PORTLAND100507
On the homepage
Music review
Out There
Al Franken
Roadguy
The Portland is latest condo plan to vanish
The credit squeeze and sluggish condo market are forcing developers of an upscale project to abandon their plans.
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
Minnesota business by the numbers
See Minnesota's top earning companies, CEOs and non-profits
More from Business
The Portland, a 43-unit upscale condominium project slated for Minneapolis' Mill District, is the latest casualty of the withering condo market.
In a recent letter to residents in the area, Brighton Development Corp. said it was canceling the project, which was planned for part of the block at Portland Avenue S. and S. 2nd Street. The letter cited the retrenchment in the credit markets, which has triggered "sudden and dramatic changes" in residential development.
Peggy Lucas, a Brighton partner, said Thursday that units valued at about 42 percent of the development's cost had been sold, including some of the most expensive condos. Units were priced from $325,000 to $1.9 million, she said.
Typically, lenders have required pre-sales of 50 percent before construction can proceed. Lucas said the developers believed they could reach that benchmark, but weren't sure how long it would take.
She also said her firm was concerned that the credit crisis might cause lenders to "move the goalposts" and raise presale requirements.
"Meanwhile, we had this hole in the ground. We didn't think it was fair to the neighborhood," she said. Lucas said the developers also were concerned that delaying construction could leave some buyers who had put their houses on the market in limbo.
The Portland was to be the last of Brighton's six residential projects in the Mill District. The others -- North Star Lofts, Stone Arch Lofts, Washburn Lofts, Park Avenue Lofts and Humboldt Lofts -- all were successfully completed.
Chuck Lutz, deputy director of Minneapolis' community planning and economic development department, said Brighton told the city last week of its plans to cancel the project. Brighton will return control of that parcel to the city, he said.
Lutz said Brighton also plans to sell back to the city a parcel on the south side of the block where it had planned to develop a project that would have combined work and living space for entrepreneurs.
Cancellation of the Portland is the latest sign of continuing weakness in the downtown condo market, where other projects also have been postponed or halted recently. It also follows foreclosures of other downtown developments, including the Sexton, Mill Trace Condominiums and a project proposed for Park Avenue and 10th Street.
Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723
Susan Feyder • sfeyder@startribune.com
- Targeting cancer cells
- Walt Disney World monorail crash kills employee
- Hecker lists $767 million in debt
- Too sick to work? That's simply too bad
- A new frugality: Americans are borrowing less, saving more
- A gentler option arrives for repaying student loans
- Parents have bad-guy ally to turn off video games
Blog: Patent Pending
Wisconsin kicks our butt
Yee gads! We already know that Wisconsin has superior angel tax credits than Minnesota (and by superior, I mean it actually HAS them) but this is getting ridiculous. It would be perfectly understandable if the Badger State wanted to sit on its laurels and count the Minnesota startups fleeing to Madison or Hudson. Instead, as Minnesota [...]
Comment on this story | Be the first to comment | Hide reader comments