Some of the places in the Historic Area were going for less than lot value IMHO. To buy up a bunch of teardowns, replace them with modern dwellings and sell them at a fine profit makes sense to me!
This has been going on in my 1962 beach close neighborhood in SoCal for years. A lot of smart money got in when the market took a dive. Now with the upturn the buyers are building new homes on great sites, some for their own use; others for resale.
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan...downs-20140104