A very nice project and more, it appears, are on the way.
Rare condo conversion nears completion
By Bob Shallit - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, September 22, 2007
Rich Wilks is close to accomplishing the rarest of feats: He's nearly finished converting a former apartment building in downtown Sacramento to condos.
What's so unusual about that? It's been done only once in the past two decades, thanks to a restrictive 1980 city ordinance.
The ordinance is toughest on developers seeking to convert apartments that are inhabited. Owners are required to allow low-income, disabled and elderly renters to remain in their units for up to 12 years, or offer them a chance to buy at a discounted price.
Wilks, a Prudential California Realty broker, and his sister, Tammy Wilks Kornfeld, were able to get around those provisions because their building -- a 96-year-old three-story at 1706 G St. -- was vacant.
But they still had a rough road. City officials initially said they couldn't proceed because the ordinance prohibits condo conversions of apartments built before 1952.
The sibling developers appealed, got City Councilman Steve Cohn involved and struck a compromise. They could rehab the building, but it had to meet stringent current codes instead of the less-extensive renovations they'd planned.
That added about $200,000 to the project's cost.
But Wilks says he is happy with the result -- six units, each priced in the high $300,000s, with hardwood floors, Shaker-style cabinets, nine-foot ceilings, top-class finishes.
And built to the latest code requirements. "It's probably the most sound 100-year-old residential building in town," he says. The project's first units go on sale in October.
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Con-do attitude: Speaking of condo conversions, a Sacramento city committee has come up with two competing proposals to reform the process.
