The dream of condo developers everywhere is to sell
out a project before construction starts.
For Charlotte's Brian Speas that dream came within
two units of actually happening at the Fenton Place condominiums in
Eastover.
Over the past few months, Carnegie Co., his
development firm, sold 26 of 28 units at prices ranging from the low
$300,000s to the mid-$700,000s.
The last two are listed at $530,00 and $438,000.
Work started last month at the 1.28-acre site off
Providence Road in the 400 block of Fenton Place, and Speas is confident
the project, valued at $12.5 million, will sell out long before
construction wraps up next fall.
What's the sales secret?
Carnegie Co. says the trick is listening to your
primary customers -- in this case empty nesters, retirees, young
professionals -- and designing a product tailored to their needs.
For example, "Brian understood the dynamic of
people wanting to stay in the neighborhood," said architect Harry
Schrader whose firm -- Schrader Design -- designed the building.
"They don't want to go out and buy new
furniture because their dining suite doesn't fit in the dining room,"
he said.
To accommodate those buyers, Schrader said, Fenton
Place will have 10-foot ceilings, functional floor plans from about 1,500
square feet to about 3,000 square feet and interior features familiar to
Eastover houses.
Hardwood floors, solid wood interior doors, marble
fireplaces, crown molding, baseboards, solid surface countertops and
ceramic tile bathroom floors are standard.
Each unit will have at least one terrace or patio.
Residents will park underground behind a remote-controlled ornamental
steel gate. And they will have use of a garden, arbor and brick patio.
The brick building, designed specifically for the
site, will descend from four stories to two behind existing oak trees to
blend aesthetically with the neighborhood, Schrader said.
"We wanted to create a facade that allowed the
building to be read as smaller units -- to give that large building a
sense of scale," he said.
In addition to Schrader, Via II Architects is
involved as architect of record. Mike Hunter is Speas' development
partner, and Shelco Inc. is general contractor.
Speas keeps in touch with a list of potential
customers who've asked him to call when he does a project of a particular
size and price range in a neighborhood where they would like to live.
Many of the names on the Fenton Place list were
people who had looked at his 24-unit Boxwood condos on Queens Road last
year but preferred larger, more luxurious units.
He's already at work on a new list: Fenton Place
prospects who are interested in even larger condos ranging from 3,000
square feet to 4,800 square feet.
Carnegie Co. recently bought two parcels totaling
about a half-acre in the 500 block of Fenton across from the Fenton Place
condos for another phase of up to 10 large units.
The sellers were Frank Thies and Lonnie Hooks, who
owned old duplexes there.
Don't be surprised if Speas, who handles sales
through Carnegie Co., has all the second-phase units under contract by the
time construction begins on that site in about a year.
