The then (2007) above when sold for $935,000, the during (2009) below. And the now for 4033 26th Street in 2010. Back on the MLS and asking $2,595,000 for the “new” (but technically remodeled) Noe Valley home. And while…
As a plugged-in reader notes, the apples to apples sale of 110 Elsie closed escrow this past Friday with a reported contract price of $1,310,000 ($595 per square foot). As another reader noted three weeks ago: “They apparently received…
We see good bones and a relatively unrenovated kitchen and baths (which we actually prefer when buying) inside the Henry Doelger designed home at 1862 15th Avenue. And yes, it’s an apple to be for the Golden Gate Heights…
[Metreon photo via Flickr/Dan_H, Waterfront Leisure Complex via Boston Globe/Chris Smith]
A day into The Ugliest Building contest, a.k.a. The Building That’s Too Ugly to Live, and consensus seems to be building around some rather unstartling nominations: Fox Plaza, Fontana Towers, the Intercontinental Hotel, the Chinatown Hilton, and CCSF Mission campus, to name just a few usual suspects. Before we actually begin voting, we’ll want to keep our list nice and tidy by limiting nominations to single buildings, or maybe at most a complex. Some entrants, however, are too good not to note for their own sake: killbotkondo nominates that “concrete square pipes akimbo fountain thing” in Justin Herman Plaza, jef_poskanzer suggests “all the old piers along The Embarcadero,” and superasiaone throws in “all those duplexes that went up in the 70-80’s in the Richmond and Sunset. Bay windows, faux rock entry ways, amber colored glass…yuck.” Nominations are still open, so say your piece in yesterday’s comments!
Meanwhile, Guest 38 notices that “the Metreon is probably the SF building most like the building in UK that is being demolished - basically a failed entertainment center that attempted to replace authentic urban experience with programmed, branded and completely interior spaces. The Westfield Center is similar - except it hasn’t failed (yet) -but demolition should restore the historic Emporium Building - perhaps as Bloomingdales as originally proposed.”
· The Ugliest Building [Curbed SF]
Chron blog On the Block wonders aloud at the strange relationship between the likelihood of earthquake disaster in the Marina and the neighborhood’s high prices, saying its “success obviously defies the impending doom of a major quake.” They then compare Marina properties to Marina girls: “… despite the bitter cold and wind, Marina girls appear on the street without coats. … indeed, the very least amount of fabric possible covers their goose-pimpled flesh. Perhaps this is a kind of optimism the Marina does best: if I ignore the elements, they don’t exist, and therefore cannot hurt me.” [On the Block]
As the tenant transplant from Trinity Plaza to Trinity Place Phase I slowly continues, our dude on the inside has snagged some preliminary cameraphone shots (beware of blurry!) of the inside amenities. Some shots — namely the ones of the lobby — have been visible from Mission Street for some time, while others reveal a second-floor gym and lounge area that have been previously unseen by the public at large. Unshown in the pictures: a secure bike storage room, the mail room, and “marble elevator interiors.” As noted previously, most of the building’s units are officially studios (though they’re more like junior 1-beds), while only corner units are 1-bedrooms. Based on Craigslist ads up at the moment, units range from $1,699 to $2,044.
· Trinity Place Apartments Going for $1,773 a Month Unfurnished [Curbed SF]
· Trinity Residents Start Moving This Week Into High-Rise Digs [Curbed SF]
· Exclusive: Spy Shots From Trinity’s Relocation Center [Curbed SF]
Then: $1,850,000
Now: $1,495,000
You Save: $355,000, or 19.1 percent!
This princessy Alamo Square Victorian hit the market in October, and by December had taken a 5 percent hit to its asking price. Now the 3-bed, 2.5-bath house has taken an even larger drop of over $250K, or a total of almost 20 percent off its original list price of $1.85 million. “An opportunity not to be missed,” says the listing, and maybe it’s true! It’s certainly cheaper than 722 Steiner down the street.
· 850 Steiner St [Redfin]
· Victorian Has a Romantic Disney Rendezvous On Alamo Square [Curbed SF]
The Lembi pain isn’t limited to apartment buildings, apparently: daughter Yvonne Lembi-Detert (not mentioned in the recent magazine profile) is a former interior designer and current CEO of Personality Hotels, a chain of seven hotels. Three of them, all Union Square boutique hotels (Hotel Frank, Hotel Vertigo, and Hotel Metropolis), are in default on loans totaling $75.9 million, according to the Chron. At least the hotels generally rank well on Yelp — small consolation? [SFGate, previously]
[Moscone Center via Flickr/wallyg]
The Moscone Center’s starting to show its age, especially in the face of bright new upstart centers in other cities, and one of the improvements planned for sometime in the next decade include an underground tunnel bridging its two buildings — one that would create “a large single convention room.” Doing that would probably be key to drawing big conventions away from other cities, thereby throwing more cash into our shrinking river of tourist and tax dollars. The city will be funding upgrades with the hotel-visit tax it passed in 2008, about $38 million of which has been set aside for improving Moscone. Nothing too exciting’s going to be happening in the beginning, though: it’ll be mostly putting in “sufficient power outlets” for tech companies for all those laptops and plasma screens that companies all seem to require these days. After that: the big dig!
· Moscone Center loses its competitive edge [SF Examiner]
[”SFMOMA,” via Curbed SF Flickr photog sirgious]
· Dude will float his plastic-bottle boat from here to Australia [LAT]
· Rumors of the Oakland tram’s demise greatly exaggerated [Transbay]
· Art project lights up grimy “negative space” in NoPa [BIKE NOPA]
· Land trust greening up foreclosed Oakland homes [ABC 7]
· SFO’s Terminal 2 signs a ton of new leases [KCBS]
· Controversial?: the green spaces for stalled developments [Streetsblog]
