The last six months have not been good for sales at Stonebridge Estate, a mid-rise luxury townhouse development in West Hartford.
Developers P. Anthony Giorgio, a former college economics professor, and Karl Krapek, the retired president of United Technologies Corp., were gleeful last November when they rolled out the red carpet on their speculative development of 16 units priced from $333,000 to $530,000.
Interest, Giorgio said, initially was high among the “empty-nesters’’ eager to replace the large home where they raised their children as well as young professionals searching for their first house.
But none of that interest translated into buyers choosing to make 730 Farmington Ave. their permanent address. Giorgio laments the collapse of the lone deal that did make it to deposit, after the buyer got cold feet.
“I’d hoped to sell out in 2009, but that’s not going to happen,’’ he said.
With the expense of utilities, property taxes, construction financing and other “carrying costs’’ bearing down, Giorgio and Krapek have swallowed hard and implemented incentives they hope will entice buyers to Stonebridge.
To start, prices have been cut on each of the units by $25,000 to $30,000. In addition, the developers, working with their construction lender, Connecticut Bank & Trust, are offering prospective buyers 30-year financing fixed at 3.99 percent. Reduced pricing and low interest mean monthly payments range from $1,890 to $2,800.
Borrowers must come up with a 20 percent downpayment to qualify for this and most other mortgages, troublesome for first-time buyers or those with little equity after selling a home.
But Giorgio and Krapek have an inducement for those who fall short on the downpayment. Their real estate development firm, The Keystone Cos., will match a buyer’s 10 percent downpayment with a short-term second mortgage.
Re-energized with a fresh marketing strategy and by what Giorgio says are encouraging signs of a resurgence of residential deals in West Hartford, Keystone’s new goal is to sell six to eight Stonebridge units by yearend, and the rest in 2010.
Three deals now in negotiation appear headed toward contracts, Giorgio said, who said timing had much to do with Stonebridge’s early failure to catch on with buyers.
For instance, a redesign of Stonebridge’s original blueprints and other snags caused the property to be built and put on the market two years behind schedule, he said.
“If we had been on time, we would be 60 to 70 percent sold by now,’’ the developer said. “The whole world went to hell in a hand basket in that time.’’
Still, even knowing what they do now about how dismal the market has gotten, Giorgio says he wouldn’t change much about Stonebridge.
“We would have still done it,’’ he said.
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Guilford space leased
Global Sourcing Solution Inc., an international sales and sourcing company, leased 1,000 square feet at 25 Water St. in Guilford.
The Geenty Group Realtors represented landlord Louis Guerrera and Global Sourcing, based in Orange County, Calif., in the lease.
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Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal Web editor.
