Melissa Savenko's Richmond Real Estate Review

Redeveloping the Boulevard - Is Demolition "Green?" AND Baseball in Manchester!

I got a comment objecting to my support for demolishing the Diamond, Arthur Ashe Center, and Sports Backers' Stadium, in order to start from scratch with the Boulevard site.  The criticism, which is a fair one, is that these structures could and should be reused or adapted, and demolition is not the most environmentally friendly approach.

I hear you, and I think those are very fair points.  And just for the record, I am a HUGE proponent of adaptive reuse- renovating "old" structures for new uses.  However, the reality is in certain circumstances the expense associated with retooling a particular structure is so great, it makes more sense to demolish and then rebuild. New construction is almost always less expensive than renovation.

The other problem here is what viable "reuse" is there for a stadium?  What else COULD the Diamond or Sports Backers' Stadium be? 

On another point, I'm not opposed to keeping baseball on Boulevard, and the Robert Bobb development team has not ruled it out.  I think it would be a heck of a better location than Shockoe Bottom, which I just think was a bad idea 4 years ago, and is a bad idea today.  My question becomes:  If they keep baseball at Boulevard, is retrofitting the Diamond to last another 10-15 years a better solution than building a new stadium?  I come down on that question on the "Definitely not" side.  I think if baseball is going to be on Boulevard, we'd be better off building a new baseball stadium that is ideally sited and holistically integrated into the entire site development plan.

Personally, I think it's "greener" to do an all-new walkable development at Boulevard, incorporating the best new urbanism principals, whether it incorporates baseball or not.  I think retrofitting the two existing stadiums would be exorbitantly expensive, and I'm not sure what you'd make them.  Leaving them stadiums compromises the ability to do a comprehensive, integrated site design.  So despite the green "cost" of demolition, my vote is the same:  all-new development at Boulevard, with or without a brand-new baseball stadium.

BUT....do you know where I REALLY think we should build a baseball stadium?  On the South Side of the river, on the water, in Manchester.  There is available land, and it would IMMEDIATELY jump-start the revitalization of that area of the City, which has some amazing, architecturally significant buildings, but suffers from a lot of urban problems.  Two birds,one stone:  new baseball stadium, new neighborhood anchor.

Thanks for the comments, MJ and Scott.  It's nice to know someone actually reads anything I wrote.  [:)]

Redevelopment on the Boulevard - Part II

There are some significant points about the proposed Boulevard development that I should have highlighted in my last post.  In no particular order, here are those points:

1.  The Boulevard proposal involves demolishing several pretty significant existing structures, including the Diamond, the Arthur Ashe Center, and Sports Backers' Stadium.  While it is apparently still an option, the Boulevard redevelopment may not include baseball at all. 

2.  At the same time the Boulevard proposal was announced, the City announced another major development project, also with Highwoods as the Master Developer.  The $363M Shockoe Bottom proposal includes mixed residential, commercial, and retail development, along with a baseball stadium and a museum dedicated to the history of the slave trade.

3.  The Boulevard proposal, as far as I can tell, would involve (i) the old Parker Field site on the North side of Robin Hood Road all the way back to Hermitage; (ii) the parcel(s) of land bounded by Boulevard, Robin Hood Road, Hermitage, and up to the far side of the Sports Backer Stadium; and (iii) the parcels on the east side of Hermitage Road currently occupied by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control.

4.  I say "as far as I can tell" these are the parcels involved, because it is very hard to tell from the d*mn drawings.  I've lived in Richmond all my life, and it took me 20 minutes to figure out what was what in the conceptual drawings printed by the newspaper.  I'm not even sure I've properly identified Boulevard.  I finally got myself oriented on the Shockoe Bottom drawings by identifying Main Street Station's clock tower and working back from there.  That's problematic, Mr. Developer.

5.  I support ripping down all those structures identified on the Boulevard drawings.  The land has such wonderful potential.  Let's do it right.  However, let's make Deal A contingent on Deal B.  In other words, it's fine to demolish the Boulevard structures IF we make sure the baseball stadium and the Sports Backers' stadium are redeveloped in appropriate location(s), and the Arthur Ashe Center activities have another home.  The Arthur Ashe Center seems to be extremely underutilized, and it's just plain d*mn ugly.  Can those activities currently held in the Arthur Ashe Center be moved to the Coliseum?

6.  On the Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium proposal, is it just me, or did we not have this very same discussion 4 years ago?  Wasn't there a group called "RBI" - Richmond Baseball Initiative (cute, huh?) - that pushed this same location, similar financing structure?  Weren't there serious issues associated with the Shockoe Bottom location - hello, 100 year flood plain - as well as serious community opposition?  Am I just hallucinating all that?  If not, what's changed?

7.  I need to figure out how to upload this schematic of the Boulevard plan from the newspaper hard copy, because I almost had a heart attack. THERE IS A PARKING GARAGE FACING BOULEVARD that takes up almost the entire footprint currently occupied by the Diamond.  What is the developer thinking?!?!  That violates just about every principle of urban design out there, and trust me, I am going to be out there protesting, marching up and down in a sandwich board, if that's the direction these guys plan on going.  No way, Jose.  I will support redevelopment with good design all day long, but having a parking deck front the Boulevard is NOT cool, not cool at all.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Redevelopment on the Boulevard

On October 27, 2008, the City of Richmond announced $422M in development along the Boulevard, to be spearheaded by a development team led by Highwoods Properties as the master developer, Robert Bobb, former City of Richmond Manager, and Armada Hoffler, developer extraordinaire from the Tidewater area.  Check out the October 28, 2008 Richmond Times-Dispatch article detailing the announcement.

I am psyched.  SOMEONE finally figured out that (i) the Boulevard connects two affluent areas, the Fan/Museum District and Ginter Park/Bellevue/Greater North Side; and (ii) there is absolutely no significant national retail in the City of Richmond outside of Kroger and Lowe's.  [I'm not counting Stony Point Mall, I know that's in the City, it's just h*ll and gone from Downtown].  Personally, I think it took some out-of-towners, guys from New York who decided to put up a movie theater, before anyone else locally recognized the potential of the area. 

[BTW, Bow Tie guys:  Bravo, gentlemen, you are heroes and rock stars, as far as I am concerned.  I plan to frequent Boulevard Theater every chance I get.  Thanks for bringing first-run, non-art house movies back to the City of Richmond.  Take THAT, Short Pump!].

My one request: Please, please, PLEASE give us good, high-end national retail.  We can support it, I promise, promise, promise.  Right now all our dollars are going to Henrico County, I'd personally rather keep 'em in the City.  I want Pottery Barn, DSW, Bananna Republic.  Maybe a Bed, Bath & Beyond.  Panera Bread and Chipotle would make me so happy.  And if you could put in a Target, I swear I'd think I died and went to heaven.

Highwoods Properties, here's one consumer waiting with baited breath to see what you come up with.  Do right by us.  We've been so patient.

Slave to the Laptop

How did this happen?  I have a virus on my laptop - it's my own d*mn fault for letting my virus software license lapse - and until I get it fixed, I can't work from home at night or early in the morning.  It's TOTALLY stressing me out. 

I'm trying to be a bit Zen about it, and enjoy my evenings at home, but I have to admit it's really, really hard not to give myself hives.  I mean, right now it is 5:47 P.M. on Monday night, I have to leave the office like, 5 minutes ago, because I promised my babysitter I'd be home by 6:00 P.M.  I still have to make dinner for myself and my baby girl, and I have 4,000 things I need to do, 3,997 of which require a computer.  Arrgghh....

I'm hyperventilating at the thought of all the e-mails I need to read and respond to, the blog posts and responses I want to write, the market research that I need to do, the listings to update, the brochures to draft....

Ommm...ommm...ommmm...There is something wrong with this world, that has gotten so fast-paced and so high-pressured, that I am feeling GUILTY about the fact that I will be away from my computer and (God forbid!) not working from 6:00 P.M. until 9:00 A.M. tomorrow.  That's only 15 hours, and for a good 8-9 of it I'll be unconscious.

Sigh.  Did life used to be like this?  Is it just like this because I am more than a little ADD and a single mom with a commission-based job?  When did I become a slave to the laptop?

To h*ll with it.  I'm going to go home, drink some red wine, make chicken and stuffing and green beans with gravy, snuggle my daughter, read the paper or a book after she goes to bed, and try, TRY, NOT to feel guilty about not working.  We'll see how that goes...[;)]

Dual Agency Revisited - Comments and Responses

I wrote and posted a blog entry titled "Dual Agency Is a Crock OR Why You Should Beware If Your Realtor Represents Both Sides."  I guess it is no surprise that I have received a number of comments on this post, and it appears to be my most read blog entry by far. 

One respondent is a gentleman named Joel Stern, who was apparently duped by several Weichert Realtors into a VERY bad deal, so bad that he ultimately sued.  I am linking to a few articles, including one by Kenneth Harney of the Washington Post, which detail the circumstances leading up to the law suit.  A personal favorite is a blog entry titled Multiple Representation: A Manifesto for Legalized Conflict of Interest.

Other commenters advocate for EXCLUSIVE Buyer Agency firms, with agents that only represent buyers, never represent sellers.  That is certainly one option, but it seems to me an extreme one.  I happen to like representing both buyers and sellers.  I just don't want to represent the buyer and seller IN THE SAME DEAL.   

Finally a commenter took me to task for allegedly not understanding that dual agency involves the BROKERAGE being on both sides of the transaction, not the specific individual agent.

First, I respectfully disagree.  Dual agency is just that - when the AGENT, not the brokerage, is representing both sides of the transaction.  Designated agency is when the brokerage is the same, but the agents are different.

While it is true that listing agreements are with brokerages, not individual agents, I see no conflict of interest if two different agents in the same brokerage represent the buyer and the seller in a transaction, so long as the rules are followed, the clients are fully informed, and the individual agents do not have access to the confidential information of the other party.  The same issue arises in law firms all the time. 

Consider this:  My broker has multiple offices in the Greater Richmond area.  I don't even KNOW most of the agents in other offices, nor have I spoken to the vast majority of them.  If an agent with the Midlothian office of RE/MAX Commonwealth shows one of my listings in the Fan, and his buyer wants to purchase my listing, how is either his buyer or my seller disadvantaged by our representation of our respective clients, even though RE/MAX Commonwealth represents both sides of the deal?  So long as we appropriately disclose the brokerage relationship, AND so long as we do not reveal our clients' confidences to each other while negotiating the deal, I do not see any reason that type of designated agency - NOT dual agency - should not be permitted.

But them's just my $.02.  Feel free to disagree.  That's the beauty of our democracy.

And Mr. Stern, what happened with your case against Weichert Realtors and those agents?  Feel free to drop me a line, melissasavenko@hotmail.com, and I'll post it.  I know I'M curious, and I hope it was a just result.

I Made The Cut with The Donald - Too Bad It's Too Late!

Yesterday in my mail I got an invitation from The Donald.  

Download Donald_Trump_Invite.pdf

I was personally invited to "a wealth building event that [could] literally change your life and get you out of the rat race forever."    It was a class to teach me how to "profit from today's real estate market" by investing in real estate. 

According to The Donald, "in today's down market,I'm telling people to buy, buy, buy.  In all my years of investing in real estate, I think this is one of the most lucrative investment opportunities ever."

So,I feel a bit of validation, if one of the world's premiere real estate developers and I are on the same page.  Read my November 4, 2008 blog piece on real estate investing as a "Yes" in today's market.

BUT, I'm really rather disappointed that the d*mn seminars were on Wednesday,November 12 and Thursday, November 13, when I received my invitation on the night of Thursday,November 13.  Shoot, Donald, I totally would have gone.  Maybe you should just fly me to New York for some one-on-one training.  I think I'd make a great Apprentice.  [;)]

Book Recommendation - Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Promote Peace....One School at a Time

First, my computer has a virus, which is SUCH a pain in the you-know-what.  I have a completed post on my laptop about Ginter Place Condominiums, an adaptive reuse project in the old Richmond Memorial Hospital building, that I have wanted to post since October 30th, but I can't get to the daggone document and I don't want to rewrite it.

Grrr....grrr...grrr...

Meanwhile, I finished reading a book called "Three Cups of Tea," about a guy named Greg Mortenson who founded the Central Asia Institute ("CAI"), which builds schools and other infrastructure projects in some of the most dangerous and rugged territory in the world, in the Masherbrum Peaks area of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.

Amazing stuff.  Read it.  It reminds you that ONE PERSON can make a lasting impact in this topsy-turvy world.  It also reminded me that education is the key to EVERYTHING - advancement, enlightenment, success, compassion.

If you are interested in this book, go to www.threecupsoftea.com.  Seven percent of the book purchases through this website go to education scholarship funds in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Or, consider asking your local school to participate in www.penniesforpeace.org, a program designed specifically for school children in the West to help the far less fortunate kids served by CAI.  It doesn't take much, and what an amazing civics lesson for all our kids, who have so much and sometimes don't have the perspective to understand just how fortunate they are.  [My 10-year-old daughter, God bless her little heart, thinks the world is ending because we don't own a Wii].

OR, give the best gift of all - cold, hard cash, in unrestricted funds.  The donation is tax-deductible, and can be mailed to Central Asia Institute, P.O. Box 7209, Bozeman, Montana 59771.  More information on the CAI is available at www.ikat.org.  One dollar ($1) a month pays for one child's education.  A penny buys a pencil.  One dollar ($1) a day pays for a teacher.

Make a difference.  Someone else has made it VERY easy for you to do so with a small cash donation.  Forgo Starbucks for a week and pay for two kids to go to school for a year.  I'll pledge $365 from my next commission to pay for one teacher for one year.  Match me.  Come on.

God bless and God speed, Greg Mortenson and family.  Thank you for all you do.

Real Estate Investing in This Market - A Yes or a No?

Short answer:  YES. 

Long answer:  Here's why.  Economic news continues to be grim.  The equity markets have been up, down, and all around, with drops of "only" 300 points heralded as a positive.  The credit markets remain frozen.  More money is chasing "safe" investments like government bonds and commodities, driving the yields on those investments ever lower.

One bright spot?  Oil prices have dropped, leading to dramatic declines at the gas pumps.  So there is SOME good news for the average American.

But what to do if you would like to make up some of the dramatic declines in your stock portfolio or 401(k)?

I suggest you consider investing in income-producing real estate.  Whether that means your "first" real estate investment, perhaps a small, modestly priced, single-family home for rental, or your 50th, in major multi-family properties, there are some amazing opportunities.

Please note, I am NOT talking about speculative real estate investment, like building custom "spec" homes for resale, or "flipping" homes for quick cash.  Leave that to the professionals and the risk-takers.  But if you have cash to spend, and a willingness and ability to invest time and/or capital up front, income-producing residential real estate might be the best game in town.  Here are the Top Ten reasons why:

1. There is a glut of inventory.  Supply far exceeds demand.  The basic laws of economics mean the market favors the buyer.
2. Even in a down market, some people have to sell.  I crassly call this the "Three Ds" - death, divorce, disease.  Add relocation and job loss to this list and you have the basic reasons for "irrational" selling, i.e., selling in a down market.
3. Investor-buyers evaluate real estate differently and can identify overlooked opportunities.  A home that doesn't appeal to the homeowner-buyer, who needs to L-O-V-E a property, could be a great rental.  If you can identify these undervalued properties, you can essentially "buy" equity. 
4. Any required repairs or upgrades may depress a property's price artificially below what I call the property's "intrinsic value," i.e., what the home should be worth in good condition.  If you can do repairs or upgrades economically (calling all contractors!), you can add value exponentially greater than the out-of-pocket cost of those repairs or upgrades.
5. Real estate is still a highly leveraged investment.  In real estate, you can buy an asset with only 5%, 10%, 20% of the asset's value out of your own pocket, financing the rest.
6. Foreclosures and job losses mean there are more deals, and even steals, out there.
7. The macro-economic picture should mean a higher demand for rentals, as people are pushed out of homeownership by foreclosure or job loss, or delay homeownership to save a downpayment or because of fears of job insecurity.
8. Unlike stocks or bonds, real estate is a tangible, appreciating asset. 
9. Income-producing real estate provides substantial tax benefits, including depreciation write-offs.
10. Income-producing real estate can be sheltered from capital gains tax liability in your lifetime through Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges.  Your heirs take a stepped-up basis in the property when you pass.

Some people will think this post is self-serving.  To them I say...d*mn right!  Anyone with cash and the appetite for real estate investing, give me a call at 804-288-5000.  [;)] 

But seriously, if I had any extra cash laying (lying?  I never get that grammar rule correct.), I would be snatching up rental properties left and right.  But the limiters on that plan are that "extra" and "cash" requirement.  Sigh.  Some day soon, some day soon.

Election Day 2008 - A New Era in America?

If you think I'm talking about a particular candidate, you are dead wrong.  The "new era" I'm referring to is - I hope - the new era of social responsibility, where Americans actually VOTE in huge numbers.

Traditionally, Americans have had abysmal voter turnout levels,   especially compared to Europeans.  I find this ironic, since we are the birthplace of democracy.  Do we take our freedoms for granted in this country?

Whether you voted for McCain or Obama, and no matter who wins, it is a great thing that Americans cared, and showed up, and exercised the most important power they can exercise in a democratic society, the right to vote. 

If you voted, give yourself a big ole pat on the back, and extra dessert tonight.  Rock on, U.S.A.  Let's make this level of participation the norm, and not the exception.