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...

Posted: Aug. 24, 2017 9:15 am QUINCY -- A Quincy committee recommends that $120,000 be provided for the redevelopment of five apartments in four downtown buildings. The $120,000 investment through the city's tax increment financing rental rehab program would include private investment of more than $154,000. Chuck Bevelheimer, director of planning and development, told the TIF Rental Rehab Committee on Wednesday night that he believed the program was making a difference downtown. "When you get into renovation projects, you're always getting into something that is unknown," Bevelheimer said. "Without this program, I don't think you would be seeing the investment right now." In the first two years of the TIF rental rehab program , the city has provided $210,000 and has seen $335,800 in private investment in 10 upper- story apartments downtown . "If we're going to make market- rate housing downtown , this level of investment is necessary, and I ...

Known for strip malls and shopping centers and rows of single-family homes, the Valley is often thought of as somehow separate from Los Angeles—though most of its communities have been part of the city for over 100 years. But that perception may start to slip away as new transit options and LA’s rising cost of living draw in new residents and development dollars. In advance of some of these changes, we caught up with several active community members in the Valley to get their take on the region’s future. Here’s what we learned: Don’t call it a suburb The Valley may not be as dense as Downtown LA or Koreatown—nor as walkable—but it’s still plenty urban. “If the Valley is a suburb, I don’t know what you’d call Santa Clarita or Simi Valley or the Thousand Oaks area ,” says lifelong Valley resident Zachary Rynew , who founded the CiclaValley blog to promote bicycling events in the area and advocate for better bike infrastructure . Yvette Lopez-Ledesma, deputy director of Pacoima Beaut...

In densely populated urban hubs , apartment buildings are a necessary fixture. But all too often, rental or condo complexes are built simply to fill a need—to increase apartment supply —and developers overlook the opportunity to provide something different and distinct in bustling downtown areas . However, in recent years, some developers and architects are moving away from the traditional apartment model and embracing a more unique approach: building high- end apartments inside of shipping containers . As far as ingenious adaptive reuse goes, the shipping container complex is cutting-edge. “In Phoenix, we don’t have buildings that were once warehouses or manufacturing facilities that everyone’s now turning into lofts. So the shipping containers allow us to bring a little bit of that richness that’s really missing here,” says architect Brian Stark in a video explaining how the container complex was built. “[The containers] have been all over the world traveling, and now they’r...

“Colorado residents fed up with what they see as the state’s failure to protect people and the environment are fighting fossil- fuel development inside their towns by making new rules requiring odor control , bigger setbacks and company disclosure of underground oil and gas flowlines,” reports The Denver Post . “But the industry and state government are ready to fight back. An odor- control measure in Erie, letting police hit companies with tickets for foul fumes, takes effect next week. Erie, Broomfield, Thornton and Lafayette are each developing map submission rules , with leaders saying the fatal April 17 house explosion in Firestone makes this a no-brainer. Broomfield residents also will vote on whether to change their charter to require protection of health, safety and the environment as preconditions before drilling inside city limits can be done.” “At the urging of Councilwoman Polly Christensen , Longmont has posted a link on its city government home page to the City Co...

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...

To Alice Fonseca, getting an apartment at The Beverly building downtown would be like winning the lottery. The 14-story project, set to open near North Station early next year, isn’t quite like all the other luxury housing that has sprouted up in downtown Boston recently . Every one of its 249 units will rent at below-market rates, with a one-bedroom starting at $900 a month for tenants of modest incomes. That’s about a third to half the cost of a similar unit just across the street. Advertisement “It’s a beautiful area , a dream area,” said Fonseca, who currently lives near Franklin Park, and will enter a lottery later this year that will choose The Beverly’s tenants. Instead of the usual mix of a few low- income units amid high -priced apartments, The Beverly is the first new complex in Boston composed entirely of “workforce housing,” an emerging category of midpriced housing with more affordable rents and wider income restrictions . The Beverly is setting aside 20 percent of its...

Section of rendering by architect Stephen Jacobs . A proposed five-story mixed use building with 116 apartments and ground-floor restaurant and retail uses on East Main Street and McDermott Avenue won approval of the Riverhead Town Board Tuesday night . In a split 3-1 vote, the board approved a pair of resolutions that simultaneously dispensed with extended environmental review and approved a site plan and special permit for the “ Riverview Lofts ” project proposed by Georgica Green Ventures LLC of Jericho. The actions green-light the construction of the five-story building with 12,623 square feet of first- floor commercial space , 55 on- site parking spaces and four-stories consisting of 116 workforce rental apartments : 31 studio, 37 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom units. Councilman Tim Hubbard , without comment, cast the lone vote against both measures. Councilwoman Jodi Giglio , an owner of Summerwind Square — the first mixed-use apartment building built in the downtown dis...