295 Church Street Condominiums

I have so many things to catch up on writing about since I've been away. Let's start with the Church Street condos. I seem to have a little theme going here with the condo thing, so why stop now?

Let me just start by saying that I went to 295 Church Street immediately after seeing the Meridian, so I can't really help comparing them. The Church St. building is a completely different style. It is light and bright and has big windows that make it feel like you are really a part of the city. The condos on the south side looks out onto the park areas along Trade St. while the condos on the north side look over the downtown area. Both views are very pleasant.

The condos have an open feel, with bright light from the windows. They are well laid out, with nice storage spaces and good sized bedrooms. I especially liked the fact that each unit had a deck and the decks were decent sized. The kitchens were nice and open, although in some of the units they were a little dark because they were on the hall side of the condo and therefore didn't have windows.

On the positive side the location is excellent, the floor plans use the space well, and they have lots of light and windows. Some of the negative things I noticed were a lack of storage units or garages, and that there is only one parking slot per unit.

Again, I think the prices are pretty high for Salem. I went and looked at units in the Pearl District in Portland, and they were running about the same prices for similar sized units. I think that is quite strange, since normal housing in Portland runs quite a bit more than in Salem. I think that the prices are going to have to come down a bit in order to make this work.