Living at Harbortown

**buildingsofdetroit** · February-17-10, 02:09 PM

Anyone live there or know someone who does? What's it like? The places look nice.

**spiritofdetroit** · February-17-10, 02:15 PM

My grandfather lived there for awhile right after the second tower was built, and loved it. As you may see online, some units are selling for under $30,000. I looked into this pretty heavily, and found out that a New York investment firm had bought up a ton of units, went belly-up last year, and are now selling the units for pennies on the dollar.

I have noticed that many of the units have been taken off the market - hopefully meaning they sold. As a result of this, association dues skyrocketed to over $600 per month. The Realtor that I was talking with had heard very mixed reviews from residents there, and suggested waiting to see what happens with the dozens of units that were available. I was told that the other tower was going back to to exclusively rentals instead of available for purchase condos.

**kraig** · February-17-10, 03:33 PM

Nice place. But, it was built on Toxic Soil. Check with residents to see if there are any environmental related health issues.

**Zacha341** · February-17-10, 04:13 PM

That's interesting. What is the source of the toxins? Just curious...

Originally Posted by kraig

Nice place. But, it was built on Toxic Soil. Check with residents to see if there are any environmental related health issues.

**softailrider** · February-17-10, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by spiritofdetroit

My grandfather lived there for awhile right after the second tower was built, and loved it. As you may see online, some units are selling for under $30,000. I looked into this pretty heavily, and found out that a New York investment firm had bought up a ton of units, went belly-up last year, and are now selling the units for pennies on the dollar.

I have noticed that many of the units have been taken off the market - hopefully meaning they sold. As a result of this, association dues skyrocketed to over $600 per month. The Realtor that I was talking with had heard very mixed reviews from residents there, and suggested waiting to see what happens with the dozens of units that were available. I was told that the other tower was going back to to exclusively rentals instead of available for purchase condos.

So, we're talking 7200.00 a year for association dues on top of property taxes. Sound like about 12000.00 a year to me total. That's a lot of money for a view of the river.

**n7hn** · February-17-10, 04:39 PM

OUCH....... I noticed about the same on a condo highrise on layfayette....$1,200 a month assoc fee's , EEK , kinda offsets the low unit price Id say

**DetroitPlanner** · February-17-10, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by kraig

Nice place. But, it was built on Toxic Soil. Check with residents to see if there are any environmental related health issues.

Wasn't the toxic soil trucked out to Rouge Park to make the tobaggan hills longer?

**kraig** · February-18-10, 07:54 AM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

That's interesting. What is the source of the toxins? Just curious...

All of the same crap that was/is at the Uniroyal Site. Funny Fact, when the newspapers did stories about the contamination at Harbortown, Coleman Young commissioned a $500.00 test that determined there were toxins in the combined News/Free Press Sunday paper.

Also, to be fair, while I forget the name of the firm that did it, there was a study back in 1991 that stated there were no short or long term dangers at the site. Of course, this was commissioned by Harbortown Reps. But, you can't expect them to ignore such an allegation. Since then, I don't recall hearing of any health problems related to the living conditions there.