A reader tip directed us to the 1400 block of S. Colorado St. in Point Breeze, and we’re embarrassed to say we believe it was the first time we ever set foot on the block. The reader noticed some zoning notices toward the southern end of the street, and because it’s what we do, we figured we’d check ’em out.
Developers with a Mesa, Arizona address purchased 1441-45 S. Colorado St. earlier this year and are already moving forward with redevelopment plans. With an existing home on the northern parcel and a pair of vacant lots next door, the developers are taking a bit of an unusual approach by renovating and building an addition on the existing structure while building a pair of new homes next door. One would think it would just make more sense to tear down the home and build three new ones at the same time, but that’s not the way they’re going with it. Nb, they got approval from the ZBA yesterday, so look for the project to move forward in the coming months.
As we said, we don’t think we’ve ever visited this block before. In a vacuum, that’s not so strange, there are thousands of blocks in this town we’ve never seen in person. It’s a little odd though, that this particular block never made it onto our radar because it’s seen a tremendous amount of development over the last decade or so. If we look at the Google Street View of the block from 2007, we see numerous vacant properties and over a dozen vacant lots. Fast forward to today, and we counted fifteen three story homes that are either under construction or completed on this block. And that number doesn’t even include the two new homes and the total rehab mentioned above, or another project that’s just getting in the ground up the block.
The fact that we’ve missed out on the changes on this block is probably an indication of the type of development that’s happened here. When we consider what to write about, we generally won’t consider projects that don’t include at least two units; except in rare cases, there’s just not enough to say. We have a feeling that most of the development on this block happened one home at a time, with smaller developers behind most of the projects. And that’s why we missed these projects, time and again. But here we are now, showing you a block that’s changed mightily in a very short time- and there’s a little more change coming soon.