It seems that every time I go somewhere and someone finds out I’m a Salem Oregon real estate agent they always ask me about how the downtown condos are doing. “Have any of them sold?” is often the question I get. Both The Meridian and The Church Street Condos have sold units, but we all know this market is tough.
I just read in The Oregonian that First Citizens Bank of North Carolina who holds the note for The Meridian project just filed to foreclose on the project. You can read the filing papers if you are so inclined, but it’s a lot of money, $35 million or so that the bank is owed. I can’t say that I am surprised since so few units have sold in the complex, but it really is a beautiful building and I am saddened that it has come to this. My understanding is that the developers are trying to negotiate with the lender and here’s hoping they are successful.
It’s tough to see big projects like that have tough times. We have a few of our own here in the Springs (though not quite that size!) I’ve got my fingers crossed for you.
You know it is so difficult. This project is one of the downtown revitalization projects in town. It’s always hard to see a developer do something to improve the downtown area and then have it not work out.
I don’t understand why you think the foreclosure is a bad thing. The Meridian was a terribly ill-considered venture for a market such as Salem, where the salaries would never support the prices demanded. Foreclosure means someone takes a bath, which is the only way the prices can come down to something approximating the market here — this ain’t the Pearl and it’s not Vancouver BC. Both The Meridian and The River thingee are projects conceived at the very peak of the real estate boom by people who, it seems, believed that what goes up must always keep going up, ever higher. So not true. The things are built — as soon as the investors get their haircuts (scalpings, actually) the buildings can become usable. I would think a real estate agent would want more units in the market that could actually sell in the market.
I think it is a bad thing for Salem because we need investors to come into the city and revitalize our areas. While I agree that the condo projects were too upscale for Salem, we badly need our investors. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a cool $35 million to plunk down to revitalize Salem.
Also the project wasn’t conceived in the boom. The concept for the project started way before real estate started to rise here. These commercial projects are years in the making.
I like investors because they keep our cities revitalized. I am saddened when one fails on such a large scale. While it is good for our current real estate market to make those condos affordable, it is NOT good for the long term health of revitalizing Salem.
What about Waterplace? I realize the residential-to-office comparison is apples-to-oranges, but it seems like crappy economy notwithstanding Waterplace is leasing up. Seems to me that design is important, and I cannot agree that the Meridian is attractive or well-designed. I find it quite unappealing and forbidding, a nouveau Tuscan fortress, massed and sited awkwardly. On the SJ, others have remarked in its interior floorplans and finishes.
Waterplace is even taller, yet it seems to honor the creek and sidewalk much more effectively, and I’m pretty sure it will wear better as it ages.
I hope better pricing and better design will create downtown dwellings that sell. We need successful projects, as you say!
(Good on you for scooping the Statesman, btw!)
Capital Taps, I see what you are saying about the fortress aspect of it and I had those same thoughts when I first saw it going up. It was grossly out of scale with the surroundings. I lived in Portland for 10 years before Salem, and when the Peal was a dump, abandoned warehouses and broken windows. What happened there is what I see here in that you have new meshed in with old and not so well kept. As such it makes the new look way off kilter.
Waterplace is a really nice building, I agree but it has a better location. More tall buildings surround it. New York Life has a couple of the floors, I believe. The Meridian looks out of place next to the smaller buildings and oh, say the gas station across the street. I don’t disagree that the location is problematic but what I envisioned was the same thing that happened in the Pearl where you have this odd transition and things look kind of weird for a while.
My biggest concern is whether or not the Pringle development is in jeopardy. Dan Berrey, one of the main developers for the Meridian is one of the developers for the old Boise site. Now THAT is a great location.
What happened is that the Meridian was developed too soon. The old Boise site should have been developed first and then newer developments could trickle from downtown. I think you would find the Meridian less foreboding if it was surrounded by other like buildings.
The problem with the Meridian is that it is not downtown…it is walkable to downtown, yes, but so are numerous close-in neighborhoods where you can get more square feet and a yard for half the price they were trying to sell Meridian units for.
As a property owner in the Court-Chemeketa historic district, I am all for the downtown condos…more people living downtown means more amenities downtown to cater to the new residents…which, in turn, makes the close-in neighborhoods like mine more attractive. In the same way, if the Meridian had been shelved until after the Boise project and Waterplace and 295 Church and the River project, etc., had been developed, the Meridian would have benefited from its proximity.
Northwest Hippie,
I agree that the Meridian was kind of developed “out of sequence” per se.
You have to remember that the condo buyer isn’t the same buyer as a house buyer. People choose to live in condos because they don’t want a yard and don’t want to maintain a house. It’s just a different kind of buyer. Often they want to live and work downtown so the expansions at the University and Hospital plus all the state workers are kind of ideal buyers. Unfortunately they upgraded the units so much they priced out the middle class buyers.
I do think the lack of an easily walkable downtown grocery store really hurts the prospect for condo sales also.
Agreed re: the grocery store issue. I used to live about five blocks from where the Meridian is now, and while I loved walking to Bush park, the library etc, not having a local grocery store was a pain. Now I live in SESNA, which also lacks a grocery.
B kinch,
I agree. It is the one thing that downtown Salem really needs to make people feel more comfortable living down there.