When US Construction built nineteen new homes on the 800 block of Christian Street a few years back, we took the opportunity to point out 820 Christian St. to everyone, wondering whether the project next door would spur the owners of the vacant property to do something with it. For whatever reason, when there was a big parking lot next door, the vacancy didn't bother us as much. Ever since the homes were built though, we've shaken our fists every time we passed by.
A couple weeks back, we passed by the property and noticed a sign in one of the windows, indicating that it's available. And we made a mental note to come back, take a picture, and call the number to get the low down. We visited the property yesterday, seeking the sign, and discovered that it's gone. Perhaps this means that the owners have decided against selling it. Or else they found a buyer (or a tenant) really quickly.
The property is really interesting, stretching all the way to Montrose Street. The building rises three stories on Christian Street but it's only one story on Montrose, where it's used as a garage. Surely the building was constructed for some other purpose but we couldn't tell you anything about its history.
We wouldn't be surprised to see this structure torn down in favor of more homes, and we'd expect to see the Christian Street building rehabbed into apartments or maybe condos. The fact that a sign went up and then came down so quickly fills us with hope that this property will finally get redeveloped, but we're still lacking concrete info. So we'll keep our fingers crossed but we won't get our hopes up too high. Has anyone in the neighborhood heard anything?