Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Hiker/Biker trail is OFFICIALLY OPEN!

No more PVC pipe to step over.  The trail is officially open now.

Both sides of the trail are open and they have the detour signs up now so they should stop putting that barrier up now.



Sunday, October 22, 2017

Facebook group for homeowners

Last year when we were considering buying at Greenbelt Station we joined the "Greenbelt Station Homeowners" Facebook group and I still follow it from time to time and can see that it provides a lot of value to the folks who live there.

The homeowners in that group discuss items to bring up to the Home Owners Association/developer, talk about events in the community and generally just share any and all information as it relates to their neighborhood and their homes.

Every day, extremely helpful and useful information is being shared between homeowners in that group and I think now that we have 36 families living here in Riverdale Park Station now is the time for something like this to exist for us. 

I have talked to a few of my neighbors who were interested in the same type of thing here.

I created a closed Facebook group called:  "Riverdale Park Station Homeowners".  You can find it by searching by that name or accessing this link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/359828781154032/

If you already own here or have a signed contract please join the group.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Construction begins on parking deck and MOD Pizza is open now

Construction on the parking deck/apartment I detailed in this post from earlier this month has begun:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-apartments-of-riverdale-park-station.html

At long last they finally broke ground yesterday.  (10/17/17)

What's odd about this is the company building this is saying this is only a parking deck and not also an apartment building.   See the link about the building here:

http://www.cbgbuildingcompany.com/Portfolio/Project/Riverdale-Park-Station

473 parking spots is a bit smaller than what was expected but there are also supposed to be 230 apartment units.

What I am thinking is they may be building this in two phases with the parking deck coming first followed by the apartment building.   If you look at the diagram from my previous blog post it appears to be one building but could also be two buildings connected to each other.   (Parking deck to the west and apartment building to the east.)

Also check out the artist rendering on this page of the blog:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/p/riverdale-park-station.html

It almost looks like two separate but connected buildings.  The only surprise here is that it will only be 4 stories instead of 5.

The sooner they get the parking deck up the better as if they open that gym without a parking deck I think parking on Woodberry is going to get really difficult very quickly.  At least there is another parking deck next to District Taco that should open around the same time as District Taco.

In other news MOD pizza is already open early. 

The grand opening is not till Friday but you can go in now for half price pizza as they gear up for their grand opening. 

They are open:

Wed, Oct 18 and Thu, Oct 19
12-2pm and 5-8pm

With the official grand opening happening on Friday at noon....  They are giving away free pizza to the first 52 folks there for their Grand Opening.

Check out pictures from inside here:

http://www.routeonefun.com/2017/10/sneak-peek-inside-mod-pizza-riverdale.html

 




Friday, October 13, 2017

Burton’s opening delayed 2 months and other retail news

I spoke with the manager of Burton's and although the signs on the door still says "coming in November" they are actually not opening until January 2018.

I also spoke with the Jersey Mike's folks and they said they would not be able to start building out until February so they believe they can open by the end of the second quarter 2018.

I heard from the developer that they are trying to get Gold's Gym to open by January 2018.

Although MOD Pizza and District Taco started building out on the same day MOD Pizza is there working each day and District Taco is taking a much more casual approach.   They never provided a date to me and just said it was coming "very soon" but from looking at the situation at the store I am moving their estimated opening date to November of this year.   If it were to open in October they would really have to get into gear.

I am replacing the "About Us" tab of this blog with Retail Timeline which I will keep updated as I get more information.


1.             MOD Pizza - October 22nd 2017
2.             District Taco – November 2017
3.             Burtons  -  January 2018
4.             Gold’s Gym – January 2018
5.             Jersey Mikes – End of 2nd quarter of 2018
6.             Habit Burger – Mid-2018   
7.             Hyatt House Hotel – Early 2020  

Sunday, October 8, 2017

The Apartments of Riverdale Park Station

Many folks on the blog have asked me in the site plan what the huge "Future Residential" building would be.   From the Stanley Martin site map this is what I am talking about:


Since I have moved in I have been told this building is going to start next month.

Each update from the developer has read:

"Additionally a new multi-family residential building is slated to start construction in mid-FILL IN MONTH HERE immediately adjacent to the hiker-biker trail between Woodberry Avenue and Van Buren Street which is expected to take between 18-24 months to complete."

I put FILL IN MONTH here as this month has kept slipping.  The current update from the developer says mid-September even though it was posted in October and they still have not started.   It will probably be updated again to mid-October during their next update.

I do think that maybe, just maybe they will actually start building this soon as I have seen surveyors out just in the past few days.  I will post when construction actually begins.

What this building is going to be is a large parking deck and a 5 level apartment building with 230 apartment units along with parking.



From the time this begins they are saying 18-24 months to complete so this may not be open until late 2019 or 2020.

There are also plans to build two other large multifamily units in Riverdale Park station down by the railroad tracks.  These buildings are in Phase 3 and Phase 4 after the Hyatt House is completed in 2020.   (see diagram below)



Between all of the multi-family buildings, Riverdale Park Station will have a total of 855 multi-family (Apartment) units... although this may be many years off with Phase 3 and 4 so far in the future.

This is directly from the detailed site plan:



There is also a plan to build a noise wall for the railroad tracks prior to occupancy for the two multi-family buildings down by the railroad tracks.  This will be good for all of Riverdale Park Station as even up in building 2 the train can be fairly loud at night.... 

Coupled with all of the other apartments that are coming online in the next few years in this area, I hope there is the demand for this many "luxury apartment units".  PG Plaza is adding hundreds of apartment units (Next to Editors Park), West Hyattsville is adding hundreds of apartment units (Riverfront at West Hyattsville Metro) and Buzzuto is adding another couple hundred luxury apartments a half mile up the street from Riverdale Park Station on route 1.


One thing is for sure, the yellow line is going to need to come back to College Park Metro Station as the green line alone will not handle all of this extra demand.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Price and Sales Update

In my previous Price and Sales update on 9/4/17 I said that I wouldn't be surprised to see another price hike for the Parker (mid-sized floorplan) very soon.

They followed through and raised the Parker $10,000 and left the Dawson and Cassidy priced where they were:

 The pricing history on the smallest floor plan (Dawson) has been:

12/9/16:               $415,000
1/22/16:               $425,000
3/2/17:                 $430,000    
3/28/17:               $440,000
6/5/17:                 $443,000

 The pricing history on the middle floor plan (Parker) has been:

12/9/16:               $440,000
1/22/16:               $450,000
3/2/17:                 $455,000
3/28/17:               $470,000
6/5/17:                 $473,000
10/1/17:               $483,000

 The pricing history on the largest floor plan (Cassidy) has been:


12/9/16:               $465,000
1/22/16:               $475,000
3/2/17:                 $480,000
3/28/17:               $495,000
6/5/17:                 $518,000
8/25/17:               $537,490


Currently there is one Dawson for sale in Building #3 with pre-selected options for $470,000.

Building #4 which is just starting to close throughout this month is sold out.

In Building #5 which is slated to be completed in December there are currently 5 units still available.   (1 Cassidy, 1 Parker and 3 Dawson's)   Seems they are having more trouble moving the Dawson's even though that is the one they have least aggressively raised the price on.

This is the very first time they have actually had a Cassidy listed for sale.   I guess at $537,500 ($554,354 with options) they finally found the price point where it wouldn't sell before it was even started.

This small slowdown is probably a combination of the higher prices and seasonality  (not too many folks buying homes in Fall)


I am thinking some of the retail in the neighborhood opening may draw some more interest and get these sold.   Burton's, District Taco and MOD Pizza are all opening within the next month.  The parking deck next to District Taco is also slated to open then.

The fact that they are still raising prices this far into the development process is a great sign.   Remember over at Editors Park they have dropped prices $40,000 and since then have only held prices steady.