The Saint Paul Condo Blog

It seems like that within the last few weeks, my opinion of light rail has really changed dramatically, and I am wondering why we even need it in the first place.  Couldn't the exact same thing be accomplished by buses at a significantly reduced cost?

I also have major concerns about the proposed maintenance facility they want to locate across the street from the Farmers Market.  Have the people that are proposing this change ever been in Lowertown before?  Closing 4th Street would be disastrous in my opinion and ruin Lowertown beyond repair.  The Diamond Properties building was always promised as a residential/commercial expansion of Lowertown, framed to the West by the Farmers Market.

I can not think of a worse use of the site than a maintenance facility for the light rail trains.  Well maybe I can, but I won't type them here, in fear of our elected officials using it as possible ideas.

Metro Council Link

Before:

After:

Someone has been a busy beaver over the winter!  I've attached a before and current picture for you to see the work that has been done.  It's been quite the transformation!  I spoke with the owner last year and he told me he was building a private residence on the top of the inner building, and wanted restaurants on the main level.

With the new buzz over the Bulldog Lowertown and the new proposed tequila bar, it seems the timing might be right for another one-two punch (pun intended).  The locating has great visibility from Jackson Street and major artery for downtown.  It also has access to mass amounts of parking - which can be a problem for restaurants around here.  The building also sits on the border of two rather large neighborhoods (Fitzgerald Park & Wacouta Commons).

I hope possible restaurant operators will take a good look at this place as a possible home.

Did you catch a copy of the Saturday Pioneer Press?  A nice little article about the anomaly of downtown being one of the only area's in the state to post a positive median home price increase in 2008.

Not that I doubt the data, but I don't think the data is as rosy as it's portrayed.  I'll get into that in another post...

Did you happen to catch the happy couple on the cover?  Those were my clients who purchased at LOT270!

http://www.twincities.com/ci_11475249

Wow, I haven't posted a blog entry in way too long!  The holiday's and a new baby did a number on me!

But I am back from my underground bunker, and the numerist in me has been going over all of the data from 2008.

Here's a couple of interesting statistics:

Cheapest condo on a price per square foot basis:
289 East 5th Street #301 (Market House)  Sold for $111,500 with 1600sf.  Or $70 per square foot!

Most expensive on a price per square foot basis:
240 Spring Street #511 (Mississippi Flats)  Sold for $418,668 with 1155sf.  Or $362 per square foot.

Smallest condo that sold:
523 Jackson Street #215 (Produce Exchange)  Sold for $68,000 with 458sf.  Or $148 per square foot. 

Largest condo that sold:
471 Sibley St (Dakota on the Park)  Sold for $358,000 with 2809sf.  Or $127 per square foot.

Total sold in downtown:
2008 - 136
2007 - 157
2006 - 262
2005 - 276
2004 - 359
2003 - 287
2002 - 109
2001 - 56
2000 - 63
1999 - 49

Any way, that's what I have been working on this week, and the pages on the website will start to get updated with the new 2008 data.  You will find the new data when you look at a detail page for a condo building.