Oh for sure, I’m being sarcastic^^ lmao
UGH if they were going to have to redesign anyway, they could’ve redesigned around the damn building. I felt like it was a done deal, because any developer that’s paid to go through all stages of design is just going to ignore the blowback. Really wonder if organizing and activism could’ve led to a different outcome had the building not been demolished yet.
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FYI, I heard part of the delay is an encroachment from the railroad. If you ever dealt with them, then you know.
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They’ll need to go ahead and lop off the part of the building in the right of way.
A new concept study just landed in my inbox, basically the same size and shape.
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Update now that I’m back home: Looks like it might be these? SUB-0052-2021.pdf (usgovcloudapi.net)
If this is the case, nice! 14 townhomes on an empty lot and a new sidewalk. I’ll take it.
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That’s truly an infill project!
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Heard from a reliable 
that the original project for the Goodnight’s property is dead. The developer is trying to sell.
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WTF did they tear down that old building for? Good grief.
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I know. So unnecessary. And apparently they’re having trouble offloading it because of the prison. 
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Hearing this makes my blood boil!
Then again, I hated the project that they were proposing.
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This is so disappointing. We lost a good building with a sucessful bussiness for an empty lot. What were they high on when they thought the view of the prison and the tracks would be selling points??? I guess we should be thankful that nothing was started, or finished, before they woke up.
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Karma is a b&&ch is all I have to say on this one.
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I was just telling Karla while we were in town passing the former Berkeley cafe that nothing (in context of downtown construction) would make me more angry than that building being torn down and the project being scrapped. I even referenced the Goodnights project as an example but didn’t realize that had been scrapped.
This is beyond a tragedy. They shouldn’t be allowed to tear down a building of that significance (period, IMO) unless they have confirmed funding for the project and perhaps have a steep fine for bailing midstream.
I’d say I’m so pissed I have no words for this but clearly I do.
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I know right. A development travesty!
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How/why do these developers have funding for demolition but not for the actual project? I would think you would just not touch a site at all until your project was at least funded enough to start.
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Might be because of squatters. I know some a lot of the teardown McMansion builders will clear a lot pretty quickly to avoid having to deal with squatters. The lot will sit empty for months or a year until they start construction.
Though in this case they didn’t have to kick out Goognights.
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If you have $5MM in cash that needs to be flipped to avoid tax hits you purchase the building/lot. You don’t have to be ready to fund construction at the same time…especially if you have no debt. Your costs are just property taxes & insurance on the dirt (& the demo cost in this case).
If you have $5MM in cash, those costs are negligible. That amount of cash is not that uncommon these days…there’s a lot of capital on the sidelines waiting on opportunities.
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They need to be sued, and if that’s not possible, then this needs to spark some major city legislation that allows the city to sue developers that demolish buildings only to not build as proposed.
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