Getahn Ward, gward@tennessean.com 5:35 p.m. CST November 20, 2014

A previous conceptual perspective of Broadstone Germantown, which Alliance Residential plans. The company is pursuing another apartment building on part of the former Colonial Bakery site in the Melrose area.

Alliance Residential Co. is expected to be the developer of a 328-unit apartment complex planned on part of the former Colonial bakery site in the Melrose area.

The Phoenix-based multifamily developer is calling the apartments Broadstone Eighth South, according to a concept plan filed with the Berry Hill Planning Commission.

Alliance plans to buy a portion of the overall 6.41-acre site from local investment partnership Eighth South LLC, which two months ago paid up to $9 million for property at 2407 Franklin Pike.

In addition to the apartments, Eighth South plans a 71,000-square-foot separate retail building that's expected to have 340 parking spaces. The apartments will have 480 parking spaces.

Eighth South is seeking permission from Berry Hill's planning commission to consolidate the two lots that make up the property with plans to then partition the site into two parcels for the apartments and retail building.

The retail parcel would be 2.04 acres and the multifamily parcel would be 4.38 acres, according to the documents filed with Berry Hill official.

Under the concept plan, the four-story apartment building will mostly front Elliott Avenue with a section fronting Franklin Pike. The entire retail building would face Franklin Pike.

The former bakery site is split between Metro Nashville and the satellite city of Berry Hill.

In response to calls for preservation of the Southern magnolia tree in front of the bakery building, Eighth South said it is in talks with two individuals and a preservation group about moving the tree elsewhere. "That would be a win-win situation for everybody," said Bobby Kirby, a partner in Eighth South.

Earlier this month, Alliance also paid $5.15 million for property in Germantown where the multifamily developer plans its first Nashville area apartment project. Broadstone Germantown is expected to have 275 units.

Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @Getahn.

America's most expensive home for sale -- $195 million

By Les Christie  @CNNMoney November 6, 2014: 7:44 PM ET

 

 

 

 

 

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A massive Beverly Hills, Calif., estate with its own entertainment complex, 27-car garage and vineyard has hit the market with a record breaking listing price of $195 million.

That makes it the most expensive home listing in the United States, according to Coldwell Banker.

Called the Palazzo di Amore (or "Palace of Love"), the estate is enormous with 53,000 square feet of living space, 12 bedrooms and 23 bathrooms. The master suite alone -- at 5,000 square feet -- is bigger than most McMansions.

On the 25-acre property, there's a vineyard that produces 400 to 500 cases of syrah, cabernet, sauvignon blanc and other wines each year. There's also a guest house, formal gardens, a spa and a 128-foot long reflecting pool.

The estate is owned by real estate mogul, Jeff Greene, who bought the place as an investment and rents it out for $475,000 a month. In fact, Greene barely spends any time at the Beverly Hills estate, instead preferring to spend time at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., or at his summer house in the Hamptons.

Visitors arrive through one of three sets of double gates and drive a quarter mile to the front entrance, where they encounter an Italian-made fountain carved of Carrara marble.

They can park pretty much anywhere. The estate has a 27-car garage and 150 additional parking spaces.

The main residence is more than 35,000 square feet with a front entryway that is a grandiose display of statue niches, inlaid marble floors, classical revival pilasters and a double staircase of marble and ornamental metalwork.

Don't feel like climbing the stairs? Take the elevator.

The Palazzo di Amore was made for entertaining. Not only can it accommodate 1,000 guests, but it also boasts a 50-seat theater, a bowling alley and a game room. There's also space to host a seated dinner for 250 guests.

The ballroom is outfitted with laser lights, a DJ booth and a revolving dance floor. It also features a trompe l'oiel, sky-dome ceiling with more clouds painted on it than the typical Southern Californian sees in a day. There are expansive views of West Side of Los Angeles, Century City and the ocean beyond.

The family room, with its parquet floor, built-in cabinets, fireplace and comparatively modest dimensions, is perhaps the coziest room in the house.

And any vineyard must have its own wine cellar and tasting room. This one has space for 3,500 bottles. If that's not enough space, there's a more utilitarian wine vault downstairs that holds 10,000 more bottles.

Without a doubt the Palazzo di Amore has a lot to offer, but can it bring in the full asking price?

Exact comparable sales are hard to come by but a similarly sized mansion in nearby Holmby Hills sold for $102 million in March, according to the record for Los Angeles County. The property, however, was on the market for years and sold for $23 million below the asking price.

 

Robin Williams' $30M vineyard estate

 

And it was only on five acres of land. "This property is five times the size of that," said Stacy Gottula, the Coldwell Banker Previews International real estate agent who, along with colleague Joyce Rey, is showing the estate.

Several other similarly sized mansions have sold over the past few years in the Los Angeles area but none for more than $100 million, according to Jonathan Miller, an appraiser with Miller Samuel in New York. So asking for nearly twice that amount may be a stretch, he said.

"What's unusual is the estate size," he said. "Still, $195 million is a huge number."

Gottula said that several people have inquired about buying the Palazzo di Amore over the past few years while it was being rented out.

The name sounds catchy, even cute: the "blight bundle." Its contents, however, are far less appealing: 6,350 properties -- mostly abandoned homes in disrepair and overgrown vacant lots -- peppered across the city of Detroit.

No one was really expected to buy the so-called Detroit blight bundle when it entered the Wayne County tax foreclosure auction earlier this month. But someone did.

A group of developers led by Herb Strather put in a $3,183,500 bid -- just over the required minimum -- for the 6,000-plus properties and won the lot as the only bidders when the auction closed Tuesday afternoon.

Strather is one of the partners in Detroit Bundle LLC, along with Texas company Eco Solutions and others. He is also the chairman of real estate development firm Strather Associates and runs a real estate school "creating the next generation of developers in Detroit." This latest venture germinated as part of a class about online bidding at his Strather Academy.

"We were rather shocked [by the sale of the bundle]," Strather told The Huffington Post. "We turned on a dime, if you will, and decided to be the bidder, because we were concerned. We wanted to make sure the redevelopment of Detroit was in Detroiters' hands."

Strather said he has about two dozen students who will be working on the properties.

"They're going to add a lot of great value to the development project by doing a lot of sweat equity," he said.

Strather was previously a casino developer and has been involved in various Detroit investments throughout the decades. One of those earlier projects was the redevelopment of the Hotel St. Regis. Strather was the lead of a group of investors, and in 2009, they defaulted on an $8.7 million loan for the project.

The sale of the Detroit properties is not final yet. Winners in the county tax auction must pay 10 percent of the total price the day after winning, and the rest is due within 14 days.

Strather and his partners have more requirements to meet: Within six months, they must demolish all the blighted properties and have development agreements with the county for any deemed salvageable. If they fail to meet that timeline, ownership for all the properties could revert to the county.

As one of the creators of data transparency projects that map Detroit's blight and provide easy access to information on the foreclosure auction, Loveland Technologies CEO Jerry Paffendorf has a sense of the scale of Strather's project.

"It's just impossible," Paffendorf said bluntly.

Why does it seem so impossible? Because it was pretty much meant to be. The properties were bundled to discourage speculators from buying them individually. If Strather's group hadn't bid, vacant lots and houses in good shape would have gone to the Detroit Land Bank, where the sales agreement makes more demands on the buyer, and the blighted properties could be dealt with more efficiently.

"This process will speed the demolition of properties that continue to be a cancer in Detroit neighborhoods," Mayor Mike Duggan and Wayne County Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz said in a statement when they announced the blight bundle.

It was assumed that no one would want to take on the behemoth of 6,000 properties and that they would go directly to the Land Bank without bids.

"Now what we have to do is find out if indeed this group is serious about taking on such a task. And if they're willing to do so, we're willing to listen," Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski said.

In the next two weeks, the county will be working closely with the developers to attempt to come up with a plan that satisfies all parties, Szymanski said.

Strather said they had surveyed a large chunk of the properties so far. Szymanski told the Detroit News that 2,000 were vacant lots and about 3,000 would likely need to be torn down -- an undertaking that's bound to be pricey. The average $500 per property may sound like a steal, but that doesn't factor in the millions more that will be needed for demo and rehab. At Detroit's average demolition cost, it would take $30 million to tear down the blight.

Though Strather said it was important to involve community stakeholders in his plans, some have reservations. A group of neighbors, for example, told the News the city said they could buy abandoned lots -- some of which have been turned into farms, gardens and parks -- for $100. Those properties now belong to Strather.

Strather, however, seemed beyond enthusiastic about the challenge that lies ahead.

"I think I was born to do it," he said. "The idea of redevelopment in my community would be a work of love."

And if it's a work of love that can't be completed in six months?

"With 6,300 properties, we'll probably give them a few extra days," Szymanski said dryly.

UPDATE: Oct. 30 -- Herb Strather and his partners made the Wednesday afternoon deadline to pay the initial 10 percent of their bid for the 6,350 properties. At a press conference held earlier that day, Strather spoke with passion and even shed a few tears while talking about rebuilding Detroit. However, he did not release extensive details about his development plan for the 6,000 properties, in part because he is still negotiating with the county.

Strather emphasized the importance of neighborhoods and community-led development, saying that every neighborhood in Detroit deserved a sit-down restaurant, retail shops and new housing. He said he believes it's "homeowners first" and said if any struggling families were currently residing in the properties he would work with them. He also plans to work with community groups and individuals who had earlier plans to buy vacant lots included in his bundle.

"We have the chance to arrest the decay and rebuild," he said.

A potential issue with Strather's plan arose when he addressed his blighted properties. He referenced using public dollars by working with the Detroit Land Bank and accessing the federal funding they've used to raze abandoned buildings. But the demolition funds could legally only be used for properties owned by the Land Bank, a spokesman told the Detroit Free Press. Strather said demolition would take much longer than the required six months, which would only be allowable if the county agrees to new terms.

The Detroit News also reports Strather currently owes at least $300,000 in state and federal tax liens.

See several more of the homes included in the blight bundle below, and explore all the properties here.