The sales office for the 36 one and two-bedroom condos rising at 299 Valencia is currently scheduled to open next month. Prices are said to be “starting in the $400,000s,” but we’d be (pleasantly) surprised if that includes any units with one of the 27 parking spots.
∙ Checking In At The Corner Of Hipster Valencia And 14th: 299 Valencia [SocketSite]
Hipsters? Looks more like housing for squares.
Who really cares who buys this shit up… it was a trash ridden flat lot forever… now it’s retail and housing. This is all great news.
SF has a giant issue with people bitching about development… and then at the same time complaining about crime, shortage of affordable housing and lack of community amenities.
SF is getting nicer/better and crotchety assholes, who do nothing but bitch and lie around, do nothing but stand in its way.
Yup. totally agree Rob. SF is getting nicer and better, esp along the Valencia corridor.
I think these will sell pretty quickly and bring in more homeowners who will help make the area even better.
Can’t speak for the ed., but when I or those I know refer to the local “hipsters” it is in an ironic sense. The techie, geeky 20-somethings in town who are so labeled are anything but “hip” in the usual sense. It’s one of those words that has gone from a compliment to a mild pejorative.
But I agree with Rob — who cares who buys these?
I think he gets it, and thinks that’s the buyer pool.
“starting in the 400s” is code word for “$499K for the “lame broom cabinet with privacy issues”.
New construction in a trendy area will fetch a pretty penny, imho.
Hipsterdom lies in the eye of the beholder
That makes that block of Valencia pretty nice now.
Similar properties across the street and the school up the block.
When the Greek church fills in their parking lot with a new sanctuary the block will look great complete. Does anyone know about the building in progress at 411 Valencia (at 15th)?
James,
16 units + garage and ground floor commercial are being built at 411 Valencia street
Wouldn’t it make sense to sell/rent the parking spaces separately from the units, instead of tying them together? More flexibility = higher price, I’d think.
Do you know how annoying that is to a buyer to always have to hunt for a garage space when buying property? There’s the feeling of being fleeced for wanting something that is quickly becoming a luxury. Please keep the spaces bound to the units and let people rent them out to people or carshare services if they do not need them.
Yes, more developers should follow the Beacon parking model. It’s a huge success.
Separating the sale or rental of units and parking spaces is known as “unbundling”. It makes a great deal of sense, because many of us don’t want or need a parking space, and it also allows the market to determine the value of each independently. San Francisco already requires this unbundling for residential developments in downtown and a broad swatch of transit oriented neighborhoods.
Under Section 167 of the Planning Code, all off-street parking spaces available for residential uses in new or converted structures of ten dwelling units or more must be leased or sold separately from the rental or purchase fees for the life of the dwelling unit.
Makes perfect sense to me. If you want the space, you can still lease or buy it. Hell, buy two.
Rob-
Please explain how building luxury lofts increases the stock of affordable housing.
Building expensive housing decreases affordable housing.
two beers,
When building 36 units, the builder will make 6 of those below market rate, or build 8 below market rate units somewhere else. In lieu of that the developer will pay into the city fund used to build affordable units.
That is all beside the thought that the buyers of these will move out less expensive places, and more units reduce pressure on the lack of housing and bring down costs.
so, 2 ways really.
two beers: because San Francisco has an Inclusionary Housing ordinance. By law every project of 10 or more units is required to provide 15% -17% of the units to be affordable. If they are in the same building, its 15%. If they are offsite its 17%. Alternatively the developer can contribute an equal amount of cash to the City’s affordable housing fund. Now that Redevelopment is gone, this is essentially the only source of affordable housing capital. So in fact building market rate housing is the major source of funding affordable housing. Another source, when office buildings are being built, is the Jobs-Housing Linkage program where every new office building over 25,000 sq. ft. pays a fee for affordable housing construction.
Without a supply of new luxury condos, the people who could afford them will look elsewhere– like, say, a dilapidated house in a less fashionable neighborhood, which they’ll fix up, add a garage and a fancy kitchen, and voila: a place that was reasonably affordable becomes less so.
Yeah here’s a good article on buying out of offering affordable housing… coincidentally with a focus on the exact same building. http://www.baycitizen.org/columns/scott-james/more-sf-builders-opting-not-include/
Sadly, we are (I live next door) not getting any useful retail in that corner shop… we’re apparently getting a Chase bank branch. http://uptownalmanac.com/2012/04/chase-bank-open-branch-valencia-st
Looks like 411 Valencia is finishing up. Banner hanging on the outside shows the website (see link) with list of features, but no floorplans or pricing scoops. Anyone?