Courtesy of Steven B. Smith Photograhpy
After purchasing her home on Maplewood’s South Street in 2004, landscape designer, artist, and contractor Michele Jianakoplos Brown snatched up three adjoining lots. At press time, she was preparing to tear down one house and build three new residences. Two of the homes, both on Yale Avenue, will include 500 square feet of commercial space each. Artist Carey Seven will reside upstairs in one, with her business, Mountjoy Designs, below. Norleen Nosri will live on the second floor of another house and operate Nosri’s Kitchen, a “very, very small” Malay restaurant. With an emphasis on energy efficiency, the houses will incorporate passive solar design, plus solar panels and recycled brick.
“Right now, it is really mixed: There are a lot of really small bungalows and some older and larger homes; a brand-new house is a block down; there are several apartment buildings, duplexes, and some commercial firms; and Yale Park is across the street,” Brown says. “We are hoping to transition the neighborhood.”
In Richmond Heights’ Hadley Township, located just south of Interstate 64, you may have noticed some large-scale changes, as demolition crews tear down single-family homes. After years of negotiations, the city council approved a more than 75-page redevelopment contract last September to overhaul the neighborhood. Plans call for a $63 million retail development, anchored by a Menards, that is slated to open in 2015.
In nearby Brentwood, investors have been purchasing condos in Brentwood Forest for years, but that seems to be changing as more homeowners move in, says realtor Andrew Bauer of Janet McAfee Real Estate. “Investors used to buy them and lease them out,” he says. “Now, only a certain percentage of the units can be leased out, and there’s a waiting list.”
Brentwood’s single-family homes are also in demand. “If the seller takes the time, cleans up the property, makes it look nice, and prices itright for the neighborhood, we’ve seen people go nuts for the places,” Bauer says.
New residential developments, however, are limited in Brentwood. “We are pretty well landlocked here, so we don’t have anything big in the works,” says Justin Wyse, Brentwood’s assistant city administrator and director of planning and development. “We primarily have teardowns and rebuilds.”
