I checked with my commercial real estate guy, and he says putting upscale town homes on Fisher near the Medallion Center is probably around a $20 million project. To his mind, that’s the biggest obstacle to the deal, given the current lending climate.
He sees any redevelopment as West Village-like and as high-end rentals, not as town homes and condos to sell. In fact, he’s kind of surprised that this hasn’t happened sooner.
I asked about a zoning change to increase density, which the developers would almost certainly ask for. Increased density means more units on the same land; in this case, perhaps 50 percent more to make the financing work.
He says he doesn’t think that getting a zoning change would be a problem, given the current political climate toward older apartment buildings in that part of town.
