Getting your player ready...
When Blueprint condominiums came out of the ground – E. Colfax at Madison Street between the old Bluebird Theater and National Jewish Hospital – the perfect storm was about to hit the 2008 real estate market, sending projects around the edge of downtown into a netherworld. Now six years have passed and most of the things Blueprint’s original developer had envisioned along E. Colfax are actually happening: lots of new infrastructure, a new Sprouts Farmers Market already open, and every one of its 37 loft-condos sold – save for three units, two of them “mandated affordable.”
“It’s such a great deal,” says Jackie Garcia of RE/MAX Professionals’ Mile High Dream Team, who took over the project from the bank in 2012, and quickly turned it into a success. “This is in the same building as some penthouses that sold for close to $500,000.” Garcia says she’s a little amazed those two affordables – built into the project’s original plan as part of the Community Redevelopment Act of 1977 – haven’t sold (each has been under contract a couple of times, with the deals falling through). They’re each priced at $129,620. To put that in perspective, they’re the exact size as Blueprint’s 1-bedroom homes, the last of which sold long ago at prices in around $160,000, Garcia notes. Each comes with a reserved parking space in Blueprint’s indoor parking lot; and has the same finishes as the one-beds did – kitchen with cherry cabinets, stainless appliances, Ubatuba granite tops, and areas of engineered-wood floors. (The one-bedrooms had a partition wall that separated off the bedroom/bath from the remainder of the living area – the mandated affordables don’t). Garcia’s team also has a single two-bedroom home available for purchase at $345,000. Mortgage officer Beaux Selznick with BBVA Compass says that to purchase either of these affordables, purchasers need to be making somewhere between $27,000 and $42,000; a couple purchasing could earn a max of $50,000. An ‘Everyday Heroes’ provision allows firefighters and teachers to earn as high as $78,000. “With what’s been going on around here, this is a perfect place for a teacher,” added Selznick. “She’s probably paying $800 to $1,000 a month to rent, and here she’d be at $850 to $900 to own a place.” Selznick says that the CRA program seems to do what it’s supposed to: help bring up an area until it is no longer needed. He’s seen that happen in his own neighborhood in Highlands, where CRA affordables are no longer available for new projects, as development has taken off. There ARE some re-sale and other restrictions: The program prevents new owners from renting units out; and there are limits in how much a unit can appreciate from year to year. Meanwhile, Garcia notes that previous Blueprint buyers have included medical professionals planning to walk to work to National Jewish. City Park is two blocks north; and within blocks you’ll walk to newer dining spots and coffee places along with some venerable taverns like Annie’s Café and Bar; not to count places along the E. 12th shopping district in Congress Park.Follow Mark Samuelson on Twitter:
@marksamuelson
