Around the residential neighborhoods, we generally see buildings that are either two or three stories tall. Then we'll also see some four-story buildings, homes that generally arrived on the scene either a hundred years ago or in the last twenty years. One story buildings, we confess, we don't see so often. We can only think of a handful around town, notably the Twilight Lounge at 20th & Bainbridge and Big Eyes Sushi at 7th & Bainbridge. Surely there are others that aren't coming to mind at the moment.
How did this property come to be? Honestly we have no idea, though we'd imagine that it was once a corner tavern like the Twilight. Or maybe it once had upper floors but they were removed, a la the Snellenberg's building at Market East. We seem to recall, before it was a sushi place, it was a thrift shop. Does anyone else remember this?
Anyway, the property is now available for sale or for lease (for a new tenant, ostensibly). The asking price for the property is $375K, which seems a little steep for an 818 sqft parcel that a developer would have to demolish and then go before the ZBA before pursuing any potenital project. Still, if the sellers and a developer are able to come up with an agreeable price, we'd imagine that there's a higher and better use for the property than a one-story commercial building. With new homes across the street that sold for a pretty penny and half a dozen more about a block to the west now under construction, there's certainly demand here for high-end residential.
Alternately, for $3K per month, a new tenant might end up here, replacing the sushi joint. Then again, that sounds like a tough rent number for such a small place at this location. Sure, it's only a block off of South Street. But that block is big for foot traffic. Our vote is for the place that's there now to kick it up a notch and remain in place. But if that's not possible, plus one for tearing down the building. Nobody's gonna miss the Grover-colored stucco.