At 607 Hudson Artery in the West Village in New York, a red brick architecture that was already the Village Nursing Home is actuality adapted to condominiums by Flank, a architecture and development aggregation in Chelsea. Not continued ago, 607 Hudson housed some 200 residents, but anon it will be aloof 10 apartments, anniversary with 3,200 to 9,600 aboveboard feet.

And at 18 Gramercy Park South, area for added than 40 years the Parkside Evangeline Residence provided affordable apartment for women, what had been a 300-bedroom architecture is actuality adapted into 17 condos, anniversary of 4,500 aboveboard anxiety or more.

The conception of a baby cardinal of affluence units from barrio that already housed multitudes may assume incongruous, but developers say the accommodation to body ample apartments is apprenticed by the market. Indeed, there are abounding break that the appeal for super-high-end apartments is strong. In Manhattan beneath 34th Street, 27 condos of $5 actor to $10 actor awash in the fourth division of 2011, a 50 percent admission from the fourth division of 2010, according to Sofia Song, the carnality admiral for analysis at Streeteasy.com.

Mick Walsdorf, a accomplice at Flank, said that the ambit of the above nursing home, with three artery frontages and four exposures, were accessory to sprawling units, as was the location, in one of the best arresting genitalia of the West Village. (Recently, a accommodation in the Superior Ink building, a few blocks away, awash for $31.5 million.) He said that, for the best part, buyers attractive for a lot of amplitude in the Village “have had to buy boondocks houses, and the boondocks abode bazaar has been abundantly tight.”

Mr. Walsdorf said that back Flank began affairs condos at 385 West 12th Street, a architecture completed aftermost year, buyers were absorbed in accumulation the baby units, and “we hadn’t absolutely accustomed for that achievability in the layouts.” This time the close absitively to body ample units and ashore to it, alike afterwards the banking collapse of 2008. (VillageCare, which operated the nursing home, agreed to advertise the architecture in 2007 but was clumsy to move out until 2009.)

The about-face of accessible or institutional barrio into aloof apartment has a continued history in New York. The above badge address at 240 Centre Artery is a address building, as are the above Y.M.C.A. on West 23rd Artery and several above academy barrio about the city. The onetime New York Lying-In Hospital, at 305 Second Avenue, is the Rutherford Place condos.

To apartment advocates, those conversions represent a achievement for the wealthy. Jerilyn Perine, the controlling administrator of the Citizens Apartment and Planning Council, an advancement group, said it was important that the burghal accept regulations “so that denser housing, decidedly for singles, has a angry adventitious in the market.” She added, “It’s abundant to accept bodies with a lot of money active actuality — we charge their taxes and spending ability — but the accident of body is tragic, abnormally area accumulation alteration admission is so great.”

But at atomic in the case of the Village Nursing Home, the affluent will not be the alone beneficiaries. A few years ago, association there were awash into anachronous apartment that averaged beneath than 300 aboveboard anxiety per actuality (current regulations crave at atomic 500). VillageCare was able to body a added avant-garde facility, the VillageCare Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at 214 West Houston Street, application money from the auction of the Hudson Artery building. A agent for VillageCare, Lou Ganim, said association actual in the Village Nursing Home at the time it was awash were transferred to the new facility.

Indeed, sometimes canning advocates attending to address developers as white knights. Since the Bialystoker Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Broadway bankrupt aftermost year, Laurie Tobias Cohen, the controlling administrator of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, has been “extremely eager” for a developer to buy the celebrated architecture and catechumen it to co-ops or condos. The closing of the nursing home was a abundant loss, she said; the ambition now is to anticipate the demolition, or added deterioration, of the building. “What we don’t want,” she said, “is to lose any added of the congenital celebrated fabric.”

The Salvation Army agreed to advertise the Parkside Evangeline Residence in 2007. Maj. Evan Hickman of the Greater New York Division of the Salvation Army said that the alignment had not yet accustomed the abounding acquirement amount for the building, which the buyers are advantageous off over time. He added that “when we accept all the allotment we are absolutely activity to put it against our added residences and affair the assorted needs of New Yorkers in this difficult time.”

The aggregation abaft the building’s renaissance — which includes the developer William Lie Zeckendorf and the artist Robert A. M. Stern — additionally congenital 15 Central Park West. Mr. Zeckendorf did not acknowledgment buzz calls about the project.

In some means big, big-ticket units are an easier sell. High-end buyers about don’t charge mortgages, eliminating the hassles and ambiguity of a bound acclaim market.

Joseph A. McMillan Jr., the arch controlling of DDG Partners (not related to Downtown Resource Group), which developed 41 Bond Street, said the architecture awash after a distinct mortgage accident — the accouterment in a arrangement that allows the client to bead out if costs isn’t available. Mr. Walsdorf of Flank said he did not apprehend buyers at 607 Hudson Artery (which is actuality called the Abingdon) to crave mortgage contingencies, either.

And what developer wouldn’t rather accord with 10 buyers who don’t charge mortgages than dozens of buyers who do?

Spearheaded by the Downtown Council, a group of business leaders, the Downtown 2025 plan to be released Wednesday calls for doubling the number of residents, in part by leveling the Metrodome to make way for a new neighborhood.

The far-ranging blueprint connects the district’s assets — including the Walker Art Center and Guthrie Theater, corporate headquarters, sports venues, rail and bus transportation — to create a “flourishing 21st-century city.”

The plan envisions a walkable, bustling streetscape that begins at the Walker, moves through Loring Park to Peavey Plaza along Nicollet Mall to an expanded Gateway Park ending at the riverfront by the Hennepin Avenue bridge, much like Boston’s Back Bay, San Antonio’s River Walk and the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

The plan also offers a clear-eyed view of downtown’s weaknesses, including transit and road systems that are difficult to navigate, persistent homelessness, perceptions of crime and the lack of green space. Downtown 2025 takes aim at the city’s storied skyways, which it blames for robbing streets of pedestrian and retail traffic.

Its recommendation to put a Vikings stadium near Target Field also conflicts with Mayor R.T. Rybak’s effort to keep the Vikings on a redeveloped Metrodome site.

If realized, the plan would require a $2 billion investment in infrastructure alone, drawn from public and private coffers.

“These are very aggressive goals, but it’s all possible, and it will take time,” said Sam Grabarski, president and CEO of the Downtown Council.

Urban planning and real estate experts warn that current economic conditions, as well as budgetary challenges facing the state, Hennepin County and the city could dampen the plan’s expansive goals — at least for the time being.

The Downtown Council has crafted five such plans since 1959. The previous guide, released in 1996, saw most of its vision realized: an enhanced skyway system, a street cleanup squad, a surge in residential growth, light rail, a central library, a redeveloped Block E and a new Twins stadium.

The 2025 plan took 18 months to complete and involved a diverse task force of about 90 participants, ranging from downtown residents to corporate titans.

“The two greatest strengths of the plan involves not only focusing on the assets of the city and understanding what really draws people downtown, but also what detracts from that experience,” said John Shardlow of Roseville-based Stantec Consulting Inc.

The core of the 2025 plan involves not only doubling the current residential population of 34,000 people, but broadening the current mix of young professionals and empty-nesters to include young families. To that end, it proposes a new public school for downtown.

“There is a steady trend in interest in downtown living,” Grabarski said. “There are [young families] who are not interested in buying a nice big home in the suburbs and deciding that the urban lifestyle is right for them.”

But Ed Goetz, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, said attracting young families downtown “is a little bit of a reach. The Twin Cities already have an abundance of places for young families.”

The plan favors a Vikings Stadium for either the Linden Avenue or Farmers Market sites near Target Field to create a “downtown sports district” that also would feature a renovated Target Center.

‘Work with current resources’

“We have to figure out how to work with our current resources,” said John Griffith, Target’s executive vice president for property development, who chaired the steering committee. “We have to take the good stuff that we have [Target Field and Target Center] and build on it.”

However, the plan could complicate the city’s efforts to lobby legislators for a Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. Rybak has thrown his weight behind the Metrodome site, but the 2025 plan suggests replacing the Metrodome with “a small lake, surrounded by a leafy urban village of new homes, shops and ball fields.”

Rybak doesn’t think the downtown plan will derail his Vikings stadium pitch, since the business community’s position on the matter wasn’t a secret.

“I believe the Metrodome site is a better site, but I definitely agree with all the positive points that are made in the plan about the area on the west side of downtown,” the mayor said Tuesday.

Rybak said “the single biggest difference between this and previous plans is it spends more time thinking about not just how many things we have downtown, but how they all connect.” That includes “the pedestrian experience, the links between different types of buildings, weaving everything into a 24-hour, multi-faceted, incredibly energized place.”

He said he expects the city’s largest role implementing the plan — at least in the short term — will be in the transformation of Nicollet Mall and the “greening” of the city’s core.

The plan proposes reviving the lost northern blocks of Nicollet so it ends at the Hennepin Avenue bridge. The mall would be curbless, with zero-emission vehicles offering free shuttle service.

Peavey Plaza and Gateway Park would be available for activities and performances, drawing from the burgeoning arts district on Hennepin Avenue. The city plans to request funding for the Nicollet Mall redevelopment in the next state bonding bill.

1. HO-2, the least expensive type, covers only named perils such as fires or lightning. If the peril is not named, it’s not covered.
2. HO-3, generally recommended as the minimum coverage, includes open perils protection. It covers all direct physical losses with certain exceptions such as earthquakes, floods and intentional loss.
3. HO-4, renters and tenants insurance, covers personal property rather than the structure itself. There are also exclusions for which types of perils are covered.
4. HO-5 covers open perils and adds a rider, which includes protection of personal property. Exceptions also apply.
5. HO-6 is for condos or co-ops. It is similar to HO-4, but also covers improvements you may have made to the dwelling.
6. HO-8 is for older homes. It insures the home for the repair cost or market value instead of the cost to replace it.

Don’t confuse appraisals with inspections! An appraisal is for a lender to estimate the value of the home, and to make sure it meets minimum FHA standards. The FHA does NOT guarantee the value or condition of your would-be new home. If you find problems with your home after closing, don’t expect the FHA to help. It’s your responsibility to inspect the home for problems before closing.

Finally, radon gas testing is recommended for all houses by the EPA and the Surgeon General of the United States. For more information on radon testing, call the National Radon Information Line at 1-800-SOS-RADON, or 1-800-767-7236.

Inspections may be done before or after signing as long as your contract states that the home sale depends on the inspection.

1. Types of homes. Choose the type of home that is the most appealing yet practical for you. In addition to single family homes, there are multifamily homes, condominiums and co-ops. Multi-family homes are often good for first time home buying because they can have rental income to help with their mortgage.

2. Budget and investment considerations. Find a balance between your needs, wants and budget. Decide whether you should buy a newly constructed home, a bit older home or a “fixer-upper”. If you may sell your home in the future, the following are best for re-sell value:

• Homes with 3 or more bedrooms; condos with 2 or more
• Homes with “curb appeal” always sell best
• Homes that are NOT unusual or unique and not the most expensive on the block

3. While house-hunting you will probably look at many homes for sale, so keep careful and complete notes and compare.

4. When you finally find your dream home, don’t hesitate! If you snooze, you may lose!

1. Decorate your home festively, but don’t go overboard and cover up important features. Also, put treats out for buyers and crank up the heat for a cozy winter escape.
2. Post top-quality photos and videos of your house on the web. Many buyers do their shopping from the warmth of their homes when the weather is bitter.
3. Make sure your curb appeal is striking! Keep fallen leaves raked and snow neatly groomed.
4. Get yourself a reliable real estate agent and seek out serious buyers such as work re-locators.
5. As always, price to sell!!

Real estate brokers say that in the last year, they have seen more parents shopping for apartments for their grown children, hoping to take advantage of low mortgage rates and apartment prices that are still about 20 percent down from the market’s peak.

“I got a digital watch for graduation,” said Barry Silverman, an executive vice president of Halstead Property, “but I’ve worked with families where the children are getting an apartment.”

These congratulatory apartments are often studios or small one-bedrooms, but on occasion they are bigger-ticket items, he said, because “the parents see it as a long-term investment and a good place to park their money.”

In many cases, brokers say, the parents do not live in the New York area and view the apartment as a potential pied-à-terre for themselves when the child decides to move on. Some buy it as a straight-out gift, a gesture of profound affection sweetened by the current generous tax exclusion. Others buy it as an investment and retain ownership, and still others acquire it through a family trust for joint ownership.

These purchases raise a number of financial and estate planning questions, and lawyers and building managers advise parents to structure the arrangement carefully.

“There are tax implications to think about, building rules to consider, and the question of access — as in do the parents have a right to stay there or drop in whenever they want?” said Roberta Axelrod, the director of residential sales and rentals at Time Equities, a real estate developer and management company.

There are also more mundane issues to be hammered out, like who pays the maintenance, who pays for any work that needs to be done, and who gets any profits when the apartment is sold. Ms. Axelrod said she had seen families signing formal agreements and families making verbal agreements.

“But more often than not,” she said, “people don’t talk about the future, and that leads to tension when they find out that everybody has a different idea about it. It’s important that the different parties all understand and agree in advance.”

Steve Wagner, a real estate lawyer, said that because family circumstances vary and buildings have different practices, “each situation dictates what will make sense.” He advised putting agreements in writing, but added that “legal documents have to be drafted, because there are no standard forms that deal with this stuff.”

In one of the simplest scenarios, the parents buy and keep an apartment in their name and agree to pay the monthly carrying costs, and the child lives there as a family member, not a renter. Condos permit this, but some co-ops allow only owners to be residents and may require that the child’s name be put on the proprietary lease.

Mark Policarpio, a vice president of Brown Harris Stevens, said that when he helped Lisa Zia find a studio for her son, Sean, they focused on condos, but when they came across “a co-op on the more liberal side of things” that would allow subletting, they bought it.

Ms. Zia, who lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., said that a subleasable studio was crucial because Sean, who is 21 and just graduated from a professional musical theater program, may go on tour for long stretches of time.

“I decided that since New York is his home now, we might as well look for someplace more permanent for him,” she said.

They closed on the studio, on West 34th Street, for less than $265,000 in December, and both mother and son are on the proprietary lease.

“With the interest rate and the price that we found,” Ms. Zia said, “we couldn’t not do it. He may never see a time when he can afford to buy in New York again. The ultimate goal is for him to be up on his feet and then take it over.”

For now, though, Ms. Zia admits, she can’t help being a mom. She was appalled when she visited last month for his graduation. “It wasn’t weeks’ and weeks’ worth of mess,” she said, “but it was bad.”

Mr. Zia, who had been sharing the space with a roommate, said cleaning had fallen by the wayside in the final weeks of school. “Now that I realize it upsets her that much,” he said, “I’m going to be more adamant about staying on top of things. We don’t want to go through this again the next time she comes up.”

Marina Santos, 22, graduated from Ashland University last year, and when she decided to come to New York to pursue a career in television, she asked her parents, Marcos and Marli Santos, who live in Copley, Ohio, if they could help with her rent.

They decided it would be wiser to buy a studio apartment in their names and allow Marina to live there, rent free. They found a $250,000 studio in a co-op building with a doorman on West 57th Street. Then they learned that banks viewed the place as an investment property and not a second home. Banks often charge higher mortgage rates and require higher down payments for investment purchases.

Glenn Busch, a tax lawyer, says that when parents are buying property for a child, there are many “traps for the unwary.” Some buildings require both parents and child to be listed on the proprietary lease. Many co-ops frown on buying a property in a child’s name, because the child may not meet the co-op’s income requirements.

And when a property stays in the parents’ names, as the Santoses planned, its classification as a second residence or investment property can have financial consequences.

From one bank, Mr. Santos said, they could not get the mortgage they wanted; when negotiations with a second bank stalled, he told their broker, Diana Bustamante, an agent with Brown Harris Stevens, “I’m going to give up and pay cash.”

But Ms. Bustamante urged patience, and they eventually secured a mortgage with a good rate. The younger Ms. Santos moved into the studio in February.

“The whole process was long and painful,” her father said, “but I believe it was worth it, because we know she is living in a safe and good place.”

Ms. Santos is easing herself into the cold reality of housing costs by paying the maintenance fee, $650 a month, to her father. Without her parents’ help, she said, “I wouldn’t be able to live in Manhattan, and I would definitely have roommates.

“Hopefully, in a few years, I’ll be more established in my career and I’ll be able to get something bigger.”

The mystery shrouding so many New York co-ops flummoxed Dr. Jerry Waldman and his wife, Patti, who live in Laguna Beach, Calif. Their search for a co-op for their daughter, Olivia, was thoroughly discouraging. After being rejected by one co-op board and having two other offers on co-ops fall through, they decided to look for a condo.

“I didn’t want to go through that process again,” Dr. Waldman said.

A condo is the easiest type of apartment for parents to buy for a child, especially a condo from a sponsor or in a new development, which has few buying restrictions and no board interview.

The Waldmans eventually bought a two-bedroom condo for $1.15 million on East 72nd Street, a few blocks from where Olivia Waldman, 31, works as a physician’s assistant in surgery. A doorman building, it was recently renovated and outfitted with amenities like a spa, a climbing wall and a basketball court. Norma Jean Nesheim, the building’s sales director, said that about a dozen parents had bought apartments there for children in the last year.

“It still feels too good to be true,” said Ms. Waldman, who moved into the apartment in February. “This helps me financially and I get to live in a fabulous apartment I couldn’t afford on my own.”

The apartment is owned jointly through a family trust, with Ms. Waldman owning one-fifth and the rest belonging to her parents. The Waldmans structured it that way because they have four other daughters and want to give each the option to buy a share.

“We didn’t buy this place for Olivia,” Dr. Waldman said. “We bought it as a family place.”

Some parents choose to make an official gift of an apartment by putting it in the child’s name. Richard Koenigsberg, a certified public accountant, thinks that these gifts can be a good idea. “We are in a remarkable period of time at the moment,” he said, because the tax exclusion on gifts and estates has been raised to $5 million from $1 million until the end of 2012. This means that a parent can give a child as much as $5 million tax free; if two parents are involved, make that $10 million.

“It’s a big opportunity for parents who might want to help their children,” Mr. Koenigsberg said.

Dr. Peter Clagnaz and his wife, Roban, took advantage of the gift exclusion about a year ago when they bought a two-bedroom apartment on East 88th Street for their twins, Evan and Joanna. At the time, the gift exclusion was $1 million and the apartment cost about $800,000.

“It was a great price,” Dr. Clagnaz said, “and it was a way for us financially to give them money without having to die. It’s going to come out of their inheritance one way or another; why not let them enjoy it now?”

He and his wife live in North Carolina, where he is a psychiatrist. In addition to consulting with their accountant, he said, they brought in a lawyer to make sure that a third child, an older brother, would eventually receive an equivalent amount of their estate.

“It got complicated and it was a lot to think about,” Dr. Clagnaz said. “But we liked the idea that this apartment was going to be theirs once we had gifted it to them. It was a way of helping them become independent.”

Evan Clagnaz, 26, moved to New York about six years ago to attend Fordham University and is now a manager at the Upper East Side restaurant Vivolo. His sister followed two years later. The recent recipient of a master’s degree in education, she plans to teach English as a second language.

Their family’s broker, Gene Fein, a vice president of Stribling & Associates, said that some co-ops would have required the Clagnazes to own the apartment jointly with their children or asked the parents to be financial guarantors. The Clagnazes’ building allowed them to buy in the twins’ names, but requested a letter “saying the parents would stand behind them,” Ms. Fein said. The building also asked Evan and Joanna to put a year’s worth of maintenance in escrow.

Evan Clagnaz said his parents had made it clear that the apartment was his and his sister’s responsibility. “So if anything happens and it needs work,” he said, it is clear who needs to handle the costs involved.

But their parents also said that if one of them were to get a job elsewhere or decide to move in with someone else, the remaining sibling could get a roommate, or the parents could buy him or her out.

All four Clagnazes attended the co-op board interview, at which Dr. Clagnaz was asked what would happen if he were to die, presumably out of concern that the building would no longer be able to count on him as the twins’ financial backup.

But Dr. Clagnaz had a quick response. “I said, ‘Well, then they get all the money and not just the apartment.’ ”

By VIVIAN S. TOY from the New York Times

Search for Minneapolis Condos and Minneapolis Real Estate.

Point Capital Partners, based in Chatham, N.J., said it’s sinking about $70 million into four Twin Cities condo deals, two of which already have closed.

“We’re making a big bet on Minneapolis,” said Drew Preston, who manages Point Capital’s real estate fund. “The underlying economic trends that we’ve seen in Minneapolis are some of the strongest we’ve seen in the United States.”

In its most recent acquisition, Point Capital Partners bought the 77 remaining condos in the Sexton Lofts in downtown Minneapolis from owner Andy Chase. That deal closed March 24.

Chase, president of Burnsville-based Chase Real Estate, bought 74 of Sexton’s unsold units — more than half the building’s 123 units — out of foreclosure one year ago for about $4.5 million. He then bought three more units, added a new heating system and has been finishing off the conversion of the old commercial building, including completing the Sexton’s nine rooftop penthouse units. The work should be done in two months.

“We got a lot of stuff accomplished and now I think it’s time to go to the next level,” Chase said.

Preston wouldn’t say what he paid for the Sexton units, but said “we paid a significant premium” over the $4.5 million Chase paid.

The sale marks a bold new chapter for the Sexton, which has been clouded by the mortgage-flipping scheme that surfaced there in recent years. The scandal produced multiple convictions. Brett Thielen, a first-time developer who tried to complete the project, is serving a 27-month sentence for helping orchestrate the swindle.

The Sexton was Point Capital Partners’ second Twin Cities buy.

On March 17, the private equity group bought the 90 unsold units at the Gramercy Club of Edina — another well-known project with a tortured past — from Beal Bank Nevada. Point Capital plans to convert the senior co-op into condos, he said.

The group is scheduled to close next week on another bank-owned condo building in the Twin Cities, and has a fourth investment lined up, one that Preston called the largest. He declined to name the other two developments.

Little has been written publicly about Point Capital Partners. But according to its website, it’s a family of merchant-banking companies founded in 2003 and its private equity unit makes alternative investments in areas such as energy, health care technology and distressed real estate. It is principally owned by two classmates from West Point, from which the firm takes its name, Preston said.

Banks are generally unwilling to make mortgages for condos in buildings with heavy concentrations of units in foreclosure or that are sitting unsold or rented out, Preston said. The group aims to stabilize the troubled condo projects by providing financing so they can get the units sold at market rates.

“I’m not a fire-sale guy,” Preston said. “The value of the properties is dependent on the financing.”

Preston said his group will start listing five to 10 of the Sexton units next week.

“Minneapolis has great underlying demographics,” he said. “There’s a demand out there for this product.”

Mary Bujold, head of real estate research firm Maxfield Research Inc. in Minneapolis, said Point Capital’s type of financing play isn’t unheard of, but it’s the first time she’s seen it in the Twin Cities during this boom-bust cycle.

“Ultimately, I think it’s a smart move on their part,” she said. “It’s not really speculative as much as it’s kind of opportunistic.”

Jennifer Bjorhus • 612-673-4683

The Star Tribune reported that real estate investor Bruce Lambrecht on Monday presented an analysis that found the Farmers Market site beat the Metrodome site in everything but land acquisition costs.

He said building the new stadium near the Twins’ home would create a sports and entertainment district that would take advantage of the area’s ample parking, transit, restaurants and bars.

In the analysis, Lambrecht and Minneapolis urban planner David Albersman compared the proposed Minneapolis sites in 10 categories. They said the Farmers Market site beat the Metrodome in nine.

“If you’re going to spend a billion dollars in downtown Minneapolis, this is the place to spend the money,” Albersman said.

Lambrecht owns land near the proposed site but not on it. The plan released Monday didn’t include a financing proposal.

On the other hand, city planners favor the Metrodome site. Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson said it was the most cost-effective, owing to years of city investments.

“It’s cheaper,” Johnson said. “And if people want to see this thing get done in a time-sensitive fashion, the Dome site is the place.”

Ted Mondale, chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, is expected to soon release his own analysis of possible sites, including the former munitions plant in Arden Hills pushed by Ramsey County.

“The numbers need to be scrubbed, and it’s in the interest of the state and localities to do this thoroughly,” he said.

A bill has been introduced at the Legislature which leaves the stadium site open to a local government partner willing to foot a third of the cost of an estimated $900 million roofed stadium. So far, no local government has volunteered.

The Star Tribune story can be found at: http://bit.ly/km7jAJ