Tag: Provincetown

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New Developments In Provincetown. The Near West End

There is a lot of building activity this fall in town, not only home renovations all over town but great substantial developments. In the next few weeks I will review my favorite new developments in different neighborhoods. Starting in the near West End there are three great projects done or nearing completion. We have shown many of these condos to our buyers and they are all unique in their own way and offer terrific options and amenities. My repeated caveat that much of the descriptive copy is direct from MLS.

4 Race Road is one of my favorites as the floor plans are unique and the finishes are very nice. Unit #3 the first floor 2 bedroom unit rambles along with a separate living room, a great dining room/kitchen and then down a lovely gallery hallway are two bedrooms with their own full baths.  4 Race Road #3, $659K, 2bed/3bath, 1,170 square feet.  This first floor unit is the perfect mix of historic detail and modern conveniences. Enter through the double front doors into the light-filled living room w/hardwood floors and oversized 2/2 windows. Seperate kitchen/dining with white cabinetry, top-of-the-line stainless appliances and granite counters. 1/2 bath. Two good-sized bedrooms, each with their own en-suite bath w/custom tiles. 2 car parking on Carnes Lane. Exclusive use yard area in front and along east side of house.

 

 

The PH is just wonderful.  One of the most unique condo offerings in town with it’s multiple decks and amazing light. 4 Race Road #4  1 bed/3 baths, 1,080 square feet, $649K, is nearing completion. Located on top two floors of 4 Race Road, the first floor of the unit has a living room, eat-in kitchen, 1.5 baths and a glorious sun room that opens onto a south-facing deck. Upstairs is a large bedroom with private deck, and an en-suite bath containing a separate tub & shower and double sinks. A very special unit with of 1080 s.f. plus 300+ s.f. of decks. Exclusive use yard space and two car tandem parking on west side of building.

64 Franklin Street #F. 3 bed/2 bath, 1,080 square feet, $654,900. This is a completely renovated three bedroom penthouse in Provincetown’s west end. Nearing completion this unit with vaulted ceiling, skylight, open kitchen, dining and living area offers great light and air. The kitchen offer lots of work space, stained cabinets, solid surface counters, stainless appliances and island for added dining. The master bedroom has its own bath with tiled shower for two. There are two guestrooms which share the second bath also with tiled shower. A large exclusive use deck off the living room is great for outdoor entertaining. Additional features include: air conditioning, gas fireplace, crown molding, cottage style 5-panel interior doors, oak floors, separate in-unit laundry room, basement storage, and parking for 2 cars. One year warranty included.

64 Franklin #E, $639K, 3 bed/2 bath, 1,080 square feet. This 3-bedroom, 2-bath unit open kitchen, dining and living area offers great entertaining space. The spacious kitchen has lots of work space, stained cabinets, solid surface counters, stainless appliances and island for added dining. The master bedroom has its own bath with tiled shower for two. There are two guestrooms which share the second bath also with tiled shower. Plenty of options for outdoor use with exclusive mahogany decked porch, side bricked patio and large yard. Additional features include: air conditioning, gas fireplace, crown molding, cottage style 5-panel interior doors, oak floors, separate in-unit laundry room, basement storage, and parking for 2 cars. 1 year warranty included.  #D is available too 2/2 $639K, 830 sf

50 Pleasant Street #1, 3 bed/4 bath, 1,600 square fee. $829K. Brand new construction in the West End! Own one of only two units on a beautifully wooded lot. Three bedrooms, three and a half baths, townhome style living with a full finished basement. Oak flooring, granite counters, stainless appliances, gas fireplace, central air, exclusive use outside space. The unit is accompanied by a separate garage space and artist studio above. Completion date approximately late October

 

 

 

 

50 Pleasant St #2, $810K, 2 bed/4 bath, 1,276 square feeet.  Own one of only two units on a beautifully wooded lot. Two bedrooms, three and a half baths, townhome style living with a full finished basement. Oak flooring, granite counters, stainless appliances, gas fireplace, central air, exclusive use outside space. The unit is accompanied by a separate garage space and artist studio above. Completion date approximately late October

Illustrating the continuing strength of the market both of these condos at 50 Pleasant are under contract.

 

Next week I will focus on developments farther into the West End out towards the beach.

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Herring Cove

A great Boston Globe article below. The Herring Cove Bathhouse’s last hurrah!

Events to honor Cape Cod  bathhouse

By Cate McQuaid

|  GLOBE CORRESPONDENT  SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

 

Artist Jay Critchley places a found flag on bathhouse benches outside the Herring Cove Beach bathhouse in Provincetown as part of his upcoming art installation/show.

JULIA CUMES

Artist Jay Critchley places a found flag on bathhouse benches outside the Herring Cove Beach bathhouse in Provincetown as part of his upcoming art installation/show.

PROVINCETOWN — The bathhouse at Herring Cove Beach is on its last legs. The nearly 60-year-old modernist structure dominates this little slip of the National Seashore at the tip of Cape Cod, but the floors are cracking, and the second floor was condemned years ago. Demolition will begin in October.

But the bathhouse is going out with a bang. Artist and impresario Jay Critchley has spearheaded “Ten Days That Shook the World: The Centennial Decade,” featuring art installations, performances, panel discussions, video screenings, and more at the bathhouse and on the beach, Sept. 28-Oct. 7. Friday’s opening includes a campfire and marshmallow toasting on the beach, with music by Screem Along with Billy/Clap for Sue and Magic & the Reggae Stars.

“It’s a classic modernist structure, built as a fortress to protect us from nature, and now nature is encroaching,” Critchley said of the bathhouse. On a blustery, sunny day earlier this week, as electricians laid cable through sand and artists busily worked around the bathhouse, he was taking a break in the musty-smelling lifeguard lounge.

Critchley is known for running the Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla benefit, and for a variety of comic, politically incisive art projects. These include his massive multi-artist 2007 installation “The Beige Motel,” for which he completely encrusted a North Truro motel in sand and invited artists to create installations in the rooms. But even with Critchley’s experience organizing such events, “Ten Days That Shook the World” has been a marathon run at a sprinter’s pace.

Ten Days That Shook the World: The Centennial Decade

Herring Cove Beach bathhouse, Cape Cod National Seashore, Provincetown 508-487-0011. www.10daysofart.org

Opening date:
Sept. 28-Oct. 7.

“The bathhouse was originally going to be torn down in 2014,” he said, and he had spoken to George Price, National Park Service superintendent for the Cape Cod National Seashore, about doing the project then. “But money came in early, and I got a call from George in July.” Critchley said. “It was a two-year planning project in two months.”

More than 30 events will touch on themes such as the environment, time and impermanence, and Provincetown’s inception as an art colony 100 years ago, between 1910 and 1920. “Ten Days That Shook the World” is held under the auspices of the Provincetown 10 Days of Art 2012 Festival and the Provincetown Community Compact. The event’s title refers to journalist and activist John Reed’s account by the same name of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Reed was also an early member of the Provincetown Playhouse, founded in 1915.

“That decade was the progressive era in American history,” said Critchley. “There was suffrage, birth control — Margaret Sanger was in Provincetown. There was the labor movement, muckrakers. Then World War I came, and the government started cracking down on activists.” He sees parallels today, he added.

History-themed events will include actor Tim Babcock’s performance “1912 or 2012? You Decide,” a couple of renditions of plays by Eugene O’Neill, a Provincetown Playhouse founder, and a panel discussion, “Provincetown’s Centennial Legacy: State of the Art Colony.”

While Critchley spoke about “Ten Days,” artists were at work on their installations. Vicky Tomayko and Maryalice Johnston had set up a work table covered with paint and stencils in the men’s changing room, and were painting female figures and fish in the shower stalls. Jennifer Hicks had filled the original electric utility room with sand, gauzy fabric, and sparkles, and intended to create a nest on the floor complete with giant eggs visitors might sit on.

“It’s about the tree swallows roosting around here right now,” Hicks said. “There are thousands of them, eating bayberries.” In addition to her installation, Hicks is scheduled to lead a free class in Butoh, an image-based Japanese dance tradition, on Sept. 29 followed by a performance on Sunday. “I’ve got everyone a hazmat suit, and people will be painting birds on their backs as they move,” Hicks said.

Outside, Paul Wirhun was covering the concession stand with designs and illustrations in tape. He planned to paint the walls, then remove the tape to reveal a seascape. Inside, photographer Marian Roth had boarded over the windows of the hot dog stand in order to turn it into a giant pinhole camera. According to Critchley, performance artist Heather Kapplow will take over another portion of that building Oct. 6, and invite visitors to make their own concessions.

Every evening, there will be a campfire on the beach, and the bathhouse will be lit.

Next summer, visitors to Herring Cove Beach will have new facilities. Several smaller shingled buildings, linked by boardwalks, will provide a more intimate experience compared with the bulwark of the old structure.

“This isn’t charming,” said Critchley. “This is monolithic. It’s out of character with the landscape and architecture of Cape Cod. But this is a monument. People wouldn’t build anything like this again. It’s an excess of material, an excess of space.”

He was standing on the concrete platform that separated the building from the beach, squinting at the few tiny windows along its beige walls. “There’s a determinism to this building, that it will last forever. It is a self-righteous and in a way arrogant building. And it has held its ground for 60 years,” he said.

The wind riffled his shirt. “But the times are a-changing,” he said, “and the climate is a-changing.”

 

Cate McQuaid can be reached at [email protected].

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Stay On Rte 6

Marie Yolen-Cohen so gets our fabulous little fishing village with her incredible book Stay On Route 6, and in her travel post on Huffington Post the other day. See excerpts below.

I love Provincetown. The dunes, the artists, the gayness, the glitter eyeshadow on men. It is a party town, as edge of the world towns usually are, and, as such, swarms with tourists out for a good time. It is like New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but with fewer beads, more high heels and  more men in those high heels. It is also the very start — or end, depending on which direction you head — of U.S. Route 6.

Bishop, CA is just 3205 miles away.

 

 

As I mention in my book Stay On Route 6, Provincetown is where the Mayflower Pilgrims landed first, before decamping to the more protected Plymouth.  And yes, there’s a great obelisk monument to climb — The Pilgrim Monument — considered to be the tallest all granite structure in the world.

Rob Costa of Art’s Dune Tours has been driving visitors around the Provincetown, MA sand dunes for 30 years, since he was a mere 18 years old.  His Dad, Art, launched the company in 1956, and though there were imitators over the years, Art’s remains the sole surviving Dune Tour operator on Cape Cod.  Among the eminent guests that Art escorted around were Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway who were in Provincetown filming the Thomas Crowne Affair.  Rob continues that folksy tradition.  He’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of Provincetown and its sandy habitat, informing us that “The Cape Cod National Seashore, a National Park established by President John F. Kennedy, takes up nearly 75 percent of the whole of Cape Cod” and that “Marlon Brando crawled across these dunes when he was rehearsing for A Streetcar Named Desire.”

He points out the tenacious plants that cling to life in this sandy environment, rosehips, beach plums and cranberries that thrive in fresh-water pools found throughout the dunes.  Poets, painters and writers (Eugene O’Neil, Thoreau, Jackson Pollock, for example) stayed in squatters shacks originally built in the 1850’s as temporary shelters for heroic “Surfmen” who patrolled the beach, ever ready to rescue shipwreck victims.  A bit over 100 years later, the U.S. Government removed all but 19 of these primitive dwellings — and now a few are available to Artists In Residence willing to live without electricity, fresh water or plumbing (but with one of the best vistas on the planet) for a few weeks at a time.

For a change of pace, watch six-pack abs and Katie Perry Drag Queens vie for your attention at one of the shows that puts Provincetown on the map.  Though Crown and Anchor is more famous, hit up the Post Office Cabaret for the ICONS show.  You’ve never seen prettier or more hunky boys gyrating and lip-syncing to the tunes of Lady Gaga, Madonna, Donna Summer, the dearly departed Whitney, (I’m not sure who will replace her.  Possibly the “not a real Rapper”, Nicki Minaj?) and others.

Grab a VIP ticket to sit in the front row and you get their sweat for free.

What a great post! See you in town.

 

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architecture general info style

Broker Tour…Provincetown Style. WOW!

Our broker tour last Thursday of newly listed properties for sale in Provincetown was fabulous. We saw an incredible variety of properties priced from $279K to $2.195M. (I’m also including a favorite from the week before that is listed for $2.990M which is just stunning.)

The first property is in the far West End behind the Delft Haven Complex and includes a 3bed/2 bath main house and a charming 2 level, one bedroom carriage house, all on 3/4 acre. Listed at $2.195M. This property is gorgeous!

                         

This mid-century modern home on Priscilla Alden road harks back to the Bohemian roots of our wonderful community. This is a 2 bed/2 bath home and is being marketed for $995K.

                       

This stunning landmark single family home on Creek Round Hill Road is being marketed for $1.595M. This 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom west-end home has incredible water views from every one of these windows.

                       

This great West End Commercial Street top floor condominium has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and is being marketed for $775K. Although not on the waterside of Commercial Street it feels as close to waterfront as possible with great views of the bay from the living room and the decks.

                     ..

We saw this property last week. This is one of the premier properties in town and is being marketed for $2.990M. With four master bedroom suites, multiple decks and a cabana terrace…and views for days it is exceptional. It is located on the beach in the far East End of town.

                     

I call this real estate soft porn…These properties are gorgeous no matter what price category you are in. From $775K to $2.990M.. The natural materials, impeccable design, siting, the interiors… all create lovely visceral reactions…take a look.

 

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Bradford Street Ideal

Of course I am upbeat about the buying opportunities in Provincetown. At every price point, in every category, there is something of interest that makes sense for buyers. Whether you are looking for property as an investment  or for a combination vacation home and rental, as a full time residence or second home, there is much to like in this market.

My goal is always to provide you some new information, or perhaps an insight into a market, a location or a property. Here the focus is on one of the properties we have listed here at Beachfront Realty. This property perfectly illustrates what is great about the Provincetown market. This “fits the bill” on so many levels as an ideal Provincetown property offering. As an investment property, a second home or a combination of the two.

49 Bradford #8 is being marketed for $529,000. It has a great rental history as it has two equal size bedrooms, parking for two cars and is an easy walk to Commercial Street. It has everything a second home buyer or an investor/vacation home buyer would want. Close to all in the near West End, a block from Joe’s Coffee and the Boatslip and beautifully done.

As you look at these pictures you see a well designed and appointed living level with a black granite kitchen and breakfast island, stainless steel appliances, and hardwood floors throughout. There is plenty of room for a separate dining room area and a well scaled living room with doors out to the wonderful garden-patio.

On the second floor (pics above) there are two equal size bedrooms, a deck and a full bath. The bedrooms have high ceilings, tons of light and ceiling fans. There is central air, two parking spaces and a good size attic and basement storage room.

This is the most popular market segment in town, (and pretty much everywhere else!). That “perfect” 2 bedroom, 2 bath property. There are 41 properties being marketed in this category with an average asking price of $546K.  48 Bradford is priced slightly below the average in this category and is close to the average size of 1,113 square feet.

Hopefully this property snapshot gives you additional perspective and some context to the condominium market in Provincetown. It is an exciting market with opportunity for all. Go to “Ask Jon” if you have any other questions around the real estate market here on the Outer Cape and I will respond in a post.

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The Goode and Farmer Report – Provincetown 1Q2012

The Provincetown market has been relatively stable year over year especially in the context of regional and national volatility being experienced in most markets.

First quarter figures for the Provincetown market are in and are great!  As in Boston the mild winter weather has kept buyers and sellers in the market and sales activity has been very strong. Keep in mind that the first quarter numbers in most markets in the northeast don’t show huge numbers so sampling is relatively small, but when compared with the first quarter last year  condo sales have increased by 40% to 28 properties and single family sales increased 71% from 7 to 12 properties in the first quarter. Not huge numbers but a positive indicator of interest and activity in Provincetown real estate

The average selling price of those condos sold was $405K, up 29% from last years average of $314K. On average it took 262 days to sell these properties, exactly what it took last year. The lowest selling price was $141K and the highest was $829K which was a beautiful 1754 square foot 2 bedroom, 2 bath penthouse in the East End on Commercial Street. (pic to left)

 

 

 

The average selling price of single family homes increased 6% to $807K from $762K     in 2011. Single family  home sales almost doubled from 7 to 12 sales in the first quarter. The lowest selling price was $212,500 for a sweet little  fixer upper home at 217 Bradford Street, and the highest selling price was $1.8M for a fabulous 4 bedroom waterfront home in the far East End on Winston Ave. (pic to left) There were no multi family properties sold in the first quarter.

 

 

There are currently 129 condominiums for sale with an average asking price of $447K. There are 55 single family homes for sale with an average asking price of $1,472K and 14 multi family homes for sale with an average asking price of $1,356K. These figures represent a terrific range of buying opportunities. Inventory is at a fairly balanced level and not necessarily weighted toward a buyers market or sellers market.

As the Outer Cape and Provincetown readies itself for the spring onslaught, meant in a very positive way… we will keep you posted week to week as to real estate activity of interest in Provincetown and on the Outer Cape.

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Bill Farmer Joins Beachfront Realty in Provincetown

With over 25 years of experience, Bill Farmer has made the move to Provincetown where he will continue helping buyers and sellers with all their outer Cape Cod and Boston real estate needs.

Bob O’Malley, broker/owner of Beachfront Realty says, “I’m so excited to have Bill on board. I really appreciate his years of professionalism, honesty and integrity. Please stop by, say hello and help us welcome Bill to Beachfront Realty.”

“I’m thrilled to be selling real estate in Provincetown after assisting buyers and sellers in Boston and Minneapolis for so many years,” adds Bill Farmer. Bill can be reached at 617.823.2444 or by email at [email protected].

 

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architecture trends

Provincetown Construction Everywhere You Look

There’s an awful lot of construction activity in Provincetown these days. East End, West End, downtown. Seems like you even have to watch for construction vehicle traffic everywhere you are – and it’s December!

Harborfront Landing at 333R Commercial Street is a newly completed luxury beachfront condominium development in the center of town. Currently, the new project consists of seven 1BR and 2BR homes from 465 to 798 square feet and listed for $476K to $998K – parking included.

 

 

 

 

Province Landing is a $14.5M, 50-unit rental community offering a high-quality, green community for year-round residents with moderate incomes. Located on an undeveloped parcel along Shankpainter Road, this project is a great new addition to the western most entrance to Provincetown.

 

 

 

Construction at Herring Cove Village Phase 2 is well under way with six new units targeted for summer 2012 completion. Located in the far West End very close to the moors, this great mix of 2BR and 3BR+ condominiums are priced from $749K to $1.399M.

 

 

 

 

A new 9-lot subdivision on the famed Murchison House property at 2 Commercial Street in the far West End is quickly moving ahead. Called Pilgrim’s Landing, the projects sits directly across from the Provincetown Inn with great water views. Phase 1 is already under construction and includes the renovation of the existing gatehouse (pictured), the grounds and the Murchison House designed by Walter Gropius.