That's Rather Hideous: San Jose Marbleopolis Edition
November 3rd, 2009
Burbed has already burned this $1,688,000 5-bedroom "Mediterranean Villa" in San Jose pretty hard, so we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice to say that someone took very seriously some advice from a certain SNL sketch: "Put marble columns in your house, that place is gonna look like a mansion!" Oooh. La. La.
· 6456 Guadalupe Mines Rd, San Jose [Redfin, via Burbed]
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The Trick-or-Treat List: Winner of Zillow's best neighborhood in...
November 3rd, 2009
Winner of Zillow's best neighborhood in which to go trick-or-treating this Saturday: Presidio Heights, based on some complex alchemy involving sexy things like Walk Score, population density, and crime data. Among other things, Zillow says, the neighborhood "tops our Index because of high home values (read: better, bigger candy)." These guys have their priorities in the right place. The next four neighborhoods: Noe Valley, the Richmond, Haight-Ashbury, and the Sunset. [Zillow]
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ConstructionWatch: Zen Rentals Next to LGBT Center Get Going
November 3rd, 2009
Hard to believe, but the very large, very vacant site at 1844 Market St, next to the LGBT Center, has actually been stirring for a few months now: dirt movers, a crane, the works! This, after snail's pace progress on the empty lot finally halted at one point and went toward a strange "ramshackle cabana" installment, as we reported in July of last year. A quick refresher: developer BayRock Residential and Christiani Johnson Architects are bringing an eight-story, 113-rental-unit building to the site, complete with ground-floor retail and "Zen Garden, roof deck with city views and lush courtyards." This past spring, the SF Business Times reported that BayRock was eager as hell to unload their failed Trader Joe's condo project on Van Ness and Sutter- having chopped their asking price for the site from $18 million to a paltry $8 million.
· Construction Watch: Condos to Cabanas at 1844 Market Street [Curbed SF]
· Coming Soon: Monastic Condos on Upper Market [Curbed SF]
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Listing Inflation: Alcove Makes a Junior One-Bedroom
November 3rd, 2009
Catch another fine specimen of Listing Inflation? To the Curbed Inbox with you!
It's a pretty cushy Nob Hill location. It's got $805 a month homeowners dues, but it's also got a 24-hour doorman, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and all that. So what gives? For $420,000, buyer gets a "JR1BR with a lrg alcove," as seen above. Just to clarify: a make-out nook passes for the bedroom part of a junior one-bedroom at 1177 California. Duly noted.
· 1177 California St #230 [Redfin, via Curbed Inbox]
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Solar Tree: Given the flap over a solar...
November 3rd, 2009
Given the flap over a solar panel installation on an Upper Haight couple's home, it makes total sense that an entrepreneur would want to get into the business of solar panels that are more aesthetically pleasing- and less, say, "embarrassing." That's why photovoltaics engineer and industrial designer real estate agent Greg Strang of Burlingame invented the "Electrisitree," a small tree that converts sunlight hitting its plastic-looking leaves into usable energy. Did he succeed? We'll leave the verdict on this one to the wise, invisible hands of the free market. [SF Examiner, previously]
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CitiApartments Boss Wrote Bad Checks in Vegas Too
November 3rd, 2009
Will there ever be an end to the sordid tales of CitiApartments First Apartments? It seems the managing director of parent company Lembi Group, Walter Lembi, has been allegedly passing bad checks. Oh, about $298,500 worth. Gambling in Las Vegas. The sort of thing one might not expect from a company that's returning tenuous deposit checks to its tenants, or withholding them altogether. (That deposit money's got to go somewhere, and what other place should it go than the gambling fancies of its boss!) Anyway, the county attorney's office is on the case with Lembi's attorney, and Lembi has until Sunday to comply - after which a nationwide warrant would be issued for the man. Dreams of white bronco chases: go.
· Real estate leader's name on bad-check warrant [SFGate]
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November 3rd, 2009
["Cause for Concern," via Curbed SF Flickr photog Troy Holden, aka the artist formerly known as Plug1]
· 69% would live with ghosts for cheaper rent! [Consumerist]
· The Bay Bridge is closed! Why it's the "right move" [Bloomberg]
· And now BART might even run overnight [SF Appeal]
· Arnold's letter: 1 in 8 billion chance it was accidental [Eye on Blogs]
· Aerial San Francisco: shots from a Cessna "Skylane" [Laughing Squid]
· P. Hill murder/suicide house sells [SF Schtuff]
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PriceChopper: Frankenstein in Forest Hill
November 3rd, 2009
Click the image above to view the full photogallery.
Then: $2,199,000
Now: $1,979,000
You Save: $220,000
The casual observer should probably be forgiven if, say, he or she stumbles on a house like 21 Castenada Ave. in Forest Hill (built this very year!) and mistakes it for an exurban McMansion destined to meet an untimely end in foreclosure. Those balcony railings. The baby pedement pediment. The mustard yellow paint job. What to say! But then said observer walks in and finds a South Beach loft. In need of an intervention? Perhaps. Deeply confusing? Definitely. (The "green roof" is an interesting twist, though.)
· 21 Castenada Ave [Redfin]
November 3rd, 2009
["333 Market," via Curbed SF Flickr photog Jeremy Brooks]
· City bused 4,000 homeless back to hometowns [SF Examiner]
· Halloween report: the Richmond is spooky [SF Appeal]
· BART chronicles: people sitting on floor [IBA]
· That Koolhaas hotel fire in China: repairs are under way [AP]
· Hyatt Regency Embarcadero: love/hate for 13 [SF Citizen]
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Gavin: Yes on Signs: It's not quite the 11th hour,...
November 3rd, 2009
It's not quite the 11th hour, but the previously silent Gavin has come out in favor of Mid-Market's Prop D, the measure to allow signage on Market Street between 5th and 7th. The mayor's support, however, may not make much difference come Tuesday. As City Insider notes: "He has notoriously short coattails and has trouble seeing his picks gain favor among voters." Oh, but he's so suave, that Gavin. [City Insider, previously]
The California Connection(s) To Tishman Speyer's Manhattan Flop
October 25th, 2009
As a plugged-in reader notes, Tishman Speyer's led 2006 investment of $5.4 billion in Manhattan's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village continues to head south with all equity investors likely being wiped out. Amongst those equity investors, the California Public...
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Mayor Newsom Double Dips For SF General Hospital Addition
October 25th, 2009
Mayor Newsom double dipped on the ground breaking circuit this week, first for the SFPUC building on Wednesday, and yesterday for the 448,000 square foot San Francisco General Hospital addition which is scheduled to open in 2015. ∙ 525...
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Former Thirteen Million Dollar Mansions And New Comps To The South
October 25th, 2009
While a plugged-in reader reports that 200 Manzanita down in Woodside "that sold for $13.8mm back in 2000 just sold for $8mm (after trying to get more than they paid and following the market down for three years)," according to...
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One Word: Target. Okay, Four: Target At The Metreon?
October 25th, 2009
While Tavern on the Green's bankruptcy likely killed an outpost in San Francisco's Metreon Center, the San Francisco Business Times reports the center's makeover might not be the only big thing in the works: Metreon owners Westfield and Forest...
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<strike>Dark</strike> Light Passage At 1360 Montgomery: Outside And Atop
October 25th, 2009
Designed by Irvin Goldstine and built in 1937, the Art Moderne Malloch building at 1360 Montgomery played a role in Dark Passage starring Bogart and Bacall. Originally twelve apartments, the building was subsequently converted to condominiums. And while the...
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430 Main/429 Beale Development Delayed
October 25th, 2009
Approved by Planning with a 6-1 vote in May, according to a plugged-in reader the Board of Supervisors voted 10-2 10-0 in favor of an appeal of the 430 Main/429 Beale project. As such, the proposed six-story and 113-unit...
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A Potentially Bitter Apple In Lower Pacific Heights: 3016 Pine Returns
October 25th, 2009
As a reader notes, 3016 Pine Street is back on the market and is now listed for $2,350,000. On the market six months ago asking $2,595,000 before being withdrawn, purchased in July 2006 for $2,725,000. As another plugged-in reader...
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CitiApartments Is No More! Well, Sort Of...
October 25th, 2009
A plugged-in tipster reports: Just finishing up escrow on our first condo purchase and trying to get out of...CitiApartments. This morning called them and a receptionist answered "First Apartments how can I assist you?" First Apartments? I asked her, is...
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Actual San Francisco Foreclosures Up 31.6% QOQ (Down 6.8% YOY)
October 25th, 2009
Bay Area Notices of Default (NODs) in the third quarter of 2009 rose 25.2% on a year-over-year basis, up 72.0% in San Francisco proper (from 353 to 607). NOD activity in San Francisco increased 3.1% from the second to...
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Take Two To Stimulate New-Home Purchases In California
October 25th, 2009
"Last week, the California Senate passed a bill 35-1 that would provide $30 million in tax credits to about 4,000 additional new-home purchases [up to $10,000 a piece]. The bill now moves to the Assembly floor, which could take it...
Coming to the Mission: Pimp My Auto Body Shop
November 3rd, 2009
Click the image above to view the full photogallery.
This nine-unit adaptive reuse project was approved last week for 3135 24th St in the Mission, a former auto body shop. Planning commissioners dug Y.A. Studio's "innovative" design, which - beyond simply tacking two more floors on top of the existing two-story structure - allows for flats, two-story units, and three-story units. (One commissioner even suggested the project be used as a "prototype" for similar ones around the city.) Also, according to the project sponsor, computer modeling shows that the "roof line is invisible" to the average-height person, set back from the street frontage as it is- the kind of thing that tends to set preservation-minded heads nodding in approval. The neighborhood appears to be pretty stoked about the ground floor, which is set for what's being called the Mission Independent Retail Collective, a sort of small business incubator modeled after ActivSpace at 18th and Treat. Fun fact! The previous owner of the project (and auto shop) was known to locals as the Mad Russian, and he could apparently fix up a mean body. Construction's planned for January, to be finished within a year.
· From Auto Repair Shop to New Housing [Mission Loc@l]
City's Homebuyer Loan Program Is Running Out of Dough
November 3rd, 2009
The Mayor's Office of Housing has joined the banks in tightening its purse strings, or putting its plastic in the freezer, as it were. As a result, potential homebuyers who would otherwise be eligible for the city's loan program are getting frozen out. The downpayment assistance loan program, which offers loans for first-time homebuyers who are within a certain range of the city's median income, is "running low" on funds- and is "therefore restricting limited funds to stabilize those communities with the greatest need." One prospective buyer was caught off guard recently: "My husband and I were in contract for 26 days when we were floored by the Mayor's Office of Housing's announcement that it will no longer be offering downpayment assistance to individuals who make between 100 and 120% of area median income. We had to back out of our contract and are no longer going to be able to afford a home in San Francisco."
· Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (DALP) [MOH]
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Gregory Garver joined Marcus & Millichap as an Associate Broker. In 2007, he opened a Hotel Brokers USA office in San Francisco where he specializes in Commercial Realty. http://www.gregorygarver.com
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