8/30/07
The Gardens on Jones Turns an Important Corner in Historic Savannah
 | By Ron Melander; GRI, CLHMS Read more of Ron's posts |
Other developers have also thrown in their hats almost simultaneously and one cannot talk about this area without mentioning the amazingly talented Nic Applegate who also began staking out and building high quality infill like his Iron Gate town homes on several sites. Nick has also invested in some of Jerry’s projects. All of this activity is currently bounded roughly by Charlton Street to the north, Gaston Street to the south, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard (formally West Broad Street) to the west and Jefferson Street to the east, and is spreading south and west where there are still plenty of development opportunities.
The property that really launched this area in the minds of many Savannahians is The Gardens on Jones. Originally priced at under $200,000 and purchased primarily by parents of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) students as investments/housing for their children, these condominiums with submerged gated parking and balconies facing an enclosed interior large common courtyard, now sell in the upper threes and are attracting a broader demographic including empty nesters and folks who are semi-retired or affluent enough to have a second home in Savannah. Two units are currently under contract and only one of the basic 2bed, 2-2.5 bath units ranging from 1,336 to just less than 1,600 square feet is currently on the market.
Please feel free to take a look at my Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of The Gardens on Jones to see for yourself what has been happening with this great property in downtown Savannah’s blossoming “Gardens District”.
This rosy real estate picture looked quite a bit different last year around this time. 2006 proved to be a very slow year with only two of these traditional units selling, one in April and one in December, both of them for less than $230 a square foot. My personal theory about this little “hiccup” (which did not feel so little at the time) is the fact that the primary buyers of this project, parents of SCAD students, were able to find comparable condominiums within a short drive of downtown at Whitmarsh Island’s Merritt and Mercer Point comunities. With prices in the high one hundreds and nicely conceived floorplans, with amenities like a gated entry, swimming pool, elevators in some buildings and a community room, I feel this virtual flood of new inventory (well over 500 units) overwhelmed the market that year and probably had an effect not only on The Gardens on Jones but also on many of the historic condominium conversions dotting the Historic, Victorian, and Thomas Square Historic Districts, all hoping to lure a limited pool of buyers. It is a competitive world out there and nothing illustrates that any better than Real Estate.
FYI , there are currently less than 280 condo units for sale in downtown Savannah north of Victory Drive for under $500,000.
Until next week,
Ron Melander
Cora Bett Thomas Realty
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I'm glad to be brought up to date on what’s happening in the downtown real estate market.
Of the 280 condos for sale for under $500,000 in the downtown area , do you have any information concerning how long on average one of these units stays on the market before it’s sold? And how does that figure compare with, say, 1 year ago?
Keep up the good work.
Hey Mr. Brennan!
There is no doubt that there has been a change in the market this year. I really liked how Richard Gourley summed it up in this month’s issue of First City Network. Please take a look at: http://firstcitynetwork.org/090711.htm
Best Regards,
Ron Melander
[…] Normally, I do not write about listings because that is not what blogs are about. There are plenty of other places you can go to find information out about properties for sale. But I thought that I should share with you the latest status of The Merritt on Whitemarsh Island and Mercer Point, just down the road. I mentioned these two condo conversions in my article about a month ago on The Gardens on Jones because when they launched in spring, 2006, they added well over 500 new units of inventory on Savannah’s condo market, a virtual flood for our community. The Merritt is now down to about 30 units and the developers have turned over those remaining units to our office and Mercer Point has around 70 units left for sale and has turned these over to an auctioneer with the auction taking place on October 11th. THESE PROPERTIES IN BOTH COMPLEXES ARE REAL DEALS! So in the interest of helping out first time home buyers or anyone needing inexpensive housing, I do not think you could make a better move than to buy a property with what one would assume is instant equity. Go check it out! You need to move fairly fast. Please tell them I sent you! Ron Melander […]
Mr. Brennan,
Another excellent source for information about the condo market in Savannah can be found here:
http://www.savannahloftsandcondos.com/
The current front page has some very useful information.