Contact Kelty Tapp for all of your Downtown living needs.
Its funny, I know someone that was basically scoffed at for offering 130k on top of all of the city incentives for development for one of these.
The difficulty of getting one of these places, is to actually convince the owner to partition the building up into different owners, or set up an association. Which, currently, no one is willing to do. Plus doing it at 100k? Near impossible.
Challenge: Show me the space, show me the design at 100k - I'll have you a buyer by lunch the next day.
20 comments:
The demand is there. Kelty just doesn't want to acknowledge it.
Kelty would rather live on a Kul de SaK
What does Kelty have to say about Midtowne Crossing. There is a list of ready and willing buyers...waiting for them to come on the market.
Let see... Midtowne did not finally "sale out" until a less then a year ago. The project was done when? How much did the City dump into this project?
As for the waiting list. Show it to me and let me contact the people on it. It is easy to say it but produce the list.
One more case of "trust me" brought to you by some government unit.
The people waiting for condos want to talk to condo owners that are willing to sell, not "J Q Taxpayer".
The demand for Midtowne shows that there is a lack of housing supply in downtown. There needs to be new housing built downtown. The demand has overtaken the supply.
i live downtown and love it. my wife and i actually bought a house in west central...can you believe it?
living down town and living in a loft on columbia street are two different things. any residence on columbia st. would need some major soundproofing to be viable with all the year round activity there...i would not want to live there.
also, who in the world wants a 30 year *lease*?
JQ -
Midtowne sold a long time ago. Its only now that there aren't any condos BACK on the market, as there is a higher demand to live there now.
Matt Kelty's own words
February 1, 2007 - FW News Sentinel:
"If the objective is to re-energize Fort Wayne’s downtown as a place where people live and go, day and night, then we should first acknowledge the urban concept of downtown as a neighborhood itself. Thousands of families live here and buy groceries, medicine, gas, clothes, hardware, lumber and household items, use the parks and go out occasionally for dinner and a show."
"Ask them, and they might more appreciate a Scott’s grocery and pharmacy or a Do It Best hardware store downtown more than a stadium."
Its not too late to scrap Harrison Square and build a grocery store and hardware store on the site. Maybe even throw in a Low Bob's tobacco store too.
Maybe Midtowne is not a good example. And maybe times have changed in the last couple years. But I looked into buying one at Midtowne and they were essentially trying to give them away. I could have had a condo for essentially the new car price of what I'm driving now (yes, it's american, no, it's not a sports car). Hopefully that is no longer the case.
You don't have to take anyone's 'trust me' on the Midtowne Crossing....real estate records are public. Look at the Midtowne sales--time on market, price, etc. for yourself. They were slow to sell initially because there was nothing downtown....but with Harrison Square on the horizon they are moving fast. Call a listing agent if public records are not enough. I personally know two people who own condos there and have been getting calls right and left from brokers who say they have waiting buyers...and Guarantee they can sell them at a primium price within 15 days. That seems pretty optimal to me. Public records....try them, there is a lot of info avail there.
We will have to wait and see. It could be what some from San Fran call "puffing up."
We will see how many are presold, which is very common in the condo markets within cities. They are going to do that here, are they not?
Look and talking is a long ways from putting the money down. I hope it works but I will be one of the most shocked people if better then half are setting their a year after they are built.
JQ-
Ok, here it is-from the souce. I have been involved in Midtowne from Day 1 as an owner and Booard President since 1990. Midtowne is not a failure. The last city owned residential condo was sold in 1992 (as was all but one very small commercial unit). The recent sales were from private owners
We, the owners, are the people who've been paying for Midtowne including property taxes. I am so sick and tired of people who don't know anything about Midtowne bashing the property.
We've put our money where our mouths are and made downtown better. Whey don't you grow a backbone and do the same.
Tom S.
Tom S.
What I am sick and tired is for my tax dollars going to underwrite your homes. No one did or has done that for me. Get it?
Why was three or more of them on the market for an extended period of time if there is such a demand for them? They should have been gone in weeks and not the months it took to sale them.
If a private developer wants to build condos, on his dime, I could care less because it is his dime. But when it is my dime to help underwrite such then I do care.
See when I built my home I paid 100% for my lot, my house, the public sidewalks to walk on, the public streets and so forth.
Tom S., since you know all the details how much did the City of Fort Wayne contribute to the project from day one?
JQ-
Your tax dollars did not contribute to the condo's...the city's portion was built with tif funds. The other half came from the developer and Summit Bank.
do you rememeber what that block looked like in 1989? It was comprised of boarded up buildings-not exactly making a good impression to visitors.
And face it, but we've (the taxpayers) have been subsidising all the new suburban development through infrastructure improvements. So yah-I probably helped subsideze your home!
And yes, not only did I take a huge risk buying downtown in 1990 I also bought my current home in south fort wayne in 1996 because I believe if we want to improve our community we must invest in it.
It's not a risk to build or buy a home in the burbs. Most private developers and individuals will not take that risk.
Tom S.
Tom S.
Money for TIF-funded projects comes from the property tax paid by owners of residential, commercial and industrial property. That means what it says.
I would like to know what you paid for, that I got in the suburbs that I did not pay for.
When this area was annexed into the city I had two high ranking people within the city admitt to me that most of my money would be going downtown. Be it the higher level of police, more fire runs, higher level of required code enformcement, and so forth. See, I did not have a problem with someone being honest because my family has lived in Fort Wayne since the 1830's.
What drives me up the wall if all these deals where so great why did developers ask for hand outs. They would have been fighting with each other over what they would pay for the land.
There are buildings downtown right now that could be turned into Condos because the upper floors are not being used. However, the capitol it would take to update the buildings to code for such use is not there. The only way they will be converted is if someone (taxpayers) gives some developer the offset money to make it happen.
Hence, the free market does not support such. Government is supporting it.
JQ-
I'm not going to get into a pissing match regarding tif-but it's money that would have otherwise gone to Indy. My family too has lived in FW since the 1800's and I want to see the city grow and the only way that can truely happen is if we can retain and bring in more young professionals. I'm 41 and most of my classmates left 20 years ago to move to more exciting communities such as Indy, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte etc and I beleive it's worse now. These, and other cities used successful public and private partnerships to get the job done.
FW still has a factory town mentality and we have to get past that. Drive an hour south and see what's happened to Marion-young professionals wont have anything to do with it.
Yes, I took a huge risk buying in Midtowne because none of us knew where this thing was going and we were a stand alone project. It would have been much easier to buy in the burbs because I was guanteed to get my money back when I sold. Plus, I'm using existing sidewalks, streets utility lines etc.
It's easy to say lets look for market driven solutions but all that's got us in the past is sprawl and ultimately blighed buildings whene they finish with them.
Anom
How would the money go to Indy and stay there. Over 99% of every property tax dollar comes back to the local government unit?
You make an interesting observation about Indy, Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte. If you check the growth outside their core is far greater then within the core. What many of them face is people leaving the counties that these cities are located within. Yes, the same thing Fort Wayne has happening!
Building feel good projects will not change the face of Fort Wayne. Jobs with money that is the only thing that will. People continue to flock to the high cost of San Fran because their is work there. They purchase the multi million dollar condos because they have a job that allows them to do such.
We could built 100 condos for $25,000 each but if there is no new jobs that attrack new residents the only thing is we shifted people from place A to B.
I agree the idea of the smoke stack industry is gone for ever. Which might be a blessing. But we need to find a niche in industry and go for it. We need to pursue it with everyone pulling the chain for the right reasons.
Major businesses do not play games today. They know there is a demand for jobs and so forth. When they come to the local leadership they want answers and they want them now.
Much like the Honda plant that is being built south of here. There is no way they would build such an operation where they have elected to if they requried things some people here Fort Wayne claim we must have.
I for one would have been proud to say Fort Wayne was the home to a Honda plant.
JQ-
On the property tax returning to us, what I mean is that we have more say over where the dollars go rather than folks in the cap city. I just feel state govt is too "Indy centric"
I don't have a firm answer for continued growth for this community but I firmly believe that public private partnerships like Harrison Square are a must. I belive every dollar invested in Midtowne whether from private individuals, summit bank or the city has (and will continue) paid dividends by cleaning up blight and promoting a downtown neighborhood.
As for the other cities, the decline has come at the expense of many of the first ring of burbs that occurred after WW2. The growth is coming to the central city and distant burbs in those areas with the young creatives settling downtown and the traditional families in the outer burbs. We have many of the tradional families but their kids want to move out of town. I believe we need to really work on keeping them here. We need good paying jobs, but those jobs tend to follow the talent and not the other way around.
Obviously, you and I will not see eye to eye on downtown development but one thing we do agree on is our love for this community. I've turned down better job offers in other cities because my heart is here. Maybe that is a mistake on my part but this is home. I thank you for the lively exchange today.
Take Care,
Tom S.
Tom S.
I to thank you for discussing the issues on a higher level. Without name calling or other cheap shots, both of us will pursue our beliefs. Is either of us right? To be honest, my guess it is some place between our two view points.
If you have followed my postings I have never objected to building a baseball park downtown. Because I feel for dollar spent on building it could draw more people downtown then any other city investment.
I do object the the lease with Hardball, part of the hotel package, part of the parking garage deal, and the way the land purchase was undertaken. The walkway for the aid of the Embassy/Indiana Hotel is wrong because of the con game going on to get it done.
Because a person has to be on one side or the other then I have to go with those who oppose the project at any level. Do I want to see it fail? Heck NO! Because if it does, the property tax payers will be footing the bill. That being said, I would watch with a very close eye and all the outside players would know up front that no more handouts would be coming. The taxpayers' wallet is closed!
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