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Olmsted in South End joins craze for
condos
Raleigh
buyer calls location selling point
in plans for conversion
DOUG SMITH
As speculated in The Next Big
Thing four weeks ago, the apartment-to-condo conversion craze is spreading
to South End.
A
Raleigh
development company is buying 138-unit Olmsted Park Apartments off
South Boulevard
with plans to convert the rental units to for-sale condos.
The apartments are surrounded by
single-family houses and duplexes on a 12.5-acre
Magnolia Avenue
site that used to be
Charlotte
's minor league baseball park.
"That location was a major
plus for us," said Neal Coker, president of
Raleigh
's First Colony Property Co. "It's like the apartments were inside a
cocoon, hidden among the houses and the trees."
Coker said he expects to complete
the purchase in three to four weeks for an undisclosed price from Crosland
Inc. and developer Tony Pressley's MECA Capital Corp.
Jud Little is president of
Crosland's apartments division, which manages the complex. He said leasing
efforts were geared down after negotiations began, dropping occupancy at
Olmsted
Park
to about 80 percent.
Tenants, who were being notified
by letter Tuesday, will have 30 days to decide on buying their units.
Coker said his company will honor leases and renovate units as tenants
vacate.
Nationally, about 5 percent of the
renters in a complex choose to buy, conversion experts say.
The interior renovation will
include installation of hardwood floors, granite countertops and new
cabinets, fixtures and appliances, said Coker, whose company has done
three similar conversions in
Raleigh
.
Typically, he said, First Colony
Property spends $15,000 to $20,000 per unit on renovations. Coker said he
hopes to complete the conversion within 18 months.
One- and two-bedroom units in the
three-story buildings range from just under 600 square feet to nearly
1,200 square feet.
Condos will be priced from roughly
$120,000 to about $220,000, but tenants might be able to save by buying as
is.
"Crosland has done such a
good job of maintenance that the buildings are really in good
condition," said Wendy Field of
Charlotte
's Field Consulting Inc., which is assisting First Colony Property with
design and marketing.
"We're preparing to renovate
all the units, but we're planning to let people menu out what they
like," she said. "We realize not everyone will want hardwood
floors or new cabinets.'
Olmsted
Park
, which opened in 1991, is expected to appeal to young professionals. It
has a pool, clubhouse and "winter" views of the uptown skyline
after the leaves fall.
The complex also is convenient to
the trolley and light rail lines and within walking distance of shops,
restaurants and bars in South End.
Crosland and Pressley's MECA
Properties were South End pioneers when they began developing Olmsted's
houses and apartments in the late 1980s.
The project was one of the
earliest revitalization initiatives along a former industrial strip of
South Boulevard
between uptown and
Ideal Way
.
Today, that area is one of the
city's trendiest, clustered with new businesses, residences and
restaurants.
"I think Olmsted did the
neighborhood real proud," Pressley said. "It's only natural that
it would go condo and stabilize South End even further."
First Colony Property selected
Charlotte's Dan Cottingham and Joe Huneycutt of Cottingham-Chalk &
Associates Inc. to list, market and sell the condos.
Cottingham believes it will be
about four weeks before they start taking reservations on units.
The
Olmsted
Park
announcement follows by about three weeks Fifth And Poplar Apartment
Homes' disclosure that it, too, is going condo.
That project -- mentioned as a
likely prospect for conversion in The Next Big Thing four weeks ago --
consists of 304 units priced from just under $200,000 to more than $1
million.
Apartments close to the center
city are prime candidates for conversion, because owners can capitalize
quickly on the growing popularity of urban living.
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