© Jerimiah B. Brown

A smile and a sale

Filling Ashley Terrace

by Jan Schlain

posted 12/14/2008

Ashley Terrace, the new condo at the corner of Huron, has suffered from bad timing and worse architecture (see “The Good, the Ugly, and the Hideous,” p. 21). But it’s found a persuasive salesman: one of its earliest customers, dentist John Farah. Ready to rid himself of the encumbrances of house, garden, and lawn, Farah, sixty-five, says he put down his deposit almost three years ago, when “there was nothing but a trailer there.” And not only did he pay $550,000 for a 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath corner condo on the ninth floor, he subsequently persuaded two friends to buy units as well. One, Farah’s cousin, moved from Rochester, Michigan, and is now his ninth-floor neighbor. The other, Farah says, “is renting her unit to a student at the U of M—she really wants to move in, but she hasn’t sold her home yet.”

Neither, for that matter, has Farah—he’s still living in Scio Township. “I tell my friends it costs me a thousand dollars a day every time I park [at Ashley Terrace],” he jokes. “That’s the only thing I’m using right now.” At least developers Joseph Freed and Associates have shown their gratitude for the referrals: says Farah, “They reimbursed me a thousand bucks each.”   

[Originally published in December, 2008.]