Belated thanks & follow up

[abigail weinberg]

Hi Andrew,

I hope are enjoying a quiet December 25th and a well deserved break!

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner after our meeting.  I really wanted to thank you for your time and clarity about our situation.  FYI, below are the notes a I took during our conversation.

As you might imagine, the group is definitely interested in learning more about the "adaptive reuse" option that we discussed at the meeting. We agree that this may be our most realistic path to cohousing.  We would appreciate your getting us the list of NW Philly properties mentioned at the meeting, with addresses, sizes, basic specs and price points (real or estimated,) that we might be able to convert into cohousing.  We will then look at these properties and get back to you.  Do you think we could have this over the next week or two?

Meanwhile, we may have a few more questions about the possibilities of using 7048 Germantown, but I will let you know.  I am curious what the status of the property is these days and whether your planning for it has advanced at all as well.

Thanks very much & a very happy & healthy New Year to you and yours!

Abby

 

Meeting with Andrew Eisenstein (Iron Stone), and WVC members:

Bob Bernstein Janet Boys, Vanessa Lowe and Abby Weinberg

Thursday, December 13, 2012; 2:15 – 3:35 pm

 

 

Andrew explained that the economics of condominiums is different from building houses or apartments. He insisted that it is uniquely difficult to finance the building of condos in Pennsylvania at this time because bank regulators won’t allow banks to lend to condo builders. Currently, only rental apartment buildings and single-family homes are being financed, and therefore built, not condos.

 

The only thing Andrew thinks it makes sense to build on 7048 Germantown are “Fee Simple” residences, which would mean townhouses or possibly duplexes where the top and bottom are owned by the same person.

 

When asked “what is we significantly simplify the design?” his response was:

1. Be careful not to design something you don’t want to live in.
2. If you are wiling to live in a simple apartment building, the most economically feasible idea is to buy an existing apt building and fix it up to your standards.

 

Renovation vs. New Construction

We spoke a lot about the implications of deciding to locate WVC in an already existing building in Northwest Philadelphia:

• Andrew felt that we were very likely to find a suitable apartment building or warehouse to buy in our geographically preferred area. (Approx ½ mile from Weavers Way Coop.)
• He explained that once we were to purchase an apartment building and had enough renters who wanted to buy, we could turn the apartments into condos in stages.  Although it is impossible to get financing to build a new condo, it seems it is not a problem to turn and an existing apt building into a condo. (Bob agrees this is true.)
• Andrew owns several building we may be able to do this with and knows of many others in Mt. Airy.  He will give us a list with addresses, basic specs, and anything he can tell us about general pricing.
• Andrew believes that any building can get an elevator put in and most any other feature we want.
• Things we may give up if working with an existing building: 

• Access to parking (most buildings in Mt. Airy do not have lots.)
• Some sustainability features (although it is as important to think about retrofitting for sustainability as it is to think about it for new constriction)
• Green outdoor space for community gathering
• Etc.

• The main benefits are: sustainable reuse of buildings and MUCH less expensive!

 

Moving Forward

1.     Show him the money: In order to become partners with Iron Stone, in addition to drafting and signing an agreement, we will need to put money into our LLC so that it is a real organization that can be a partner.  This will likely come out to putting $500,000-600,000 in escrow to ensure that we don’t walk away from the project.

 

2.     Andrew pointed out that we still need to clarify some of our values especially as they relate to the build environment.  Hs saw several conflicting impulses in our group that will need to be prioritized in order to find a property that works.  The values are:

a.     Sustainability

b.     Affordability

c.     Geography (location in W. Mt. Airy)

d.     Need for Financing

e.     Cohouing principles (Parking away from homes, common house, etc)

f.      Green open space

 

Conflicts include:

a.     Sustainability (passive house) vs. geography: Homes in Mt Airy can’t really be oriented to maximize solar exposure because the lots do not line up correctly, therefore that feature of Passive Haus may not be an option

b.     Cohousing principles vs. Geography: It will be hard to find a building in Mt. Airy that has parking in one spot…

 

3.     We agreed that the best way to proceed is to get a list of local apartment buildings from Andrew and go visit them.  This way we can see what we like & don’t like and whether we could imagine creating and living cohousing in one of these buildings.  We will see first hand what is it we would be giving up and what we would gain from turning various buildings into cohousing.  (Abby will get the list from Andrew next week.)

 

 

Abigail Weinberg
Home: 215-842-0268 Cell: 734-474-6958  email: abbywe...@alum.barnard.edu

[abigail weinberg]

Andrew -
I wanted to let you know that Wendy Schwartz introduced us to Scott Siebert who is developing the property on Carpenter Ln.  WVC had a preliminary meeting with him and are set to check in with him again in January.  As you probably know, his vision for the property is one of rentals and somewhat high-end, so it is unlikely to work for our needs.  Nonetheless, we wanted to hear about the project and see if any creative ideas emerged.  (Plus, who can say no to Wendy ;-)
Best,
Abby

 

Abigail Weinberg
Home: 215-842-0268 Cell: 734-474-6958  email: abbywe...@alum.barnard.edu

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From: abigail weinberg <withh...@yahoo.com>
To: Andrew Eisenstein <eisen...@iron-stone.com>
Cc: "wvc-work...@googlegroups.com" <wvc-work...@googlegroups.com>; Ann Zabaldo <ann.z...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2012 11:48 AM
Subject: Belated thanks & follow up

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