Bret Ancowitz
As found on a Pennsylvania TV station’s website, it looks like the Associated Press has picked up on the condos-to-dorm tale of Capitol Cove. They have in the article some similar examples from around the country as well.
My favorite quote from the article comes from a J&W resident advisor, herself a student:
We want the students to treat it more as if it was their home than just a dorm room
Yeah, good luck with that. Ask their parents how well their own homes were treated…
With similarly rose colored glasses, Roth of Capitol Cove hopes no one will notice:
Roth said he intends to retake Capitol Cove in three years… and resell to private buyers, hoping… that young professionals won’t be turned off by living in former student housing.
You gotta love those dumb young professionals! There to save a housing project every time. Maybe if they cut the previous asking prices by a third to half of the 350 – 550K they initially wanted, they’ll have hope of filling some of the middle-class housing potential that truly exists downtown…
Jef Nickerson
Greater City Providence
And the only story in the Journal was the press release from Lombardi on the tax incentives to the developer?
Maybe I’m taking this story way to seriously but I don’t get why it is not bigger news. In a state where the foreclosure rate is through the roof, and housing prices have tumbled more than 25% and people are homeless and jobless, why isn’t there some outrage that this is happening? That housing that could be use for young families is being used instead for student dormitories? Has there been any response to John Lombardi’s issue?
I really doubt that these units will be used temporarily. I’m willing to bet a dozen donuts right now that in three years there will either be another lease, or JW will buy them outright.
For 175k, I’d probably buy it, and I know I’m not the only one who’d be happy to have a much cheaper alternative to Boston’s overpriced housing market, and those condos should be VERY attractive for exactly that, being as they’re a less than 5 minute walk from the station, and not too far from most of the amenities that Providence has to offer.
Of course there are certain downsides to that building. Like how it’s all made out of wood for example. It’s probably creaky as hell and a fire hazard too.
And to think that I got guff for calling the stick construction “anachronistic”… 😉
Since it is now a dorm, it needs to be wired directly into the city’s fire alarm system. So when a student burns toast and sets off the alarm, the entire fire department shows up. There is a fee after a certain number of false alarms (I want to say it is $500 per false alarm).
ProJo reports that the city will seek to recoup some taxes from the stabilization deal after the developer broke the agreement in place (the agreement said, no dorms).