A curious decision to build

(The former) 99 porchuck road

Local builder, and a good one, Peter Thalheim, bought 99 Porchuck Road out of foreclosure for $762,500 last year, and now offers “new construction on experienced foundation” for $2.095 million. There’s no question that Peter will deliver a quality house for that price, but I’m surprised he took on the risk of this project. Porchuck is not a high-demand location these days, and this particular piece of land has low appeal and a dismal track record.

You can find pictures of the original house and the land it sits on here, but basically, the lot’s a narrow piece of property, bisected by a waterway, and not particularly amenable to development. Someone with a dream paid $1.7 for its 4 acres in 1999, but sold it for just $1 million in 2002 after reality set in. Of course that buyer, failing to reflect on the lesson to be learned on his predecessor’s experience, believed that he’d snared a bargain rather than a tar baby and put it up for sale as a building lot in 2005 for $3.8 million. It took a while, but the eventual foreclosure resulted in this latest sale price of $762,500.

So I wish Peter well: he’s one of the good guys, but I’ve followed this property’s lack of progress for 18 years now, and I personally would not have rushed in to develop it. On the brighter side, a buyer looking for new construction in this price range in this neighborhood will find an excellent house.