Not to worry. Hospital Hill may be a long time filling up.

So now they are here. The houses that we saw in all the many plans MassDevelopment has circulated over the years at CAC meetings. Ok, 51 Olander Drive up on Hospital Hill has views, but not much else for its selling price of $637,855. It’s a modest 3 bedroom 2 ½ bath house on a truly tiny lot. click here for description Wright Builders sold it the other day to the realtor Pat Goggins, but its selling price may not reflect its real market value. All the parties involved in the sale are partners in this development. Goggins as realtor, Wright as builder and Florence Savings Bank as holder of the $2.8 million first mortgage on the development. Goggins got a $500,000 mortgage from Florence Savings Bank, Wright gave him a second mortgage of $137,000, which means that the only cash that Goggins had to lay out at the closing was $855.00. The best guess is that the sale is aimed at giving Wright some cash to help him stay current on the mortgage, because the homes are not moving.

51 Olander is the model home in Morningside, the first installation of 11 market-rate homes for sale by Goggins Real Estate and Wright Builders on Hospital Hill. Eventually, a lot more of them will be going up if there are buyers for them. Right now there are three homes built, one has been sold to a private owner, and this one was sold to an LLC controlled by the realtor. They have been on the market since April. While there is frenetic activity next door in the complex of attached townhouses being constructed by Community Builders, it’s awfully quiet on Olander Drive where an expanse of very expensive dirt is awaiting the bulldozer. MassDevelopment has spent a lot of state money and its own money on infrastructure development, including razing more than a half million square feet of buildings, many of them historic, and building roads. A lot of their land is also under conservation restrictions. It is trying to recoup their investment. They sold Wright Builders the land under the first three homes, about six-tenths of an acre. Their land costs were about $420,000 an acre, if my math is right.

So now that the real estate market is cooling off, it's hard to imagine that these homes are going to move. Maybe they will, maybe it really is location, location, location. But it mixes market rate with supported housing, there's no corner market or 7-11 in the plans, and the homes are not custom built, it is a subdivision with a A-B-A-B look, and usually for this kind of money you get a big lawn and space to put in a swimming pool.

For more pictures of the area click here