Flats at Dupont Circle

Flats at Dupont Circle, 2000 N Street, 20036, NW, Washington DC
The Flats at Dupont Circle offer an exceptional location, modernist and thoughtful lobby, but not much interior design to match. Hardwood floors, plush carpeting in the bedrooms, Formica countertops, and cultured marble bath vanities mar what is otherwise a thoughtful design of common areas and great interior courtyard. Archstone and Charles E. Smith developed this 306-unit property, a former Embassy Squares Hotel that they emptied and renovated in 2007, with architecture by WDG Architecture and interior design by Forrester Construction Interior Group. At least the modern design of the lobby, Click! Cafe (with WiFi), fitness center and party room give a general aura of sophistication to apartments that are rent-controlled. Common amenities include pilates/yoga studio, outdoor circular pool and patio, BBQ grills and laundry room in lower level. The building maintains a two pet policy (breed, age & weight restrictions). The apartment building is just a few blocks from Metro set between Dupont Circle, the West End, and downtown Washington DC.

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Colonnade Auctions Condos this Saturday

The Colonnade at Kentlands of Gaithersburg will send to auction 40 of its remaining homes this Saturday, helping to wrap up an under-performing real estate portfolio that the Florida-based developer acquired in 2005, a decision they must still regret. With about 70 units in the 307-unit building still unsold, El-Ad is putting 40 of those condos on the block, having recently shut down its sales office, with minimum bidding prices starting at $169,000. Back in February, El-Ad put the remaining 40 units of its only other local project, the Fitz of Rockville, on the auction block, ending nearly 5 years of sales there. Both the Fitz and Colonnade at Kentlands were developed by Archstone-Smith and built by Donohoe Construction. The Colonnade was designed by the Preston Partnership for its originally intended use as an apartment building, uber- amenitized with a party room, computer room, theater, study, swimming pool, sauna, fitness center, cyber cafe and billiard room. The 10-building compound, with 6-story parking garage, was completed by Archstone in December of 2005 and sold to El-Ad shortly thereafter.

Montgomery County commercial real estate digest 

Crystal City, Aster is Born

After almost four years in the development pipeline, the project known to some as the North Tract Apartments, were approved by the Arlington County Planning Commission way back in July of 2005, are under construction, this time as The Aster at Crystal City.

Located at 305 10th Street South, the site was initially under the control of Archstone-Smith, which sought to construct two 5-story buildings with a total of 184 "luxury apartment homes" - including some with third-level mezzanines. In 006, however, the site and accompanying plans were sold off to Atlanta-based developer York Residential under the guise of North Track Apartments, LLC, but the project sat for some time thereafter.

DCmud is now happy to report that construction is bristling along on the once dormant project and it's sporting its new Aster moniker. York is currently projecting a third quarter 2009 completion for the first building and a fourth quarter finish for the second. Once finished off, the Aster will come in at 228,000 square feet, include 15 affordable-priced apartments and meet the LEED standard for green certification (albeit the lowest one possible, with 24 points). Additionally, in keeping with the framework plan established by the Crystal City Planning Task Force, the County will take advantage of the development’s close proximity to Long Bridge Park (once known as North Tract Park) to establish a pedestrian/biker-friendly linkage between the two.

Initially, Archstone had intended to pass two units off to retailers to serve the needs of park patrons. There’s no word on if that deal still stands, but perhaps Monument Realty's neighboring Monument View project - only made possible due to a June land swap between the developer and the County - will acquiesce if York does not.  Designs for the project were prepared by the Preston Partnership. ONCORE Construction is serving a general contractor.

Washington DC restaurant and retail news

A Threequel for the Arlington's Crystal House

Developer Archstone is moving ahead with plans to bring a third phase of residential development to their Crystal House condo and apartment complex in Arlington's Crystal City. Currently comprised of two 12-story towers with 400 units apiece, Archstone intends to add 252 new "lofts" to the development, bringing the total of on-site residential housing up to 1,075 units.

Located at 2000 South Eads Street, the developer is adding to their extensive portfolio in the Crystal City area. Once completed, the 270,000-square foot addition will neighbor the other two so-named buildings on South Eads Street, built 40 years ago as the first apartment-condo highrises in the neighborhood and the first to use the name "Crystal", generating a trend the other developers followed and that eventually lent its name to the area.

Though Archstone Vice President Daryl South tells DCMud that the developer “expects to have building permits within two months,” he declined to comment on when the project might begin construction. Torti Gallas will design the project. Archstone is one of the largest investors in apartment buildings nationwide.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

Then There Were Three at Howard Town Center

It may be slightly less exciting than the McCain-Obama matchup (only slightly), but the contenders for the on-again, off-again Howard Town Center project have now been narrowed to just three: Archstone-Smith, Armada Hoffler and CastleRock Partners. A Howard University representative yesterday confirmed that two other bidders associated with the $30 million project - Monument Realty and the Trammell Crow Company - have been ruled out by the University as potential developers.

This marks Trammell Crow's second loss of the HTC project. When the HTC was first proposed in 2003, the development company walked away with a $56 million contract - only to watch it fall through when the Duke Plan, a new zoning overlay for the area, was introduced, and some have suggested that Trammell Crow may still have an actionable claim against the university.

Development on the 2.2 acre parcel is said to include a 300-unit apartment complex, parking and 70,000 square feet of retail, which must include a grocer under the terms of the RFP. The Howard Town Center project will be built at the current site of several Howard-owned properties at 2100 Georgia Avenue that have fallen into disuse. A recent Howard acquisition at Georgia and W Street, the Bond Bread Building, is also to be utilized in the redevelopment efforts. Howard acquired the building from the District of Columbia this spring in a land swap long opposed by the tenants of Bond Bread, which had sued the city over their rights to the building. Howard issued an RFP for the project (again) last May. Group Goetz Architects will be designing the project for the winning developer, a design that is strongly encouraged to be LEED certified.

Howard’s Communications Department would not discuss a date for the selection of a development team, but construction is planned to begin in August 2009.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Branching Out in Prince George's County

Bringing apartments to 19.37 acres near the Branch Avenue Metro Station, Archstone-Smith received approval last month from the Prince George's County Planning Department for Town Center at Camp Springs. Located on the east and west sides of Capital Gateway Drive and Auth Way, Archstone will create 801 rental apartments with 65,359 s.f. of retail in an effort to bring young professionals to the now under-developed section of Prince George's County.

What is their goal? "Humans," said Archstone-Smith Senior Vice President, Rob Seldin. "There's a lot to it. We're trying to take what is now a disaggregated series of different uses and put them together and use our project as a mechanism to create a community."

Seldin said the majority of Archstone apartment residents are between the ages of 25 and 36 and have at least a bachelor's degree. "We have about 85,000 units with 240,000 residents throughout the US. If Archstone was a city, it would be the wealthiest, most highly educated city in the US. We are very focused and targeted on expanding our brand within that demographic segment of the population."

While the Camp Springs project is still in the planning stage, according to the detailed site plan, it will be completed in three phases. Phase one will deliver 416 units, a 7,000 s.f. private club house, and a pool. Phase two will follow suit with similar amenities and 385 units. Phase three will be the retail space. The project will offer over 1,500 parking spaces for residents and shoppers at completion.

Seldin said the town center may even bring more jobs to PG County and that one of the things that drew the developer to the site was its proximity to not only Branch Avenue, but also Andrew's Air Force Base with 22,000 employees and the Suitland Federal Center with 9,500 employees.


"You have a very high concentration of reasonably highly compensated and educated employees working there, and no great place for them to choose to live. For us, this was an opportunity to give these people a chance to live where they work. It's difficult to create housing anywhere, in PG County, it is typically very difficult to have housing approved, so really, what's been happening is these highly educated, highly skilled, highly compensated workers have been systematically disenfranchised, so they go to Arlington, because they welcome them. Arlington knows that these people are great residents, everything good flows from an influx of successful young people. That was our market concept for what we think we would like the Branch Avenue are to expand into," said Seldin.

"If we can begin to recast this location as where this demographic can live, it will help foster entrepreneurial opportunities because office space is inexpensive there," he added.

The developer will finish its purchase of the now-vacant land from a private owner after the project receives all necessary approvals. Seldin said Archstone-Smith hopes to break ground in fall 2009. The Preston Partnership, LLC is the architectural team through entitlement; their portfolio includes the Alexan Dunn Loring in Falls Church and the Ketlands in Gaithersburg.