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"As a first-time homebuyer, I was nervous about the entire process. Step by step, Joe made it easy and fun. His expertise in the Columbus real estate market is a tremendous asset. He is highly recommended!" - Nicolette Horan, March 08

"I wanted to say thank you again, so much, for all your hard work. I know that you really put a lot of time into this transaction and I really, really appreciate it. I'm so happy I got the house and it all worked out and I just wanted to say thanks again, you did a great job and i really appreciate it. I will put that on the survey when they send it to me.

If there is ever anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to give me a call. I will refer every single person I know to you. I'm going to go get my dog and we're going to sit on the floor of our new house and have a glass of champaign. Thanks a lot Joe" -- Michael Mamp, Feb 08

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New Listing - 742 Oak Street - Historic-Move in Ready-1710 SqFt

May 5th, 2008 categories: Downtown, For Home Buyers, Olde Towne East

Rooting Out the Rotten Tomatoes

By CLAIRE SUDDATH

Workers separate tomatoes at the sprawling Central de Abastos market in Mexico City on June 10

Gregory Bull / AP

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So how much damage can a few rotten tomatoes really do? The tomato-linked salmonella outbreak announced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 3 has claimed 228 victims in 23 states over 58 days (and counting). It has put 25 people in the hospital and may have had a role in hastening the death of a cancer patient. And then there’s the flurry of panic as many of the tomatoes that American consumers take for granted every day suddenly disappear — from McDonald’s hamburgers; from the salsa at Chipotle Mexican Grill; from Burger King, Taco Bell and Sonic; and from the grocery shelves at Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target. Didn’t we just go through this with bagged spinach? With peanut butter? With pet food?

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Because the FDA’s tomato-recall recommendation is so specific — including only three types, grown in certain regions during a certain time — and because many national chains pulled their tomato stock within days of the announcement, most of the infected samples have likely been removed. But the outbreak remains ongoing; its source has not yet been determined, and the government is investigating new cases every day. It may be a few more weeks before the delicious staple fruit is given the all-clear.

Taking tomatoes off shelves and menus may contain the outbreak, but it doesn’t explain it. On May 22, the New Mexico Health Department notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it knew of seven people recently infected with Salmonella Saintpaul, an unusual strand of the bacteria that accounted for only 400 of the 1.4 million cases of salmonella infection reported last year. And it was precisely because occurrences of the Saintpaul strand are so rare that the report caught the CDC’s attention. When Texas and a few other states reported cases of people being infected by bacteria with the same “genetic fingerprint,” a multistate search for Salmonella Saintpaul was launched. While the CDC tracked reported illnesses, the FDA interviewed victims to find out what they had eaten (and where). The common answer was tomatoes.

There have been 13 outbreaks of salmonella in tomatoes since 1990, which puts the fruit on the list of high-risk foods that are prone to infection. But unlike the bagged spinach from the 2006 E. Coli scare, the tomatoes don’t come with a traceable bar code. “When you’re dealing with tomatoes, it is much, much more complex,” explains Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods. The FDA’s great tomato hunt has an ever-expanding list of suspects. A salmonella victim can point to the supermarket (or restaurant) that sold the offending fruit, but that store probably sources its tomatoes from several suppliers, each of which uses several distributors — and distributors buy from any number of growers.

“Each set of questions just multiplies into a fan of information that has to be sorted through to understand where the links cross over,” says Acheson. Although the FDA has managed to rule out some regions — northern Florida is safe because its tomatoes weren’t ready for harvest at the time of the outbreak — it will be some time until the true source is found. “We’re not quite there yet,” says Acheson, “but we’re getting very close.” But Dr. Ian Williams, chief of the CDC’s OutbreakNet team, warns that the source may never be found due to the fruit’s short shelf life. “You don’t expect to find an infected tomato sitting on someone’s counter 10 days after the outbreak,” says Williams.

Still, the lag time between the initial outbreak and the government’s reaction is startling: the first Salmonella Saintpaul victim fell ill on April 16, but the FDA didn’t announce the tomato link until June 3. Williams says part of the problem identifying salmonella outbreaks is that a lot of victims don’t see the symptoms — diarrhea, fever, vomiting — as sufficiently severe to warrant a visit to the doctor, and so they go undiagnosed. “There may be a delay in reporting outbreaks because people do not have a stool specimen tested,” he says. Officials have not yet identified an infected tomato, and because of the fruit’s short shelf life, they probably never will.

The FDA unveiled a tomato-safety initiative in 2007 that sought to identify causes of salmonella infection, but Acheson admits that studying preventive techniques doesn’t help the FDA deal with outbreaks. The FDA has no plans to change the initiative in the face of the recent outbreak.

Even if the FDA can pinpoint the source of the outbreak, it’s hard for consumers to know where their tomatoes are grown. Certain imported foods are required to carry country-of-origin labels, but that doesn’t apply to domestic produce. “I’m not aware of any tomato outbreak that was not domestic,” says Acheson. There is no such thing as a mandatory state-of-origin label for food, and federal authorities have yet to create such a law. “Saying ‘product of the U.S.’ isn’t necessarily going to confer safety,” he says. So much for reassurance.

Vi ste jeben.

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Can Save A Lot Save Main Street?

February 27th, 2008 categories: Columbus News, Olde Towne East

Save a lot

A while back, Columbus Compact had announced that Save A Lot, the country’s 5^th largest supermarket, was coming to Main Street. Then, about a year ago, they announced they were not coming to Main Street. In part, that decision was made because Wal Mart opened up in Whitehall on Main Street. Well, it appears Save a Lot is back, in the same location at 1179 E. Main — the old Kroger/Salvation Army site.

Expected to open some time this summer, it’ll be about a 16,000 s.f. store offering standard supermarket fare of fruits, veggies, fish, butcher cut meats, dairy, canned foods, dry
goods, frozen foods, etc. They have high buying power and low prices.

Jon Beard of Columbus Compact has said they expect the store to generate between 2,500 and 3,000
shopping trips a week. I agree with him that those numbers are the type of customer traffic that
helps other retailers to thrive, and could be instrumental in the Near East’s efforts to continue to attract quality retailers and mainstream consumers to E. Main Street. The bottom line, as far as this blog is concerned, is that a new grocery store on Main Street can’t help but raise interest in this part of town and, eventually trickling down, home values and desirability.

But, when you travel down East Main Street from High Street Downtown all the way to Bexley, you can’t help but notice the entire street is for sale or for lease. For about 6 months now I’ve been meaning to write a blog post called something like “Main Street USA, now for sale or lease” because nearly every single property, commercial or residential, is for sale or for lease.

While the upside for Main Street is tremendous, the products of years of neglect are evident all the way from downtown to Bexley. Many who live in Olde Towne East pooh-poohed the Save a Lot idea the first time around because it wasn’t up-scale enough, but failed to notice that there isn’t a grocery store between German Village’s Giant Eagle and the Kroger at Main and Nelson.

I like the Save a Lot concept and while I’ll probably continue to do most of my shopping at the Brewery District Kroger because I’m crazy in love with it, I think the Save a Lot does have some good potential to contribute to the continuation of purchasing and rehabbing of the Near East’s portion of the National Road.

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Finally, I can walk to a coffe shop. King Lincoln Bronzeville Welcomes Urban Spirit

February 21st, 2008 categories: Olde Towne East

That's my neighbor getting a Chi Tea to go! Twelve years ago when I bought my current home, I envisioned ice cream shops, dry cleaners, restaurant, bars, coffee shops, galleries – everything I could ever hope to walk to — going up and down Long Street, Broad, Parsons, Oak, maybe even Hamilton Park.

Well, as of Tuesday, I’ve got a coffee shop. A big welcome to Urban Spirit coffee shop and gallery and to it’s driving force, Charity Martin-Via. The shop is on the corner of 17th and Long Streets, in the gorgeous building that Peter Loscocco bought and painstakingly and lovingly restored.

We need to spend our local money in this local coffee shop because we need to encourage other budding entrepreneurs to try their hand on the near East Side of Columbus. The coffee comes from Crimson Cup, a local coffee roaster whose point-man, Greg Ubert is not only an expert in the field, but a nice guy as well.

I learned this morning that Charity’s sister is planning on putting a new real estate brokerage office right next door as well. While I don’t like a real estate office around the corner from me, I welcome the addition of a new Long Street Business with a storefront and wish her the best.

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More Long Street Corridor Improvement Coming

February 3rd, 2008 categories: Columbus News, Olde Towne East

This recently vacant apartment building at the corner of 17^th and Long just began a major rehab. The building has been owned, for nearly four years now, by the city of Columbus and was part of the city’s land bank program.

Official records haven’t been changed yet to reflect the new ownership but I can tell you they have a big crew working on the tear-out of this building. Move to Bronzeville now, while you still can get in at a great price.

this vacant Long Street apartment building will thrive once again

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The Gateway Building at Long & Hamilton Park gets a Floor & a Tenant

January 30th, 2008 categories: Columbus News, Olde Towne East, Real Estate News

Finally! A floor for the Gateway Building While it’s old news that HomePort is moving into some of the retail space in this Bronzeville Building, the current news is that it finally got a concrete floor.

Though the developers promised a neighborhood restaurant, maybe a bank or some other commercial or retail establishment, they are inserting Homeport which is the Real Estate arm of Columbus Housing Partnership. Homeport does good things and I hope they become an active, one stop shop for a renewed interest in the Near East community.

From their site:

“Founded in 2004, Homeport builds communities that provide buyers with the blend of urban sophistication and suburban style. Our commitment is to provide quality homes at an affordable price.

Our specialty is helping first-time home buyers get the most value for their hard-earned money. We partner with you to help you realize your dream of homeownership.”

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More Destruction on the Near East Side - Is it Progress?

January 10th, 2008 categories: Olde Towne East

Oops, they did it again -- The Camel Bell Inn comes down The Camel Bell Inn on East Main Street came down this week as did the rowhouse on the lot of the old Kroger/Salvation Army that once caused so much flipping fuss.

I don’t know the history of the Camel Bell building. I’ve always liked the building but the obvious irony here is that the sign, for as long as I can remember, on the front of the building always read “New Rehabbed Commercial Space Coming Soon”. The residents put on an emergency town hall meeting and invited all of city hall. The City Development Director showed up along with some others.

If you drive slowly down Main street, you’ll notice that seemingly every building from I-71 to the Nelson Road tracks is either for sale or for lease. I don’t like historic and beautiful buildings succumbing to the wrecking ball all over greater Olde Towne East. It wouldn’t happen in the Short North and it wouldn’t happen in German Village. I do like helping people buy buildings in Columbus.

The 2 bedroom rowhouse at Chamion (?) and Main being torn down this week The Camel Bell wasn’t on the market but darn near everything else is. No one likes demolition but no one is coming forward to buy these properties and reposition East Main Street (or Long or Mt Vernon) into a viable commercial meets residential super-street either. Preservation minded people in these neighborhoods don’t have that kind of supferfulous cash. Shiny new social service agencies have gone up down the street and a grocery store almost came and one may yet come. It’s a similar chicken and egg problem that downtown advocates are going through except that residents are already there—just not always the spiffy kind of residents with disposable income.

If we tear it down, will they come? What is the solution here? We need density, we need more residents and we need more residents with money that can be spread out around the neighborhood. We need more residents to buy boarded up buildings and to open businesses in the boarded up storefronts and to rehab what needs rehabbed and to build on what is build-able.

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Columbus Real Estate Update - Olde Towne East December for sale/sold

January 2nd, 2008 categories: Olde Towne East

73 sherman was lovingly restored from an ugly 3 family Two very different Park Towers condos sold last month. One was a studio with 510 sq ft on the 11th floor facing North/West for a paltry $28,500. The other was an 1854 sq ft 3 bed, 3bath on the 16^th floor with a rare updated (but still galley) kitchen for $130,000. This condo has a $1200/month condo fee that includes all utilities and underground parking.

Aside from several Bank Owned properties needing extensive rehab on Oak, Hawthorne, Long and Rich, I sold a move-in-ready N. Hamilton Avenue Home to a fantastic young couple for a good price. They are glad to be in the up and coming Bronzeville neighborhood and a stone’s throw from downtown proper for a mere $80,000.

The best new to come out of Olde Towne East in December is that nice homes do sell in Olde Towne East, as evidenced by a Sherman Ave rehab that was done with tender love and care. The 2700+ sq ft Four bedroom Four-Square sold for $228,000 with some seller concessions in a mere 44 days.

This should give some hope to those desiring to sell this year who’ve painstakingly restored their homes but have decided to move on to the next project.

No sense in coming up with statiscal numbers for Olde Towne East in the month of December. The Sherman Avenue house sold for $82.79/sq ft but that 2754 sf included a finished 3rd floor.

Start your Olde Towne East home Search with me Now

Neighs in the Neighborhood

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Neighs in the Neighborhood

December 28th, 2007 categories: Columbus News, Olde Towne East

My kids loved looking out the window, in olde towne east, and seeing horses!

I don’t think I have ever seen mounted police officers on our side of Downtown before. I’ve seen them in the central Business District in Downtown Columbus, the Short North and Arena Districts, but not in Olde Towne East or King-Lincoln Bronzeville before.

These two officers stopped to talk to my neighbors across the street this afternoon. You won’t see that in Hilliard!

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Rooting Out the Rotten Tomatoes By CLAIRE SUDDATH

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Rooting Out the Rotten Tomatoes

By CLAIRE SUDDATH