Auburn’s most expensive condos have cachet. Prospective homeowners better have cash.
AUBURN – In real estate, first impressions count.
“This is gorgeous,” said a guest touring the area’s toniest condominium development, Colonial Ridge.
The 80-unit project, on the site of the former Mid-State College is open for business, hoping to lure buyers who want a classy abode with easy access to the Maine Turnpike.
And who are willing to pay for it.
The basic cost for one of the units is $259,000 – a full $100,000 more than the median price of a single-family home in Androscoggin County. And that’s the starting price. For an end unit with a daylight basement, prices start at $289,000.
What do you get for $259,000?
An airy, spacious living space downstairs, three bedrooms upstairs, two-and-a-half baths, access to a community/fitness center and a one-car garage.
But there are plenty of touches that speak to the upscale clientele developers Emile Clavet and Kevin Dean are trying to attract. Big, walk-in closets. Oversized windows and 9-foot ceilings. Second-floor laundry facilities. Architectural details like paneled posts and marble-hearth fireplaces.
Diane Landry, who’s selling the units for Millett Realty, said there’s no standard design, so homeowners can tailor the space to their preferences. The walls, staircase and sliders in the development’s model home – recently opened for the ribbon-cutting ceremony – varied from a neighboring unit.
“We don’t want cookie-cutter houses,” said Landry.
The model home, which comes in at about $300,000, sports mahogany-hued, hard-wood floors; solid cherry cabinetry; quartz countertops; custom solar-sensitive, radio-controlled shades; faux-slate porcelain tiles in the bathrooms; and built-in hutches and shelves in the living room.
The unit was decorated by Lynn Maxfield of Decorating Plus Inc. Landry said she expects most homeowners will hire professional decorators to help make the selections that best reflect their tastes. At $75 per hour for an interior designer, that can add another $3,000 to $20,000 to the cost, depending on the extent of the service.
That doesn’t seem to deter prospective buyers. So far, four units are under contract and one unit is occupied. About 26 units are planned for Phase 1; of those, 14 are built and the foundations are in for another eight. The project should be finished in 2009.
For now, they are the most expensive condos in the area. But it’s a title that is likely to move on. A 30-unit condominium development at the old Libbey Mill site on the banks of the Androscoggin River in downtown Lewiston expects to offer waterfall-view homes for up to $525,000.
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