On Sunday the CRA organized an open house for the public and the benefit of all those who bought into the urban lofts artist project in order to display their art. We stopped by after the Playhouse to see what was happening. Many of the studios were open for our inspection. Unfortunately I did not have the time to talk with any of the studio/loft owners who got the deal of a lifetime!
These artist lofts were built by the CRA with NSP2 grant funds paid by the taxpayers of the United States for $4.5 to $5 million. The CRA sold all twelve, 3,000 square foot townhouses to artists whose credit score was 550 or better and not making more than 120 percent of the area median income for Palm Beach County of $73,080 for a family of two in a neighborhood already filled with families of the working poor. Originally CRA Director, Joan Oliva, said that the price on these 3,000 s.f. units with garage would range from $90,000 to $110,000.
Oh great, no just wait for HUD or the US government to audit this all to see they are being used as businesses and then the CRA and city will be fined for this too or have to give this money back as well. They look great, but all the artist are rich that bought them and it is only speculation, but you have to wonder if rules and laws were broken buy the artisans in buying these "deals of a lifetime."
ReplyDeleteI heard that some of the artist do not even live upstairs, they just use the studio part and rent out the upstairs to pay the mortgage.
ReplyDeleteDid the CRA give each owner the needed to qualify down payment of $6,000 or was it $3,000.?
ReplyDeleteDo they also rent out the garage?
ReplyDeleteTHEY ARE USING IT FOR BUSINESS---100%---
ReplyDeleteThese buildings are an eyesore. They're not charming, not stylish, out of scale, industrial looking, with cheap, fake plastic shutters. These blocks would look better if those little old houses were still there. Restore them, paint them bright colors and make green space in between them and you would have had a really charming artsy area. Thanks, CRA!
ReplyDeleteAnnonymous at 12:07 sounds like Cara Jennings. She was the only Planning and Zoning member to vote against the lofts citing the same "cute little houses and green space" ideas stated above.
ReplyDeleteThank God, she was so out of touch that even her most ardent supporters on the board voted the correct way.
They are a huge improvement over the blight that existed there before. Now if we can keep the momentum going West down Lake and Lucerne.
Thanks CRA!!!
Can't you even acknowledge how immoral it all is to take all that money and sell them for little? That's why we are in this decline in this country and why 47 million people are on food stamps, housing subsidies, etc. taking advantage of the system.
ReplyDeleteNo. I can acknowledge the improvement to a section of town that desperately needed it. It was an innovative way to demolish blight and replace it with a nationally acclaimed mixed use complex reserved for "poor" people as Lynn would make it seem.
ReplyDeleteTurns out its success and the fact the artists open them up for the public to view their artwork is a real testament to the vision of the people who proposed, supported and seen them through.
You may be right. We should have left the over crowded rental single family houses that were on a busy street and full of illegal immigrants, even brightly colored, and an overgrown vacant lot that has been that way for decades attracting trash and illegal dumping. The commission at that time did not want the $23.2 million dollars to be spent in Lake Worth to eliminate slum and blight.
You may have a chance to vote for the bright paint, illegal immigrant hiring hall and green space supporters again.... soon.
Two different visions.
I let the above go although it is full of opinion based on the same political innuendo.
ReplyDeleteHow is it innuendo when you constantly harp on the CRA "attracting" poor people by erecting new owner occupied houses where once stood abandoned, dilapidated crowded rentals?
ReplyDeleteHow is THAT not innuendo?
I certainly wouldn't hesitate living in one of the "affordable" Urban Arts Lofts. The ones your girl Cara voted against.
Affordable doesn't have to mean slum housing. There are hard working families who have great credit and a desire to achieve better things in life for their children. Home ownership is one way to start that process. So what? They get a little financial help from the govt.
It's not utopia, but it's much better than what was there. And that's not innuendo.
Do you disagree?
Thanks, Chip?
ReplyDelete