Downtown: ‘It’s really like a neighborhood’

Originally posted on Sioux Falls Business Journal

“People yell out and want to talk to him rather than Mary and I,” joked Luce, who moved from a house in the Tomar area. “It’s really like a neighborhood, and he’s kind of the neighborhood dog.”

The fact that downtown can be called a neighborhood shows how the residential base has solidified.

For a decade, demand has grown steadily for downtown living options. Last week’s downtown loft tour set a record with more than 1,200 people attending. There have been waiting lists at some loft projects for years. And many developers often are asked when residences will be available to purchase.

The newest living options entering the market show a response to that demand – they range from high-end lofts to affordable housing. The first condominium projects to be built downtown are starting to sell, and others are planned.

High-end condo

There’s nothing downtown quite like the condo being built above J.H. & Sons clothing shop at 216 S. Phillips Ave.

Priced at $1.3 million, it’s a 3,000-square-foot renovated space with multiple outdoor living areas.

A 20-foot spiral staircase leads to one of two rooftop patios. There’s a four-season room connected to an outdoor space. A crane was brought in to lift a hot tub into place.

“It will have a lot of windows to let a lot of natural light in, and it’s designed for sitting, reading, that additional living space to get engulfed with light and the view,” said Aaron Hultgren of Hultgren Construction, the contractor on the project. “When you’re up on the roof, there’s a really nice view of Phillips Avenue and the skyline.”

Legacy Development bought the property two years ago. When the clothing store leased the ground floor, it prompted the company “to pull the trigger on the loft,” Hultgren said.

“We have a lot of rental stuff downtown, and the common story is, ‘Can we buy something?’ This just looked like the perfect project to give that buyer an opportunity to own a slice of downtown heaven.”

The condo includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a walk-in shower. There are built-in cabinets, in-floor heating and mostly wood flooring.

The property includes a one-stall garage with lofted storage.

There have been interested buyers, although a marketing campaign hasn’t started yet, Hultgren said.

“We’ve had some marketing pieces in the window that generated interest, but we’re very visual people, and we’re at a point now where you can see the details, and now we’re really expecting a bunch of interest.”

Building transformed

A couple of blocks south on Phillips, high-end rental lofts are starting to fill up in the former Traditions building.

It’s now called The Foundry.

The plan is to add retail on the first floor. Offices are being constructed on the second floor, and the third floor has been turned into nine lofts.

“It took a vision,” said Molly Hillman, leasing manager and a member of the ownership group 320 Holdings LLC. “It was a lot of work between the architect and the designer, and it really is amazing it has come this far. It’s just really cool.”

The project is a mix of one- and two-bedroom lofts. Three of them are rented, and there have been many showings, Hillman said.

“Now that they’re moving forward with construction being done, I don’t anticipate them lasting long.”

Each floor plan is unique, and each loft has its own features.

“Most of them have the original hardwood, plank flooring that has been refinished to preserve their historic beauty,” Hillman said. “They have historic brick walls or plaster, lots of variety in brick and different styles and then high truss ceilings.”

Each unit has a custom-built floating fireplace with tile surround. Floating cabinets double as an entertainment center. The lofts include front-loading washers and dryers, stainless steel appliances and “microwaves that are kind of tucked away and hidden instead of over the stove to give it a more gourmet feel,” Hillman said.

Areas that aren’t facing Phillips Avenue were given skylights to bring in more light, and because the building actually is two buildings joined together, there are exposed brick walls throughout.

“We put a very modern, clean spin on the finished product, so everything is hard surface,” Hillman said. “There is no carpet. It’s all very clean, modern, nickel or chrome for metal and very, very fresh in white and gray colors.”

Interested renters have ranged from recent medical school graduates to retired couples to people in their 30s and 40s looking for a new lifestyle.

“You get a little bit of everyone, which I think is really fun,” Hillman said. “I’ve showed the properties to people who you can just tell are really excited to live downtown.”

Flannery’s two-story loft in the Carpenter has become a model for how the building’s new owners are upgrading the apartments.

His is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on the building’s fifth and sixth floors, offering impressive views from its large windows.

“I love the location, being in the center of downtown, whenever there’s activity downtown to just pop outside and be in the center of it,” Flannery said.

His unit has been under construction since shortly after the Scherschligt-Haber family partnership bought the building in late March.

It now has new light fixtures, paint, flooring, cabinets, appliances and counters. The bathrooms were redone, and the tile around the fireplace was replaced.

“I love it. It’s a lot cleaner, more modern and more welcoming, more of a loft feel,” Flannery said.

Some units, including his, haven’t been updated in about 15 years.

“We’re just modernizing it, cleaning it up, lightening everything up and neutralizing the palate,” building manager Anne Scherschligt Haber said. “It was very warm with lots of oak before. In a sense, this is where we want to go.”

The building has 18 apartments with one vacancy. The new owners plan to have 21 or 22 units once they’re done converting some office space. They also have added a fitness center for tenants on the second floor.

“The people I’ve talked to are excited,” Flannery said. “Some have been in there quite awhile, so they’re excited for an update.”

There has been significant interest from potential new residents, Scherschligt Haber said.

“I think downtown living, in general, is booming,” she said. “And we have a nice referral program with some of the other downtown apartment residential owners, so if they have a vacancy we all kind of refer to each other. It’s been a really friendly community.”

The neighboring Boyce-Greeley Building has filled up with renters and sold its two condominiums.

The nine lofts on third and fourth floor have been full since they opened two years ago.

The project was a decade in the making.

“We tried to go truly high-end with it,” owner Dave Dandar said. “Custom cabinetry, every molding and every piece of casework was made in the building in a workshop. And that’s probably why it took so much longer. The attention to detail was a lot more focused.”

His tenants range from professionals in their 30s and a family with two kids to an 83-year-old.

He thought about doing more condos in the building, but “it was a struggle to get the vision to people without having them pre-built. I would have had to guess at layouts that would be appropriate for people, so instead I went the rental route.”

He hasn’t ruled out converting some of them at some point, but for now has just two owner-occupied spaces on the top floor – his own and one other buyer.

“I knew we needed to find one couple with vision, and we were fortunate enough to find them.”

BY THE NUMBERS

•Population downtown: 2,219

•Average age: 33

•Typical rent: $900 to $1,200