Lennar Urban – Blu

PROS: Relatively quiet location, yet within walking distance to restaurants and entertainment; premium upgrades included in price; 2 bed/2 bath with all units; wrap-around windows make almost every unit feel like a corner-unit;
CONS: Stacked parking and limited to one stall per residence.

BOTTOM LINE: If you are looking for a new home in the SoMa area, Lennar’s Blu gives you modern style with traditional touches in an all-inclusive package.

Overview

Blu is the latest high rise residences for sale in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco.  It is a new development brought to you by Lennar Urban and Malcolm Properties.  This modern high rise marvel is 22 stories (including 2 from Sky Blu penthouses) tall and is home to 114 residential units and is priced from $700,000’s to $1,000,000’s.

Only 6 units are constructed in each floor and access is restricted to only the residences of that particular floor.  Over 52% of the homes have already been sold.  The top two floors is the ultra premium Sky Blu penthouses and starts at $2.9 million.  Along with the exclusiveness and extra space, the penthouses come with roof deck access and individual solariums.

The HOA of Sky Blue ranges from low $600’s to the mid $800’s and pays for structure insurance, 24-hour lobby attendant, concierge services, private rear garden terrace with fountain, BBQ and catering set-up facility, two high-speed elevators, access controlled 0n-site garage with bicycle storage, and automated car parking system (using a mechanical stacker).

Features and Comfort

The streets and sidewalk leading up to Blu appear very clean, spacious, and lightly trafficked.  The lobby (staffed by a 24-hour attendant) has an office building like feel to it with ceramic and marble tiled floors and wood paneled walls.  A couple of leather lounge chairs are sprinkled in to round out the mood.  The elevator ride to the floor with the model homes was fast and quiet.

The model homes were fully upgraded to show off the personalities of each floor plan and include premium surfaces (wood in high traffic areas), fixtures, and appliances.  These upgrades are installed in all of the units and are included in the sticker price of the home.  No further customization can be made through Lennar but that’s a good thing because the included upgrades are top notch.

The kitchen gets Viking stainless steel appliances and a Bosch dishwasher.  The refrigerator is styled with French doors and an efficient bottom freezer.  The gas stove has multiple burner sizes and contains large grills.  The counter-top is a dark-colored granite slab.  Lighting up the kitchen is tasked to the recessed and track lighting.

Altogether, the colors, textures, and hardware make the kitchen the most desirable part of the house.  It is handsome and functional and should be accommodating for everything from casual dining to entertaining friends and family.  There is a pull out pantry made of metal shelving that sits behind a long and narrow cabinet door.  The design looked like it was made for holding dishes than the types of things that you would expect to store in pantry, though it felt well-made and matched the stainless steel look and feel of the appliances.

The living and dining areas — while not formal — appeared spacious enough to hold a  dining table, a loveseat, a recliner, a coffee table, a 50-inch flat screen TV, and a 30 gallon fish tank.  Depending on which unit you buy, the best part about the living area is the terrific view and light that is seen as a result of the windows that take up the entire height of the wall.

The master bathroom’s counters are marble-slabed holding double raised sinks with a single-lever faucet.  The floors are marble tiled (ceramic tiled in the second baths).  The shower doors are the frame-less variety and make keeping them clean a lot easier.  About the only thing that did not keep up with the high standards set by the rest of the house was the shower head — it looked like one of those that would clog easily.

Thankfully, showerheads are one of those things that is simple and affordable to upgrade yourself.   The bedrooms are carpeted and have large windows that let in a lot of light — though many of them look straight out into the wall of the building next to it.  Walk-in or double closets are standard in all of the master bedrooms.  Crown molding appeared to be absent in all of the models thought the baseboard was wide and looked nicely styled.

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