The Saint Paul Condo Blog

Just two days ago, the Federal Transportation Agency issued a Record of Decision, meaning it meets all the requirements of the EPA, the Clear Air Act, and the U.S. Transportation Act.

What's this mean to Downtown?  This means the Central Corridor is one step closing to dipping into the pockets of the US government to start construction next year.

Met Council chairman, Peter Bell stats that with the new from the FTA, the project is now ready to enter into the final design phase of the project.

Personally, I don't understand how they will have the line to downtown operational by 2014, unless they are thinking 11:59PM on Dec 31st of 2014.  Just seems like times been ticking for a while and there is still a lot of work to be done.

Call me a pessimist, but I could still be bitter about the maintenance facility...

Who knew that the City of Saint Paul, still discriminated against woman in this day in age?  To say that Women should heed caution when a car approaches, but for men it's OK?

I have been walking past this municipal parking ramp for the last 6 years and not once did I notice that it was a woman in the sign.

It took my 5 year old daughter, Amelia to spot it.  She asked "Daddy, how come girls are not allowed in the parking ramp?"  and before I could even try to come up with a clever answer, she followed up with "You know daddy, the whole world isn't just for boys"

I laughed pretty good at this one, and thought I would spread the joy.

I was having a conversation with a client recently, and the topic of balconies and the frequency that they get used came up.  I had thought that it was a regular occurrence that people with balconies used them all the time (as I do).  So I thought a little investigating was in order.

On Tuesday night (which was absolutely beautiful out) I thought I should walk outside.  Take a good look at this photo, if you need it enlarged, just click it.  How many people do you see out enjoying their balcony?

So here's the companion question...  If no one uses them, are they worth the lost square footage?

Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

So by now, most people know that the Pointe of St Paul packs a huge list of building amenities.  Well add one more.  In addition to the soda, Culligan water (free), candy, and frozen treats vending machines, the Pointe welcomes a Coffee machine!

The drinks range in price from $1.25 to $1.75 depending on what type of caffeine shot you need.  The machine actually grinds fresh beans each time it makes a new drink - it even has a little window at the top where you can see the beans.  Early reviews give it a thumbs up and from the people I've heard from, it will have them some money and time in the morning.

I can't actually comment on the taste, as I don't drink coffee - I'm more of a Red Bull sort of person.  Anyway, I expect this to be a big hit in the building.  Hopefully, enough people use it to keep the owner from yanking it.

In a vote of 58/42% the current board was saved from being recalled.  While still a close call, the right decision was made tonight.  It will likely take months or even years to heal the wounds, because this was one divisive meeting!

As I posted earlier, Gallery Tower had a petition to remove the current board, and replace it with a new one.

One of the main reasons for all of this has to do with maintenance of the building, or lack thereof.

As of January 1st, a new management company was selected to manage Gallery Tower.  One of the first things that happened was, Gittleman removed the blinders of the home owners.  Showed them what was wrong with the building, and what they needed to do to correct the problems.

This irritated some people in the building, who felt nothing was wrong, and nothing needed to be done.  I've been told by more than one person of absolute atrocities back in the hey days of the old boards/management company.  Financials being kept from residents, bids for contracts not available for view, the list goes on...

I really hope this is a turning point for Gallery Tower.  I know there will be a lot of hard work ahead for the board, home owners, and management company, but I believe Gallery Tower is heading in the right direction for a much better future.

Located in an undisclosed location (OK it's in the City Hall Annex) lies a machine that could save you hundreds of dollars a year.  One has to start their quest by traveling to Saint Paul's heart.  Once in the entrance of the annex, you will see a blue machine without any real identification.  This will save you from the green striped envelops that attack the windsheild of your car.

It's a parking meter card machine.  One of the best kept secrets in our fine city.  Once you have given over $5 to the machine it spits out what looks like a debit card with a gold sticker on it.  You then place it back into the machine to load money on it.

Now that your money has been turned in Saint Paul currency, you can begin to fight the evil parking meter attendents.  The easiest way to win the battle is to leave the card in your wallet/purse.  When you park at a meter, you insert the card.  The parking meter will tell you the balance of the card, then proceed to add minutes to the meter.  Just remove the card when the desired amount of time has been reached.

How does this help you fight off the green striped moster?  By actually having money available to pay the meter!, because let's be honest, how often do you keep a roll of quarters in your car?

Anyone who lives in Wacouta Commons knows that Lake Temperance has a tendency to dry out.  Sounds like a solution is in the works!  Instead of a dry lake bed, the once Printers Row Phase II will be irrigated and sod laid to make a temporary park while the original developer waits for the market to return before completing the project.

What sparked action?  Rumor has it that an upset commercial property owner was tired of seeing the empty lot and wanted to build something on it himself, he then went to the City to demand the original developer lose his rights to it.

Well that was enough for the original developer to step up to the plate and address this eyesore.

Also turns out, that the parking lot between Printers Row and 9th Street Lofts might actually see some development as well!  Not sure on the details at this point, so I'm not sure if it's going to be residential or commercial.  My gut tells me commercial though.  Originally, this was going to be the final phase of the Wacouta Commons Master Plan - Pressman Lofts.

Those of you who went through the sales model at Printers Row, remember seeing a scale model of the neighborhood, and Pressman Lofts was there, maybe a 4 to 5 story glass structure.  In fact, Printers Row's parking ramp was supposed to be shared with this development.

Stay tuned for more...

Have you ever found yourself wanted to cook for others and wanted to start a restaurant?  Have you ever thought that it would be awesome if you could bring the food to the people, instead of them coming to you?  Then on top of it all, thought, heck, I like being cramped in a hot Airstream trailer cooking in 90º heat?

Well, someone beat you to it!

Eat Curbside is traveling the City, bringing good eats to you.  I'm not talking about your usual street vendor here, these guys (and gals) are making full blown meals out of a retrofitted Airstream trailer!  Menu items seem to change, but to give you an idea, here's some of the things they've be cooking up:  Rotisserie chicken caesar salad, Pesto pasta salad w/broccoli & sundried tomatoes, Chipotle turkey panini, etc...

The website, www.EatCurbside.com is not fully operational yet, but if you are on twitter, you can follow them at @EatCurbside. Or for you FaceBookers, they have a fan page.  The usual hangout seems to be Mears Park around the lunch hour and around Grand Avenue in the evenings.

So with the crackdown in the mortgage market, FHA has become the dominant player is mortgages as of late.  That's all fine and dandy for single family homes, but it poses a problem for condominiums.  The Departmend of House and Urban Development (HUD) requires condominiums to be "approved" before you can finance a condo/loft using FHA.  The work-around has been what is called a Spot FHA.  The building still needs to meet some of the basic parameters of a full blown FHA approval, but the one drawback of a spot was one of the requirements unique to the Spot approval process.  It states that only 10% of a building can be financed through FHA. 

In a building like City Walk, that means a total of 22 units could be financed with a Spot FHA loan.  Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it takes a loan officer a certain level of skill to manage their way through the mess of paperwork that is required for Spot FHA approval.  In a building like the Essex on the Park or Produce Exchange, only 3 units could be financed as a Spot.

This is where the problem really comes to life!  I talked to one loan officer recently at a seminar who said a full 70% of his loans where FHA backed.

Some of the changes that are coming will make it a bit easier to finance using the Spot Approval process.  Instead of 10%, a more generous 30% will be allowed.

Now just because the cap has been raised, doesn't get some buildings out of hot water.  For Spot Approval, a building needs to be 51% homeowner occupied, the homeowners must be in control of the HOA (not the developer) for at least one year, and the building cannot be subject to additional phasing.

These new regulations go into effect for case files assigned AFTER October 1st, 2009  If you are determined to use FHA in a building that has hit it's cap, you'll want to wait to apply for financing.

There are only a few buildings in downtown that have the full FHA aprroval ready to go.  MarketHouse, Panama Flats, Mississippi Flats, and the Pointe of St Paul have gone through the work to become approved.

Monday was a pretty big day for the boosters of Fitzgerald Park (myself included), as the Mayor included $100,000 design and engineering grant to get the wheels moving on Fitzgerald Park!  Now before you start naming your kids Fitz in honor of the new park, we still have some hurdles to tackle.

City Council needs to approve the budget, but from everything I've been hearing, it's a go.

Also worth noting, and why the name Fitz might be a bit early; there's rumors floating around that the owners of Pedro's Luggage are preparing to gift their building and the land to the City of Saint Paul to build the park.

So maybe we will never see a Fitzgerald Park but instead a Pedro Park?

It's never fun, when you start to hear from homeowners about the mounting trouble in the building they call home, but the calls, and emails I'm getting from Gallery Tower owners is getting greater.

I'm not sure when the troubles started, as some say it's been brewing since day one and others say it's a more recent event.  Whatever the case may be, Gallery has some difficult decisions ahead.

Here's what I've know and have been told so far.

The building recently fired the management company that had been working for them since the beginning of the condominium or darn near close to that.  With that, the new management company looking over the finances, determined that the building was nearly out of money and instructed the association to take out a $100,000 loan to help meet the shortfall in cash.

Coming down the pipe, there's new codes for elevators, requiring Gallery Tower to comply (the Pointe just completed this same work).  The association has been tossing around the idea of dues increase to help pay for the elevator and this has rubbed a lot of homeowners the wrong way.  On one of my visits to the building, there was a flyer in the building, asking for signatures on a petition to remove the entire Board of Directors (all nine of them).

Gallery Tower, for it's price point has higer than average association dues, on top of the additional money you have to spend on parking.  A due increase, however necessary will make the building even more difficult to sell.

As an outsider to the building, it seems to me they need to run a special assessment to pay for these items.  I'd have to look through their documents to know how's it done, but some buildings require a high percentage of home owners in agreement to levy any type of special assessment.  If you have enough people that don't care if their place is sellable or not, you could continually vote down an assessment.

For anyone that lives at Gallery, sometimes you have to do what is right for the building, and that might trump what's right for you.

I think there's some pain ahead for Gallery, but I'm confident in the long run Gallery will be a better building.

Just whatever you do, don't replace the new board, and for Pete's sake, do not hire back the old management company!