Downtown Living

[no1cub17]

Those brownstones are the poorest built structures I've ever been around.

Haha wow. This board just wouldn't be the same without you.

[betts]

I'm pretty happy. I've lived in 6 different houses as an adult and this one has been the most trouble free with the lowest utilities. Not perfect, but certainly not bad.

[OKCisOK4me]

Those brownstones are the poorest built structures I've ever been around.

My God, you must need a sugar momma for your high maintenance lifestyle...

[Garin]

Why do you say that? All but one of those structures are 8" insulated concrete, aside form the interior framing.

For starters they used the cheapest windows and doors they could purchase people are already having to rip them out and replace with something better. That just shouldn't happen on a structure this new. The interior framing is awful not really sure how they ever got inspections passed, the exteriors leak water through the brick and around all the cast stone, i have worked inside and out of approx 10 of those units and all have experienced the same thing... That's not to say that once all the problems are corrected that the homes are not nice, but for all that was spent up front they are a real disappointment in quality.

[Plutonic Panda]

Do they custom build here?

[Plutonic Panda]

My God, you must need a sugar momma for your high maintenance lifestyle...

It'd have to be a nun or someone religious because.....yeah I won't go there

[betts]

I don't know why people are removing the windows and doors. Two people have. Mine are fine. Trust me, I've seen cheap windows and doors and these are fine. They're metal clad wood, double pane. I'm sitting here perfectly comfortable without my furnace running. The people who removed theirs bought their homes after they'd stood empty for years. Maybe the exposure to extremes of temperature caused problems. I've lived here 5 years and bought when the windows were new. Dunno.

And the walls are 8" concrete and rebar surrounded by 3" styrofoam. They can't leak. If there is water leaking around doors and windows perhaps it's due to caulking being exposed to extremes of temperature. Mine don't leak.

I bought mine unfinished and the interior framing was fine. But I can't speak for any of the others. Again, they're not perfect. But I've had 2 prior custom built homes by good builders and they weren't perfect either. Matt Wilson was amazing at correcting problems that showed up later, and my biggest complaint is that these builders felt when you closed, their responsibility was over. My first builder pretty much did the same. We are totally impressed with build-block though. I wouldn't consider building a house with any other product.

[benjenn]

What a fun downtown weekend! Downtown Downsizing: What a fun downtown weekend!

[zookeeper]

I am embarrassed to ask this, but just don't know. I was talking about downtown OKC to someone who knows I love this site. They asked a simple question and I have no idea. What do the condos start at downtown/Bricktown/Deep Deuce? What are typical rental rates like downtown? Are there such things as "starters" in Midtown maybe?

[OKCisOK4me]

I think bottom level is about $850 unless its like this place I was looking at just south of where Edge is being built, an efficiency basement unit was (at the time Fall of 2012) $425.

[Chadanth]

I am embarrassed to ask this, but just don't know. I was talking about downtown OKC to someone who knows I love this site. They asked a simple question and I have no idea. What do the condos start at downtown/Bricktown/Deep Deuce? What are typical rental rates like downtown? Are there such things as "starters" in Midtown maybe?

Midtown has a wider range of prices, there might still be 1br units at Deep Deuce Apartments or the occasional studi loft in deep deuce for under 1k/month. You can get into midtown for under 500/month up to a couple thousand a month for the nicer units at the Seiber and Midtown Reniassance properties.

[AP]

I am embarrassed to ask this, but just don't know. I was talking about downtown OKC to someone who knows I love this site. They asked a simple question and I have no idea. What do the condos start at downtown/Bricktown/Deep Deuce? What are typical rental rates like downtown? Are there such things as "starters" in Midtown maybe?

I know for sure MidtownR had a studio at 650 or so. Other than that, everything I've seen was 800+. My unit at Four30 was 850.

[CarlessInOKC]

I live in the Regency and prices for a one-bedroom apartment start around $880 (Depending on the length of your lease).

[OKCisOK4me]

I know for sure MidtownR had a studio at 650 or so. Other than that, everything I've seen was 800+. My unit at Four30 was 850.

I certainly expected it to be more for such new digs. Maybe that's why I pulled $850 out of thin air because my subconscious remembered you said that way back when.

[soonerguru]

Those brownstones are the poorest built structures I've ever been around.

Then you haven't been in them.

[shawnw]

And, to get an idea of range, you can get 3BRs at the Regency for $1400-1600.

[GoThunder]

We got into a one bedroom on the third floor at Level for $955. Not bad for a great location and great view of downtown.

[Soho]

Garin,

You are way off base here. ANY structure left vacant and unmaintained for several years will experience a degradation of quality. The financial downturn of 08-09, stalled the momentum of development and fractured the original development group. Some of which are still struggling financially, and therefore have not maintained their properties. Fortunately, the area has rebounded, and all of the Brownstones are now finished out, or are being finished now.

We have lived in our Brownstone for five years and have not experienced ANY of the problems you claim, except minor water damage from this spring's severe storms. The windows of the unfinished units did suffer some pretty obvious damage caused by neglect. The windows are of the same, or better quality as any I have owned in the past and have proved to be maintenance free. Every door in my house is solid core, as opposed to hollow core, as our last house in Oaktree were.

What is your motive for disparaging what you clearly have limited knowledge of? I question that you have really "worked on" 55% of the Brownstones -- what line of work are you in?

For starters they used the cheapest windows and doors they could purchase people are already having to rip them out and replace with something better. That just shouldn't happen on a structure this new. The interior framing is awful not really sure how they ever got inspections passed, the exteriors leak water through the brick and around all the cast stone, i have worked inside and out of approx 10 of those units and all have experienced the same thing... That's not to say that once all the problems are corrected that the homes are not nice, but for all that was spent up front they are a real disappointment in quality.

[Anonymous.]

I am embarrassed to ask this, but just don't know. I was talking about downtown OKC to someone who knows I love this site. They asked a simple question and I have no idea. What do the condos start at downtown/Bricktown/Deep Deuce? What are typical rental rates like downtown? Are there such things as "starters" in Midtown maybe?

You have to go based on sq ft in most cases. Yea you can live downtown for $8-900 a month, but that is like 6-700 sqft in the DD area.

2 bed/2bath ~11-1200 sqft is going to run around $1600-2000 a month. Rental rates are super high right now, but remember you are paying for location until there are more options downtown.

[shawnw]

I have 3 BR, 3 Full Bath, I think 1235 sq/ft at the Regency for the range I noted above.

[Anonymous.]

Yea but living at the Regency is way different than living in DD, location-wise and most likely the fixtures are more up to date in DD area, as it is younger.

[shawnw]

Agreed, but I've had it the other way around, fixture wise, having lived at the Classen (renovated in 2006, and I was the first tenant in my unit with everything brand new) more than six years and I'm good at the Regency. I would have been fine at the DD apts as well but at the time I was moving I couldn't get anyone to call me back about their 3BR units, and I am used to/prefer the highrise lifestyle anyway...

And I think the location aspect will change dramatically in the coming years as Midtown grows up.

[Chadanth]

Agreed, but I've had it the other way around, fixture wise, having lived at the Classen (renovated in 2006, and I was the first tenant in my unit with everything brand new) more than six years and I'm good at the Regency. I would have been fine at the DD apts as well but at the time I was moving I couldn't get anyone to call me back about their 3BR units, and I am used to/prefer the highrise lifestyle anyway...

And I think the location aspect will change dramatically in the coming years as Midtown grows up.

What were the rates at the Classen?

[zookeeper]

Thanks to all for the responses on the prices and rentals of downtown properties. I've learned a lot and will pass it along to who asked me. Again, having spent so much time on this forum, I was embarrassed to not know in the first place. As I was reading, I was amazed at all the options, things have changed in such a HUGE way. I read names of places I have never even heard before. Great things happening!

[shawnw]

When I left the Classen I was paying $1675 for the 8th floor and it's less going down/more going up. However, having lived there so long and having few rent escalations, I suspect others were paying much more than I was. I think I remember someone getting a quote for a smaller unit on my floor and it was more than what I was paying for the second largest non-penthouse floor plan.

I loved the location though and wish I still had some of those amenities, though downtown will catch up I'm sure. The two main reasons I moved was because 1) My teenagers that had been sharing a room for years were about to kill each other and needed their own space and 2) I wanted to try downtown living.

I'm actually glad I ended up at the Regency because there are 3 full baths so we each have our own space and bathrooms whereas at DD we would likely have had two baths so my disagreeable teens would have had to share one. Also, since the 3BR units are only on the 23rd/24th floors, we get a nicer view than we had before, or would have had at DD.