The 234 Apartment

Apartment hunters may soon have another option when shopping for an affordable place to rent in Round Rock. The Round Rock City Council passed a resolution of non-objection last week allowing Pedcor , the developer of the Shadow Ridge Apartments , to move forward with efforts to receive state tax incentives to help develop the complex. Shadow Ridge Apartments " width="460" height="418" />Applicants must make 60 percent of the area’s median income, which is approximately $78,000, according to city of Round Rock Planning Director Brad Wiseman , in order to qualify for one of the 256 units planned for the development.  It will be located on the northwest corner of A.W. Grimes and Old Settlers Boulevard and will be one of only a handful of income- restricted apartment complexes in the city. “There is a huge need in this entire region and all across Texas,” said Craig Lintner, senior vice president of Pedcor, to the council during the meeting. Wiseman said th...

T wo weeks ago, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge handed down a decision designed to strike fear in the hearts of landlords. Justice James d’Auguste ordered that an independent receiver be appointed to manage two Midtown residential buildings where the landlords allegedly allowed illegal Airbnb rentals to occur. The case, which began when the city sued the landlords in February 2015, has become one of the battlegrounds in a larger war between city enforcement agencies and short- term rental sites like Airbnb. Airbnb, which was recently valued at $31 billion, refuses to release the exact addresses of hosts who break the law by renting their entire apartment for less than 30 days without being present. Without the addresses and names of Airbnb violators , the city mostly targets the owners of buildings that rack up the most illegal hotel complaints from 311 calls and the New York City Department of Buildings. “This entire model—and it was intentional [by the city]—is complaint-drive...

Google Fiber (Photo: Custom) Last week, U.S. District Judge David J. Hale dismissed what became known in Louisville as the " Google Fiber case ," possibly setting a precedent for similar cases across the country. The case was brought by BellSouth Telecommunications LLC , which operates as AT&T Kentucky, because of Louisville Metro Government 's " One Touch Make Ready " ordinance. It passed in February 2016. The legislation gave third- party internet service providers (Google Fiber, specifically) unfettered access to utility poles in the city — including those owned by AT&T — so the companies could run fiber and other cable for their own networks. The city saw the legislation as an important step toward improving Louisville's internet landscape . AT&T sued Metro Government , contending that it was inappropriate and unfair for the city to make such an ordinance because AT&T (BellSouth) owned the poles and therefore controlled the right of w...

View Comments Kelsey Zionskowski 's dream of becoming a nurse shattered after she was hit on McLoughlin Boulevard near River Road On Aug. 5, 2014, 25-year-old Kelsey Zionskowski was heading home from her second day working as an office assistant at Oregon Health & Science University when her life was changed forever . Kelsey Zionskowski , 28, receives help from her mother, Raquel, in placing her walker in the back of her car." title="PHOTO BY RAYMOND RENDLEMAN - Kelsey Zionskowski , 28, receives help from her mother, Raquel, in placing her walker in the back of her car." class="caption" width="100%" />Zionskowski's dream of becoming a nurse was shattered after she was hit by a vehicle as she waited to cross McLoughlin Boulevard near River Road. She suffered massive trauma to both legs, just after getting off the TriMet bus that took her from OHSU to the bus stop across from her home in Milwaukie. While she was waiting for the traffi...

In March of 2016, having recently been let go from the Cleveland Browns due in part to truancy and public drug use, Johnny Manziel applied to live in an apartment. The property manager who processed his application was at first delighted that she would have the opportunity to rent to the Heisman Trophy recipient from Texas A&M. But she was quickly disheartened when she realized that, due to a criminal background screening policy that she had helped create which immediately disqualified applicants who had been arrested for or charged with a crime, she could not rent to Johnny Football. His criminal background check revealed that he had been arrested for domestic violence three months prior. But since she was a fan, and because it was her personal opinion that he was innocent, she successfully lobbied her building’s ownership to restructure their screening policy to disregard arrests, and only screen for convictions (using the logic that arrests are not proof of wrongdoing). ...

Tuesday night, the Planning Commission voted to approve recommendations for the rezoning of a property in East Austin that would allow for the expansion of a local music collective ’s campus, despite some commissioners’ wariness of how the upzoning might attract development less amenable to Austin’s endangered resident artists . Mosaic Sound Collective , a for-profit/nonprofit hybrid formed to help preserve Austin’s music culture in the midst of the city’s rapid growth, currently runs a modest operation of offices in what used to be a juvenile detention facility at 6400 FM 969. During the hearing, Commissioner Chito Vela jokingly said that he had heard the building was “haunted.” Cursed or not, if City Council approves the upzoning of the property from general office to commercial mixed use, Mosaic co-founder Chris “Curse” Mackey said he and other collective members have big dreams for turning the space into something “magical.” “(Our intention) is to create a legacy for the Aust...

House-hunters are increasingly “wedging” Melbourne’s inner suburban real estate market by targeting a small number of quality homes while ignoring comparable properties , real estate agents say. The weekend auction market saw above- market prices paid for some well-located homes but comparable, if slightly inferior properties tended to underperform. The trend to highly divisive auction results for similar properties was demonstrated by two auctions in Fitzroy held an hour apart on Saturday. 80 Gore Street, Fitzroy, passed in at auction on the weekend. At one sale, four buyers fought hard for an unusually wide terrace house at 124 Victoria Street. Quoted by Nelson Alexander at $1.85 million to $2 million, the three- bedroom corner property , which has a renovated rear stables as a separate retreat, instantly attracted a $1.85 million offer from a buyers’ advocate representing a local family. The price rocketed to an on-the-market $2,040,000 and kept going until the house was s...