Archive for the 'Development' Category
Hidden Houses
Down this nondescript, unpaved driveway are three hidden houses. Other than the small sign to the right of the driveway, you would never know it from the road.
All three of the hidden homes were built in the early 1900s, which makes them a little newer than the properties along the road. The visible homes almost all date back to the 1800s.
These hidden homes all have a very secluded feel even though they’re quite central in Greater Hartford. We’ve been back there a few times and have been impressed by how quickly you forget that you’re in the middle of a City. Part of it is the lot sizes, giving the homes nice spacing from each other, but it’s also due to the large park that is adjacent to the two homes in the rear.
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A Hidden House
A Hidden House
Ever since we lived in the Boston area, I have been interested in homes that were set back off the road on a lot that doesn’t have any real street frontage. I like to call them hidden houses. Take a look at this picture, can you see the house tucked between and behind the two on the street?
What I find interesting about hidden houses is that they each have an interesting story. How did they get there? Are they newer or older than the houses that surround them? If they’re newer, when did they get built and how was the building lot created?
There are many hidden houses in Greater Hartford if you know where to look. Our first example, in the above picture, is in the northern part of West Hartford. It was built in 2002, and is much newer than the 1950s vintage homes that surround it. The lot is just over an acre, large for West Hartford, and is set in the middle of an oversized block just off Main Street. Two other homeowners control an additional 2.1 acres (combined) of undeveloped land adjacent to this property.
It looks like this home is a very private set-up, yet still in a convenient location within town. The lot has its own driveway, which appears to be an easement over the home on the left’s property. And the undeveloped land behind the home probably gives it a really different feel from your typical West Hartford property.
Office Tower Conversions
Today’s question … what would it take to make a former office tower an interesting/hip/cool place to live?
While walking through Downtown Hartford I was once again thinking about how interesting a neighborhood it is becoming. There has been a noticeable change since I moved to town in 2004, with the highlight being numerous projects filling previously underutilized sites with housing.
There are plenty of underutilized sites that remain – many of them are office buildings. What would it take to make an office tower an interesting place to live?
Industrial buildings are frequently converted into loft-style residences. They embrace the exposed structural and mechanical elements, making it their unique style. They restore the heavily used, yet incredibly sturdy, wood floors to add a feeling of age. And they utilize the high ceilings to create interesting lofted spaces.
Is there something inherently “office-y” about an office tower that could be accentuated to create a compelling residential space?
Some of our buildings don’t require much creativity. 777 Main, for example, is a perfect building for a condo/apartment conversion. The footprint of the building is appropriately rectangular for all the main rooms to all have windows. And most of the windows will have terrific views either to the east or to the west. The location is very convenient to everything Downtown, and there is a large attached parking garage. I can easily imagine people wanting to live in that building.
Other buildings are a little more tricky. Many have no defining characteristics that could be accentuated, or marketed, in a residential use. Some have footprints that are more difficult to re-imagine as residential space (interior bedrooms with no windows, anyone?).
How can we work around these challenges?
Maybe we could add a vertical component to the different floor plans. Rather than making the units all on one floor, what if we made two level residences? Have the main living area on the 9th floor with a private staircase up to the bedrooms on the 10th floor … a townhouse-in-the-sky. There are some units like this in Regency Towers on Woodland Street that are interesting. I sometimes see them on Selling New York too.
What else have people seen that make an apartment/condo interesting and might work in an office tower?
More on Demographics and Real Estate
Below is another article about demographics and other real estate trends that builds on the research of Arthur C. Nelson. It came to my attention after being posted by City of Hartford COO David Panagore. This continues on the themes of Mr. Condon’s piece from Sunday and our take on specific neighborhoods that may benefit from the market shifts.
I’ll be honest, I couldn’t get through the whole thing in the first sitting, but when I finally did, it seemed worth the effort.
The Next Real Estate Boom: How Housing (Yes, Housing) Can Turn the Economy Around
Patrick C. Doherty and Christopher B. Leinberger
Washington Monthly, November/December 2010
Boomers Boomerang Back into Town
This Sunday’s Hartford Courant had an interesting piece by Tom Condon titled “Subdivisions On Way Out?” It is definitely worth a read if you were focused on other things yesterday, like spending time with your mother or enjoying the beautiful weather.
The basic thesis is that a confluence of trends will lead to more large houses for sale in the suburbs than buyers who will be interested in purchasing them. Supply will come from the Baby Boomer generation downsizing to smaller, lower-maintenance housing options.
However, demand for their properties may not materialize. Household size is increasing as multiple generations of a family are more frequently living together. Financially marginal buyers struggle to get a mortgage in the current environment, preventing them from being homeowners. Factors like smaller home sizes, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use environments, and shorter commutes are creeping up to the top of buyer wish lists.
Many interesting questions could be asked using this thesis as the set-up. The first one that jumps to my mind is this, which areas of Greater Hartford will benefit most from these trends?
Some of the winners are obvious. West Hartford Center offers exactly the mix of features that Mr. Condon describes. It is an established mixed-use community with smaller homes, in a walkable setting, that is convenient to just about everything in the region. Slam dunk. The Center is currently one of the hottest real estate markets in the area with basically no inventory available. If you want to buy there, then you need to have your act together.
Other areas seem like logical winners, but there is still considerable work to be done. I see Downtown Hartford as a long-term winner. Right now there is a core group of residents excited about Downtown as a neighborhood. Seven recent apartment developments (The Hollander, The Metropolitan, The Lofts at Temple & Main, 915 Main, Bushnell on the Park, 55 on the Park, and Hartford 21) are generally considered successes. Active planning is underway to rehab another building, the former hotel on Constitution Plaza. There are many additional opportunities to add residents in smaller, apartment-style, homes that are in a mixed-use community with major established businesses and legitimate public transit.
Really, the whole Farmington Avenue corridor from Downtown Hartford through West Hartford Center seems like it has a chance to win big in the coming decades. Asylum Hill and the West End have a lot to offer on the Hartford side of the line. Residential density continues on the West Hartford side of Prospect Avenue with numerous apartment buildings and commercial areas transitioning to single-family housing just off the main road.
In the real estate market, we are already seeing buyers from the Farmington Valley come over the mountain to look at our listings in the Elizabeth Park neighborhood of West Hartford and in Hartford’s West End. If Mr. Condon is right, then this could be the beginning of a trend that will play out for years to come.