First group of Vive town homes sells out
Second half of units will be released for sale by end of July
Waterfront redeveloper iStar Financial has sold the first group of 14 town homes it offered for sale at the Vive complex at the corner of Asbury Avenue and Kingsley Street, according to Tiffany Miller, a spokesperson for iStar Financial.
There are 28 units total, and the second group of 14 will be offered for sale before the end of July, Miller said.
“All fourteen in the first phase have been sold,” Miller said in an email to the Sun. “The remaining fourteen will be released before the end of July.”
Five of the fourteen town homes sold are three-bedroom units, and nine are two-bedroom units, Miller said.
The price range of sales started at $390,000, according to Miller. The town homes range from 1700-2200 square feet, she said.
The sale of a unit means that a contract has been signed for its purchase. Miller did not specify when the closings of title, at which time ownership is transferred, will be scheduled.
The sale of half of the Vive units brings into play a 2010 arbitration decision, which covered a broad range of waterfront issues between the city and Asbury Partners [iStar owns a majority stake of Asbury Partners]. An arbitrator was appointed after the city initiated legal proceedings to hold Asbury Partners in default of its waterfront obligations.
Under the arbitrator’s decision, when half of the units at the VIVE site are “under contract for sale” — the current status of sales at VIVE — iStar must move forward with another project on a block nearby. The arbitrator required construction on that new development be completed within 24 months after construction commences, and it required Asbury Partners to follow the same timetable for approvals as required for the VIVE project. The block for this next project is bounded by Grand, Sewall and Monroe avenues and Heck Street.
But the arbitrator also ruled that this new development requires changes to the waterfront redevelopment plan, and required that “the parties shall promptly continue the consideration of changes to the Redevelopment Plan already being discussed by them.”
Work on updating the full waterfront redevelopment plan has been ongoing since 2011, and the block addressed by the arbitrator will be included in the changes, said Donald Sammet, the city’s director of planning and redevelopment.
The work on the waterfront redevelopment plan follows recommendations made by the city’s waterfront advisory committee, which concluded its work in 2011, said Sammet. Work on an agreement governing infrastructure financing in the waterfront zone took priority over the zoning changes in 2012, Sammet said, but this year the city has refocused on updating the waterfront plan amendments.
Under the city’s agreement with Asbury Partners, the redeveloper must consent to any changes in the waterfront redevelopment plan, Sammet said.
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