2012March
"The Simple Math That Can Save Cities From Bankruptcy"
In the 1950s, the five-story brick Asheville Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, started to fall into decline, presaging what would happen to most of the city’s downtown over the next couple of decades. A department store moved into the ground floor while everything above it sat empty. Then the building got one of those ugly metal facades that’s designed to distract from the fact that all the windows are boarded up.
Twenty years later, the local real-estate developer Public Interest Projects set its sights on the building for a mixed-use retail and residential property. Local bankers and businessmen said they were foolish.
...More"Top and Bottom Markets March 2012 Study"
Here are the top and bottom markets by rent growth during 4Q2011 across Apartment, Office and Retail sectors based on data for our 82 primary metros (80 for Retail). Reis tracks 200 markets across the nation including 2,100 submarkets.
...More"Bay Area Developer Unveils Compact Living Concept"
A Bay Area developer brings compact living to a whole new level. His “Smart Spaces” are single furnished apartments that are 160 square feet. Elizabeth Cook reports.
...More"Berkeley Developer Sees Future in Small, Smart Homes"
In a top-secret location in Berkeley, Patrick Kennedy is showing a reporter around a tiny living space — so compact in fact that, at 160 sq ft, it is the smallest apartment one is legally allowed to build.
“It is how small you can go without causing psychological problems,” jokes Kennedy, who, through his company, Panoramic Interests, is responsible for developing swathes of Berkeley. His projects include the Gaia Building on Allston Way, the Berkeleyan Apartments on Oxford Street, and the Touriel Building on University.
...More"California’s Smallest Legal Apartment: SMARTSPACE"
Housing developer, Patrick Kennedy, is a small space lover and is aiming to develop the smallest apartment allowed by California code. At around 160-square-feet not a single inch goes unused and everything is multi-purpose. He’s given his residential response to the Smart Car a spin — watch the video below to find out what works great, and what just cramps his style.
Kennedy lived in a 78-square-foot Airstream for a period of time, and was inspired to build small homes. He built the tiny apartment prototype, SMARTSPACE 1.0, in a Berkeley warehouse and had an MIT student live in, and test the home. It’s actually very impressive the amount of research that went into the design, and how efficient they’ve been with the space. After the trial period they’ve honed in on the sucesSFul details, as well as tweaks that they plan to make for the next version.
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