Owners of The Blairs announced Monday that they were taking the mixed-use complex off the market after nine months of searching for a buyer.
“The Blairs is no longer for sale and will continue to be owned and managed by The Tower Companies,” property manager Gina Yates wrote in a memo to residents. The memo, dated Mar 14, was distributed Monday afternoon.
No reason was given for the change of heart.
The entire region is in a housing slump, with 1,000 home foreclosures rocking Montgomery County in the last three months of 2007, according to Scott Reilly, with the department of housing and community affairs.
On top of that, The Blairs sits adjacent to two residential construction projects — rentals at 1200 East-West Hwy and The Argent condos — and is down the block from the Silver Spring Gateway residential project. Those three projects will drop 814 units next to The Blairs’ 1,400 rental apartments.
Despite the dead deal, “there is the possibility of new development within the community,” property manager Yates wrote without elaborating. All new projects would shoot for eco-friendliness, she added.
The Blairs complex includes three high-rises, four shorter apartment buildings, a row of townhouse-style apartments, the Blair Plaza shopping center and an office building on Colesville Road near East-West Highway.
The Tower Companies first announced a sale last July.
Photos courtesy of The Blairs.
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Any chance of a condo conversion for any of the big towers (blair east, blair plaza)?
On an entirely unrelated note: Anyone on the penguin staff know why the special silver spring-style street lights are never on on the other side of Wayne Ave? Right outside of Ghar-E-Kabob. Just curious….
Given the current economy, I doubt that anything at The Blairs would go condo. As it is, the Silver Spring Gateway — originally planned as condos — could be going rental (at least some of the units, anyway).
Regarding the street lamps on Wayne, I’ll pass your query on to the regional center.
DTSS needs to better connect that part of SS to the rest of town… the trax really get in the way… a nice wide, maybe gardened over pedestrian bridge would really do the trick… somewhere halfway between where the trax cross colesville and where they cross georgia. i dunno… maybe the new transit center will make things seem better connected, but silverton just really seems like a long way around… even though the walks not THAT long, it feels it cause ya have to go around.
Editor’s note: I agree on the connectivity argument. Unfortunately, I don’t think the transit center project addresses it. — JD (Mar 18, 2008)
Obviously it is not a good time to sell real estate and I am sure that is why they removed the complex from the market. They are making a ton of money off the rent so there was no immediate need to sell. On a related note- it is getting too expensive to rent in the Blairs. I am paying close to $1500/month for a 1 bedroom in the Blairs. This is way too much money. I am determined to move by the time my lease is up. Anyone have any idea how much the rents will be on any of those new residential buildings going up on East-West highway? The price has got to be comparable to what I am paying at the Blairs. It I am going to pay that much rent, it might as well go to a brand-spanking new apartment where I can get that new apartment smell!
SS Blair Resident,
Got bad news for you–rents are high all over DTSS. I think one-bedroom apartments at Summit Hills are going near $1,400 per month.
Clearly the after-effects of the Great DC Area Housing Bubble are still hitting the rental properties. While prices have declined for condo units, rental prices continue to climb steadily.
The local housing bubble has had a devastating effect on medium and low income residents in Silver Spring. My hope is that property values continue to fall and gentrification slows down.
By the looks of things, new business activity in DTSS has been diminished since 2007. Good. This means that restaurants and retail stores are not investing in Silver Spring due to market conditions.
Condo properties are slashing prices. Good. You don’t see many buyers lining up to buy property in Silver Spring. Fewer new residents means fewer resources to be financed by the county. Good, good, good. Fewer incoming yuppies means that prices across the board will stabilize.
Crime is steady. Good because a little bit of street crime keeps property prices stable. Give me more gang members, drug dealers and fights on Silver Spring streets, pleeease. If prostitution were legal, I would put a Red Light district right on Fenton Ave.
Many people own properties with adjustable rate mortgages. Tough luck suckers. You bought into the real estate hype and it now it’s time to pay the price. Why should people like me who refused to buy into the Bubble have to bailout those people who got themselves into enormous debt? We are seeing more foreclosures in Silver Spring too. Good, since this means better price deals for lower income buyers like me. Bad news for families who were displaced though.
The bottom line…the dreams of developers turning Silver Spring into a Disneyland for Yuppies has hit a wall.
Editor’s note: YuppieHater, it’s good to hear from you again (I think). — JD (Mar 18, 2008)
We moved out of Blair East after they raised rent on a 2 bedroom by almost $300 per month. We also discovered that we pay less per month for the mortgage on our new house when taking the tax write-off into account. I also know that Blair East is showing its age and i suspect Tower Companies was hoping to pass it off to a developer interested in refurbishing the place. As far as I can tell the only thing the Blairs have going is its location.
Blair has been overpriced (compared to comparably finished buildings) for a while… when we moved into town 3 years ago they were too high for us… at that point, we got our place in georgian with hardwood instead of nasty-arse wall-to-wall and a newly finished kitchen for less than they wanted for the same size unit in blair “towers” (which are actually the short garden buildings). Granted.. a year later georgian started hitting people with +10% hikes and we moved down the street to a smaller place with… … wall-to-wall hideousness. But as of our last rent hike (september) 1 br’s in most of the southern management buildings were in the mid 1300’s for a good sized (our 1br is almost 1000sqft) rental.
If I may offer my predicitions… I think downtown will continue to fourish, regardless of developer actions, because of the people. More people bring safer streets (yea.. I think that’s a good thing actually), support existing business, and bring new ones. I think the current economy, yes, will certainly slow the openning of new businesses, particularly restaurants as people can’t afford to eat out quite as much. But right now.. rent on a 1br is still less than you’d pay just for interest, even at the recent lower selling prices, for the equivalent 1 br condo in downtown for about the first 10 years… add in condo fees and utilities (which are generally included in rents in DTSS) and you’ve gotta be looking at a ~12 year horizon to jusitify buying. The 20% annual appreciation that justified short term buys for the last 4 years are gone for a long while. While this will have a downward effect on condo prices, it’s also going to continue to have an upware push on rents. Once the two are in line again, which I think will happen somewher ein the middle, things will stabilize.
I currently live in Blair East and they have completely renovated the entire building (common areas, anyway). It looks much better now! That said, I’ll also be moving out this summer (to the other side of the tracks), as my rent has gotten completely out of control. Still, for the 4 years I was there, it was a pretty nice place. I’ll be interested to see what “new development” happens there in the coming years.
IHY, have you considered taking more direct action to achieve a lower quality of life in Silver Spring? Maybe take the trash out of public garbage cans and throw them onto the streets? Start clandestine talks with muggers and pimps to increase their trade in DTSS? Lobby fast food restaurants to move into vacant storefronts.
With a little luck and ingenuity, we can bring urban blight and squalor back to DTSS. Keep the dream alive, IHY! Never give up!
Play nice, people.
Penguin, I do admire much of IHY’s stances and his(?) passion, but I think he’s out to lunch on this issue.
I’m not that much of an old timer, but I remember Silver Spring as it was and too often still is: crime ridden, dead at night, few commercial services for residents, and boarded up stores. It is easy, now, to take what we have for granted, but imagine what it would be like to lose all that DTSS has achieved in the last few years. It could happen if we let it, especially now, with our nation in a recession and possibly — possibly — heading into a Depression.
If IHY wants to live in a crime ridden cheap area that is a far from becoming the next Bethesda, I can point to more than a few areas that are metro accessible by walking, cheap rents, and probably not getting any better.
I know IHY started living in Silver Spring around 2001 and prices were alot lower then. I lived in his neck of the woods, Summit Hills, from 2005-2007 and saw my rent fly up 20% over two years. I moved into a house, took on an additional housemate (already had 2), moved into a smaller room, gave up my own personal bathroom to share one with a housemate, and had our basement rented out. But each of us pays under $575 with utilities included … and we have free parking.
It’s possible to live in Silver Spring reasonably if you make a few sacrifices. Otherwise, move to a cheaper area with a longer commute. Gas prices sure as hell aren’t stabilizing anytime soon, so might as well put that money into rent and live in a better, more pedestrian-friendly area.
IHY says to us homeowners tsk tsk.. I’m tsk tsking all the way to the bank.
Bought my $300K house with $15K down in early 2002. It eventually appreciated to $600K but then back to $563K as of last week, when I sold it. I made 1753% on my investment over 6 years, while IHY continued to rent and whine.
SSHomeowner: I’m sure it sounds good to you, but it’s completely priced new home buyers like us out of the market. Unless you’re a lawyer or doctor or have some other $200k+ income, it’s almost impossibly hard to break into a good neighborhood like Woodside or Woodside Park, even the townhouses, while remaining financially responsible.
I’m not sure I want a return to the bad old days I hear about from my more senior friends, but unless something changes, it’ll be financially dumb for us to rent after 2-3 more years. I don’t want to move out, but then again, I don’t want to be house poor. :-P
Hope you don’t mind me asking this, SS Homeowner:
What was your monthly mortgage payment?
What was your monthly condo fee (if any)?
Thanks.
I’ve long thought that there need to be more connections across the railroad tracks. paul_silver_spring has a good idea with the wide gardened bridge. A narrow inhospitable concrete ugly thing would not work so well, but something that resembles an open air park (so far as this is possible) would be great.
In DC near Union Station a developer has proposed building right over the railroad tracks, helping to resolve a similar connectivity issue in that area.
Given the existing crossings in the area (old MARC tunnel, new MARC bridge, Montgomery College bridge) we aren’t the only ones to notice this issue, but at this point it seems nothing is being done about it other than some utilitarian foot bridges (one of which, the MARC one, stays locked a lot of the time.) But at least more of these bridges would be better than nothing.
IHY – Head over to PG County or SE D.C., they seem to have the kinds of environments that you’re looking for and what luck, they’re in that state NOW. Saves you the time and effort.
If the housing bubble bursts we’re all screwed, the fallout will by no means be limited to housing.
Springvale Roader – laughed when I read your response. Awesome :)
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (Mar 19, 2008)
Jen: My payment was right at $2,000 including taxes & insurance. After taxes, that equates to about a $1500/month payment.
DMZ: When I and many of us bought here in 2000-2003, Silver Spring was still scummy. My point is that bought in an area considered much less desireable than say Upper NW, Chevy Chase, Bethesda or even North Bethesda (all areas that we couldn’t afford). Now, Silver Spring is priced like those areas were back then. If you want to buy a house you can…just not where you can’t afford it. Go to Hyattsville, College Park or the many other areas where massive re-development is proposed and in many cases already financed and ready to roll. Get in NOW before it is built and you will enjoy the appreciation that us early SS buyers have.
I mean my net outlay after itemized my taxes was about $1500 per month. So many 1st time homebuyers fail to do a tax projection before buying. With their new deductions of mortgage interest, PMI and property taxes, they can reduce their monthly witholding by about 25 – 33% of what they pay each month for the house (depending on their tax rate). In other words, buying a house gives them a nice raise in take home pay, which covers part of the extra expense of the mortgage.
Speaking about the roundabout walk from Silverton area to central business district… Yes, it is not that long but it sure cuts off South Silver Spring from where the so called action is.
Are you aware that there is a pedestrian tunnel directly behind the gateway that leads to the train platform at the old train station? Yep, it was a way in the old days for people from South SS to have easy access to the train station–good idea, eh? How convenient would that be – a direct connect to DTSS. It wouldn’t take much to clean it up and put it back to use.
JD: Know anything about this?
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (Mar 20, 2008)
Thanks for your comment and question, LifelongSSer. I’ll bounce your query on to the powers that be.
SSHomeowner, I hate to be the guy to whine, and I understand that a few years ago buying in Silver Spring was a significant risk, but buying in Hyattsville, College Park, etc. is much more of a risk, and developers there are ahead of the game, with new/good condition properties already over $400k.
The first-time homebuyer has largely been priced out of the suburban MD market. The market is unstable right now and we’ll see how things shake out, but right now, unless I want to blow $300k (seems to be the limit for an income under $100k) on a 1br condo conversion, I’m outta luck. I can still rent in Silver Spring within walking distance of the metro, but I certainly can’t buy.
I know, I know, life’s not fair :)
My house was built in 1931, had the original tiny kitchen with crappy appliances, 10 year old boiler & air conditioner. Who says you have to buy new or even new-ish? If you want to be a homeowner, there is always something somewhere in your price range. There is always a lot of risk in buying any home any where. If you plan to live in the place for at least five years, you’ll probably come out ahead. If your income is not high enough to get what/where you want, the only way to get it is to buy where it is cheap (less desireable), wait for appreciation, sell, and then put your profit into the next house. Talk about risk!– look at those people that bought in the 14th street corridor, or Columbia Heights, or even Anacostia!! Huge risk, living in areas no one would have ever predicted would turn around, yet anyone selling there now is enjoying fantastic appreciation.
So my solution is to buy a shoddy $300k property and somehow come up with thousands of dollars to make improvements to it, when I have zero equity and just took out a $250k+ loan?
The answer is, I can’t buy in Silver Spring (or Takoma Park, or metro-accessible PG county) unless I want to make a SIGNIFICANT lifesyle change. Maybe that sounds whiny and picky, but that’s the case with buying–or, I can continue to rent, have an easy commute via bus/metro, have my faltering appliances fixed at no charge to myself, and cross my fingers that the annual rent increase is
Ha, where’d the rest of my comment go? The Penguin must automatically cut off rambling rants :)
My point was, basically, that I DO want to buy locally and live here for 5+ years, but it’s not easy when so much property is overvalued and the general economic outlook is pretty bleak.
And Jennifer, how about a Penguin living status survey? or did you already do one? Rent vs. own, avg cost of living/month, length of time living in Silver Spring, etc.
Picking up on Chaz’s point…Hyattsville and College Park are already out of financial reach for first-time home buyers. Your best bet for affordability lies in western PG county and southeast DC. If you don’t mind dodging bullets or having your car stolen…no problem. Even the Silver Spring of the 1990s was nowhere near as crime ridden as many parts of DC and PG County are today.
Another solution…leave the DC metropolitan area. I have been sending out resumes to organizations outside of DC because the cost of living here is getting ridiculous. Sometimes you have to leave behind a good job and friends in order to find better living conditions in other parts of the United States.
My days in Silver Spring and the Washington DC region are numbered thanks to gentrification.
Chaz wrote:
The US government has comprehensive data on stuff like that. (The data represent below-the-Beltway Silver Spring, plus Four Corners.)
But if you’re looking for info on how people feel about their living conditions, I’ll see what I can do.
SShomeowner has good points, but you can stay in Silver Spring, maybe just not in downtown.
With the collapse of the housing bubble, there are homes in good neighborhoods which are waiting for new ownership. Not all of these are foreclosures, many are long-time owners needing to move on and caught in a down market. I suggest that folks take a fresh look at any Multi-List (like L&F) and search zips 20903, 20901, 20904 and others. There are tremendous housing bargains which are affordable–inside and outside the beltway.
Chaz: you hit the nail on the head–owning a single family home IS a very significant lifestyle change. It is one that seems quite daunting if you’ve always rented apartments (as I did previously). You feel like you’re never going to have enough money and there are endless things that need replacing or you want to improve to your standards. Every new homeowner goes through this, but what most of them find is that after 6-12 months, things settle down, they adjust to a new budget, learn to do household repairs/improvements and they start to fix things as they can. Fortunately, not everything falls apart at the same time, but having to fork out cash is the nature of owning a home (hence the term “the money pit”). Frankly, there are lots of aspects of the “lock and leave” lifestyle that I sorely miss. But the benefits of homeownership outweigh the downside, for me at least. Like “At The Beltway” said, if you want your own place at a price you can afford, buy in another ZIP code outside downtown SS. If you don’t start somewhere and continue to try to time the market, you will always be on the losing end and never build equity.
When the NOAA complex was built – they were to connect their garage to the other side of the tracks – don’t know why that never happened.
Also there is talk of reconnecting King Street when Mont College TP/SS constructs on both sides of it – that will give us one more convenient crossing in South-East SS.
As to affordable condos – just saw advertised ones yesterday next to Takoma metro on the DC side of the border for $200K — at current market rates your mortgage would be $1000 a month – check into it.
Kathy J, “When the NOAA complex was built – they were to connect their garage to the other side of the tracks – don’t know why that never happened.”
The NOAA garage is connected to the other side of the tracks. there is an overhead walkway that leads over the tracks into the taxi waiting area right by the entrance to the Marc.
Let’s get real for a second. Housing in the D.C. area is far too expensive for far too many people, and that situation is replicated across the nation. This is not a condition which can or should be defended by anyone.
My wife and I make a combined income that puts us in the top 10 percent bracket, nationally. We bought our house in Silver Spring in 1999, and our very lucky that we did, because now we could not afford to do so — or at least, do so and afford luxuries such as new underwear and the occasional fast food burrito. Among the many, many ills facing our nation now is the unaffordability of owning a home; remember when the used to be part of the American dream?
Home ownership is part of the American dream.
Is home ownership a right, or is it a privilege? What role (if any) should local, state or federal governments play in making home ownership possible?
Some people come to America to escape persecution or dictatorship. Some people like my ancestors came to America to live off the land and make money. Others have dreams of massive riches or fame by coming to America. Whatever floats your boat to our great country.
I have my own set of American Dreams and they don’t include making $$$$, buying property, seeing fame in Hollywood, or buying a Mercedes.
Editor’s note: This comment was edited for content. — JD (Mar 24, 2008)