The Blue and Gold Game is the first significant Notre Dame football weekend, and it seems a good time to review the progress of the new Notre Dame condos:

Stadium Village: There has been substantial movement on the first building of six condos, and after selling a parcel that was slated as a hotel-condo, they have a cleaner simple plan to build 13 high end condos that has fewer obstacles.

Irish Crossings: Building at the Irish Crossings is progressing rapidly, the pond is complete, and the units are selling. Plans call for 79 condos, 22 have been sold since August 2007.

North Douglas Condos: There has been a steady demand for second floor units at the North Douglas condos, though several first floor units remain available in the first building. The pool is underway, and the second building of 16 units should be ready this summer. 

Wexford Place: Construction is complete. Seven of eight units have been sold. The eighth has been listed for a year now, without a sale.

Notre Dame Avenue Townhouses: No visible progress.

6 Responses

  1. Stadium Village – The property owner didn’t even own most of the property slated for the condo-hotel, so not sure why you even mentioned that and those parcels weren’t even part of the townhomes so I have no idea what obstacles are “fewer”. Me thinks someone has been feeding you a bit of BS. There are still a few major obstacles regarding the Stadium Village Townhomes so we’ll see how it goes. They still don’t have a sewer line yet among other issues.

    Irish Crossings – It is a townhome project, not a condominium project. I suspect the foundations will all be in this year but construction won’t wrap up until sometime next year as they are trying to get construction to catch up with sales.

    North Douglas Condos – Not sure about the “steady demand” since there seems to be quite a lull in sales there including reservations. The foundation for the second building had been in about 1.5 years ago so sure would seem like a 2 year construction for that building would note a comment about the slow market.

    Wexford Place – Irish Crossings must be attracting that last buyer in that project, otherwise it should have sold since it is a nice unit.

    Notre Dame Avenue Townhomes – Pretty much DOA right now. People just weren’t signing contracts to go forward.

    What about Stadium Club? The condo to rental apartments to condo reconversion project that just isn’t selling at all. How many units actually sold over the last 2 years?

    What about the Eddy Street Commons thing? Rumor has it there is some trouble with it as the reason for the delays. Demand just may not be there for such a large project apparently. Might get scaled back or less aggressive build out.

  2. I would also add Keenan Court which doesn’t appear to have sold anything even with a fully furnished model open for 6+ months. Ouch. That project looks like they are going to have to go back to the drawing board since there appears to be no serious interest in the project and location despite marketing to ND people. By serious, I mean sales of course.

  3. Marky,

    Thanks for taking the time to contribute such a well thought out comment. I have to answer a few points though:

    It stands to reason that it must be simpler to build 13 condos then to build 13 condos plus a large hotel-condo. That is why I think Stadium Village has a better chance of completion now.

    I haven’t seen the Irish Crossings reservation list, but I have heard from a reliable source that there are six of the less expensive “Brennan” floorplans available and six weeks from completion. That doesn’t seem like a case of sales outpacing construction.

    North Douglas sold the second floor of its first building fairly well. It’s the first floor units that aren’t moving. I’d imagine the second building will see a similar pattern of demand despite a less than stellar view for the second story back units that will overlook storage units.

    Stadium Club still has condos listed for sale, but I’ve spoken with the developer and he seems to have returned to the apartment mindset. To the best of my knowledge two of the units sold, and the owner is now trying to resell them.

    I haven’t heard any credible reports of problems at Eddy Street Commons. There are lots of large, slow moving groups involved with that project though, so I believe it will be years before we see anything like the artist renderings distributed in the summer of 2007.

  4. Hi Nick. Thanks for the additional comments. I have reviewed and toured the various projects personally.

    Regarding “Stadium Village”, it isn’t being “completed” anything like their website previously showed. The guy behind it didn’t even own most of the parcels represented on the website. Absurd, eh. Also, my understanding is any contracts in Stadium Village are pretty soft at best. I know of additional information that I can not disclose but any buyer should do their due diligence. The product isn’t a bad product per se, but it will be slow going (the floorplans are dated 2 years ago already). If someone asked me if they should buy there I would give them a “neutral” answer. I will re-evaluate my opinion after the first building is complete and occupancy permits are granted. I am hopeful but cautious. Will the second building get built, we’ll see.

    Regarding Irish Crossings, my sources tell me that they got behind introducing the 3plex plans because of the fast paced construction of the 4plex plans. I think they started construction less than 12 months ago and have accomplished a lot. The 4plex construction (40 units with 20 sold and at least 2 under contract) is keeping pace with demand. It is the 3plex construction that is really trying to catch up. Have you recently seen how fast they are building them? My understanding is several 4plex buyers bought up to the more expensive 3plex units once they saw the floorplans and framing. That doesn’t spell trouble in my book and is good problem to have. 9 3plex units have sold plus the model and there may be a few more that recently went under contract, note none are completed yet so they have about $4M+ in orders to fill. My sources also tell me that several big name buyers have bought 3plex units and most are selling fully or near fully decked out topping out near $450K a piece. The development is expected to top $30M when all is done. I give it a thumbs up.

    North Douglas sales have almost come to a complete halt over the winter. I am surprised since they are nice units appropriately priced. They need garages though. Also, completing the amenities will help a lot… actually having a pool will be helpful in getting sales moving. They really should have started the next building to the north of the first one though since that is more desirable location. Decent place to live but not much of an “investment” per se. I give it a cautious thumps up.

    Stadium Club just gets a big thumbs down to buy a unit there. These are rental quality units at best.

    I have heard credible comments from my sources about Eddy Street Commons. Yes, it will be nice, but very slow going forward. In reality, the students are only around 8 months of the year and some of the businesses need to be non-student oriented to actually survive. Notre Dame itself is a pretty small population really. I give it a thumbs up because of the big money backers, but note it will be slow going. My source tell me Notre Dame is still trying to exercise a considerable amount of control going forward and maybe its “partnership” with others isn’t going as smoothly as a normal partnership should. Apparently Notre Dame wants X and then wants X+ then X++, etc. all on others dimes. Oh well. It gets a thumbs up, if you’re patient.

    Regarding Keenan Court, looks like they failed to target their market from the get go and have too high a priced product for the neighborhood. Nice product, bad location. It gets a thumbs down.

    Oh, and we forgot about Waterford Estates Lodge. Condo-hotels are interesting but not for everyone. Nice bar/lounge. It gets a neutral from me.

  5. I drove by the various developments today and briefly spoke to a few workers out and about the job sites. North Douglas Condos are being built at a pretty leisurely rate right now. Stadium Village’s first building has its windows in and some siding is going up. Irish Crossings was crowded with workers and are prepping for more 3plex foundations to go in (this looks to be the busiest job site around). Nothing at Keenan Court. Nothing at Notre Dame Avenue Townhomes. Wexford Place still has one unit for sale with a realtor sign in the window. Some earth moving at Eddy Street Commons area. Irish Crossings is the busiest by far with the one workers I spoke to telling me that they are working weekends there too and others are doing interior work until late at night.

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