Looking for a great location and surprising value in the Downtown San Diego Condo market?  After seeming to be in the doldrums for the past couple of years, Cityfront Terrace has become very desirable to my clients recently. 

After some serious construction issues over the past years, Cityfront Terrace is looking great!  On the inside, the HOA won it’s litigation against the contractor and replaced major plumbing for all of the residents.  The payment also allowed Cityfront to upgrade much of its landscaping and common areas. 

The landmark “urban canyon” at Cityfront Terrace has been redone with completely new plantings.  Swimming pools and other outdoor areas have been reconstructed and new outdoor furniture purchased.  Cityfront has always been a unique Downtown San Diego Condo building.  Now it’s luster has been restored.

There are some very obvious reasons that buyers like Cityfront Terrace:

• Its brick facade with wrought iron fences surrounding townhomes and garden apartments evokes Park Avenue in New York or Lake Shore Drive in Chicago far more than San Diego.
• Its location across from the Marina Marriott and Manchester Grand Hyatt is central to everything downtown–only 2 blocks to Ralph’s new “Signature Urban Grocery”,  Horton Plaza and Nordstrom. 
• The beautiful surroundings that is a part of Cityfront Terrace and adjacent to it on The Martin Luther King Promenade, as well as the green spaces and water of the marina.

Cityfront Terrace Condos Amenities

There are many features at Cityfront Terrace that are not obvious when passing by.  For example, Cityfront not only has one of Downtown San Diego’s best gyms, it also offers a number of fitness classes to its residents onsite.  It is a pleasure to see how often the gym is used–this is not merely an amenity, but is really a part of the lifestyle.

Integration of the 13 story primary building, with the 90 year old “Soap Factory”, that was restored.  The two buildings seamlessly connect and provide great diversity among the 320 homes at Cityfront.

Residents of Cityfront Terrace also have two swimming pool choices.  The sparkling lap pool is on the south side of the building and sits in sunshine thoughout most of the day.  The smaller “splash pool” is in a lovely central courtyard. 

Sitting on over 2.3 acres, Cityfront has more green space than any other Downtown San Diego Condo.

Why buy at Cityfront Terrace now?

They say the three most important issues when buying real estate are…location, location, location.  If this alone were the case, Cityfront Terrace would never have seen the kind of price drops it has.  It is one of the San Diego Marina District’s best locations.  It is also a noteworthy value today.

My two recent offers in Cityfront Terrace were:

• A 943 foot one bedroom loft in the “Soap Factory” section.  At an asking price of $297,000, this is among the lowest price per square foot paid for a luxury condo in Downtown San Diego.
• A 2 BR/2BA, 1,184 sf condo, uniquely situated on the 3rd floor.  What makes this distinctive is that on the south side of the building, 3rd floor condos have gigantic patios.  This home’s front patio extends more than 40 feet.  Oh, the price, $420,000.

Along with ending litigation, Cityfront recently was approved for FHA loans.  This is significant for many reasons, but one that I’ve seen immediately is that many FHA loans are made to first time homebuyers.  It brings a building like this in to reach for many people who might not have previously considered looking here.

In addition to location, add value to the equation for Cityfront Terrace right now.

The San Diego Quiet Zone

Cityfront Terrace will be one of the key benefactors of the San Diego Quiet Zone.  For the past decade City leaders in San Diego have been working to reduce the noise of trains and trolleys passing through Downtown.  The Quiet Zone will replace 13 Downtown railroad crossings with  more pedestrian safe, traffic secure gates.  The outcome will be no train whistles or crossing bells at night in Downtown San Diego.  The project is scheduled for completion in November of 2011!