We were passing through the neighborhood today, dodging cement mixers and pickup trucks, and spotted two new homes going up at 1712 and 1714 Manton St., in Point Breeze. These two homes will make it six new construction homes in a row on this block (not counting the still-vacant lot at 1716 Manton St.). And that’s not counting the new construction, affordable housing units around the corner.

Framed out

Developer Emerald Properties acquired these two lots back in 2010 for $63K, and it’s looking like these two new homes will be finished in the next couple of months.

Considering how quickly new construction homes are selling in Point Breeze at the moment, it comes as no surprise that there seems to be no end to the construction in this area. We’ll be interested to see, in this case, how the proximity to the unfortunate and nuisancey Baynard’s Bar effects these homes. If we had to guess, we’d imagine that they’ll sell just as quickly, but maybe at a slightly lower price than other homes close by. Which will seem like a tremendous bargain if(/when?) Baynard’s Bar is shut down for good. We imagine that these new neighbors, along with the new neighbors in the affordable housing units directly to the south, will hasten the end for this place.

Bar is at the end of the street

Meanwhile, Manton Street continues to improve. Whether you care for the architecture or not, you can’t argue that things have progressed mightily here in just a couple of years.

Looking west

Looking west, in the past.

See what we mean?