As we’ve detailed over the years, Bella Vista and Queen Village both possess some unique features from a street grid perspective, owing to their status as older neighborhoods. For reasons we can only guess, surveyors established a number of tiny streets in these neighborhoods when they plotted the grid way back when, so there are plenty of blocks around these parts that don’t see much foot traffic. One such block is the 800 block of S. Sheridan Street, which you can access from the middle of the 600 block of Catharine Street or from the half-sized 600 block of Queen.

Interestingly, the east side of this block, 805-811 S. Sheridan St., has sat vacant for a very long time, since at least the 1940s. Before that, there were a few very small homes with frontage on Sheridan Street and a couple larger homes with frontage on Queen, but all were gone before World War II. We know the property has been used for parking in recent years, and the sizable trees on the property provide a good another indication of just how long these lots have been sitting. Indeed, it’s a bit of a shock that something hasn’t happened here in the last twenty years, given the desirable location. Just wait though, change is coming.

Developers have purchased the lots for $1.25M and are now looking to build a quartet of new homes. Three of the homes will have one-car parking while the fourth will have parking for two cars. Before the project can move forward though, the developers will need a variance from the ZBA for refusals relating to open area and height. We know BVNA had a meeting on the project yesterday- does anyone know how that went?

We told you a few years back about plans for three homes on the 600 block of Queen and all of those homes are now built and sold. Those homes all sold at prices approaching $2M (!), which gives us a pretty good indication that the homes proposed next door will be listed at a seven-figure price point. Just how close they’ll come to the prices established by the other homes on the block will depend on square footage and finishes, but the comps will surely come in handy as the project moves forward. Again, it just makes us wonder how these lots managed to sit empty for all this time.