The Projects of Key West - July 2017 Update

Today's blog is an update on the projects of Key West which I wrote way too long ago - January 2015. I have been taking pictures all along and will share those photos and add my comments on the various properties. I kept holding back posting this update, all the while waiting for a couple of places to finish. One of the reasons why Key West housing is so expensive is the fact that it takes so damned long to get jobs completed.  Later in today's blog you will see a few examples of extra long construction projects that are taking forever. I am a firm believer that some builders drag the construction time out as long as possible to make the owner believe it particulary diffficult and therefore should cost more than expected. We have some very good general contractors in Key West that are totally legitimate and very reliable. And we have others who may take on too many projects who hire inexperienced helpers and/or illegal workers.They show up when it fits their schedule, do a little work, and disappear.

1016 Varela Street
I wrote about this cigar make style cottage a couple of times and showed it several times. I was a big proponent of buying this place, expanding it, and making out like a bandit. The house did not look good from the street, but it had a huge rear yard that wrapped around the rear to the left which would give the new owner a lot of possibilities for varying uses. I remember having to show at limited hours of the day. There were closed circuit TV cameras to see who was at the door. The place was always tenant occupied which made showings even harder and they had to be present for all showings. They always watched who entered and what they looked at. Buyers found it diffiecult to think about the future when the present was looming over them like a hawk. But somebody bought the play, hired a good local contractor, and the place got a new lease on life in very quick order. I have not been inside and don't know what happended in the rear, but I am sure it includes a pool.

The sign states "Before and After 50 Days" That was on May 31, 2017


920 Eisenhower Drive
920 Eisenhower Drive is a big hulk of a house.  It looked abandoned for the past few years. It was once owned by the owner of Sloppy Joe. The house was elevated to add a new pier foundation,  The house was totally renovated which included re-framing much of the building, siding, and new interiors throughout the house. 

CLICK HERE for more photos of 920 Eisenhower Drive.

1116 Packer Street 
1116 Packer St is located in the South of Truman area of Old Town. This area has become a hotbed for renovation during the past couple of years. This was a small house and the renovation got completed fairly quickly by Key West standards.

CLICK HERE for more photos. Start to finish in less than a year.


716 Ashe Street
I wrote a blog about this property a couple of years ago.  It was a sad little house. It was lived in but very neglected. I will be writing a new blog about this property in the near future. Until then look at the photos of the front of the old house as that is all that remains. A whole new house has been built to replace what used to be. It supposed to be finished in less than thirty days.

704 Eaton Street
Renovation has just started at 704 Eaton Street. I understand it is going to be featured in an upcoming TV show. That should be interesting to watch. I wrote about the house before and compared it to the place where Boo Radley lived. The house used to sit on a huge lot which included space for an additional house next door. That parcel was sold off and a brand new structure is being built now. It will appear in the post immediately below.

It will be really interesting to see how town responds to the new house on the corner compared to 704 Eaton Street. One will be all new and the other will be renewed. I hope the renewal preserves the character and gets rid of the quirkiness of the past. It was odd, almost inhabited.  CLICK HERE for more photos of 704 Eaton Street.

700 Eaton Street
I dug into my old shoebox and found a photo of the dapper owner of the Curry Drug Store once located at the corner of Elizabeth and Eaton. That building was razed years ago and the lot sat vacant for decades. The lot was recently sold and the lot cleared. A new structure is being built in compliance with Florida's strict new building codes. A cement pad was laid upon which a concrete block building was erected. Fir strips were attached to CBS structure and then plywood was attached. A vapor barrier wrapped the plywood after which Hardiboard siding was hung. The city fathers in their wisdom gave the new owners permission to sell expensive wine at this place. Neighbors fought the proposed use, but lost. Don't we have enough joints that sell booze in this town?

The old garden and giant Royal Poinciana Tree were cleared to make room for the new CBS building.

Four homes on Johnson Lane are undergoing varying degrees of renovation. Each one is being undertaken independent of the other. The lead house and biggest undertaking is actually located at 820 Olivia Street. That house sits on a large L-shaped lot upon which a huge rear structure is being built that includes a pool and a covered structure that looks similar to a carport.

 826 Johnson Lane
The backyard was thick with trees and foliage. It looks like most of the debris on the outside has been removed. There interior was a separate mess. I am sure all of that is gone or will be soon so the the builders can redo the interiors.  Remember, this and the other little houses on Johnson Lane are simple little boxes.

830 Johnson Lane

 832 Johnson Lane

1 Nassau Lane
This little cottage is located on a picturesque slow lane of Key West which abruptly ends about 300 feet to the south. There are several drop dead gorgeous smaller homes on this lane. I wrote about this house a couple of months ago when it was for sale. I showed it a few times. I thought it would be a good buy for someone. It came off the market. Then a couple of weeks ago I was showing a neighboring property when I noticed the house had been painted and work was being done.

421 Simonton Street
Just about everybody in town has driven or walked by 421 Simonton Street at sometime. The 1912 Historic Sanborn Fire Map shows two nearly identical buildings situated next to each other and identified as A and B located at what is now 421 Simonton Street.  The 1899 Sanborn Fire Map showed a single totally different which had existed for at least ten years earlier. So the two twin buildings were built sometime between 1899 and 1912.  A narrow concrete block addition was added to the buildings replacing the original front porches. This concrete addition was used as commercial space for decades until March 2017 when the concrete block facade was removed and renovation of the historic buildings began.

CLICK HERE or progress photos of the ongoing renovation of 421 Simonton Street which will have five transiently licensed apartments sometime in the future.  Don't get all excited folks. The owner has had the transient licenses for several years. They did not materialize out of nowhere and there is no inside plot to put those licenses here.

419 Simonton Street

A construction permit box appeared at the front of 419 Simonton Street a couple of weeks ago. CLICK HERE for progress photos that may appear if something starts to happen at this location. I wrote about this property a few years ago when it was for sale. I thought then and believe now this is an incredible property. The rear yard extends 142 feet. 

1500 Albury Street
1500 Albury Street shows that construction can be completed if the project is managed properly. The owner acted as the general contractor on this project, but he engaged a licensed contractor to build the structure. The owner interviewed and engaged all the subcontractors ahead of construction and had each subcontractorcommitted to being on site at specific benchmark dates. The result was the house was completed by year end 2016. The finished home is available for purchase today. See me for details.

CLICK HERE for construction photos.

1500 Albury Street, Key West

1410 Washington Street
I began snapping photos of this Casa Marina East home in June 2016 just before the mid-century house was razed.  I sold the property on the back side of this lot. That owner just razed that house and began construction of a new home. I will share those pictures in the next Projects of Key West update. There are numerous projects underway where mid-century houses are being taken down and new houses being built. Most of these projects are being built in areas other than Old Town and the parts of Casa Marina and The Meadows where homes are not designated as being of historical importance, Most of the redevelopment lots are selling around $500,000. One new lot in the Casa Marina is under contract for $1.5 million. A 4200 sq ft lot at 417 Agnela Street sold for $450,000 in September 2016.  A big new houses is being built there right now. It faces public housing across the street. Naysayers who think town is over-priced don't get it. The bargain prices are history. New houses are replacing the old places and prices are on the rise.

CLICK HERE to view more photos of this home which has many of the same structural construction features used in 700 Eaton Street.

1100 White Street 
They say FIRE never strikes twice in the same place. But they are sometimes wrong. The commercial building located at the busy corner of White and Virginia Streets burned twice. The last time the fire was so severe that the concrete block building had to be demolished. The lot sat vacant for several years except when it was briefly used as a place where tourists could build sand sculptures. An ambitious project the original footprint was undertaken. Under theory this would involve less interference by the city and various citizen boards The new building has three separate units as did the original structure. The building is now completed.

January 2011

CLICK HERE to the construction photos of 1100 White Street and also renovation photos of 1018 White Street shown below.

1018 White Street 
Several years ago I wrote a blog about the falling down house formally located at 1018 White Street which the city fathers allowed to be razed. (First photo below.) It was beyond repair. The city wanted to add a new mausoleum at the cemetery and identified another house located  at 819 Olivia Street which the city allowed to be moved to the 1018 White location. There was an existing property already located at the rear of the lot which looks like it was updated in the process.

819 Olivia Street on wheels and ready to move to new location.

819 Olivia St as it looked in 1965

1401 Grinnell Street
It's not all that often that a relatively new house (built new in 2003) gets a thorough make-over, but that is what has been going on (and on and on) since mid July 2016.  The house is located on the corner of Grinnell at South Street in the Casa Marina Area amid homes priced in the low one million dollar to $3.5 million range. I live nearby and as snooty as I am, I was really upset when the house was built. It made no sense for the area given the value of homes here. Let's look at what has been accomplished in the one year since the trees were removed from the perimeter.

September 30, 2016

Photographed Sunday July 16, 2017

CLICK HERE for "progress photos".

1010 Whitehead Street
I wrote a blog about this modest little cottage a couple of years ago. It was once the home of one the really great men of Key West - Lawrence Formica, the entrepreneur who created LaTeDa. His house changed hands after his passing and later became a bank owned property that was priced very low. The new owner has begun to renovate.

221 Petronia Street
I wrote a blog about this fire damaged (then a bank owned property) building in January 1015. It went under contract immediately after it was listed and for good reason. The place is very well located just two blocks from Duval Street and near several popular restaurants. The new Truman Waterfront Park is two blocks to the west. 

828 Elizabeth Street
I wrote about 828 Elizabeth Street three years ago just before Christmas. The house was a duplex where an exterior stair provided access to the upper apartment. The lower level apartment was a warren of rooms where the tenants shared refrigerator and cooking privileges. The interiors were gutted and work started on giving the old girl a sturdy new foundation. Work has been stalled for the past couple of months.

903 Eaton Street
I have a nice little project site available for purchase which is located at 903 Eaton Street. This happened to be the largest lot in Old Town where the existing concrete block structure may be taken down and a brand new house can be built. The lot measures 50 feet wide and 103 deep or 5300 sq ft. CLICK HERE. If you consider what has been built and what is being built, you may just appreciate the size fo the lot and ability to take down a non-historic existing building.  

There are a lot of other projects underway. I will add a new update in the not too distant future to let my loyal readers see what is going on.  In the meantime, if you are looking to buy a place in Key West where you can create your own dream home, please consider contacting me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642.  I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

1205 11th Street, Key West - Bank Owned House For Sale

Potential buyers seeking bargain priced homes in Key West may want to take a look at 1205 11th Street. This is a Bank Owned home which was under contract for several months. It went back on the market on Thursday afternoon. I took new photos earlier this morning. I think this is a real buying opportunity for someone.

This 1248 sq ft home is a concrete block structure with stucco overlay which was built prior to 1973. The Property Appraiser records on this house are in conflict as age of construction and size of the home. I found one reference to the house existing as early as 1973 and multiple records after that date. The house appears to be a conversion of a typical mid-century home which I would date in the mid 1950s or early 1960s. A two story cabana with mini kitchen and bath are located on the south side of the property adjacent to the large pool. A second one story cottage is located on the north east corner of the lot. It too has a mini kitchen and bath. The MLS listing only refers to the original house which has three bedrooms and two baths. The house sits on a 110' X 70 ' or 7840 sq ft lot in a nice single family home neighborhood located two blocks east of the ball fields on Kennedy Drive.

I dug down in my old shoe box and found an photo of the area taken by Ty Symroski and Wendy Tucker in 1999.  Loyal readers know I love showing older photos to help explain current Key West. The commercial area at upper right is the Searstown shopping center on North Roosevelt Boulevard. The large green expanse in the middle are the baseball fields for Key West youth who are among the best baseball players in the State of Florida year after year. The original Poinciana Elementary School is shown on the right side of the middle quadrant. A brand new school was built a couple of years ago to replace the old school which was razed. One of the three new fire houses in Key West is visible on the bottom left corner of the ball fields.  A skate park is now located adjacent. The town fathers and mothers make a big deal out of providing good clean alternative things for their kids to do which are totally separated from all the goofiness of Duval Street.  The KMART shopping center is located on the upper left corner. The medical professional medical building is just below that shopping area.

CLICK HERE to view more photos I took of the house and lot. The house sits in the middle of the lot. The master bedroom has French doors which open out to the pool area where there is a covered bar area and a separate cabana or pool house. The cabana is a two story building with a thatched roof. The thatching is real.  There is a lot of dust on the second floor which currently has some very dirty carpet of all things. I believe this building may have been used as a rental. If it was, it would have been an illegal rental as this is a single family residential neighborhood.

The north side of the property is dominated by a huge Royal Poinciana Tree under which is a small a separate one bedroom cottage with mini kitchen and bathroom. This cottage may be 15 ft by 10 ft or so. I am sure it is illegal. I would probably tear it down if I bought the house. In fact I would take down most of the awnings and semi-enclosed spaces some former owner added to the original house. I believe the original house could be so much more if there was much less mess.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet on 1205 11th Street, Key West which is offered for sale at $484,700.  The please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to set up a private showing of this home. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

If you walk out the front door of this house and walk about 35 feet to the corner at Patterson and then walk one block and turn back and walk one block south you will find this delightful little lake located mid-way between North Roosevelt Blvd to the north and Flagler Blvd to the south. There are a couple channel cuts along the way which allows small water craft to move between the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean via the Riviera Canal. This is a sweet little neighborhood that deserves a look

923 Southard Street, Key West - Pretty as a Picture

Just listed, but not by me, 923 Southard Street in Old Town Key West. The original cigar maker's style cottage was built circa 1889. I found an old photo that shows pretty much the original structure as it appeared 50 some years ago (see the black and white photo below). If you look carefully you can see traditional clapboard siding at the front but board and batten siding (vertical siding) on the side.  You also will see a "sawtooth" addition at the rear. I suspect that was the kitchen at the time the photo was taken. A later owner expanded that space to include a second floor addition.  The resultant house today has 1476 sq ft of living space under air. The house sits on a large 2700 sq ft lot (approximately 27' x 100') lot located in the heart to Old Town.

Circa 1965

The listing Realtor describes this pretty as can be property as:

"This late 19th Century cottage is the perfect oasis in the heart of Old Town. Landscaped and fenced in the rear for total privacy, with an outdoor shower, arbor, heated plunge pool and a bodega for storage. The living area and hallway are bright with eastern light falling on the natural Dade County pine walls. The bright white kitchen gives onto the outdoors, and attached laundry room. Bedrooms are at opposite ends upstairs, separated by a hallway with skylights, closets and a nook. Step out of the master suite onto the deck overlooking the inviting scene below. The harbor and Duval Street are a short walk away. New roof in 2015, and 4 new split a/c units in 2016. Offered furnished."

Today this storybook cottage rests behind a picturesque white picket. The front porch provides the perfect perch for people watching.  Inside, you are greeted by a traditional long hallway on the right which leads to the kitchen and dining at the rear. The current owner removed a previously existing wall that separated a small front office from the adjacent living room. The newly expanded living room is a delight. The floors were refinished and look like new. Windows from the hallway on the east which filter into the living area.  Windows at the front and west side light the living room during the daytime. The Dade County Pine Walls are punctuated by the baseboards, trim, and crown molding all painted a crisp white.  

There is a full bathroom plus closets closets located at the rear of the living room. This space will come in handy as the second bathroom on the second floor is en-suite to the master bedroom.

The kitchen is a compact place to cook when the owner is dining at home versus going out to one of the nearby restaurants including Mangia Mangia, Michael's, Azul, or Cafe Sole. The owner created a nicely outdoor dining area under the trellis opposite the pool. The laundry room is located adjacent to the kitchen.

The turf is not real, but the sunshine, the trees, the singing birds are very real, and they are very much a part of the appeal of this magical back yard located in the heart of Old Town.

The front bedroom tells us a lot about the history of this house. There is an original scuttle located in the ceiling over the chair in the above photo. In the old days before air conditioning, scuttles were opened to allow warm air to rise through the space to the outdoors. Today the old scuttles  remind us of the miracles of electricity and interior refrigeration. The common hallway separates the two bedrooms.

The roof top balcony is the perfect spot to take an all-over Key West tan. It's also a great place to sit in the morning drinking your coffee or late at night as the warm breezes move across the island. The last couple of nights have been incredible as the full moon migrated across the sky with slow winds moving lots of clouds about. It was quite the show. When the conch trains, delivery vans, scooters, and cars stop the real noises of the island begin: the dog scratching off fleas, the occasional cat screeching, the gecko on the wall chirping, the fountain in the garden gurgling, the palms swishing. These are the sounds of Key West us locals love to hear.

923 Southard Street is offered at $1,024,900.  CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing of this treasure. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Let me help you find your place in Paradise.