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Thu
Mar 29
2012

New Construction Around the Corner from Dickinson Square Park

A reader tipped us off to a new house being built on the corner of Lawrence & Tasker Sts., which we confirmed earlier today. This site was a vacant lot for many years, owned by the city since 2004. For a vacant, city owned lot, it didn’t look so terrible…

In the past

As we’ve mentioned in the past, an online bidding program implemented by the Department of Public Property has resulted in the sale of a few dozen city-owned properties over the past couple of years. The recently sold 1121 Catharine St. is a fine example of this program working successfully. While the program has its flaws (an entirely closed bidding process, for example), it’s definitely a step in the right direction, considering the staggeringly long list of vacant, city owned properties.

This particular lot was purchased last fall by Great Eastern Holdings LP for $44,900 through the online bidding program. Over the past few months, the developer has replaced the vacant lot with a newly framed out building, which we imagine will eventually be a single-family home. Next to the much older surrounding housing stock, it sticks out some at the moment. That being said, we’re guessing it’s a conforming structure, since there’s no zoning application we can find online.

Under construction

With close proximity to Dickinson Square Park and the delightful Grindcore House, this home should be very desirable for buyers. Particularly in an area that doesn’t have a ton of new construction, this place will really offer something different. We’ll see how quickly it moves…

Dickinson Square Park in the background. We weren't kidding. It's really close.

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COMMENTS
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Posted in Pennsport | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments
  • Guest

    I like how they took some real effort to keep the windows at the same level.

  • Guest

     I think it’s an industry standard of some sort.  I can think of two construction sites in Bella Vista and a few elsewhere that have the same look that I know are by different developers.

  • http://twitter.com/ThisOldCity This Old City

    the transoms on the first floor are nice… would have been nice if they continued on the second and third.

  • http://twitter.com/F1rstCitizen First Citizen

    The green board is Zip sheathing.  It’s a system that incorporates the sheathing, drainage plain, and air barrier into one product.  Instead of using plywood or OSB for sheathing and then stapling on Tyvek or building paper, a builder can in theory just use Zip sheathing and tape all of the seams and kill 3 birds with one stone.  Rowhomes are the perfect application for it because they’re rectangular and there aren’t any complicated flashing details which are often a difficulty with the zip system.

    Beige or grey windows are just a step above white windows simply for aesthetic value.  White tends to stand out and is associated with cheapness.  For a few bucks more you can get beige windows which blend into the wall better and have a higher end appearance.

    So long story short, it’s just a trend rather than being the same developer.

  • http://twitter.com/F1rstCitizen First Citizen

    Yes, they deserve some praise for this.  It’s not always easy to do unless you underpin the neighboring foundation to get a reasonably deep basement and start your first floor off at the same level as the neighbor.  

    Also, don’t quote me on this but since this was a formerly city-owned lot, their plans may have been subject to review by the Planning Commission which has an obsession with making windows line up.

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