reason alone, we're really fairly sanguine. There are lots of moving parts and a great sense of urgency to achieve a closing and get a shovel in the ground."
By Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A long-discussed project at the heart of University Circle could break ground this summer, creating a residential backbone for the emerging Uptown neighborhood.
New apartments designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz bode well for Uptown
Cleveland developer MRN Ltd. has secured financing commitments to build $44 million worth of apartments, stores and restaurants along Euclid Avenue, northeast of Mayfield Road and Ford Drive. After years of planning, University Circle is poised to make a huge stride in attracting residents to a district known for its educational, medical and cultural behemoths.
"It's the project that everybody's been talking about for decades," said Chris Ronayne, president of the University Circle Inc. community development group. "It's at the epicenter of what could be a turning-of-the-page toward a very vibrant University Circle that is truly mixed-use."
MRN's project is a key anchor for Uptown, a mixed-use redevelopment that stretches from Mayfield to East 117th Street and from Little Italy to the Case Western Reserve University campus. Early phases of Uptown represent an investment of more than $150 million. The Cleveland Institute of Art has started a $55 million renovation and expansion along Euclid. The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is raising money for a $25 million building at Euclid and Mayfield. And various stakeholders are planning millions of dollars in additional development.
Several of these projects, including MRN's buildings, have struggled with fundraising and financing hurdles in a rocky economy. MRN, the Maron family's development company, initially unveiled plans for a multi-phase residential and retail project in mid-2008. At the time, homebuilder Nathan Zaremba planned to build condominiums and apartments with the Marons, who are best-known for creating an entertainment district on East Fourth Street in downtown Cleveland.
Barnes & Noble has remained an anchor retail tenant for Uptown, despite project delays and the challenging economy. The bookstore will sit on the north side of the site, in an apartment building steps away from the Case Western Reserve University campus.Nearly two years later, those plans -- to be revealed publicly at a Cleveland design review meeting today -- look markedly different: MRN is now the sole developer, pitching a smaller first phase. There are no condominiums, which are harder to finance than apartments and have pre-construction sales requirements. Downsizing has helped the Marons secure financing and set a schedule, even as other developments in Northeast Ohio and across the country remain stalled.
"It's a very complex project in terms of all the stakeholders that are involved, not only in the community but as potential financiers of this thing," MRN partner Ari Maron said. "It's taken us a little bit longer than we initially anticipated to put all that together, but we're excited to be close."
The $44 million first phase could be finished in late 2011. It will comprise 102 apartments and 56,000 square feet of stores and restaurants in two J-shaped buildings lining Euclid Avenue. Maron would not share rental rates, but he described the apartments as higher-end residences aimed at nurses, doctors, graduate students and professors. Barnes & Noble still plans to open a two-level store on the north side of Euclid.
An apartment building planned along the south side of Euclid Avenue will curve in front of the Cleveland Institute of Art and terminate in an oval-shaped space designed for a restaurant or other unique tenant.South of Euclid, the Marons hope to create University Circle's answer to East Fourth, lined with restaurants and bars. An entertainment-focused street will be tucked between the J-shaped building and one of CWRU's existing Triangle apartment towers, where the university is planning a ground-floor retail renovation.
Future phases of the MRN project could include additional retail, offices and condominiums.
"We feel very strongly that there is a for-sale market in University Circle, so I want to make that clear," Maron said, citing town houses being built on East 118th Street and in Little Italy. "In terms of moving this project forward, it's easier to point to buildings like Park Lane Villa and the existing Triangle buildings and see that there's clearly a market for residential rental buildings."
The Marons are buying land for the project from CWRU and University Circle Inc., the driving forces behind Uptown. Instead of buying the property all at once, the Marons will purchase only what they need for each phase of the project -- another way to make the development financially feasible.
The $44 million first phase of the Maron family's development in Uptown will include an entertainment street, tucked between a new apartment and retail building and one of Case Western Reserve University's existing Triangle apartment towers. The Maron family is best known for turning downtown Cleveland's East Fourth Street into an entertainment district, and this street in Uptown also will be lined with restaurants and bars.KeyBank and FirstMerit Bank have signed on as lenders, and the Cleveland and Gund foundations are providing loans and grants. Community Development Advisors, an affiliate of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, is using federal New Markets Tax Credits to help finance the project. So is Enterprise Community Investment, a national lender. And Village Capital Corp. of Cleveland has committed loan money to the project.
The city of Cleveland approved $5 million in loans for the project in 2008, through a program designed to help developers revive vacant or little-used properties. The city has made no financing announcements about the project, and a spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
"It's been kind of a monumental task, really, to obtain these multi-layered financing commitments in this credit environment," said Russell Berusch, vice president of real estate for CWRU. "For that reason alone, we're really fairly sanguine. There are lots of moving parts and a great sense of urgency to achieve a closing and get a shovel in the ground."
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Obama Administration Offers Aid to 'Underwater' Homeowners
Government aims to help more 'underwater' homeowners
By Associated Press business staff
April 5th, 2010
WASHINGTON -- The government launched a new effort on Monday to speed up the time-consuming, often-frustrating process of selling your home if you owe more than it's worth.
The Obama administration will give $3,000 for moving expenses to homeowners who complete such a sale -- known as a short sale -- or agree to turn over the deed of the property to the lender. It's designed for homeowners who are in financial trouble but don't qualify for the administration's $75 billion mortgage modification program.
Owners will still lose their homes, but a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure doesn't hurt a borrower's credit score for as much time as a foreclosure. For lenders, a home usually fetches more money in a short sale than a foreclosure. And the bank avoids expensive legal bills, cleanup fees and maintenance costs that follow a foreclosure.
"It's very traumatic and embarrassing and frustrating to go through a foreclosure," said Laurie Maggiano, policy director of the Treasury Department's homeownership preservation office. With a short sale, she said, "your financial issues are your own problem and not neighborhood conversation."
Falling home prices and lost jobs have forced many sellers into this position. For example, in Orange County, Calif., short sales made up about 26 percent of the market in March, compared with 17 percent a year earlier, according to data complied by Altera Real Estate, a local brokerage. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, about 12 percent of all deals since October were short sales, up from about 8 percent a year earlier, according to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.
The expanded incentives will help accelerate short sales, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. He expects 350,000 homeowners nationwide to use the program through the end of 2012, more than double his earlier forecast.
A short sale appears to be the only way out for Brandee Chambers, 36, of Las Vegas. She got into trouble during the housing boom by taking out a risky loan against her home and using the money to buy two investment properties in Phoenix.
She later lost those two properties to foreclosure, and now she is trying to sell the home she lives in for $209,000, but the mortgage balance is $350,000.
Chambers, who owns two hair salons, says she would rather stay in her home, where she lives with her 14-year old son. But she had no luck getting help with her loan. She said she's resigned to scaling back her lifestyle and renting out an apartment.
"I've had to accept a lot in the last year," she says.
For buyers, though, short sales can be a great opportunity.
Marco Cappelli, 49, a winemaker from Northern California, is planning to buy a short sale this month in the Sierra Nevada foothills. He and his wife are paying $214,000 for a property that had been listed at $270,000. They pair plan to fix it up, install a hot tub and rent it out to vacationers.
Along with the financial incentives, the new government program makes another key change. Mortgage companies will have to set their minimum bid before the house is listed for sale. If the offer is above that, the lender must accept it.
That's a big change from current practice. Lenders generally don't calculate how much money they are willing to accept on a short sale until they have an offer in hand, causing long delays before the sale is approved.
The new program "will give us a degree of efficiency that we have not had in the past," said Matt Vernon, Bank of America's executive in charge of short sales and foreclosed properties.
Under the new process, buyers who submit an offer to purchase a home in a short sale should get a response within two weeks, as opposed to months. If that happens as planned, it would be a big improvement. Real estate agents across the country have complained that lenders are often difficult to reach, sometimes only communicating by e-mail and infrequently at that.
"You're one of 400 properties on a screen," said Dave Bauer, a real estate agent in Danville, Calif.
Some real estate agents who specialize in short sales are optimistic. "It could be the first government program that actually helps Las Vegas," said Steve Hawks, a real estate agent there who specializes in short sales. Most borrowers in Las Vegas, he said, owe so much more on their mortgages than their properties are worth they can't qualify for a loan modification.
The Treasury Department outlined the plan last November, but doubled the original $1,500 in relocation money after realizing that many homeowners need more cash to move out. That's because landlords usually want large deposits from people whose credit records have gone sour after missing mortgage payments.
However, there are plenty of restrictions. To qualify, the home needs to be a borrower's primary residence. Homeowners either have to be behind on their mortgages or on the verge of becoming delinquent.
Currently, the program is not available for mortgages owned or guaranteed by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though the two government-controlled companies will soon follow suit, said the Treasury's Maggiano.
By Associated Press business staff
April 5th, 2010
WASHINGTON -- The government launched a new effort on Monday to speed up the time-consuming, often-frustrating process of selling your home if you owe more than it's worth.
The Obama administration will give $3,000 for moving expenses to homeowners who complete such a sale -- known as a short sale -- or agree to turn over the deed of the property to the lender. It's designed for homeowners who are in financial trouble but don't qualify for the administration's $75 billion mortgage modification program.
Owners will still lose their homes, but a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure doesn't hurt a borrower's credit score for as much time as a foreclosure. For lenders, a home usually fetches more money in a short sale than a foreclosure. And the bank avoids expensive legal bills, cleanup fees and maintenance costs that follow a foreclosure.
"It's very traumatic and embarrassing and frustrating to go through a foreclosure," said Laurie Maggiano, policy director of the Treasury Department's homeownership preservation office. With a short sale, she said, "your financial issues are your own problem and not neighborhood conversation."
Falling home prices and lost jobs have forced many sellers into this position. For example, in Orange County, Calif., short sales made up about 26 percent of the market in March, compared with 17 percent a year earlier, according to data complied by Altera Real Estate, a local brokerage. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, about 12 percent of all deals since October were short sales, up from about 8 percent a year earlier, according to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.
The expanded incentives will help accelerate short sales, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. He expects 350,000 homeowners nationwide to use the program through the end of 2012, more than double his earlier forecast.
A short sale appears to be the only way out for Brandee Chambers, 36, of Las Vegas. She got into trouble during the housing boom by taking out a risky loan against her home and using the money to buy two investment properties in Phoenix.
She later lost those two properties to foreclosure, and now she is trying to sell the home she lives in for $209,000, but the mortgage balance is $350,000.
Chambers, who owns two hair salons, says she would rather stay in her home, where she lives with her 14-year old son. But she had no luck getting help with her loan. She said she's resigned to scaling back her lifestyle and renting out an apartment.
"I've had to accept a lot in the last year," she says.
For buyers, though, short sales can be a great opportunity.
Marco Cappelli, 49, a winemaker from Northern California, is planning to buy a short sale this month in the Sierra Nevada foothills. He and his wife are paying $214,000 for a property that had been listed at $270,000. They pair plan to fix it up, install a hot tub and rent it out to vacationers.
Along with the financial incentives, the new government program makes another key change. Mortgage companies will have to set their minimum bid before the house is listed for sale. If the offer is above that, the lender must accept it.
That's a big change from current practice. Lenders generally don't calculate how much money they are willing to accept on a short sale until they have an offer in hand, causing long delays before the sale is approved.
The new program "will give us a degree of efficiency that we have not had in the past," said Matt Vernon, Bank of America's executive in charge of short sales and foreclosed properties.
Under the new process, buyers who submit an offer to purchase a home in a short sale should get a response within two weeks, as opposed to months. If that happens as planned, it would be a big improvement. Real estate agents across the country have complained that lenders are often difficult to reach, sometimes only communicating by e-mail and infrequently at that.
"You're one of 400 properties on a screen," said Dave Bauer, a real estate agent in Danville, Calif.
Some real estate agents who specialize in short sales are optimistic. "It could be the first government program that actually helps Las Vegas," said Steve Hawks, a real estate agent there who specializes in short sales. Most borrowers in Las Vegas, he said, owe so much more on their mortgages than their properties are worth they can't qualify for a loan modification.
The Treasury Department outlined the plan last November, but doubled the original $1,500 in relocation money after realizing that many homeowners need more cash to move out. That's because landlords usually want large deposits from people whose credit records have gone sour after missing mortgage payments.
However, there are plenty of restrictions. To qualify, the home needs to be a borrower's primary residence. Homeowners either have to be behind on their mortgages or on the verge of becoming delinquent.
Currently, the program is not available for mortgages owned or guaranteed by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though the two government-controlled companies will soon follow suit, said the Treasury's Maggiano.
Friday, April 2, 2010
PD Architectural Critics Praises Bold Colors of Circle 118
Circle 118 townhouses by WXZ Development add life to University Circle in Cleveland
By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
March 17, 2010
You have to admire a developer willing, if not eager, to build attractive new urban housing on a difficult site next to a major railroad overpass in Cleveland.
James Wymer, president of WXZ Development Inc. in Fairview Park, recently added significant value to University Circle with the first six townhouse units in his $8 million Circle 118 project at East 118th Street and Euclid Avenue.
The development has brightened a once dreary corner of district and created a strong sense of entry west of the elevated rail lines that mark the psychological eastern edge of the neighborhood.
The first thing westbound motorists on Euclid Avenue see when they emerge from under the rail bridge is Circle 118.
Designed by RDL Architects of Shaker Heights, the townhouses sport colorful geometric facades accented by blue panels of a laminated plastic and wood-fiber board material made in Italy.
Glassy bedrooms on the second floors of the townhouses cantilever over sidewalks and are trimmed in red-painted metal panels.
The effect is eye-catching, upbeat and optimistic. It's a refreshing improvement over the status quo ante.
Chris Ronayne, director of University Circle, Inc., described the location as a formerly "hopeless piece of land," used by UCI as a parking lot.
The site was particularly difficult because the Euclid Avenue frontage angles southeast toward the elevated railroad line just to the east of the new apartments.
Ron Lloyd, the RDL architect who led the project with colleagues Paul Glowacki and Marko Lukowsky, designed the first row of townhouses with dramatic sawtooth facades facing the street. This adds dynamism to the design and makes a virtue of the diagonal street frontage.
Trains make little noise when the windows are closed.Double-pane windows in the living rooms and second floor bedrooms of the townhouses admit tons of light but very little sound. When viewed from inside, trains and Health Line buses on Euclid Avenue appear to pass in near silence. The effect is striking.
The two- and three-bedroom units, ranging from 1,730 to 1,820 square feet, start at $327,900. Ultimately, Wymer plans to build a total of 17; future units will start at $299,000. Two are sold so far.
The living room in the sales unit at the Circle 118 development features a sleek, contemporary interior. Lloyd and his partners have packed a lot into the relatively modest interiors, which feel spacious and airy. Living rooms, which use angled walls to enhance a sense of illusion of roominess, are flooded with natural light.
The sales unit, full of contemporary furniture, is sleek and chic. Rooftop terraces can be augmented as green roofs, for an additional cost starting at $2,500. The views from up top are striking.
For passersby, however, it's the geometry and palette of the buildings that draw the eye. In addition to the red-and-blue color scheme along Euclid, the sawtooth rear facades of the townhouses are painted in bright shades of yellow, green and orange.
David Swindell, president of WXZ Construction, called the very un-Cleveland color scheme "a vitamin D color palette.
"The whole idea was to be fresh and contemporary," he said.
In future phases, WXZ will add nine more townhouses, which will enclose an interior court off East 118th Street with access to interior garages at ground level.
For now, even in its incomplete state, the Circle 118 project has made a significant contribution. At the tail end of a brutal recession, it's sending a signal that WXZ – and its lender, KeyBank, is confident in the future of University Circle.
That's the kind of good news anyone can sense while driving by.
By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
March 17, 2010
You have to admire a developer willing, if not eager, to build attractive new urban housing on a difficult site next to a major railroad overpass in Cleveland.
James Wymer, president of WXZ Development Inc. in Fairview Park, recently added significant value to University Circle with the first six townhouse units in his $8 million Circle 118 project at East 118th Street and Euclid Avenue.
The development has brightened a once dreary corner of district and created a strong sense of entry west of the elevated rail lines that mark the psychological eastern edge of the neighborhood.
The first thing westbound motorists on Euclid Avenue see when they emerge from under the rail bridge is Circle 118.
Designed by RDL Architects of Shaker Heights, the townhouses sport colorful geometric facades accented by blue panels of a laminated plastic and wood-fiber board material made in Italy.
Glassy bedrooms on the second floors of the townhouses cantilever over sidewalks and are trimmed in red-painted metal panels.
The effect is eye-catching, upbeat and optimistic. It's a refreshing improvement over the status quo ante.
Chris Ronayne, director of University Circle, Inc., described the location as a formerly "hopeless piece of land," used by UCI as a parking lot.
The site was particularly difficult because the Euclid Avenue frontage angles southeast toward the elevated railroad line just to the east of the new apartments.
Ron Lloyd, the RDL architect who led the project with colleagues Paul Glowacki and Marko Lukowsky, designed the first row of townhouses with dramatic sawtooth facades facing the street. This adds dynamism to the design and makes a virtue of the diagonal street frontage.
Trains make little noise when the windows are closed.Double-pane windows in the living rooms and second floor bedrooms of the townhouses admit tons of light but very little sound. When viewed from inside, trains and Health Line buses on Euclid Avenue appear to pass in near silence. The effect is striking.
The two- and three-bedroom units, ranging from 1,730 to 1,820 square feet, start at $327,900. Ultimately, Wymer plans to build a total of 17; future units will start at $299,000. Two are sold so far.
The living room in the sales unit at the Circle 118 development features a sleek, contemporary interior. Lloyd and his partners have packed a lot into the relatively modest interiors, which feel spacious and airy. Living rooms, which use angled walls to enhance a sense of illusion of roominess, are flooded with natural light.
The sales unit, full of contemporary furniture, is sleek and chic. Rooftop terraces can be augmented as green roofs, for an additional cost starting at $2,500. The views from up top are striking.
For passersby, however, it's the geometry and palette of the buildings that draw the eye. In addition to the red-and-blue color scheme along Euclid, the sawtooth rear facades of the townhouses are painted in bright shades of yellow, green and orange.
David Swindell, president of WXZ Construction, called the very un-Cleveland color scheme "a vitamin D color palette.
"The whole idea was to be fresh and contemporary," he said.
In future phases, WXZ will add nine more townhouses, which will enclose an interior court off East 118th Street with access to interior garages at ground level.
For now, even in its incomplete state, the Circle 118 project has made a significant contribution. At the tail end of a brutal recession, it's sending a signal that WXZ – and its lender, KeyBank, is confident in the future of University Circle.
That's the kind of good news anyone can sense while driving by.
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