Apartment Look

Six years ago, Mike Brown and Casey Lynch stood on Downtown Boise ’s 8th Street and wondered: Why don’t more people live here? Downtown seemed to have everything that a growing percentage of Americans wanted in a place to live. “I mean, there’s all kinds of jobs. There’s a million coffee shops and hair salons and restaurants, and there’s an active street life ,” says Brown, who founded the Los Angeles- based development company LocalConstruct with Lynch in 2008. Casey Lynch, left, and Mike Brown have made their mark in Boise. Provided by LocalConstruct But in 2011, fewer than 4,000 people lived in Downtown’s scattered apartment and condominium buildings and houses. On a typical weekday afternoon , most Downtown workers got in their cars and put the city in the rearview mirror. Brown and Lynch saw an opportunity. They thought Boiseans would trade ample floor space and vaulted ceilings in the suburbs for smaller, high- end Downtown apartments that offered amenities like gyms, a do...

The city of East Palo Alto , a wedge of modest houses and light industrial sites in the heart of Silicon Valley , has been passed by in the great tech boom . A historically black area , it has seen a big Hispanic influx in the past two decades, with more than three out of four residents now coming from one of those two groups. It is still living down its reputation, gained a quarter of a century ago, as the murder capital of the US: one out of every 571 of its residents was the victim of a homicide in a single year. Things have improved since then. But over the same period, it has become the poor neighbour to some of the world's richest companies. In one of the ultimate signs of the divide between the haves and have-nots of the western US, the municipal government of East Palo Alto didn 't own the rights to draw more from the state's water reserves, which it would need in order to grow. In June this year, it took a gift of cash, from the private foundation set up by Mar...

Mizner 200 will be one of the largest construction projects in Boca Raton's downtown, offering three nine- story apartment buildings across 9 acres. There will be 384 new apartments and garages with 672 parking spaces. You’ll also see an overhauled stretch of Southeast Mizner Boulevard — inundated with new canopy trees, park space and benches along an 8-foot-wide, paver-laden sidewalk. It’s too early to say when construction will begin. But Mizner 200, at 200 SE Mizner Blvd ., will give the area a much-needed face-lift, some residents say. It’s the latest high- rise project coming to downtown Boca, among the fastest rising in Palm Beach County . “It’s an amazing project and one that I think Boca can stand behind in a very proud fashion,” said Marisela Catilla, a resident of Royal Palm Place just across the street. The city, which this week approved the project, said it’s a product of cooperation between Mizner 200’s developer, Coral Springs-based El- ad National Properties , a...

ALLENTOWN — Talen Energy will vacate The Plaza at PPL Center in downtown Allentown early next year and move its employees into cheaper office space just blocks away on Hamilton Street, saving the company millions but leaving its landmark headquarters building mired in foreclosure and facing an uncertain future. Talen spokesman Todd Martin , responding to a request by The Morning Call, said Tuesday that the energy company has made a “five-year commitment” to rent two floors of the soon-to-be-opened Tower 6 at Sixth and Hamilton streets. The move will take effect in the second quarter of 2018, coinciding with the end of Talen’s lease at PPL Plaza at 835 W. Hamilton St. “We’re pleased to be able to maintain our historic roots in downtown Allentown ,” Martin said. “We see this decision as beneficial to our business, our employees and the Greater Lehigh Valley , especially to others in the business community in downtown Allentown .” Tower 6, owned by City Center Investment Corp ., is in...

MOBILE, AL (WALA) - Groundbreaking ceremonies were held Wednesday for a new development featuring more than 250 upscale apartments in downtown Mobile . The groundbreaking comes just as the first phase of work is about to begin on a city project to make downtown more pedestrian friendly. The shovels came out Wednesday morning to break ground for the new Meridian at the Port complex. Developers say it will feature more than 250 upscale apartments. David Hanchrow with Bristol Development said, "People are looking to become less car dependent or, at least, shorten their commute, so, by living here at Meridian at the Port, if you work downtown or want to enjoy the restaurants downtown, you're just a short walk away."  Civic leaders say the project could potentially transform the downtown area, helping to attract grocery stores and retail outlets.   Fred Rendfrey, Downtown Economic Development Director with the Downtown Mobile Alliance said, "Other investors and develo...

A universally acknowledged truth about living in New York City is that there's very little space to go around. What passes for an entire apartment in Manhattan is considered a walk-in closet in Des Moines. This dearth of square footage has resulted in a couple notable phenomenons : Namely, pocket-emptying rents and some—let's just call it—creative uses of space. I recently glimpsed one particularly unusual vision of our inevitable micro-living future. Twenty floors up in a luxury midtown Manhattan studio apartment , a hulking piece of furniture sat pressed against the wall. From the front it looked like an entertainment console with built in shelving. From the side, it appeared to be a regular bookshelf, save for a small button. At nine feet tall, five feet wide and seven feet long, the thing took up nearly a fourth of the apartment's main living area , leaving just enough space for what could either be a livingroom or bedroom, but definitely not both. "This is Ori,...

The massive new social and affordable housing renewal development just given the go-ahead by the NSW Government in Sydney’s north has been greeted with cautious approval by experts. But while it’s been hailed as “ground-breaking” by some, with plans for similar scale projects at four other major sites, others have said it still is a long way off solving housing affordability for many Sydneysiders. “Of course, the provision of this new affordable housing is always good, but it’s still just a drop in the ocean,” says Associate Professor Eileen Webb , of the Curtin Law School , who’s been studying the lack of housing. Ivanhoe estate ." /> An artist’s impression of Ivanhoe estate . Photo: Supplied “As we’ve seen in Martin Place recently , there are many people homeless, with the 2011 Census putting the figure very conservatively at 105,000. We’ve also had reports that a further one in 10 Australian households are in housing stress and at risk of homelessness, which is 850,000...