Thursday, June 15, 2006

Where's the Party, Dude?

St. Louis lofts partyLast weekend, loft tour, this weekend, East Meets West Block Party, next weekend, Washington Ave Music Fest. We just can't stop celebrating the changing going on, can we?

East Meets West is a great concept though. Like many events, it may have to be held year after year to really get going. Downtown stores and restaurants are popping up left and right. Last week we just found out about Simply Fondue opening up in the Printer's loft building C. As a creature of habit, I find that I have to make an effort to get out and visit new places. This is just the opportunity.

The setup of musical acts was sent to me (thanks DS!) at the Downtown St. Louis partnership site. I hope to see you there!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Spring Loft Tour Day 2

Loft realtors in St. Louis
On the frozen tundra of Washington Avenue we set up shop for day 2 of the tour. The much cooler and breezy weather paid off. It seemed like there were more people out and about than on day 1 when the Komen race brought in 64,000 people.

My overall impression of the attendance this year was that it was lighter than last spring, but more of the people that came stated they wanted toAwesome loft downtown
buy. People seemed really excited about what they were seeing and really were impressed with the area. We felt that there were more "empty-nesters" that are really excited to live downtown.

Some of the feedback we got from people was that they liked the re-sale lofts we had open more than some of the new construction displays. Despite that, of the developer's I've talked with so far, most of them are optimistic. Traffic was really good at the Avienda and Bogen. Most of the developments that have move-ins within the next 12 months are ahead of their sales forecasts also. From where I stand, the St. Louis loft market is in great shape.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

St. Louis loft tour--Day 1

Buying St. Louis loftsDay one of the Downtown Living Tour was a blast! Special thanks to our friends and clients that stopped by to help and visit. Also a thanks to McGowan Brothers Development for letting us set up in front of the Goodman Building.

Having the Komen Race for the Cure on the same day as the downtown living tour seemed to help to get people who normally wouldn't attend. The attendance in general seemed to be lighter than last year. Possibly because the buildings are a bit more spread out (try walking from the Motor Lofts to the Syndicate in 5 minutes). All & all it was great.

My favorite part was the music and dancing troup that was there to promote MacroSun. You just can't beat belly dancers.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

St. Louis Lofts Sold in May

St. Louis Missouri LoftsLoft sales in May felt a bit slow. That may be in part because much of the activity was in pre-construction sales. As a realtor, I sometimes gauge my level of activity by trips to the title company. In pre-construcion, that is delayed by several months. In looking at the sales for this month, I also looked at pending sales for pre-construcion lofts. That list exceeded the actual closed sales by 1, and that's just MLS listed properties. There are certainly more in the buildings not listed on the MLS.

Here are the May loft sales:

1720 Choteau #402----------$170,600
1511 Locust #104-----------$179,900
1511 Locust #309-----------$208,825
1511 Locust #205-----------$241,300
1611 Locust #201-----------$272,500 (congrat's AB!)
703 N 13th #405-----------$287,000
1511 Locust #806-----------$293,010
1121 Locust #401-----------$435,469

It looks like the Annex cleaned up this months sales. More of those to come in June too. More and more buyer's are coming to the market asking for things like workout facilities. They definately had foresight in having a great workout room, as did the Printer's lofts.

In the past, loft sales seem to really peak following the loft tour. We'll see what June and July brings.