renting Archives - Memos and Mirth

The Leasing Game

March 29, 2016

A view of downtown Dallas from Reunion Tower

Transferring apartments is proving to be more difficult than I expected.

After several tries, we finally got the correct lease from my apartment building.

The next step is transferring utilities, such as electricity. (Texas forces you to pick your own power company, which I still think is strange.)

I now have to find a new energy provider, because I just got fired by my current energy company.

This was the phone call earlier today:

Me: “Hi. I’m moving to a new unit in the same building and would like to transfer my energy plan.”

Energy company: “Is this it a new part of the building?”

Me: “…no…”

Energy company: “We can’t find it in the system, so we are canceling your plan since we can’t provide service to your new unit.”

Me: “So you’re telling me that you can provide service to my current unit, but not to an apartment 50 feet away in the same building?”

Energy company: “Yep. That’s right. Nice knowing you. Toodles!“

The Lowertown Depot Building

June 23, 2014

Although St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood is rapidly developing, there is one building left behind.

It’s the Lowertown Depot and located at the foot of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary.

: Abandoned Lowertown Depot Building

: Abandoned Lowertown Depot Building

: Abandoned Lowertown Depot Building

According to Dan Turner’s SubStreet blog, the building was renamed Lowertown Depot to as part of a failed residential development project.

Apparently the Lowertown Depot wasn’t a depot at all, but the old Standard Oil Branch Warehouse. The name was just a marketing gimmick for condo developers.

I’m surprised that they haven’t attempted to redevelop the area – it’s a massive undeveloped chunk of land right by downtown.

The Lowertown Depot reminds me a lot of Miami’s Midtown neighborhood. Midtown was just a huge chunk of undeveloped railroad tracks when I was in high school. Developers decided to play Sim City and turned it into a huge residential and commercial complex.

Midtown Miami

It will be interesting to see how much the Lowertown area will change in the next few years. We just got the Amtrak and light rail service, and apparently a stadium is coming soon.

This neighborhood has become increasingly trendy (and expensive) which will likely force many of us to make a buying vs. moving decision next summer.
Rising rents almost drove us back to Minneapolis this summer.
In fact, we had a deposit down on an apartment, but we were rejected because my prior landlord didn’t respond to their reference requests. The guy who took my unit is a little freaked out because he’ll likely run into the same problem.

Exhaustion from the apartment search caused us to sign on for another year in Lowertown, but I suspect future rent hikes will soon turn this area into another Uptown or Warehouse District.

We’ll see.