I spent a part of the day yesterday with a client visiting the sales offices and construction sites of some of the new developments in town. Each one is unique and comes down to personal preference.

We started our tour that Hoyt Street Properties, the office that is selling the Pinnacle Condos at NW 10th and Northrup. There are 13 units listed in the MLS system priced between $259,000 and $1,100,000. Initial occupancy is scheduled for June. They should complete moving people in September. The earlier you buy into a project, the sooner you get the keys. The move in process is carefully managed to avoid chaos.

We took a quick look at the McCormick Pier condo conversion project while we waited for the train to clear the tracks at the Steel Bridge. Even after walking around for a few minutes, we drove back through the Pearl and around the tracks and came out on the other side of the tracks, in front of the train that was still parked blocking the street! There are 20 listings in the MLS system between $193,900 and $379,900.

The Strand doesn’t have a sales office yet. When I delivered a client’s reservation form on Monday to the listing agency, they had taken in about 50 requests. Requests will be honored in the order they were received but all requests from a given day are considered at the same time. There is no difference between being there at 9AM or 5PM. Standing outside of the construction at Riverplace fence with the floor plans and color rendering of the site, you can begin to get a pretty good idea of the scope of the project and where the units will be located. They are priced from the $200,000s to $900,000s but they have not released the pricing on the highest floors or penthouses yet.

Moving on to the South River Blocks, home to the Meriwether and John Ross buildings. The Meriwether is about 85% sold. The John Ross will be put on the market in June but has been approved by the City to be 325 feet tall and 30+ floors. Construction is expected to being in May and be completed in the summer of 2007. The area is going to be a construction site for the next ten years but the developers have considered the best plan to minimize impact on those that are already living there. The building progress is clear at the Meriwether as they have pour almost half of the floors for the 22 and 25 story towers. Occupancy is scheduled for next summer, about the same time as the Eliot Tower…

There are just a handful of units left in the Eliot Tower. What used to be a muli-page price sheet is now a Spartan single page. The remaining units start in the mid $200s.

At then end of the day, how do you choose between projects? Two major factors are location and completion date. Everyone’s own situation is going to dictate the answer. Then there are the resale of existing units to consider…