Quote:
Originally Posted by H2O
I wouldn't hold your breath. High voltage transmission lines are very expensive to put underground - about $1,000 / foot / circuit. There look to be about a dozen circuits crossing there, and it is about 1200 feet from the substation to the poles beside the railroad tracks. That works out to be about $15 million.
The parcel, which includes the Macy's Store is valued by TCAD at around $10 million. The land value of similar sized Domain parcels is only about $8 million.
It also might not be possible to free up that much land even if the circuits go underground. The diameter of cables that go into duct banks are much larger than overhead, and do not bend easily. There would probably still need to be multiple duct banks, and they would need to be in more or less straight lines between the substation and existing poles. The resulting duct bank easements may not be that much smaller then the current overhead easements, if at all.
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A developer capable of seeing this through already owns the land, so the cost of buying is immaterial. Furthermore, although higher land costs are associated with denser development that does NOT mean that low land cost areas cannot emerge with denser development. Sure, it’s less likely, but that’s another thing from saying it’s either impossible or even to say that it is
unlikely, when there are other factors at play that can lead to dense development.
For instance, the estimated high cost of underground relocation, which after doing some research of my own is likely not accurate (most sources I find quote somewhere just above a million a mile, although one said up to 5 million a mile, & with that info the cost would be a ~2.4 million - although possibly up to ~13 million - to bury the lines), could ALSO lead to dense development because the developer would have to make the project large enough to recoup the cost of relocation. The only consideration at that point is whether or not the market can absorb the number of residential units, hotel units, or the square feet of office or retail space. If the market can, why wouldn’t a developer want to develop?
In these cases, the land is already owned by a developer invested in the area, there’s not any question as to whether the local market can absorb a good number of new 15-20 story buildings. After all, how many projects of similar scale are there in the area? A dozen? What’s three or four more?
As to your second point, even if a developer can’t free up that much space, there’s still plenty of surface parking from which multiple small point towers with parking podiums could rise. The two unobstructed parking lots are actually the much larger ones. One of those parking lots, if I recall correctly, was the site of a hotel high rise proposal from the original Domain plan. Yes, they ditched it then, because they were probably concerned the market couldn’t absorb such a large project to justify the cost. Is that true now? Likely not, which is why we’re already seeing intense development in the area.