Entries Tagged 'Real estate' ↓

The real estate arm of International Paper plans today to ask this town to annex and rezone thousands of acres of timberland north of Interstate 10 to accommodate a long-term development that will include everything from single-family homes to light industry, company and town officials said.

Company officials said last week that construction is not likely begin any time soon and it may be 50 years before the property, about 5,600 acres situated between Alabama 59 and Steelwood Lake, is fully developed. But they want to bring the land into Loxley and obtain the necessary zoning so they can proceed to design the mixed-use development, called Roan’s Creek.

IP has a huge plan for Loxley

Planning commissioners focused on future maintenance issues during Thursday’s Daphne Planning Commission meeting. They said that commercial developments should have a more specific time for retention pond maintenance to change hands.

St. Charles Village Phase II — nearly eight acres at Baldwin County 64 and Pollard Road — had its site plan adopted with an amendment on Thursday. The current retention pond agreement includes all public areas to change from the developer’s responsibility to the property owners association’s responsibility as a percentage of lots are sold.

Commissioner Larry Chason said he fears future disputes between the developer and the association when funds are needed to maintain public areas.

Retention pond maintenance discussed

Georgia-based developers, along with the former owners of a condo complex destroyed in 2004′s Hurricane Ivan, have proposed building a Gulf-front resort, called Blue Luxe, that pairs a 25-story condominium tower and a 16-story upscale hotel on about 4.3 acres just east of Alabama 161.

After vetting the plans in a public hearing for an hour and a half Tuesday, City Council members decided to postpone a vote on the project until the body’s next regular meeting, scheduled for June 17.

To have voted on the project at its Tuesday meeting, the council would have had to agree to do so unanimously. Council members Joni Blalock and Ed Carroll voted to delay the vote.

Project proposed: new hotel, condo

The changing of a few words should cut many hours off the approval process for some types of development, Baldwin County officials said.

The latest round of proposed revisions to subdivision regulations is designed to simplify and clarify building procedures in municipal planning jurisdictions countywide, and on land deemed “unsuitable,” among other issues.

Changes in subdivision regulations on the way

Local developers purchased 2.9 acres on U.S. 90 near Alabama 181 for $1.2 million and plan to build Malbis Place , a 35,000-square-foot retail, restaurant and office center in Daphne, according to Bennett Long of The Cirrus Group , who represented the buyers. Construction on the two-story, Mediterranean-style center will start in July, and so far the tenants include Chef’s Market & Café, in 7,000 square feet, and a law firm on the second floor. The commercial center fronts U.S. 90 at the back of Lowe’s Home Improvement Store in Eastern Shore Park. Carter Burwell of Aronov Realty in Montgomery worked for the sellers. The Cirrus Group is handling the development and leasing of the center.

Commercial center planned at Daphne site

The economic forecast is strong in Baldwin County, but the real estate market is soft, according to the latest reports from the Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of South Alabama.

The median price for a Baldwin County home in 2007 was $211,250, an 8.2 percent drop compared with 2006, according to the center’s residential housing market report for Baldwin. The median price means half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

Baldwin forecast: strong economy, soft housing market

The popular Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay has been as sluggish as the resort market at the Gulf in the last couple of years — particularly in the $400,000 to $600,000 price range, according to Realtors and builders. There is an abundance of new homes, and lots geared to that price point are sitting idle on the market. Builders and developers have shopped for buyers to unload lots and acreage, but it’s difficult to recoup their investments when prices have tumbled by 25 percent, 35 percent or more.

While Baldwin County’s economy is showing significant growth, the hot market is for homes costing $200,000 or less, according to Don Epley, director of the Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of South Alabama. “The workers are getting good wages; however, they cannot afford a half-a-million-dollar house,” he said. “It also depends very much on location.”

Some Eastern Shore subdivisions buck trend

The market slowdown is firmly entrenched on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay.

Indicators show that both the number of homes sold and the median sales price have dropped.

The immediate outlook determined by pending sales also shows a weakness that probably hasn’t been seen for decades in Fairhope, Daphne and Spanish Fort, Alabama.

Market report for Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope for April 2008

Soaring above the Orange Beach skyline, its first tower nearly complete, the second moving steadily toward its planned 30 stories, the Turquoise Place condominiums, lauded in architectural circles, stand out even among the new wave of glassy south Baldwin County high-rises that are sprouting to unprecedented heights and carrying unheard-of price tags.

But like many of the new towers, Turquoise Place now faces legal challenges from condo buyers who don’t want to close the deals they made as far back as three years ago.

Essentially, the buyers who have sued — currently five of them representing contracts on eight units in the first building — allege that what has been built at Turquoise Place is not what they bargained for when they put six-figure deposits on Gulf-front condos that ranged in price from $1.2 million to $2.16 million.

Condo buyers change minds

Officials have released financial projections for The Highlands, a 50-year project expected to increase the population of the city tenfold, but they still have to figure out how to get the lights turned on.

Representatives of International Paper, which owns the more than 11,000 acres, hit a snag recently when they approached Baldwin EMC about supplying the main electrical trunk line for the infrastructure.

The residential and commercial development — which contains all the elements of its own city — is estimated to increase the population of Spanish Fort to 60,000 when it is complete, from its current population of about 5,600.

Highlands financial projections released

• The owners of Shoppes of Daphne have purchased an adjacent lot for $480,000 at 2004 U.S. 98 in Daphne and have begun site work on a 9,360-square-foot addition to the commercial center
• The Gulf Shores Yacht Club & Marina at the tip of the Fort Morgan Peninsula will finish the first phase of its 160 boat slips this summer. So far, Tacky Jacks Grill & Tavern , a 108-unit dry storage facility and a fuel storage facility have opened at the former Fort Morgan Marina. Also under way are a 3,000-square-foot dock store and a yacht club.

Real Estate News

A driving rainstorm didn’t stop bidders from buying 44 condominium units for more than $13 million at an absolute auction that attracted more than 1,000 people to the Crystal Tower condo complex Saturday afternoon.

Amid wall-to-wall umbrellas, more than 500 registered bidders from 20 states came to look for a deal or at least catch a glimpse of the condo-buying fever evident on West Beach in Baldwin County.

The lowest unit sale prices were $275,000 and the highest purchase price was $350,000, which included the 10 percent buyer’s premium added to the bid amount, according to the National Auction Co. based in Gadsden.

Gulf Shores real estate

Here are the stats for the Eastern Shore:

• Fairhope: This is the toughest market on the Eastern Shore, with 611 houses for sale. In the first quarter, 61 homes sold with an average sales price of $312,432, compared to 87 sales with an average sales price of $331,707 this time last year. Homeowners on average took 6% off the list price. It took on average 6 full months to sell.
• Daphne/Montrose: 67 homes sold, compared to 97 homes this time last year. Average sales price was $258,690, down from $272,256. Average days on market: 145 this quarter compared to 127 during the 1st quarter of 2007. List- to- sale percentage: 97.01%. There are 360 homes on the market.
• Spanish Fort: 23 homes sold, down from 28 in the 1st quarter of 2007. Average sales price rose from $282,572 to $307,409. List-to-sale percentage: 94.75. It took 142 days to sell this quarter, up from 132 days. There are 116 homes on the market.

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2008 Market conditions for Spanish Fort, Daphne and Fairhope, Alabama

Daphne, Spanish Fort, Fairhope Real Estate Sales for March