Brea loft auction

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
graphrix_IHB

graphrix_IHB

New member
So... it only seems like it was about a month ago, that I saw a 1/2 page ad for the <a href="http://www.ocloftguide.com/wordpress/category/south-brea-lofts/">Brea lofts</a> claiming they had [strike]26[/strike] 23 lofts left. Now, I am seeing full page ads for the <a href="http://southbrealofts.acceleratedmp.com/">auction of 26 of the Brea lofts</a>.



Well, I know an original property owner of this land, and I know how he was [strike]paid[/strike] subsidized by the city to move to a new location. He also was presented with the opportunity to be a VIP to buy one of these units in the high $600k range, a discount of the "market" price of the time of $700k+. He laughed, as no one in their right mind would pay $700k for a condo on one of the busiest streets in Brea, let alone $600k.

<a href="http://www.ocregister.com/news/brea-lofts-vehicles-1854616-nevs-south">These units were to include an electrical golf cart</a>, that the city had planned a route for, but the developer never paid the bill for. Maybe that is why the 3 previous buyers bailed. I want my golf cart gawddamnit!



I also know roughly the cost of the land and the cost to build. With the $475k minimum bid, they are hoping to cover the costs to build, and write off the sales and marketing expenses. If they do not get bids, then they are screwed like JM Peters in the 90s. Now, do I feel sorry for the first 20 buyers who paid nearly twice as much as the minimum bids? No... why would I feel sorry for someone who bought a condo on a uber busy street, when they could have bought a SFR for less, and not be directly on busy street? It's called the intarwebs people, google is your friend, and if you couldn't find out you were paying way too much, then you really need help, and not a RE agent.



http://www.southbrealofts.acceleratedmp.com/images/table_properties.jpg
 
[quote author="lendingmaestro" date=1208311391]How do 2bd units have over 2,000 sq ft of living space? That seems retarded. Is there a floor plan somewhere to look at?</blockquote>
Registration might be required... <a href="http://www.southbrealofts.acceleratedmp.com/pages/fp1.html">South Brea Lofts</a>
 
I say tear the lofts down and bring back Hubert's Dairy! One of the last "drive-through" dairies around, complete with a life-size plastic (?) cow out in front. The dairy had been there for years, but I believe the land was appropriated by the city (against the owner's will) to build the Lofts. Sunny Hills High School students used to "borrow" the cow at the beginning of every school year, paint it red, and place it on campus - if memory serves me correctly. That was when Sunny Hills was known as "funny pills." Those days are long gone...
 
I've a friend who lives right around the corner from the Lofts. She bought in '97 for, I believe, 325K or so. We're talking a SFR with an actual garage, front and back yards, where you can plant a garden and keep a dog. I was floored when I saw they were asking double what she paid 10 years ago for a "loft". Please!



I do enjoy the deflation of this HUGE bubble!
 
[quote author="lendingmaestro" date=1208311391]How do 2bd units have over 2,000 sq ft of living space? That seems retarded. Is there a floor plan somewhere to look at?</blockquote>


"Loft" is a fancy term for housing with inefficient floor plan due to narrow width and dark core where windows at either ends could not illuminate. Most lofts are 3 story product with a small business or home office located at the ground level. This office for some units could be converted to a guest bedroom but never should be a bedroom for kids unless one could not wait to become a grandpa or grandma.



Most middle levels are living spaces with a shot gun layout like Kitchen-dining-living to take advantage of the cross ventilation. However some may opted to place a bedroom at the middle level but this would cut off the light and ventilation so the large window is pretty much a mandate to compensate the lack of light and air.



The upper level seldom has 2 bedroom side by side because the width of the unit is dictated by the minimum required width of the garage and is too narrow for both. The solution is to put an oversized bedroom at one end and leave the opposite end as the volume ceiling for the living room. Some builders actually built over the living room to get the bedroom count to satisfy Lendingmaestro's remark but the low ceiling resulted at the middle level is very dark, oppressive and unattractive. The idea of the bright and airy loft is ruined.



Live-work floor plan is never good for families with kids because the bedrooms are all scattered at each level. This is why Hollywood uses them as props for dysfunctional families. There are more bathrooms than bedrooms in this type of products. The tiny space at the ground level consumed by the huge handicap bathroom rendered a limited area for the business or retail.



This is a products that fall short of delivering "live" and "work". This formula does not perform well as economic model for a challenging economy. The result is obvious in Brea going to the auction block. Unless the location is in the heart of a business city where buyers have the option to use all three levels as business otherwise the project is doomed.



Kevin Weeda, your products in the past have been risky and inefficient. The good economy saved you many times but this time you missed the finish line.



Products like this were designed by architects good at imagery but poor in floor plan function. Other parts of OC have exactly the opposite designing good floor plan function but sinfully ugly elevations. Very few architects could master both and certainly not the usual cookie cutter factories.



A lesson for all builders is to hire a clever architect who understands economy, floor plan efficiency, aesthetic, local market, demographics, and construction cost efficiency to minimize selling their homes at a hotel.



I can recommend architects who understand all of the mentioned facets. Send me a private message.
 
"Live-work floor plan is never good for families with kids because the bedrooms are all scattered at each level. This is why Hollywood uses them as props for dysfunctional families." - Is that true? Well, regardless, i'm going to tell that to every sales rep at these unit types just to see their reactions.



Actually, i think 3 story lofts are the exception and a west coast invention. Lofts are really just large open floor plans with high ceilings. Arists tyically like them cause they can be used as studio space among many other uses.



I agree, live work is failing, but not because of floor plan layout as you seem to indicate. Live/work sucks because it's used by planners as the end all to urban redevelopment. It seems to be everywhere now, but in reality, it should be a rarely used tool. By live work, i mean a commercial space set aside for retail uses. I understand many people work from homes. Not the same thing.
 
[quote author="jcaraway" date=1208318949]"Live-work floor plan is never good for families with kids because the bedrooms are all scattered at each level. This is why Hollywood uses them as props for dysfunctional families." - Is that true? Well, regardless, i'm going to tell that to every sales rep at these unit types just to see their reactions.



Actually, i think 3 story lofts are the exception and a west coast invention. Lofts are really just large open floor plans with high ceilings. Arists tyically like them cause they can be used as studio space among many other uses.



I agree, live work is failing, but not because of floor plan layout as you seem to indicate. Live/work sucks because it's used by planners as the end all to urban redevelopment. It seems to be everywhere now, but in reality, it should be a rarely used tool. By live work, i mean a commercial space set aside for retail uses. I understand many people work from homes. Not the same thing.</blockquote>


Only a few developers know Live/work. You are right about redevelopment agency thinking the live/work is a way to activate the retail/business/pedestrian core. They are dead wrong!! Live/work is a solution for old downtown by rehabilitation old abandoned warehouse structures lacking other economic viability. Places like Downtown Long Beach, Hollywood and Little Tokyo of Downtown LA work because of the artist crowds who needed the natural light and space for the gallery and the token space at the ground level is used as reception for an gallery event with several paintings displayed at the window.



OC is still a bedroom community and a suburb. The formula does not work here. Look at the towering infernos along the 405. How many units are actually lit at night? Urban housing solution need proper context. Planners with an urban degree working in city halls of suburbs need to abandoned those old school textbooks sitting in their black lacquered bookcases.
 
Lofts are for adults without kids. Lofts for for a very very small segment of the population. Lofts rarely succeed in the suburbs. Lofts are terrible in resale and good luck in finding another DINK buyer. Business and retail rarely succeed in live/work so stop dreaming!



Lofts need a much different contexts like East Coast and Europe where the cultures are different.
 
huh huh huh good one lending, huh huh huh, yeah towering black holes full of poo poo, huh guffah



agreed bks, i don't think planners appreciate how complex a community is, which i would compare to a living organism. Scientists can try to piece together an animal using tools and spare parts but all they'll ever achieve is an aboniation. Same with planners trying to wedge urban cores into a suburb hole using zoning code and quoting jane jacobs.
 
The idea of apartments/condos over stores and shops at street level appeals to me because I like the feel of those older neighborhoods that were built that way. Trying to create those kinds of neighborhoods in the middle if strip malls and suburban spawl seems counter-intuitive. Seattle has seen a boom in apartment complexes built with this style of living in mind, but it just looks silly when they try and do it in the outlying areas.



Here's an example: <a href="http://www.helix-ellipse.com/">Helix Ellipse</a>
 
I wouldn't call it counter intuitive as the idea is to reduce the effect traffic impact and low asthetics of suburban sprawl. It's a noble theoretical, hypothetical, works on paper idea, but planners underestimated above all the RE market and took for granted the extreme pace of building, the challenges of their environment, couldn't come to a consensus with their communities about a master plan, and didn't take into account demographics of so cal.



In short, they f-d up.
 
"Live-work" is failing around here because it's not live-work. It's "live-park-and-pee". The units I've seen use 2/3 of the ground floor for a garage and 1/3 of what's left for an oversized handicapped bathroom. The space left is far too small for a commercial use and is suitable only for a home office. But you can put a home office anywhere - unlike commercial spaces, home offices don't benefit from clustering - you're not going to walk from one to another windowshopping or doing multiple errands.



Traditional mixed-use developments use the entire first floor for commercial space. That works in Orange County - check out downtown Orange. But you can't do it with townhomes and inside garages; it just doesn't fit. Parking needs to be separate from the living units (street or parking structure).



In a car-oriented area like OC I think the war forward would be to put 2 or 3 levels of apartments on top of the automall stores. Parking wouldn't need to be expanded so much because it serves double-duty - commercial daytime and residential night, just like traditional street parking. But I'm not seeing it around here.
 
I was in downtown Brea on Saturday night... so took the opportunity to drive by this development.



Lots of golf carts in the car ports... but the parking makes no sense... first, there is very little parking at all, and they had more than enough room to make two car garages instead of the odd configuration of one car garage with one car port?



So, if you have anything to store... you're parking your car outside.



If you do run a business from the downstairs... forget anyone being able to find parking. Pretty much only option is the street.
 
[quote author="Girl In the OC" date=1209469353]I was in downtown Brea on Saturday night... so took the opportunity to drive by this development.



Lots of golf carts in the car ports... but the parking makes no sense... first, there is very little parking at all, and they had more than enough room to make two car garages instead of the odd configuration of one car garage with one car port?



So, if you have anything to store... you're parking your car outside.



If you do run a business from the downstairs... forget anyone being able to find parking. Pretty much only option is the street.</blockquote>


You just tell them to park around the corner, and you can pick them up in the golf cart. Just make sure you tell them the specific street, because those golf carts can only go on certain streets. That's good business, right?



Could you tell if there were enough golf carts for all the units? I had heard that they kinda forgot to pay the bill for some of them, and I hope they finally paid it off.
 
Graph - Looks like everyone that owns there had a golf cart... so I guess they kept true to their word.



Auction is tomorrow... Anyone planning on going to the auction to see what happens? It's only supposed to take about an hour I think...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top