Deadsville?

There has been a lot of talk about condo developments on Phila Street, Railroad Place, Broadway etc. but one multi-unit project that hasn't gotten much attention lately is the Union Avenue Townhomes project on Union Avenue near Regent - on the site of the old Skidmore Dorm Moore Hall aka "The Pink Palace".  Quite frankly, this project appears stuck in the mud, a victim of a bad economy and probably an oversaturation of high end development in the Spa City.  I am actually a fan of this project, and I think the location, equidistant to the track and downtown and a literal stone's throw from Congress Park, is second to none. 

 

This project doesn't even have its original web site, www.unionavetownhomes.com, which is now defunct.  The developer is a company out of Buffalo called Norstar.  They had a sign in front of this place in 2006/2007 (seen in the picture above) stating that the Union Avenue Townhomes would be "Coming Spring 2007" and the Norstar web site once stated that the project would be "completed in 2007".  Well we know that is not the case, and their web site presently states that the project will be completed in 2009.  Posting a completion date of 2009 shows that the company hasn't grasped reality and learned from their mistakes, because with sales obviously slow (nonexistent?) and no sings of preparation to demolish Moore Hall, this project certainly will not be completed in 2009.   Quite frankly I'm concerned it might be scrapped totally, or at least considerably scaled back.  Again I wish them luck and would like to see it succeed, but timing is everything and this project apparently needs to wait out the terrible economic conditions and a hoped for (drastic) improvement in the housing market.

Comments

[Ellen]

Hi Dan,

I found a link that works. Check this out:
http://www.saratogapreview.com/main.html

Pretty pricey....like most of the other things being built here.

[Dan]

Thanks Ellen. I also found the link off the Norstar site. I just found it odd that they let that URL go defunct.