The Projects of Key West - March 2018 Update

My last blog on the Projects of Key West was in July 2017. Key West made the news a four months later when television networks showed property damage caused by Hurricane Irma.  The networks mentioned Key West in almost all the coverage leading viewers to think Key West incurred the same devastating home damages that occurred outside of Key West. That was not the case.  We had minimal home damage compared to what happened up the Keys. The one big exception was the former home of Shel Silverstein at 618 William Street which has now been razed.

Two things happened as a result of the storm:  first, a lot of the construction work in progress before the storm had to stop. Some of the workers who evacuated before the storm lived outside of Key West. Many of their homes were destroyed. Other homes were so badly damaged they became uninhabitable. I have talked with local business owners who told me they lost permanent employees whose homes were destroyed or who just gave up on trying to live here because the cost of housing is so incredibly high. Second, other builders stopped work in progress to do emergency emergency repairs.

It wasn't until around Christmas that Key West as a community got things put back in order enough to live our lives normally In that ten week time span the tree canopy over the island that was so badly damaged re-generated itself.  Seasonal trees like the Royal Poincianas which bloom in May sprouted millions and millions of tiny red flowers celebrating the fact that they did not die. The Key West skyline came alive and we all knew it would be alright here again. Let's take a look the houses that have been completed, started, or still under construction.

1016 Varela Street is located in the Old Town neighborhood south of Truman Avenue where most houses are less expensive than those north of Truman. The area is more densely populated which is a result of smaller lots and more multi-unit housing. The house on Varela sits on a very large "L-shaped lot". Although the place didn't look like much, it had a lot of that thing Realtors call "potential".  Some lucky person finally bought the place after several years on the market. They hired a good local contractor who  totally transformed the place.

1205 Florida Street 
This home is located two blocks east of White Street in the area I don't consider mid-town but which others do. The house sits upon a large lot which offered all kinds of possibilities for expansion or adding a pool and garden. The new owner opted to renovate the existing house, add a covered rear deck, and leave the addition of a pool to a later date. I had a lot of interior photos which I lost upon my computer crash. Here are a few before and after shots.

1414 Thompson Street  
I wrote about this former bank owned home in 2016. I got a ton of phone calls and emails on it. The new owners started an ambitious revival of this mid-century home that preserved the iconic look but also added some necessary space. The thing most notable about the change by passers-by is the new street appeal.  I have not seen inside the fence but recall the huge pool and huge palms which surround it. This was and looks to be a tropical paradise.

704 Eaton Street
I wrote about this house several years ago and compared it to the house in "To Kill a Mockingbird" where Boo Radley lived.  It really was that creepy. When I wrote about the house the lot size included an equally creepy but large "garden" to the west. The listing agent told potential buyers they could split off the lot and maybe put a commercial structure on the new lot. I thought that idea would never pass. To my surprise that is exactly what city fathers and mothers allowed. The new parcel is 700 Eaton Street which will be described below. 704 Eaton Street is now owned by recently retired race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr who is participating in the renovation.  

I borrowed some of the owner's Instagram photos of the project. The two pics above show a couple of discoveries he made.  The first is a hand forged nail used in the construction of the original house and the second is a bee hive found inside the studs. During  renovation of most old houses, much of the original interiors are removed to make way for new interior stud walls and the replacement of electrical wiring, plumbing, and introduction of HVAC.

Above photo was taken of 704 Eaton Street, Key West on September 10, 2017 a few short hours after Hurricane Irma passed over Key West. This photo shows the strength and resilience of old conch architecture and construction techniques. The windows in this house were removed and the back side of the house was completely removed prior to the storm. The winds blew through the house but did no damage. I tell people the story of when I bought my first place here. We wanted to take down an existing wall constructed of Dade County Pine (the same pine used in 704 Eaton). I used a sledge hammer. The stud would not move. We broke a couple of Sawzall blades trying to cut through the wood that was as strong as concrete. This lumber is tough. So are the men who build and renovate houses using it.

If you look upward in this series you will see the partial demolition of the sawtooth addition. That building and a shed addition at the rear have also been restored. It's too bad that the city fathers allowed a wine bar parking lot to be built on the corner. What the hell were they thinking?  

700 Eaton Street
I dug into my old shoebox and found a photo of the dapper former 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 applied. 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.

This place is nearly done and I won't write about it again. I feel very sorry for the people who own the beautiful home to the south. I wrote about that beautiful home several years ago. It is wonderful. The property value has been diminished by this new ugly structure. Shame on the city.

744 Windsor Lane
This property is composed of two good sized homes which were previously joined  to create a large grand residence. The renovation underway here is of the gardens at the front and rear. As I understand it, changes to the homes will be minimal as viewed from the street. The front garden was totally removed. The rear garden and pool area were strikingly beautiful when this home was purchased. The new owners engaged Craig Reynolds, Key West's premiere landscape architect, to create the new street view and rear gardens.

Pool and Rear Gardens before Renovation

Trees were removed in anticipation of redevelopment of the grounds. A couple of large specimen palms fell victim to Hurricane Irma. I will report back on this project upon completion.

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.at what is now identified as 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. Photos show the Hurricane Irma interlude. Nothing happened to this building. That is a remarkable feature about Conch construction. These old houses were built to stand up to the winds that hit our island every once in a while.

 

 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.

1109 Fleming Street 
I wrote about this once-bank Eyebrow House located at the far end of Fleming Street several years ago. The new owner started an ambitious project to renovate and expand the eyebrow house and rear cottage that sit upon the huge lot which has rear access and parking off Stickney Lane.

804 Catherine Street  
The original house had been converted into a combination home and business like several other properties over the years except this place didn't look all that great. The houses was fairly good sized and it had a really large back yard. This project has been underway for four years. I'm done taking photos!

1209 Knowles Lane  
This house was a bank owned property that I quite frankly missed the ball on. I was appalled by the condition of this house. It was among the worst of bank owned houses I have seen, and I have seen a lot! I think it may have been a tenant rather than an owner who painted hopeless messages on the kitchen walls. I remember the floors sagging and the ceiling falling inward. I looked at the lot and did not see the possibility of adding a pool. I was wrong.

1012 Catherine Street
This has been an interesting property to observe. As in the case of other homes I was photographing, I lost several months worth of images of this property that looks really sharp. The contractor was always present every time I went there. That in itself is a rarity in Key West.

524 Grinnell Street  
This unassuming little house is getting a major renovation by one of the best from bottom to top and front to back. This house is located on one of the best blocks in Old Town.

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. I am sure it was pretty special when Larry owned it. He did just about everything right. Well, he had personal issues like we all do, but he sure knew how to throw a party every day! Later  it became a bank owned property that was priced very because of deteriorated condition.

Construction was underway a couple of days before Hurricane Irma was to hit town. I took the photos below at that time.  The contractor was warning folks not to enter the house. The last photo shows the house now completed.

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. 

317 Angela Street
I have been taking photos of this project since last summer. However, when my computer crashed, I lost those progress photos. I must report how sorry I am about this particular loss because this brand new house is stunning in its simplicity of design and how it was built to fit under the existing tree canopy, I found a photo of the old house that previously sat upon this lot from the 1920s until after 1965 when the black and white photo was taken. The photo of the empty lot was borrowed from our local MLS. The new photos were taken February 1, 2018

1022 Flagler Avenue 
Once a lovely mid-century modern home located in the Casa Marina Area where home prices continue to escalate, the new owner decided to take down the original house and replace it with a brand new two story contemporary home.

1023 Washington Street
I used to live a half block away from the prettiest home in Key West. Oh, that house is still there and it still looks very pretty, but HARC betrayed the people of Key West and permitted two new houses to be built on the grounds of the former anchor home in the Casa Marina Area. Two houses were built, one on Whalton Street and the other at 1023 Washington. The new house on Washington is nearing completion. It looks great. But it should have never been allowed to be built. I wish that people who spoke on behalf of the project had been sworn to tell the truth under penalty of perjury.

1413 Von Phister Street
A Contemporary Conch House is being constructed on the site of a former mid-century modern home.  The small CBS construction was razed to make way for a larger home that will be easier to maintain and insure year after year. There are several properties being built to replace smaller homes I think this on will surpass them all in design. The new home will be about 1800 square foot in size and will have three bedrooms, three baths, large rooms throughout, a great room at the rear overlooking a new pool. The house will incorporate impact window and doors, Hardiboard siding, and metal roof Completion is expected in December.

1209 Laird Street 
Another mid-century home located one-half block east of White Street and a few blocks to the Atlantic Ocean was raze and a new contemporary conch is being constructed. This house is slated to have a rooftop sundeck in the rear.

I first came to Key West in March 1984. It was pretty funky back then. I loved it for the funk and all the hidden potential I saw. I imagined what I could do if I bought a house here.  Key West has changed so much over the years. Prices have gotten out of control for normal for most buyers. I hate that and yet I am contributing to this because I sell these over-priced houses which makes all the remaining houses go up in price. When I was in college a can of Coke cost ten cents. Today a coke at the gas station costs $1.49.  All prices rise. A Coke is still a Coke. But one of the old houses of Key West is now a million bucks or more.

Key West January 2018 Real Estate Sales - Prices are Out of This World

A couple of days ago I was talking with a fellow agent at Preferred Properties Key West. She told me she was up at 5:00 AM and was looking at sales statistics. She said not much has sold and there aren't all that many houses under contract. We shared our concern about over-priced market. I stated I watch the MLS like a hawk and primarily see new listings and price reductions.  They seem to go hand in hand. Some agents will take any listing and put it out there simply to let the market tell the seller that your ego is too big for your britches. If you are a fan of the Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles you will have seen each of the agents try to educate sellers about not over-pricing. I've had the same discussions with potential sellers.

Shortly after Hurricane Irma I met with the owners of a house I had sold. They wanted to sell it. They remodeled a bedroom, updated a bath, and painted the house. They wanted to sell the place for about $400,000 more than they paid for it. I told them I did not want to waste my money on advertising and my life on holding open houses on a property that would not sell at that or anywhere near that price. They found somebody who would. When and if it sells, I will report back to you to see who was right and who was wrong.

Let's look at the numbers of what sold in January 2018 and contrast or compare to 2017  and 2016.

January 2018 SOLDS

There were 23 single family home sales on the island of Key West. The least expensive home was $350,000. The most expensive home was located on Sunset Key.  It sold for $5,900,000. The median home sale was $732,500.

January 2017 SOLDS

I am doing the research as I write. This is interesting. There were 23 single family home sales in this same time period compared to 2018. The least expensive home sold for $350,000 and the most expensive, located again on Sunset Key, sold for $5,000,000. Three of the 23 sales were on Sunset Key. They sold for $2,775,000, $4,650,000, and $5,000,000. That really screws up comparisons but that is a factor of our market in both Old Town and Casa Marina as well. The median home was $670,000.

January 2016 SOLDS

This is interesting!  There were just 17 single family home sales in January 2016 or seven less than in 2017 and 2018. The least expensive home sold for $370,000. The most expensive home for just $1,450,000. The median home sale was $630,000.

January 2015 SOLDS

As I started to write today's blog my intention was to go back to 2015. The results bothered me so I took the search back one more year.  There were 25 single family homes sales in January 2015. The least expensive house sold for $360,000. The most expensive home sold for $1.425.000. It was located at 1212 Georgia in the "Arts District" just east of White Street.  The median home sale in 2015 was $651.000.


As of today, February 4, 2018, there are 193 ACTIVE single family homes on the market in Key West. I took out the three most expensive because they really mess up the numbers when discussing prices. The least expensive home is offered at $389,000. The most expensive (not really) is located on Sunset Key and is offered at $6,950,000. The asking price on the median home is $1,294,500.  There are 27 single family homes priced between $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. There are nine priced between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000. There are 14 priced over $4,000,000. Where in the world are all of the buyers for these ego homes going to come from?

There are a total of 53 single family homes in the mls showing as contingent or pending. Fifteen of those are priced over $1,000,000. Three of the fifteen are priced over $2,000,000. I repeat the last sentence of the above paragraph, wherein the world are all of he buyers of these ego homes going to come from? I am glad a saved my money and my time and told my former customers to take a hike.


I share the frustration with my fellow agent about the current lack of sales. Our January sales for 2018 actually look a bit better than the prior years, but the inventory of available homes is way over-priced.

315 Virginia Street, Key West- Just Listed

Just Listed, but not by me, 315 Virginia Street in Key West, Florida.  This home has recently been renovated into a really charming two bedroom two bath with new salt water pool. It is located just two blocks west of Duval Street and within easy walking distance to nearby Ft Zachary Taylor Beach, the Hemingway House, and all of Old Town. I looked in my old shoe box and found  the black and white photo below which shows this home as it appeared about fifty years ago. The color photo below that shows a similar view of the house as it looks today.

The house first appeared on the 1892 Historic Sanborn Fire Maps. Much of the immediate  area was vacant of homes or commercial buildings at that time. In the  "Autobiography of Stephen Moreno Whalton" I found the passage below which speaks about this particular area which Whalton refers to as "the woods":

"Another event in my life that I have never forgotten happened when I was about seven years old, at that time there were a very few houses on the Southeast side of our Truman Avenue, most of that part of the Island was a wilderness, my grandfather and my father raised quite a number of horses in the woods of Key West, and my grandfather gave me a horse and my father had him broken to harness and saddle, this was a stallion, and somewhat mean. The only time that I was put on his back, was on a Sunday morning, when one of my father’s hired men put me on him without a saddle, as soon as he got out of the yard, he started to run, and I was too small to stop him, there was a man coming up the street who stood with his arms open,but when my horse got near this man, he made a quick turn to go by him, and landed me on a flint rock, I recovered from that accident in about six weeks, but I never had a chance to get even with that horse, as my father sold him before I became old enough to handle him. This was the end of the events of my early childhood, which have remained fresh in my memory down through the years, due of course, to the fact, that they made a great impression on my mind at the time of happening."

Fort Zachary Taylor Beach, Key West

The black and white photo teaches us a bit about the history of this house. The front section with the louver windows and door was the original house. Note the gable roof midway. That was likely a kitchen addition. In earlier times cook houses were not attached to houses because of the threat of fire.  The black and white photo shows a second addition at the rear with a flat or shed roof. Today, the rooms are arranged with the two bedrooms located at the front of the home off the hallway that leads through the house to the living room at the rear. The kitchen is located in that earlier addition, but it looks nothing like it did more than half a century ago.

This newly renovated two bedroom, two bath home has 1026 sq ft of interior living space. It looks sharp and contemporary even though wild horses ran in nearby woods more than a century ago. One more thing, there is a pool in the rear. They didn't have pools in the old days.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet on 315 Virginia Street, Key West offered at $1,150,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a private showing. I ama buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. This home is currently used as a monthly vacation rental. Showings are available until March 1st. This could be one of those snooze you lose houses. Best to see it while you can get inside.

Trujillo Grocery as Remembered by Ronny Bailey, Key West Folk Artist

I have written several blogs over the past few years touting the folk art of Ronny Bailey, Key West's "artist of residences" so to speak. Ronny is a fifth generation Conch (local who can trace his ancestry for five generations who have lived on the Island of Key West). Ronny  built houses for a living until his retirement a few years ago. Not satisfied with watching re-runs on TV, Ronny emerged from retirement to build tiny houses - very tiny houses, the kind you put in a box and take on a plane back home up north. The houses he builds are re-interpretations of actual houses in Key West. His artwork is an homage to the way these places looked when Ronny he was growing up.

The black and white photo at the top shows the Trujillo Grocery as it appeared about fifty years ago. The simple wood building was located at the corner of  Windsor Lane and Olivia Street (800 Olivia Street) in Old Town.  Most of the homes in this area where vernacular like this building, but others were cigar maker cottages and some two story grand conchs. The Trujillo Grocery building was razed and replaced a couple of decades ago by a new 4167 square foot concrete block structure. The cute and quirky wood frame structure was was replaced by big and efficient concrete box. The Trujillo Grocery business continues to operate at the same location today.  Ronny Bailey's recently completed folk art piece shown in today's blog is an artistic tribute to a part of Key West that once was.

Each of Ronny's projects involves sourcing of materials to replicate the original buildings.  On this piece Ronny used salvaged Dade County Pine wood which he ripped into small pieces which resembled original planks which he assembled to create a physical structure  He builds the tiny structures using the same kind of framing and building techniques used in the real houses. The patina on the wood is the result of careful selection of used lumber with real paint that peeled away after decades of exposure to the sun and rain in Key West. This particular piece of art incorporates a new skill Ronny developed.  Ronny told me he had to figure out how to bend actual salvaged metal roof to simulate the "crimp" portion of a genuine V crimp roof. He found a nicely rusted sheet of old metal roofing, perfectly bent it multiple times, and then secured it in place. Prior to perfecting the use of real metal roofing, Ronny would paint a wood roof to look like metal.

I'll bet Ronny was a bit of a mischief maker when he was in school because he is one now when it comes to his art. The Trujillo Grocery piece incorporates nostalgic advertising signs with a lounging cat, a pecking chicken, and a cigar smoking Conch inside the store. The old gent on the inside has a lit cigar in his mouth as he looks back at the modern day people who stare into his world of yore. When you look down through the glass window you will notice loaves of bread on the shelves and a six pack of bottle COKE.

Ronny is a big man and a gentle man. He is a man of faith. He incorporates three watchwords of his faith into each of his creations: peace, joy, and love. See if you can spot them in the photos. CLICK HERE to view more photos of Trujillo Grocery.

You can view the Trujillo Grocery artwork in person January 27 and 28 at the 33rd Annual Key West Craft Show (free to attend). Location Whitehead at Caroline Street 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Go meet Ronny.  You could save yourself thousands and thousands of dollars if you buy one of his tiny houses. Of course, you will be denying me the opportunity to sell you a place you could actually call your home.