Quote:
Originally Posted by arkitekte
1. Stick frame construction at 4 or 5 stories is cheaper than 15 or 20 stories of concrete or steel.
2. It's much easier to finance apartments.
3. There's a proven market for apartments in Downtown, River North, Southtown in this exact form (Want to develop a property? Do what everyone else has done. Banks will easily finance that.)
4. The market isn't available for high rise condo living in San Antonio.
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Intriguing answers. I'm going to take Alteza out of the convo as it's part of the Grand Hyatt and that was a City-driven project from my understanding. So that leaves me wondering about Vistana, Vidorra Broadway.
1. Stick frame has always been cheaper, but we still have these three steel frame projects. It's four again if you add the Cascada project, but that's from a few years earlier. And condo.
2. Completely right!
3. There's a proven market now, but there wasn't one back in '06 when these projects were starting. Nobody lived downtown, fewer employers, there was no Pearl, no river extensions, no main plaza, and no cycling culture. They still got built. Why?
4. If there isn't a market now, I'd imagine less of one in '06/'07. If the apartment rents still don't justify taller buildings today, I'd imagine the pro forma on a condo tower wouldn't balance either. Did it back then?
Or were these projects just part of the housing bubble and never based on substantial demand?