Tempe November 22, 2008

Covering: A very cool flat in Bridgeview at Hayden Ferry, townhomes at 312south, loft at 5th Street Lofts, and soft lofts at Tempe Urban Living (aka TUL) and 525 Town Lake.

This tour of Tempe was our last tour for 2008 and I really enjoyed it. The subject matter was different than what we typically cover as we visited almost exclusively in-fill lofts. November 22 will be our last tour for the year and we're choosing to hit the very popular Tempe area. We elected NOT to hold a tour in December because we will be participating in the huge Light Rail Celebration being held December 27th and that will require a ton of preparation and time.

We took a different approach to the Tempe tour this month. Usually we focus on the midrise and high rise "super star" buildings of Hayden Ferry and Centerpoint. But this time we focused almost entirely on infill loft and townhome communities.

I said "almost" above because we did stop at Bridgeview at Hayden Ferry to check out a really awesome condo right on the lake. This ground floor, 2bd/2ba property is absolutely decked out with gorgeous finishes and a fantastic wrap around terrace that has direct access to the pool and lake area. I mean you literally walk off the patio, down a few steps and your at the lake! Everyone was really surprised that a ground floor condo could have such great unobstructed views. This Bridgeview property really blew everyone away.

Our next stop was 312-south with is a somewhat more traditional styled town home communite but with a good look and about a mile from Mill Avenue. The bedrooms are large and tour attendees liked the polished concrete floors and some of the decorative tile work in the kitchen and bathroom back splashes and surrounds. A couple tour attendees did mention that they did not like the kitchen cabinets in a couple of the residences but they liked the flat panel, contemporary cabinets in some of the other units....different strokes for different folks.

Next we visited 5th Street Lofts. It was difficult to get into this small community but Joseph, the developer/agent, talked a couple renters into letting us see their homes. Boy were we glad. I think for many tour attendees these stole the show. These are three story lofts with very open vertical spaces with many architectural features like center supported stairways, floating catwalks, steel grating balcony floor, and rigid cable style banisters. Very cool.

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As always we owe a huge THANK YOU to Mike Williard, an amateur photographer and very special friend of WeKnowUrban who shot these great photos.

Please visit our "Urban Tour" page to learn about our next High Rise and Loft Condo Tour.

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