From a competitive standpoint, Brenneke says Second and Pine's development timeline is only behind that of the Four Seasons hotel-condo project a few blocks away at First Avenue and Union Street.

To make Second and Pine distinct from the Four Seasons project and most of the others as well, Sternlicht and Brenneke recently decided to increase the average size of the condo-hotel units to 700 sf, or 30% to 40% larger than is typical. Instead of 90 units on three floors, as originally planned, there will be 88 units on four floors, each with its own mini-European kitchen. Yabu Pushelberg is the interior design firm.

"We wanted it to be more of a home for the owner and, for the hotel guest, more of a condominium than a hotel room," Brenneke says. "We were one of the first ones out there four or five years ago, and then a lot of the competition came in and tried to copy our original offering, so we went out and raised the bar a little bit to create a new and different offering."

As for the other competition, there is plenty. While most of the Downtown condominium units currently under construction are selling out, there are no less than six new Downtown residential towers in the pipeline. Having said that, Brenneke adds most of the other condominium projects are waiting to take advantage of a citywide height increase to be approved before submitting for their design approval. With approval of the height increase not expected until May or June, completion of the competitive projects likely will be pushed into 2009.

Being ahead of the pack is one of the reasons Brenneke didn't wait for the height increase. The other reason is that the height increase really would benefit smaller infill projects more than a full-block undertaking like Second and Pine. "We likely would have ended up with less buildable square feet [had we waited]," he says.

Priced from the mid-$300,000s to nearly $1 million, each City Suite condo-hotel unit is currently planned to include furnished living rooms, media centers with flat screens, sleeping quarters with king-sized beds, spa-like baths with walk-in showers and soaking tubs, and kitchens with high-end appliances built into the cabinetry. The units will be on floors nine to 12.

On floors 13 to 21, the 115 pure condominiums will range in size from 1,000 sf to 5,000 sf and will be priced from $550,000 to more than $5 million. All residences will feature ceilings higher than nine feet, balconies and high-end finishes. Parking for the residences will be on floors four to six in the new tower, not in the adjacent garage.

The seven penthouse townhomes, on the top two floors, will range in size from about 2,000 sf to just under 7,000 sf, and may be combined to create larger living space. The units will have 20-foot glass atriums and roof-top patios providing views of the city. Pricing for the penthouse units is yet to be determined.

As for the retail space, Brenneke says the restaurant, the spa and the athletic club will be in the new tower. An anchor retail tenant also is planned for the corner of Third Avenue and Pine Street, across from the entrance to Macy's. That tenant likely will take a portion of the ground floor space and all of a planned mezzanine level that will extend over the top of the other retailers in the block.

"There is no shortage of very qualified retail prospects," Brenneke says. "There has been a significant amount of activity; we're hoping to have some of the retail deals done this month, March at the latest."

The big unknown is whether a 50,000-sf venue will be built atop the eastern half of the parking garage. Brenneke says that while the garage was built to hold two additional floors, there are structural issues that still need to be examined. More than one national tenant is interested in the idea, he says.

The project has been a long time coming for Brenneke. The project has been in the works for five years. Condemnation proceedings related to the now defunct plans to extend the city's monorail soaked up two years, while a battle for control of the block soaked up another two years. For that story, click here.