REIT idea..

[brunoflipper]

http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=89388

Broker plots REIT for redevelopment
June 3, 2008
TULSA –

For 15 years, real estate broker Teresa O'Rourke has sought some way to revitalize some of Tulsa's older, impoverished neighborhoods....

[FOTD]

Holding time....like your nut bag.
How long will the REIT have to sit on the land before a viable use and financing terms come along.....?Great idea. If there's a big quake out west, implement immediately.

[PonderInc]

"She now hopes to try a novel approach, forming a real estate investment trust to buy whole blocks within the core suburbs around downtown. Her plan would restore those homes worth preserving, moving them to emptied lots where decaying houses offered no hope of rescue. This would not only create new streets lined with restored structures of living history, but clear and open large areas for redevelopment."

I'm not sure what I think about this.  On one hand, it makes sense.  If you could replace a crumbling, vacant structure with a similar one from another street, it might really help the existing block.  But it seems like you might lose too much of the authentic fabric of an older neighborhood, if you have entire blocks of new construction.

I hope that any new construction would be truly sensitive and compatible with the older styles.

I've seen a really weird new development just north of downtown that bothers me.  Several blocks of identical "fake-historic-looking" homes.  In addition to cookie-cutter design, they have big, wide driveways (that separate the homes with typical suburban spacing) and cheap-looking contstruction that belies their efforts to imitate older traditional architecture and craftsmanship.