Urban Construction Update - February 2014

[ben says]

7-11 on Post is now open as well.

They did a really good job on that buildout.

I'll second that.  Moving the driveways away from the corner is a real plus too.  Went in there to look around and saw that they have an amazing amount of fresh fruit and other ready to eat food.

Landscaping really improves the look of that corner.

Now if someone could only do something w/ that sea foam green 2 story house on Margaret next door.

I'd love to get my hands on that...

[thelakelander]

Why isn't anyone fuming about the Parador parking garage?

We fumed. The result was COJ and Parador agreeing to construct street level retail after the SunTrust Tower is 65% leased. Definitely, not ideal but once they got COJ's approval and necessary permits pulled, there's not much one can do but move on.

[JayBird]

^ and possibly monitor to make sure that when they reach 65% that it is built. I'm sure COJ has no such enforcement plans. I'm sure most of the "fuming" is being saved for that fight.

[Dog Walker]

7-11 on Post is now open as well.

They did a really good job on that buildout.

I'll second that.  Moving the driveways away from the corner is a real plus too.  Went in there to look around and saw that they have an amazing amount of fresh fruit and other ready to eat food.

Landscaping really improves the look of that corner.

Now if someone could only do something w/ that sea foam green 2 story house on Margaret next door.

I'd love to get my hands on that...

904 Margaret Street is a 1920"s Mediterranean Revival.  It is owned by an elderly woman who had a business partner at one point and there is some sort of complication with the title.  It is accumulating Code Enforcement fines for a number of violations including being unsecured at this time.

About two or three years ago the owners of a sushi restaurant in the city decided that it would make a great upscale Asian restaurant on the lines of Indochine.  They had some financial backers too.  I referred them to a friend of mine who has done a number of design/build-outs for upper end restaurants.  He did preliminary engineering studies and plans that were really fantastic and added a good deal of outside seating, but did almost no changes to the outside.  It would have flown through the COA process with no problem.  There wasn't quite enough parking, but there is plenty of on-street and other public parking in the area and a zoning exception would not have been hard to get either.

Unfortunately the owner and her business partner were in a legal dispute at the time with the building title involved so the whole project fell through. 

So if you know of someone who wants to open a upscale restaurant with a wonderful view of the park and a great location let me know.  There is a whole bunch of expensive work that has already been done.

My wife wants it to be named "Paris on the Park".

At this point the price is probably highly negotiable.  There is a realtors sign out front for Middleton Realty.

[ben says]

I was under the impression the owners wouldn't take a dime less than 240k.

Also under the impression there is no commercial kitchen nor is there the parking for one.

For the right price, wanted to grab it and put it a very nice bar (think Sidebar at Husk in Charleston) with maybe a second story "desert room" (think Berns in Tampa)

[Dog Walker]

No commercial kitchen, but one has been designed that fills in between the two back wings of the house expanding the original kitchen.  Parking/delivery for the kitchen is not a problem.  Handicapped access has been taken care of with some really clever design that hides the ramp outside in an expanded terrace and utilizes the existing staircase inside to provide access to the second floor.

My contractor friend, who has done build-outs for me, is really good and creative with his designs.

Call the realtor.  Times have changed.  $240,000 is too much for that building in its current condition.  She's going to lose it anyway if something isn't done in the next year or so.

It's a great building in a wonderful location just looking for the persons with the vision and financing to bring it back to life.  Just making it back into a medical office (the last incarnation) won't justify that price and the cost of renovation, but a restaurant or similar would.