Apartment Choice

Buy Photo The Ann Arbor City Apartments in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is seeing a building boom of apartments and condos for the last couple of years that continues to ramp up. (Photo: Romain Blanquart/ Detroit Free Press ) Buy Photo An unprecedented building boom of apartment high -rises and condos has made construction cranes a lingering fixture of the Ann Arbor skyline . No fewer than six cranes hovered over downtown last week as private developers raced to erect more luxury student and post-collegiate housing within walking distance to University of Michigan classrooms. The half- dozen residential projects that are under construction or slated to begin are the latest round in a boom that has been under way for at least three years and is permanently altering the city's housing situation. Many of the current and earlier developments specifically cater to U-M students, offering additional near- campus living options aside from blocks of grubby old houses. Other projects have ta...

The first thing you notice when you drive or walk past the construction site between the 13th and 14th street bridges along the Chattahoochee River in downtown Columbus is the crane. It hovers over the river and downtown in an intimidating manner. The tower crane on the W.C. Bradley Co., construction site is 141 feet high, which if it were a building would be 13 stories and rival the height of the Columbus Government Center . But it is not just the height, it’s also the massive arm that draws your attention. The jib — the construction term for the arm — is 244 long and has been situated where it can cover the entire 2. 3 acre construction site . Bradley Company Real Estate Division President and Chief Operating Officer Pace Halter said the crane occupies what will be a popular place when the apartments constructed and rented. “It’s right where the pool will go,” Halter said late last week during a tour of the site, which went under construction in June. But for now, it is a critica...