In this world of cookie-cutter projects and look-alike communities, it's hard to claim the mantle of first. But each of the three mixed-use projects profiled here can make legitimate claims to being unique. Club Casa Mina is the first private-equity residence club—a fractional—to hit Santa Barbara, Calif. Nashville, Tenn., has a good supply of old warehouses, but the folks behind Mercury View Lofts are the first to convert an old building into a mixed-use loft project. And in Hyattsville, Md., a suburb of Washington, developers chose to build a 16-story student housing building as a way to jump-start a project that has been 50 years in the making.
THE CLUB SET
In Santa Barbara, a former bus yard blossoms as a fractional property that's long on luxury touches and resort amenities.
Amazingly, even gorgeous, sun-soaked Santa Barbara, Calif., has blighted areas in need of a little rehabilitation. That's what developer Gene Campbell of Top Shelf Development discovered eight years ago when he stumbled upon the site of a former bus storage yard just blocks from the heart of downtown. Originally, he thought it would be a good spot for a high-end health club or a boutique hotel. Then he joined up with architect Barry Berkus, whose crusade for “fun zones” has made him something of a mixed-use guru over the years. “Here was this wonderful piece of property, right in the middle of town,” says Campbell. “I contacted Barry and said, ‘let's do the highest and best-use plan for this property.'”
That turned out to be a mixed-use project that combined seven residential units, offices, and a wine bar. Sounds like pretty tame stuff in the world of mixed-use. But here's the twist: The homes are all part of a partial ownership program or, as most of the world calls it, fractionals. It's an arrangement that's similar to time-shares. The difference is that time-shares are sold by the calendar (the buyer gets a specified number of days at a place, not a percentage of them); with a private-ownership program, people buy a portion of the property. At Club Casa Mina owners are able to use their home for a number of pre-set days but can go well beyond that, depending on availability (and can stay in other resort properties, too).
Luxury touches are pretty much standard in Santa Barbara, but the city's first private-equity residence club had to be superluxe, of course. That means that the five, three-bedroom townhouse villas and the pair of two-bedroom penthouses feature the best of the best: fabulous floor plans by a renowned architect; slate and travertine floors; balconies that open onto a central, cobblestone paseo; plasma TVs and state-of-the-art surround sound; wrought-iron details; and massive vigas spanning the ceilings.
ENTER HERE: Street-level commercial space shields the residents at Club Casa Mina, who enter the project through a deep pedestrian and vehicular passage at the building's midpoint.
“More and more people that we deal with are fitting in their vacations at different times,” says Berkus. “Nobody can spend a lot of time in their second home, but it makes sense to have one that is maintained for you, that you can drop into for a month at a time and then leave.”
Perfect for Santa Barbara.
Project: Club Casa Mina, Santa Barbara, Calif.; Project size: 25,850 square feet; Unit size: 1,800 to 2,800 square feet; Total units: 7; Price: $415,000 to $435,000 per equity share (8 owners per residence); Builder: Frosher Lewis, Santa Barbara; Developer: Top Shelf Development, Santa Barbara; Design architect/ Land planner: B3 Architects, a Berkus Design Studio, Santa Barbara; Architect of record: Tom Meaney Architects, Santa Barbara
Tennessee Two-step
In The Gulch, Nashville's newest redevelopment area, a nifty loft project rises up through an old warehouse.
“I've never seen a city make a move toward downtown living in such a short time as Nashville has in the last six months to a year,” says Manuel Zeitlin, a Nashville native and architect of Mercury View Lofts, the first mixed-use loft project in the heart of downtown. More accurately, it's in the heart of The Gulch, a 55-acre redevelopment project centered on an old railroad gulch. It makes a direct connection between Music Row and downtown, so it has the potential to be quite the sweet spot.
Mercury View Lofts could be the poster child for The Gulch, as it artfully combines old warehouse space and new construction toward a mix of uses: 32 residential rental units, a 24-hour commercial bakery, an art gallery, and restaurants. Zeitlin's design put the new five-story building—made from concrete, corrugated metal, and low-E solar green glass—right through the existing brick warehouse structure, resulting in a rather riotous mix of materials. Inside the apartments, the mix includes varying ceiling heights (from 12 to 23 feet), IKEA wardrobes instead of closets, sliding birch plywood doors to close off bedrooms, and plenty of exposed concrete.
URBAN RENEWAL: Architect Manueal Zeitlin added 32 loft apartments by designing a building that fits over and through and old brick warehouse. A two-story live/work apartment (below) is just one of six plans available at Mercury View Lofts.
Photo Credit: Nate Zeitlin
URBAN RENEWAL: Architect Manueal Zeitlin added 32 loft apartments by designing a building that fits over and through and old brick warehouse. A two-story live/work apartment (below) is just one of six plans available at Mercury View Lofts.
Photo Credit: Nate Zeitlin
MIX OF MATERIALS: Inside, the apartments at Mercury View Lofts feature stainless steel restaurant prep tables used as kitchen islands, steel railings, and IKEA cabinets. Outside, the varied materials offer up lots of interest in an area that's seeing more and more nightlife (below).
Photo Credit: Nate Zeitlin
Photo Credit: John Walker
“In order to develop the residential portion, we took the roofs off the warehouse structures, went down a couple of levels to build new footings, and came up through those structures with a superstructure that would form the residentials,” says Bill Barkley who, as a partner with Nashville Urban Ventures, was behind the master plan for The Gulch and, as president of Armistead Barkley, developed the Mercury View Lofts. “We were able to pre-lease those warehouses to interesting restaurants. The first thing you need with a new urban area is to create an entertainment and food and beverage district and follow that with residential, a real one-two punch. With Mercury Lofts, we did it all at the same time.”
Project: Mercury View Lofts, Nashville, Tenn.; Project size: 2 acres; Unit size: 750 to 1,450 square feet; Total units: 32; Price: $740 to $3,000 per month; Builder: The Parent Co., Nashville; Developer: Armistead Barkley, Nashville; Architect/Interior designer: Manuel Zeitlin Architects, Nashville; Landscape architect: Hawkins Partners, Nashville
It's Academic
In the suburbs of Washington, a student housing tower gives new life to a development that's been more than 50 years in the making.
Say you're a developer who has owned 56 acres in Hyattsville, Md., since the early '50s. Your long-held vision is a vibrant town center less than 10 miles from the White House, but all you've been able to get going is three office buildings (handsome structures, designed by the eminent architect Edward Durrell Stone, but lifeless after 6 p.m. and on weekends). Finally, the extension of Washington's subway system promises a nearby stop, which changes the picture. You get a master plan going that calls for residences, retail, restaurants, more office space, and a multiplex movie theater.
But what's the quickest way to bring instant life to the area? Make that first residential project a 16-story, 910-bed, student housing tower, designed to serve the University of Maryland, just a mile away, as well as other area institutions.
That's exactly what Herschel Blumberg, the 81-year-old president and owner of Prince George's Metro Center did. In August 2006, students from 11 area universities started moving into the Towers at University Town Center. It's the first project in the Washington area to serve so many schools at once.
Architecturally, the Towers building sets the tone for the rest of the master plan, which was developed by RTKL Associates. “We wanted to create something that was warm and inviting, which is hard with a 16-story tower,” says Matt Lam, project manager for WDG Architecture, which also designed the Towers. “To the owners' credit, we were able to use three different kinds of brick and two different kinds of cast stone, which we took all the way up the building and not just on the three lower floors. We also pushed heavily that every bedroom should have its own bath.”
BD070401102L1.jpgCLICK HERE FOR IMAGE GALLERY
BD070401102L1.jpgCLICK HERE FOR IMAGE GALLERY
NEW LIFE: A rendering of the plaza area at University Town Center (below) shows the Towers, Lofts 22, with its distinctive curving zinc detail, and One Independence Plaza, which will boast 112 one- and two-bedroom condos. Both for-sale properties, still under construction (above), are at the heart of the project; existing office buildings and a new multiplex ring the perimeter.
Under construction now are two for-sale buildings (One Independence Plaza, a 112-unit condo building, and Lofts 22, a 22-loft unit building), as well as a multiplex theater, a new supermarket, and restaurants and retail outlets. “The retail and the theater and the for-sale buildings are all going to come on line at the same time,” says Robert Keane, a principal with WDG Architecture, which designed the for-sale buildings. It will be an instant town center that was more than 50 years in the making.
Project: University Town Center, Hyattsville, Md.; Project size: 56 acres; Unit size: 766 to 1,332 square feet (Towers); 691 to 1,085 square feet (One Independence Plaza); 880 to 1,300 square feet (Lofts 22); Price: $695 to $930 per bed per month (Towers); $250,000 to $450,000 (condos); $450,000 to $700,000 (lofts); Builder/Developer: Prince George's Metro Center, Hyattsville, Md.; Architect: RTKL, Washington (Towers); WDG Architects, Washington (condos, lofts); Land planner: Parker Rodriguez, Alexandria, Va.