Cran125GPS
Cran125GPS t1_j5b7ocn wrote
Reply to comment by WooNoto in Developer proposes 375 apartments at former site of Smokestack BBQ in Worcester’s Canal District by moisheah
Condos in a building like this unfortunately aren't going to happen. It's not financially feasible in a market like Worcester, for a number of reasons.
Trying to be helpful here, not argumentative, so here are a few reasons:
The return per square foot just isn't there. You can rent these units for a higher psf rate than you can sell them. I know everyone is complaining about housing costs here in Worcester, but the reality is that you can buy a single family home for less cost per square foot than it would take to build a similarly sized condo, by a large margin (about $200-$300psf to buy vs $500 psf to build where you'd need to sell for $700psf to make a return) so they aren't economically viable. No one is going to buy a 700k 1,000SF condo in Worcester.
Condos are significantly more expensive to build than apartments, which excacerbates the problem. The level of finishes on a condo tend to be higher, and the build quality has to be higher. When you are renting an appartment, it's pretty much take it or leave it to the person that wants to rent. In a condo building you want to pre sell, and then there are always issues when the units are built of people that bought the condo coming and and having crazy punch lists and huge battles trying to finish the project. It's just a huge headache that developers don't want to deal with.
Continuing on the last point, if you are a developer buidling these as appartments, it's a one owner sitsituation. You either hold it and make money of the rents, or you sell it to an institutional buyer that really only cares about the cash flow coming in. If these were condos, you now have 100 different buyers to deal with, and a condo association to deal with while you are trying to unload the rest of the units. Everyone knows how much of a pain HOAs are and building condos means you have to deal with one. All it takes is a few angry buyers to sue for whatever they want and you can be locked up in years of legal battles. I think you are on the hook for 10 years. So people just don't want the liability and renting as appartments makes all thay headache go away.
Cran125GPS t1_j3j7h9b wrote
Reply to comment by ModernPhilistine in Anyone know where to get good bagels? by SignificantLion6
Best bagels but so so awfully slow its painful. They should hire a WPI student to optimize their service. The owners could make a killing there but on the weekends it takes absolutely forever to get anything. There's nothing more I'd like in Worcester than a good bagel place that doesn't take 45 minutes to get a bagel on a Saturday.
Cran125GPS t1_iy5rev7 wrote
Reply to comment by OrphanKripler in Not finding any news on this at all. Anyone hear anything about this? by MTRIFE
That's just categorically false and not backed by facts. More businesses have opened by far than been closed in that area.
And "congested the city" oh please there's some more traffic around game times in that area, with no impact on the other 98% of the city....
Cran125GPS t1_ixe91uy wrote
Reply to comment by OrphanKripler in Not finding any news on this at all. Anyone hear anything about this? by MTRIFE
In what way? I've been to MGM in Springfield and to many games at Polar Park and its a night and day difference in what each has done for the respective cities
Cran125GPS t1_ixcgcgn wrote
Reply to comment by mtb40 in Airport Limo from JFK to Holden by mtb40
Depending on what time your doing that drive 3.5 hours could be very very optimistic. That's like best case middle of the night time.
Cran125GPS t1_ix5acfg wrote
Reply to comment by Agile-Cherry-420 in Anyone know what bars will be opened for morning World Cup games? by bwana18
Lol the pearl clutching here is amusing. So I take it you don't watch TV in general? What hardware did you write that post on?
Cran125GPS t1_itw9pha wrote
Reply to What are your opinions on Holden MA? by [deleted]
Good effort, I give this parody post a 9/10
Do Shrewsbury next
Cran125GPS t1_it74ry8 wrote
Reply to comment by CoolAbdul in Question 5…explain it like I’m 5 by Krny73
Roberta Schaefer hasn't been on the board in 8+ years....if you look at the board of directors and staff there is no one with the name Schaeffer. I know probably half of the board. I mean come on Allen Fletcher, Tim Garvin, Tim Murray, and Deb Packard are on the board....real right wing extremists there
Cran125GPS t1_it5j4jh wrote
Reply to comment by CoolAbdul in Question 5…explain it like I’m 5 by Krny73
Lol this is just blatantly false info
Cran125GPS t1_ishnf1r wrote
Reply to comment by FuckM3Tendr in Fireworks on West side near Tatnuck, WTF?! Anyone hear anything ? by FuckM3Tendr
I think there was a wedding up there tonight
Cran125GPS t1_ir04ocz wrote
Reply to M&T Bank is horrible. What is a good bank in the Worcester area to switch to? Need decent hours. by CoolAbdul
DCU, St. Mary's, and Cornerstone I've have good experiences with.
Cran125GPS t1_j72r25b wrote
Reply to State lawmakers introduce bill to bring back rent control by HRJafael
This is the absolutely worst way to handle a housing crisis, it's populism gone off the rails. The most basic understanding of economics shows why this is a bad idea.
Every area that has tried this has made the issue worse. Look how San Francisco is doing....
This is purely a supply issue. The amount of people living here isn't changing, in fact it's going up. The only way to bring down housing prices is to increase housing. Artificially distorting the marking makes everything worse. Rent control does nothing to help increase housing supply and in fact makes it worse at is disincentivizes investment in new housing.