Historical Loft Living

I was in Cummel's the other day and we were asking the owner about the changes in the loft district in the past 20 years, or since Cummel's opened. I used to come down to Washington & Delmar to go clubbing as early as the late 80's, but didn't know much about living there at that time. Now what seemed more unconventional at the time is pretty mainstream and that was what we talked about.

The first "loft" I remember visiting looked more like a garage in the middle floors of the City Museum right about the time it opened. The artist that rented there used to bring his motorcycle up the service elevator to park right in the middle of the kithen. It's really wild to hear about the history of loft living beginning in the SOHO area of New York and then take a look at what is available throughout the country today. Its a testament to the changing values of society. Check out the whole story in this historical sketch! [Loft history story taken off the linked website -- Recommended Reading:  Loft Living:  Culture and Capital in Urban Change by Sharon Zukin

And a fond congratulations to Cummels on 20 years of successful business downtown!

Golds Big Move

It looks like the Downtown neighborhood has won out over Downtown-West neighborhood for the new location for Gold's Gym. I spoke to people from Gold's since they first were informed of their need to move and talk was pretty much narrowed down between the Goodman Building at 13th and Washington or St. Louis Centre at 7th and Washington. They are moving as I write and should be fully opened at the Centre on December 1.

I have mixed feelings about it, but I'm kind of glad. The area at 13th and Washington while a good location, seems to be anchored right now by several great new businesses. The Goodman building (2 story) would be a great location for a variety of places (bookstore or grocery store maybe?). Not that having Gold's there would have been bad, but to me, it seems like it will do more good having a stable new tennant for the Centre (plus it will be closer to my place at the Dorsa lofts).

The bottom line though, is thankfully, they stayed in the urban core. They could have moved to Affton or St. Louis Hills.

St. Louis' Hottest Loft Market

As evidenced by the smashing success of the Ely Walker lofts, the hottest market for lofts in St. Louis is the $175,000 and below market. Sometimes I think that developers are pushing that envelope, other times it seems that they miss the mark all together. I digress.....I'm actually excited about another new property available through Premier Realty Exclusive that fits nicely into the entry level loft market. It's in the 2020 Loft building by Pyramid and the property taxes can be paid using the change in my desk drawer. Hardwoods, great windows, high ceilings, a great paint job, cool custom lighting and a great open floorplan.

Best View in Town!

Last week we listed a loft in the Terra Cotta Lofts. I had been in the building so many times, that I was suprised how the view from unit 905 struck me. Sometimes views can be over rated. Sometimes the space can speak for itself. In this case the space is and the view is captivating! The first agent that went through it told us it won't last long. Here's the MLS listing of the unit.

Unit 905 has plenty of space (1495 square feet), is a 2 bedroom 2 full bath and has granite counters and laminate wood flooring. Tax abated (only $330/year!) This is one of the few loft buildings where some of the units have a decent view of the arch. Regardless, this type of loft makes me grateful for working downtown.

If I were to sell on ebay

Last week I got an email that someone was selling their loft on ebay (thanks Dave). How freaky is that?

Lots of people have asked me about it, so here it goes.

Hopefully the deal works out for all involved.

I've always had the feeling in real estate that many of my buyer clients sort of feel that the significant involvement from a realtor starts when they begin looking and ends when they find the home they want to purchase. This could be extended to include the negotiations on price. Fair enough.

If that was all that was involved on my end, my life would be so much easier.

In the past year, I've had transactions where we were in negotiations to resolve matters up to and even AFTER everyone walks away from the closing table. The truth of the matter is that real estate transactions can be very complicated and generally, there are two absolutely opposite interests involved. Keeping those interests working together to consumate the sale is what the realtor must do.

I guess the bottom line is, assuming a genuine buyer is found on ebay that intends on closing the deal, there is still a fair amount that needs to take place to ensure that the deal doesn't die or worse yet, result in a lawsuit. If I listed my home on ebay without a reserve, I would make sure that someone was ready to outbid the highest bidder just in case the high bid was drastically below my lowest acceptable price. Not that its happening here, but hypothetically. Anyway, this transaction has really caught my attention, as well as so many others, that I plan to keep an eye on the tax records etc. to see if the loft is really sold or not. Inquiring minds want to know.

My Annual Traditional Real Estate Posting

I talked with a friend tonight who hasn't lived in StL for a few years and was unaware of the changes to the loft district in St. Louis. It was a fun conversation because I could imagine if we switched roles, I would be doubtful of the difference a few years can make also.

I wanted to post a link to the freddie mac website with the past several weeks of mortgage rate averages. While
interest rates are still historically low, they continue to climb.

I wanted to do my duty as a realtor and explain something important about interest rates that often gets overlooked by the first time home buyer: as that interest rate goes up--What you can afford goes down.

Visit our preferred lender page for lenders that will take care of you and know how to finance St Louis lofts & condominiums!

More Accolades on Washington Ave.

Congratulations to the Washington AVE Post for the best business award from Mayor Slay at todays Annual Business luncheon at the Renaissance. I concur with the mayor, as I frequently need the services--whether business or one of the fantastic drinks.

Ely Walker: part 2 and ramblings of the Old Post Office

I almost lost sleep last night wondering exactly how many of the Ely Walker Lofts had been sold. The total: 91 LOFTS SOLD!!!! Wow!

I heard that they had hoped to sell around 20. What a deal. Three more lofts were sold today without a complete knowledge of what the pricing will be changed to after today. According to Orchard Development staff, just because the sales were so stellar, they won't be too aggressive with the price increases. We'll see.

Other than that, there was another article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch today about downtown development regarding the Old Post office with information about some of the new tennants.

What bothered me was that there was a Pasta House Company Pronto store opening up. Could that possibly be due to the phenomenal success of 10th Street Italian? Probably so.
I know the Pasta House is a local company and all, but it bothers me to see a big chain move to an area AFTER an independent restaurant proves the market worthy. It seems like it should be the other way around.

A Great Night Downtown

Kudos to the folks at Orchard Development for the fantastic party to release the Ely Walker Lofts to the public. People started showing up at 10am for the party that began at 4pm. There was a fair amount of advertising and PR about these lofts, including the business section of the Post Dispatch.

Can too much success be a bad thing? Of the 173 units available, at 8pm, 66 had already been pre-sold with another handful of people still waiting to reserve. One of the party people that we ran into was getting ready to reserve his second unit of the evening. Usually developers want to sell enough to secure the construction financing and get the project approved by Fannie Mae. In this case they may have overshot that mark substantially.

What's Up with the MOPAC Building?

On a recent visit to the Marquette building, I asked about a tentative time frame for one of our city's most fascinating dormant buildings.

I was told (emphasis on tentative) that the building will take about a year from its pre-construction availability to be completed. The building will have many larger spaces available for people not wanting to sell off furniture. It will be more traditional condos rather than lofts, and that the units will be pre-sold most likely in the spring of next year.

St. Louis Lofts Sold!

2020 Washington #203 $165,300
507 N 13th Street #707 $117,000
2020 Washington #302 $155,000
507 N 13th Street #603 $164,500
2020 Washington #509 $178,500
1501 Locust Street #306 $220,000
2020 Washington #102 $241,900
1501 Locust St. #1004 $290,000
400 S 14th Street #903 $313,716
400 S 14th Street #1109 $337,000
1511 Locust Street #803 $356,206

Pre-construction lofts are not included on here because until they close, you can't really count them. Plus developer's are constantly adding and removing listings from the market, so you can't really rely on the listing data. For what its worth though, all the details are here. Contact me if you wan't any more information. Obviously the MLS information provided here doesn't include some of the sales. I will dig for the information free of charge.

A Place Like No Other

Its amazing to watch a ribbon cutting event unfold in the city. I arrived at Copia at 3:50pm, the event was scheduled to happen at 4. No one was around outside, it didn't seem like anything was happening inside. Undoubtedly because I had arrived, channel 5 news pulls up and starts setting up, and then around 4, police, the mayor, and a bunch of well dressed social dignitaries all start filing through the doors and shaking hands. The speech from Mayor Slay, and Downtown Partnerships Jim Cloar were inspiring. The appetizers and deserts that were handed out were fantastic, the waiter's were charming and helpful. Every once in a while I have to listen to the nay sayer's and skeptics about the promise of downtown. The opening of this fantastic restaurant and wine bar did us all some good.

Copia is conveniently located across the street from the Lucas lofts and next door to the Meridian.

My sneek peek

Some loft purists have attacked the work of Orchard Development as being too traditional. With the lack of exposed brick, laminate flooring, etc. My impression was never that this construction was bad or anything, but that there were a lot of units that had a similar feel. Too similar at times.

My fears were relieved when I got a chance to look at the incomplete model unit at the Ely Walker building. For more information, fill out this form and specify "ELY."

As Traci Sees It

I have been recently accused of not keeping this community blog up to date. There was a 18 day hiatus in postings after the downtown loft tour in September.

To avoid any more shame, I am asking for the support of anyone interested in downtown St. Louis lofts, etc. to drop me a line about additional events and things that I may not have posted.

The purpose of this site is to keep people informed and to talk about the renewal downtown. Feel free to share your knowledge, so that others may be helped.

A.D.D. and Me

It really hasn't been long since I could walk down Washington Avenue without getting too distracted. I had a plan the other day and was on the move when I decided to stop by the new architectural design store that opened in the Windows lofts/Windows on Washington building. I'd heard of it and was curious.

Since I'm in the process of remodeling a bathroom, I was very interested in the sinks. They are still in the process of getting the showroom complete, so most of the inventory is spread out on the floor, but there was a lot of great stuff in there. The owner is in China now for a buying trip. More stuff coming soon.

I was directed to the website so I could get a better idea of what was available. Regardless, I am excited to have another great place to spend money and time in downtown west

Arcade and Syndicate Trust Coming soon

From brief discussions with Loftworks and Pyramid, the next two buildings to be redeveloped by these two companies will be the Syndicate Trust (Loftworks) and the Arcade Building (Pyramid).

This may not be a huge secret to some, since there's a huge banner on the Arcade building talking about its opening in 2005.


I heard that the Syndicate Trust building will be traditional high end condo's starting at around $200/square foot. That's just preliminary.

The Arcade building units were described as similar to the Edision Condos in form and style. No information on pricing is out or even hinted. A sales office is going to open in January.

While these projects aren't going to really be lofts by definition They are undoubtedly going to compete for the growing segment of the market: the empty nester. I think this is fantastic. Forcing the "loft" concept on people wanting traditional space is futile.

Go Cards!!!!

One thing that excites me more than anything is the number of sports fans that are wanting a primary or secondary residence downtown to be close to the action during baseball season. I've always known that St. Louis should be a destination city. Aside from real estate being a more stable investment over the past 5 years, people are wanting to have a home downtown because its a mecca for Cardinal fans from all over.

Growing up, I always felt that there weren't many things more exciting than being downtown during a Cardinals home playoff series. Now it seems like St. Louis is truly prospering because of this. And with all the new downtown baseball fanatic residents.......we've just barely scratched the surface.

Loft Pricing: 401

What does cost per square foot mean in the loft buying world?

I talk about this non-stop.

There is a strange change in the loft market lately. Traditionally, buying a loft before construction began (pre-construction) was a way to get a substanially lower price on your loft than if you bought a loft at the "market rate" as a resale.

Now it seems that some of the developer's have rejected the idea of selling lower priced lofts pre-construction and are selling them for the market rate even though they aren't complete. It's too early to really speak on this subject, because maybe by next year, pricing will have continued to climb and what appears to be higher prices now will seem like major discounts upon completion. I guess we will have to see if the market supports this.

One of my clients reserved in the Moon Brothers Carriage lofts for around $140/square foot and another loft in the Dorsa lofts for about the same. I'm starting to see pre-construction pricing starting at $169-200/square foot and wondering if there will be any room for appreciation by the time the properties are done.

These are the mysteries of life that one must struggle with daily. As a specialists in lofts, we just have our own way of seeing the pricing of lofts. Talking to developers though, they always seem so sure about 'the plan' and 'the price.' I really do hope they're right. Of course, when one tries to resell or even flip one of these lofts, the market will have the final say. And where will the developer be then?

We commend the developer's that have stuck to the traditional approach. People who commit early to a project should get a better deal.

One of My FAVORITES!!!!

I am one of those people that still walks down Washington Avenue looking up. As much time as I'm there, you'd think I would get over my love for the buildings and the urban landscape. One of my favorite buildings, the Ely Walker building, is going to be unveiled soon to the public with a preview party coming up.

Orchard Development, known for the Terra Cotta and Annex lofts will be completing the project sometime in 2007. Contact us now for pre-construction pricing. Contact me also for more specific details.

Dorsa Pricing and availability

Since the folks at Pyramid have been so considerate to have all the units "listed" on the MLS we should include a link to the listings. One of the things that has in my opinion always played into the hands of the developers is the mystery about loft sales. This may appear to serve the developer's in the short run, but loft buyer's usually want all the information available. Listing properties on the MLS is responsible and does more to reduce confusion about the lofts available.

In the case of several developments in the area (Windows, Ventana) the lofts have been on the market for months before they have any listings on the MLS. In other cases (Moon Brothers), there is only one 'teaser' listing. While this is legal and ethical, it adds confusion and makes it more difficult for the average realtor who isn't "plugged in" to the loft developers to truly assist their clients.

While we keep up with what's being sold and pricing, I commend Pyramid for being so open about their projects. Click here for what is available and what has been reserved at the Dorsa.