Alexandria Affordable Housing Complex Back on Track

An AHC Inc.-developed affordable housing complex at the corner of East Reed Avenue and Route 1/Jefferson Davis Highway, in Alexandria, is now slated for an early 2014 groundbreaking, after hitting delays earlier this year.

The latest iteration of the project, which has increased to 77 units, from an original 59, should head to the Alexandria City Council in December for final approval, according to John Welsh, Vice President at AHC.

"We're really happy with the design," says Welsh.  "The city planning office gave their opinion on it, and asked for a few minor changes.  Mostly design stuff - switching a metal accent to the other side of the building so it would be a stronger element on Route 1, that kind of thing."

The Bonstra-Haresign-designed building will offer 15 one-bedroom units, 51 two-bedroom units, and eleven three-bedroom units, at 60% of AMI (approximately $56,000/year).  The facade is "primarily brick, with a few other materials, and some metal accents to give it a nice polish," said Welsh.  The building will be five stories tall on the east side, and taper down to three stories on the west, and there will also be 77 below-grade parking spaces, a one-to-one ratio that marks a significant increase from the earlier design's 0.77 ratio, a number that caused some consternation among city planners as potentially insufficient.  Construction is projected to take 18 months, with leasing estimated to take until the end of 2015.

The project will sit on a joined plot consisting of a city-owned parcel at 3600 Jefferson Davis Highway and three privately-owned parcels controlled by AHC.  Funding is being provided by a package of AHC funds, a $1.1 million-plus affordable housing loan from the city, and tax credits, the application deadline for the latter contributing, at least in part, to past delays.

Perseus Building Office Project on 14th Street

1728 14th Street, Image courtesy Bonstra Haresign

The stoic facade of the Granger building at 1728 14th Street will be getting an overhaul, now that developer Perseus Realty has closed on the purchase.  The developer sealed the acquisition of the property - located between R and S Streets - in mid-August, John Clarkson of Perseus told DCMud on Thursday; the DC Property Sales Database shows the building sold for $4.8 million. Perseus and Ogden CAP Properties are partners in the joint venture.  Also on board is Bonstra Haresign Architects, and Andrew Poncher of Streetsense for retail leasing.  The firm is behind a number of other 14th street projects including the AME Zion church renovation and lower-level addition, the Q14 Condominiums building, as well as Studio Theater and The Aston at 14th and R, all within a few blocks down the street.

Current Granger Warehouse Facade, Image Courtesy Bill Bonstra

Plans for the site include the adaptive re-use of the warehouse building, built in 1988, and the new design includes four floors with 28,000 square feet of retail and office space.  Of the many developments slated for 14th Street, this is one of the few office concepts (Furioso's project being the other).  Clarkson, who provided an up-to-date rendering to DCMud on Thursday, said Perseus expects to begin construction on the project in February 2013 with a 12-month construction time.  The Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F wrote a letter in full support of the project, which also received preliminary approval from the DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) in July.

Like 1728, most of Bonstra Haresign's other 14th Street projects have also been located in the historic district, Bonstra Haresign managing partner Bill Bonstra told DCMud.  "What is really important is understanding the context and what I call the DNA of the site."  The site, 60 feet in width, likely once housed three townhouses, Bonstra said.  "That understanding allowed us to come to terms with the appropriateness of the architecture."

The project also sits in the context of a rich history of commercial buildings on 14th Street, many of them built in the Nineteen-teens and Twenties as automotive showrooms.  Back then, 14th Street was a trolley corridor and a place to window shop. "There was a tradition of retail and commercial buildings and we looked at that tradition as a model."

The design pays homage to the street's architectural tradition with a formal facade with strong center and side doors and a masonry structure, yet also incorporates generous amounts of glass, color, and contemporary planes. Design for the masonry incorporates striping, detail, setbacks, and reveals.  "What we set out to do was respect that tradition of commercial buildings on the street but also make it a building of its time," Bonstra said.  "We believe that the front elevation of this building will be a nice complement to historic buildings, but it will be a part of our time architecturally."

Bonstra said the building will contribute to the true mixed-use history of 14th Street, ultimately providing more of what the street lacks: neighborhood businesses and offices.  The property also includes two historic townhouses north of the Granger warehouse building, but Perseus doesn't have plans to alter them at this time, Clarkson said, though those townhouses might get some interior improvements in the coming year.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Affordable Housing Complex Delayed

A proposed 59-unit affordable housing project in Alexandria, at the corner of East Reed Avenue and Route 1/Jefferson Davis Highway, has been delayed a year after developers at AHC, Inc. missed a mid-March deadline for their affordable housing tax credit application.  Developers are now aiming for a March 2013 application.

Though the project has been in the works for almost two years, a number of issues prevented the application from coming together in time. While city planners supported the project, calling it "an excellent opportunity to secure affordable housing, with minimal City financial support, in an area that will soon redevelop in a way that would likely make such a project unfeasible in the future due to escalating land values," they also raised concerns over the streetscaping. Planners also cited the possibly inadequate amount of parking contained in the proposed design (0.7 spaces per unit rather than their preferred ratio of 1.1 spaces per unit), and redesigns couldn't be produced in time to accommodate required public hearings and the tax credit deadline.

The proposed project, designed by Bonstra | Haresign, would assemble the city-owned parcel at 3600 Jefferson Davis Highway with three privately-owned adjacent parcels at 120 and 118 E. Reed Avenue (which AHC currently has under site control), as the site of a five-story multi-family apartment building, owned and operated by AHC.  Preliminary concept plans call for one- and two-bedroom units at 60% of AMI (about $56,000/yr), though the exact orientation of the building is still under discussion.

"We're still talking about the exact placement of the building," said John Welsh, Vice President at AHC, of the present timeline.  "Ideally, we'd like to conclude zoning and planning by the summer, apply for the financing in March of next year, close sometime in July, and then start construction in the fall.  The city is still interested, they've just asked for some followups.  We're going to keep this thing going."

Complications relating to funding may also have contributed to the delays.  The project is being funded by a complicated package of tax credits, AHC investment, and an approximately $1.1 million affordable housing loan from the city.  AHC would pay market value to the city for the vacant lot at 3600 Jefferson Davis Highway, but would seek to defer this payment (with interest) until after the 15-year tax credit period.  The addition of a parking garage caused the amount of the required city loan to balloon, necessitating another analysis by the City Office of Housing, and a redetermination in the amount of the loan.

AHC, Inc., a nonprofit developer of affordable housing, has developed 38 housing projects since 1975 containing over 3,200 units; this is their first project in Alexandria.

Alexandria, Virginia real estate development news

New Residential and Retail Bound for Edgewood

A new 6-story apartment building with ground-floor retail space could be headed to 2321 4th St. NE in Edgewood on the now-empty lot owned by H Street Community Development Corporation (HSCDC). Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 5C will consider the mixed-use development during a meeting this evening.

View looking south from 4th Street

The proposed building is a joint venture between HSCDC and E&G Group. The new $37 million development will create about 160,000 s.f. of mixed-use space, designed by Bonstra | Haresign Architects and built by Maggin Construction Company.

Plans call for between 155 affordable residential units on the five floors above the first-floor podium. Ground level space is reserved for 3,000 s.f. of retail, various tenant facilities and 40 parking spaces.

Kenton Drury, the project manager from E&G Group, said residential units will vary in size with 5 studio, 85 one-bedroom, and 65 two-bedroom units.

Tenants must be at or below 60 percent of the local Area Median Income (or about $40,000 for an individual). Rent for someone at 60 percent AMI is about $1,000 for a studio.

"We see young professionals wanting to live here because it’s an up-and-coming vibrant neighborhood close to metro and close to areas of employment," Drury said. The target tenant is a young professional entering the workforce or an "empty nester" who is retired or working part-time.

View looking north from 4th Street

Development plans presented at a recent community meeting netted mixed feelings from residents. While they did not seem concerned about the building itself, they did express concerns about its impact on the neighborhood. Drury said some people thought rent was not affordable enough while others thought it was too affordable for the neighborhood. And residents asked about the local economic boost it could bring.

Drury said he told local business owners interested in providing construction services to get their Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) Certification because some work will be designated for CBEs. And residents with retail or service-oriented businesses could open up shop in the retail space on site.

Whatever the final development looks like, it will be a welcomed change from the so-called "Heroin Hotel" that used to stand on the lot. HSCDC demolished the three vacant buildings that had become a hotbed of criminal activity, but the community must wait longer for construction.

After the ANC meeting tonight, the next big step will be a Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) meeting tentatively scheduled for June. Developers will ask for a variance on the loading dock height and parking space requirement. Drury said the only way to keep the 6-story building within the height limits is to reduce the loading dock height. And the triangular lot -- plus debris from the former buildings -- make it difficult to provide more parking spaces.

Drury said he hopes to have funding lined up this summer to move forward with working drawings and permit applications by the end of the year, and he hopes to break ground in early 2013.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

IMF Releases New Renderings for Dupont Hotel

The IMF has released new renderings for the hotel it is fashioning on New Hampshire Avenue in Dupont Circle. The 1964 structure has been used as an IMF apartment building, but with the building in dire need of a renovation and eating up a chunk of IMF dollars, Fund planners decided to sell one of the two buildings that comprised the apartment complex and renovate the remaining building.

With visions a LEED Gold building, the IMF and architecture firm Bonstra | Haresign are in the midst of a full gut and renovation of the building, and have designed a new skin on top of the old shell complete with rain screen (a kind of waterproof membrane under the skin, with breathable cavity in between) and super efficient glass curtainwall system, adding 20 units to the 100-unit building. The building is expected to be completed in about a year. Below are renderings of the new structure. Washington D.C. real estate development news

Lowe Enterprises to Convert Wheaton Office Building to Residential High-Rise

Continuing Wheaton's rapid transformation from a withering suburb to a residential development hotspot, California-based Lowe Enterprises submitted a sketch plan to Montgomery County planners at the end of January that would transform the 5-story Computer Building at 11411 Georgia Avenue in Wheaton from a modest five-story office building into a 14-story residential high-rise.

The site, which Lowe purchased last fall for just over $8.2 million, is nestled between the Archstone Wheaton Station Apartments and the Metro Point Apartments, and across Reedie from the already approved 17-story Safeway/residential project from Patriot Realty. Two blocks down, Washington Property Co. is building 221 units on the former site of the First Baptist Church of Wheaton. Up a block is the Wheaton Metro station, whose bus bays are to be converted by B.F. Saul into an office complex. B.F. Saul is also consulting with the county about converting Wheaton Triangle, right across Georgia, into a massive mixed-use development that would bring nearly a million square feet of office space, retail, a hotel, and a public plaza to the area.

Interestingly, developers plan to build onto the existing building 11411 Georgia, rather than demolish and start from scratch.

"The building has very good bones," says Mark Rivers, Senior Vice President at Lowe Enterprises, by way of explanation. "The concrete structure can easily support the additional floors. It would just be a waste of time, money, and landfill space to tear it down and rebuild. Also, this building is narrow for an office building - about 60 feet wide. Residential buildings are generally narrower than office buildings, so that was a nice bit of luck."

The sketch plan application promises to "substantially transform the building aesthetic through comprehensive facade changes," listing balconies, vertical bays, and a "strong vertical element" at the northwest corner of the building, to lend it a "distinguishable identity." Developers intend to convert the building from glazed brick and boxy to "a contemporary slender tower clad in composite panels, glass and masonry." The Bonstra Haresign-designed tower will include up to 200 studios and one-bedroom dwellings, as well as 60-plus parking spaces on-site (though zoning doesn't require any).

Developers haven't yet decided if they'll include retail space on the ground floor, though they have plenty of time to decide, as construction is targeted for the beginning of next year. Though another residential tower in the area might seem excessive, developers, following a familiar blueprint, are confident that the expanding housing market in Wheaton will organically lead to an increase in demand for retail. Since county planners adopted the new, updated Wheaton Sector Plan in 2010, which aimed to revitalize the moribund area, development in Wheaton has revved up to high gear, even leading local uberdeveloper Leonard Greenberg to compare the area to Adams Morgan.

Wheaton, Maryland real estate development news

Rustic Gorgeous: Slave Quarters and a Toll Keeper's Cabin Find Life in the 21st Century

By Beth Herman

Gazing at the august 3,300-foot summit of Old Rag Mountain, visitors to Shenandoah National Park say they experience a profundity of thoughts and feelings, many spiritual in nature. In addition to its heavenly vistas, the region itself is rife with history—its lush forest floors an eternal home to Civil War cavalry and conscripts, slaves and sentries.

For homeowner and real estate developer Joe Svatos, the prospect of living in the shadow of the iconic mountain was slowly realized beginning in 2004 when he purchased a 200-acre parcel in conservation easement that was part of Rappahannock County’s Montpelier Plantation. Pre-dating the presidential Montpelier in Orange County, and built circa 1740 as a summer residence for Fredericksburg merchant Francis Thornton II, the parcel provided Hazel River frontage and unparalleled panoramas.

Somewhat inconvenienced, however, by what he labeled a dilapidated “shack” on the property he figured was makeshift 1930s housing for displaced area residents, due to construction of the national park, Svatos tolerated the blight in light of the surrounding scenery. “I really had no idea what it was,” he conceded.

Three years later, a shedding of the structure’s siding revealed the presumed 1930s shack was in fact a 1794 toll keeper’s log cabin, with an 1856 clapboard addition gilding the historical lily, so to speak— dating determined by saw blade marks and construction style. Buoyed by its provenance and in an effort to expand the tiny structure to what would ultimately become a 2,480 s.f. rustic retreat, Svatos responded to an ad in a local newspaper describing 180-year-old (presumed) slave quarters—called Chestnut (log) cabin— located at Mount Joy Farm in Howard County, Md. Earmarked for demolition due to a Howard County zoning quagmire, Chestnut cabin had been dismantled and catalogued when put up for sale, and Svatos purchased and brought it to his Virginia property. In time it would be sited and rebuilt adjacent to the 1794 cabin with its aforementioned addition.

Rallying the regiment

Initially engaging a design builder whose ideas ran contrary to his own thinking, Svatos soon inquired of David Haresign of Bonstra | Haresign Architects, with whom he had worked on larger projects. At stake was precisely how to connect and convert these inchoate structures into a comfortable contemporary retreat without destroying their historical fabric.

“I’m predominantly a commercial architect doing mostly institutional quality corporate work, master planning and multi-family housing,” Haresign said, adding it is not uncommon for him to helm million square-foot projects. But when he drove out to the property along the Old Sperryville Pike, he was struck by the sight of Old Rag Mountain where his father had taken him half-a-dozen times as a boy. “It was one of those special, touchstone places for me,” Haresign said. “I told Joe, ‘Sure, I’d love to help you out.’”

Embarking on what was clearly a virgin venture for all involved, where a confluence of reclamation and rustic luxury were the order of the day, Rappahannock County-based builder Greg Foster of Timberbuilt Construction was also brought in. With issues of connectivity and sustainability among the more obvious requisites, the triumvirate also faced engineering challenges involving modern adaptability of centuries-old notched log cabins, originally held together by mud chinking.

When fascines fail

According to Haresign, at the outset, logs were restacked as the walls for the most part had bowed. And in addition to utilizing notches as their ancestors had, modern technology suggested wood blocking to separate each log with the spaces between sprayed with 3-inch R-15 value foamed insulation, followed by an epoxy-based material troweled on the exterior: a kind of weather surface for the chinking.

Tantamount to that, Haresign described structural measures that needed to be implemented as log cabins are dynamic. While the 1794 toll house cabin was less of an issue, the larger Chestnut cabin was stabilized by a series of threaded steel rods and plates staggered and buried between the logs. “These compress everything so it doesn’t move,” Haresign explained of the bracing, the logs unable to expand, contract or break out of the chinking.

To site and integrate the cabins so that they spoke a common language—and looked as though they had simply developed that way over time, Haresign used a glass connector with stone flooring (the stone locally sourced from Culpepper, Va.) on the first floor, and glass flooring above, where the master suite loft is located. Except for the loft, the flooring for the second story was removed to create double-height spaces. “It’s as modern as we could make it without being ‘in your face’ modern,” the architect said of the design. “In fact it’s almost ‘all window’ on either side of the connector,” he added, affirming the notion of a seamless transition.

Better than a bivouac

On approach, which is from the south, the cabins look as they did post-Revolutionary and pre-Civil War, respectively, when they were built. Desiring to honor original window placement, Haresign, Svatos and Foster elected not to alter existing fenestration with the exception of adding western exposure large scale windows and a new dormer. These frame the Hazel River and Old Rag Mountain. A sweeping curve carved into the land establishes a plinth on which the buildings sit, with a set of stairs descending to the flora and fauna below (Svatos reports he has spied wild turkeys, deer, black bears and snakes).

On the eastern side, to establish the rest of the baseline for the cabins, again the land is marked by a gently sweeping curve and also has a stone wall creating an area Haresign calls the Zen garden. “It’s quiet and contemplative there,” he said, “a contained space.”

Where materials were concerned, about 75 percent of the wood used in the project was reclaimed, for example red siding and parts of a tin roof were reused when renovating the 1856 clapboard addition ceiling. “New” flooring in the Chestnut cabin was gleaned from an 1840s Madison County, Va. courthouse, 40 miles from the site. Cherry treads and trim on the steel stair and modern oak objects inserted into the historical fabric were locally sourced and milled at a facility in Front Royal, according to Haresign, also within a 40-mile radius of the site. Fabricated industrial-grade steel for the interior railing and columns was married with locally-sourced wood filler for warmth, scale and texture—and even some additional bracing. “It’s all about how to craft common materials and make them really special,” Haresign said.

Beneath the Chestnut cabin, which works its way downhill, a newly-minted stone cellar might be considered below-grade on the east, north and south faces, but is clearly exposed on the west face. Haresign said the windows embedded in the stone foundation wall can consequently “peek above grade.” The cellar contains a guest suite and houses all of the mechanical, electrical, security and audio systems. These include a dual-purpose water heater also used for radiant floor heating. Low-flow fixtures, double pane low-emissivity glass and Energy Star appliances make the cabins modern and sustainable. Wired for iPhone docking stations in each room, state-of-the-art technology is camouflaged by design in deference to historical roots.

In the kitchen, the same Madison County courthouse wood flooring underscores modern wood cabinets and appliances, and what the architect playfully calls a translucent glass-and-wood “indoor outhouse” (i.e. powder room) punctuates the living space beyond it.

Finally, in a gesture that embraced both green energy and the past, poised inside the 1794 cabin a study with post-Jeffersonian era desk faces one of two original floor-to-ceiling stone hearth/chimneys that were severely deteriorated, according to homeowner Svatos. “We were able to restore them and bring them back. Now they are fully functioning fireplaces—and very prominent focal points in the cabin.”

“This is the most organic project I’ve ever worked on,” Haresign said, contrasting it with his prominent portfolio of mega-office buildings which are “machined…very tight.

“Cabins are not precise, and the design process never really stopped. It goes on today,” he continued, referencing an 1840s Berks County corn crib slated to become a pool house on the property, and a “drop-dead gorgeous” gate entrance projected to be a modern piece set in the pastoral landscape. The team has just been notified it is to receive a Builder’s Choice award in October.

“This project in my view is the highest form of rustic art available,” Haresign concluded.

Washington D.C. retail and real estate development news

Photos courtesy of Anice Hoachlander

IMF's Dupont Hotel on Path to Redesign

The IMF wants to clean up its hotel image. No, not the mental image of DSK in a hotel room (eww), but its image in Dupont Circle-West End, where it has run a nondescript apartment-hotel since 1991 for visiting professionals from the IMF and World Bank. The stately location - a visible corner 2 blocks from Dupont Circle at 21st and New Hampshire Ave. - may offer a convenient respite for employees, kitchenettes and multilingual staff, but its tired structure needs a reinvention befitting its international clientele.

To that end, the IMF will gut and refit the 10-story structure, now with 100 apartment units, into a more contemporary visage, taking the same shape as the existing edifice, and sell the smaller of the two buildings that now make up the Concordia Hotel. The IMF will employ Washington D.C. architects Bonstra | Haresign to redesign the '60's motif by gutting the building and keeping the existing concrete frame.
The IMF will sell off the Bond Building (see picture below), now accounting for 78 of the 178 units of the Concordia and connected on the ground floor. Initial plans are for a LEED Gold certified building that will slightly increase the interior space with the same footprint, gaining additional units over the current 100-unit configuration, adding rooftop amenities for residents. The Concordia, appraised by the DC government for $58m, was designed in 1965 by Berla & Able who, in a more inspired moment, also designed the Omni Shoreham hotel in Woodley Park.

Next door, Bonstra | Haresign's designs are already coming to fruition. The architects designed a pavilion that will add more retail to the corner of New Hampshire and M Streets in the West End, where Meiwah now sits. Construction is about midway to completion.

Even if the thought of DSK makes the idea of staying in an IMF hotel unappealing, at least the avenue will get what is expected to be an upgrade, erasing one more '60's building.

Building permits have not yet been issued for the project.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Trussed for Success

By Beth Herman

Among the legion of nationwide AME churches, D.C.'s John Wesley AME Zion Church, 1615 14th Street NW, is an integral part of the District's diverse, textured, historical fabric.

With Civil War-era roots and 21st century dreams, a parish house - which was the original church - and the present church structure built in 1894 had fallen short of the current sanctuary, educational, hospitality and administrative challenges of its dynamic congregation, with antiquated mechanical systems—especially an old boiler—draining the church's energy and finances. What’s more, and in part unbeknownst to the architects and developer at the outset, various architectural and aesthetic features and flourishes that had temporarily succumbed to renovation attempts in the past were uncovered in a kind of reverse archaeological dig—50 feet up into a rarefied space lost to generations of church members and staff.


What lies beneath

“Our focus has been more on the Corcoran Street and east sides of the building as far as restoration, underpinning and digging out underneath a space that was just crawlspace for new facilities and rooms for the church,” said Principal Bill Bonstra of Bonstra | Haresign Architects. Working with developer Fred Bahrami and project architect Jeremy Arnold, the team’s objectives were to restore, modernize and upgrade a total of 12,000 s.f. of space with limited financial resources.

“We were very sensitive to the budget of the church,” Arnold said. “We felt the most important thing was (to address) lengthy and overlapping programs with a number of different-sized spaces that can be used in different ways: multipurpose rooms; storage closets; changing rooms; new office space. We wanted to give them spaces that would help them use the building more efficiently on a day-to-day basis.”

Used for meetings, classrooms, banquets, administration and containing a dated and inadequate kitchen, the 4,400 s.f. parish house was a patchwork of disjointed spaces. Engaging a neglected crawlspace beneath the parish house, a hole was made in the foundation from the outside, followed by a ramp and dual bobcats (30,000 cubic feet of dirt was ultimately removed and recycled as fill, with recovered iron recycled as well), with the structure’s middle support replaced by brand new steel columns, beams and footings in a feat of subterranean choreography. The resulting 9-ft.-high new basement has become home to a full commercial kitchen with banquet space for 150, and ladies’ and men’s facilities, and also contains state-of-the-art plumbing, HVAC, fire and safety systems, and a new elevator.

The parish house above was gutted and became dedicated office space for the pastor and administrative staff, along with conference rooms that facilitate the simultaneous viewing of sanctuary services and events via advanced technology.

A glimpse of heaven

According to Arnold, during the team’s initial survey process, poking heads above a lay-in ceiling that had been installed years ago on the second floor and peering past a mélange of mechanical ductwork, a “fairly complex system of beautiful trusses” emerged. Springing at 45-degree angles from the corners, the trusses also traversed a 20-ft.-in-diameter rose window that had been eclipsed very possibly for generations by the dropped ceiling. Evidence of a fire sometime in the 20th century was also observed in black staining and charred trusses, where several of the roof trusses had been reconstructed using wood and steel.

Destined for use now as one of the primary meeting spaces for the church, accommodating up to 250 people, Bahrami is credited with pulling the mechanical ducts through the trusses resulting in “…an interplay of old and new,” according to Bonstra. “It’s incredible space. It’s 50 feet (up),” Bonstra explained. According to Bahrami, the wall around the rose window was deteriorating stucco, which was removed to expose fine brickwork and sealed. Lighting was directed so that wall and window now become a focal point of the church.

“The entire structure has about a 2-ft.-thick brick wall,” Bahrami said of the building, noting the wall makes for prime insulation by its nature. He added that 80 percent of the interior fell apart during the renovation process, which is ongoing through the end of July, so new structural elements that include steel, wood beams and flooring are being employed.

Outside, the façade off Corcoran Street had been neglected with evidence of damaged stained glass and disintegrating brick. Work expected to begin soon includes creating a more presentable entrance to the parish hall side, upgrading the ADA ramp, and landscaping for curb appeal. An ill-placed fire escape was removed from the front of the building, bringing dignity back to the stoic façade.

“There were really no corners cut. One of our focuses was to make sure the bathrooms were comparable to the Ritz Carlton or something of that magnitude,” said Bahrami, whose previous endeavor with Bonstra | Haresign was D.C.’s luxury Q-14 Residences in 2007. “You really feel pampered with marble and granite and the design of some of the spaces—beautifully assembled and selected,” he said, affirming the team’s objective not to subordinate aesthetics to a restricted budget.

With occupancy again projected for August 1, Bonstra said the success of the project is attributed to Bahrami’s assiduous search for alternatives and value propositions for the church. “He did a great job in meeting all of their financial goals.”

14th Street Revs Up Development

Signs of construction abound on 14th Street, as several projects take wing on one of the city's most dynamic commercial corridors. Construction of a 30-unit condo on 14th Street got underway this week as developer Habte Sequar began construction at the corner of 14th and R Streets. Sequar began initial site work on the project just last week, and reported that the digging was just "testing dirt", but confirms that he has now obtained all permits for the project and is proceeding with full construction. At the U Street intersection, several retailers have been ordered out of their 14th Street storefronts, signaling that the much larger Utopia project is also getting close to construction.

The condo project also now has a name - the Aston - with a stated starting price of "in the $300's." Sequar purchased the land for $3.8m in November of 2009, with a goal of a beginning construction this time last year. But with financing more difficult than expected, the site in the middle of the 14th Street corridor has remained vacant since, pending adequate financial backing. Utopia has been in the works for several years, but had also stalled due to financing issues, and is now scheduled for a late 2011 groundbreaking.

Bonstra | Haresign designed the Aston, Ellisdale is managing construction. The project is estimated to take 14 to 16 months build out. The 14th Street corridor has no shortage of projects in the pipeline, with District Condos underway, and PN Hoffman's condo project now in the planning stages, for nearly 300 condos combined. Restaurants are queuing up to serve the expected population surge, with Matchbox planning their next store at 14th and T Streets, Steven Starr considering taking the old Italian Shirt Laundry building (though no contract has yet been signed), and a new burger venue slated for 14th at U Street.

Washington D.C. Real Estate development news