Full stop for this development Rock Hill, South Carolina. (Aimee Ennis / Planet Money Flickr pool © 2009)

Twitter pal Aimee Ennis sends this photo from a stalled subdivision not far from her house. "This would-be development is huge," she writes. "Larger than others I've visited."

If you've got photos for our Half-Built America series, you can e-mail them to us or add them to the Planet Money Flickr pool.

All quiet in downtown Portland. Andy Davenport

 

Andy writes:

This is the Park Avenue West building in Downtown Portland, whose construction was halted around two months ago. My office overlooks this site on two sides of the building, According to this article in the Oregonian, this building was originally scheduled to be 32 stories of mixed business and condos. Construction is halted until next year, and the plans are to cut the building to 22 stories. Equally amazing is the location - this site is located just two blocks from Pioneer Square, the heart and likely most-traveled area in downtown Portland.

Continue reading "A Startling Stop In Portland " >

Getting ready for "a nightmarish summer of dust." Kelly Adams

 

Kelly Adams checks in from Tumwater:

My economic indicator is $4.29 million. That's the budget for a road works project we here in Tumwater, Washington, have been suffering through on one of our major arterials. A couple of months ago all construction stopped when the contractor abruptly went out of business.

Littlerock Road runs north/south, parallel to I-5. It's been a two-lane road forever, connecting the rural south end to the strip-mall center of Tumwater. Suburban growth has made it a mess so the City of Tumwater decided to upgrade the northern strip.

Where this leaves the project and the community is in limbo. The project (aside from utilities installation) is completely halted and remains a mess of patched up roads, detours, dirt, dust and hay on the verges. We've been told the bond-holding company will now have to decide what action will be taken, from assigning a contractor to take over the project or return to a bid stage. Either way, it is unlikely to restart construction before the end of the year. What a mess!

Turn right at the 10,022nd blade of grass. underoak

 

Andria Krewson sends this picture from a project on hold not far from downtown Charlotte, N.C.

She writes that the WWII-era Morningside Apartments used to be here, before they were bulldozed in August 2007 to make way for ... you know, for something.

"In the mean time, grass and weeds hold down the dirt," Krewson writes.

The $65 million project was to have been a planned community of 10 blocks, with 400 apartments and 600 residences for sale. Residents were to enjoy 25,000 square feet of restaurants and shops. The developer told the Charlotte Observer last year that the site provides "a unique opportunity to provide quality homes in a setting with history, character and green space."

Hey, it's got a canopy roof. Margaret Schulte and Barry Stellrecht

 

Margaret Schulte and Barry Stellrecht write:

We tend to drive a lot on back roads, and one of the things we've noticed all across the USA are the elaborate, landscaped gates with fancy subdivision names -- and nothing behind them. This one, which is in coastal North Carolina, is offering a free boat "with homesite purchase."

As a wacky couple who eschews living in a house and lives on a boat anyway, we thought it was particularly funny. We'll take a free boat, but you can keep the homesite!

The developers of Bogue Watch have a handy map of what's been sold.

At the former Los Angeles Air Force Base, homes were cleared for takeoff. Jake Rome

 

Jake Rome writes from Southern California:

Trekked out to the old Los Angeles Air Force Base to witness first-hand the deterioration that's taken place since the Great Recession forced the 360 South Bay developers to abandon their once-hopeful housing development.

The website for the project, 360 South Bay, says, "Happiness, prosperity and sunshine are a part of everyday life when you call Los Angeles and Ventura home." It also notes that at 360 South Bay, sales are "temporarily unavailable."

This one went bad right from the start. "There were essentially no sales when we had our grand opening in October of 2007," the developer wrote in a proposal to turn some of what had been built into apartments. The developer withdrew the proposal.

Kinda, sorta done. George Feil

 

George Feil writes from Oakland, Calif.:

This project, a five story apartment building with a garage, was started over a year ago, and has gone through its fits and starts. The last wave of construction stopped two months ago, but only after most of the exterior construction was completed.

After the jump, what's left of the view from his window.

Continue reading "Seeing Less In Oakland" >

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Anne Crew writes from outside Pottstown, Pennsyslvania, where she lives near one of America's many would-be subdivisions. This one, Union Greene, is described by its developer as "the area's hottest new address," complete with a peaceful "country-like setting."

Houses start at $274,000, though Crew reports there haven't been many built since the economic crisis began.

After the jump, Crew describes one picture she didn't get.

Continue reading "'Country-Like' In Pa." >

The new ghost town. Justin Viglianti

 

Justin Viglianti, an architect in the Boston area, sends a picture from that city's Downtown Crossing. He writes:

What you see is the crater that was the famous Filene's Department Store. If you're not familiar, a few years ago there was a big push to get more residences into the heart of Downtown Boston. The area would turn into a ghost town after 6PM, evidence that Boston was becoming or maybe has always been a very car-centric commuter city. So with help from the Mayor's office this site was to be a huge tower of businesses, restaurants, a theater, and apartments that would make Downtown a destination again. But when the economy hit bottom and the housing sector took a nose dive into deep debt, the project stopped.

This hole has been festering for 6 months at least with no plans of remedy anytime soon. I go by here everyday and it just kills me that it's become the exact thing the city was trying to avoid, a deterrent for street life, for business, for anything beneficial to the city of Boston. I look at this from the perspective of an architect, not an economist, but I can see that there are definite parallels here between housing, money, and quality of life.