Room and Board Buys into 14th Street

Minneapolis-based home furniture retailers Room and Board have purchased a vacant, four-story building at 1840 14th Street, NW and plan to transform it into a fully rehabbed, 33,000 square foot flagship location - their first in the DC metro area. According to the broker who facilitated the purchase, Wayne Dickson of Blake Dickson Real Estate, the retail chain has big plans for the re-emergent 14th Street corridor and will use the entire space for their showroom.

"Room and Board is expecting this to be a regional draw for them...Through their catalog sales, they did a zip code analysis of where the majority of their customers were.  The building at 1840 14th Street was just about dead center in that customer base," he said.

Known to some as the Taylor Motor Building, 1840 14th Street began its life as a Ford Model A showroom, and, in subsequent decades, went on to to serve an array of uses, including stints as an arts space and church. Most recently, the building was slated for a residential makeover by Four Points, LLC, which paid some $10 million for the site. Plans for that project, the so-called T Street Flats, (or "Rapture Lofts") were announced in 2007, but never made it past the planning stages.

"Blake Dickson Real Estate has been working on that property for the better part of two years…It was most recently a church, called the Church of the Rapture, and then the initial plans by Four Points, LLC had a condo element,” said Dickson. “They bought that building at the top of the market and then later decided to go all commercial with it.”

As purveyors of handcrafted, American-made furniture, Room and Board will be among the latest in a string of upscale chain retailers, including Bang and Olufsen and Whole Foods, to set up shop along the once unfashionable 14th Street corridor - the same strip that recently lost its Storehouse furniture retailer, only to gain Mitchell Gold in its place. One block over at 14th and S Streets, NW, the JBG Companies also have plans on the boards for a new mixed-use complex with ground-floor retail. (Once that Apple Store gets announced, consider gentrification complete.)

Room and Board have retained omnipresent DC architects, Eric Colbert and Associates, to design the extensive renovation, which Dickson described as a “gut job.” The build-out is expected to take between 12 and 18 months.

Washington DC retail real estate news

The Floridian Goes South?

Buyers at The Floridian condominium in Shaw received some unwelcome if unfortunately common news last week when they were informed they would be unable to settle on their contracts until a lien and lawsuit involving one of the lenders was resolved. The condo project at 919-929 Florida Avenue, by Kady Development, has been funded by "a number of different" lenders, including Bank of America. Contract holders have had their settlements delayed until the disputes are resolved.

"The situation is that the seller, about three weeks ago, disclosed to all of our potential purchasers and [current] owners that he is having an issue with the lender and hopes to get it resolved within - what he said at the time - a month, but that he couldn’t be certain. So, we've been working with anyone who is under contract and new potential buyers and telling them that information,” said Gerard DiRuggiero of Urban Land Company.

“[We] can’t settle [contracts] at the moment. So, it’s just weekly updates and we’ve cleared that with all the buyers. Again, people are remarkably flexible and we’re giving them the information that we know. The residents seem to be handling it well and they love the building and the location,” said DiRuggiero. The Florida Avenue project sits amid several sites that were intended for development, such as the Atlantic Plumbing site, but that never materialized.

However, as of last week, the 118-units in the development’s dual, Eric Colbert-designed 8-story towers boasted an occupancy rate of 50% according to the sales team, though DC government records show only 29 recorded sales - after having begun sales in October 2005 and beginning settlements in the first half of 2008. Like the Metropole, a nearby project which was taken over by the lender in April and has been all but invisible since, the Floridian’s sales center at 913 Florida Avenue, NW, remains technically open for business…for now, at least, but without a date certain for resolving the issue. The project was built by Tompkins Builders.

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Adams Morgan Fixer-Upper Gets Fixed-Up

The Kalorama / Adams Morgan neighborhood will soon have one less dilapidated tinderbox for neighbors to revile. Located at 2110 19^th Street, NW, the three-story apartment building at the site has gone from bad to worse over the past half-decade. Luckily for area preservationist aficionados, however, renovation (if you can call throwing out everything except the facade a renovation) is currently underway and, once completed, this real estate ugly duckling will emerge a swan - courtesy of DC apartment developer and management company Keener Squire Properties and the architects of Eric Colbert and Associates.

Originally known as the The Hilltop, residents of the then 15-unit tenement - described by The Washington Post at the time as a "badly deteriorated building" - were bought out of their leases in 2005. Another District development company, Nicol Development, then tried their hand at culling 22 condominiums out of the building shortly thereafter and summarily failed, leaving nothing but a condemned husk of a building in what was (ironically enough) one of the District’s more desirable neighborhoods. But then 2007 happened, and Nicol lost control of four local projects, this one to the lender. The property had been informally floated above $5 million by Nicol, then more formally listed at $3.8 million but still no takers. Cut to the summer of 2008, when Keener Squire was able to pick it up at the “fixer-upper” special rate of $2.1 million.

“My client bought it at auction,” said architect Eric Colbert. “Someone had tried to develop it a while back, but they didn’t know what they were doing and wound up abandoning the project…It must have been at least five or six years [since people lived there.]”

That's about to change. Keener-Squire is currently projecting a 12-month timetable for a complete renovation of the once-roughshod apartment complex. The building’s original 25,000 square foot shell will receive an extra 5,000 feet during the course of the build-out, allowing for a total of 35 new residential units and two new floors. Keener-Squire’s in-house general contractor, Wayne Construction, is overseeing work at the site. Sources say the building is being designed as rental apartments, but, as always, market forces will ultimately dictate the final outcome.

A Scaled Back Utopia on U Street

Robert Moore of Georgetown Strategic Capital LLC (GSC) and Eric Colbert & Associates have gotten the go-ahead from two of the District’s governing bodies – the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) and the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) – to move forward with their mixed-use Utopia development at the southwest corner of 14th and U Streets NW.
Utopia has been in the approval queue for more than a year, but only now able to move through the approval process after obliging several variance requests. As such, the building will no longer feature a rooftop pool, and will top out at 90 feet, instead of the proposed 100. The building’s design was also tweaked to allow for varying levels of density throughout the parcel, which occupies two adjoining historic sites at 1912-1944 14th Street NW and 1400-1418 U Street NW.

Nonetheless, the project is still an eagerly anticipated addition to the U Street corridor. GSC intends to bring 230 rental apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail – an amount that will double the amount of shopping and dining on the block – to complete what it has dubbed an “urban living experience.” Accordingly, Utopia is being pitched as the new home base for young professionals who clog the area on Friday and Saturday evenings – not surprising, given its proximity to Donatelli’s similarly-envisioned Ellington building (and election night’s impromptu Obama street party - aka "Change-fest '08"). The project will include an affordable housing component, the extent of which is yet to be determined.

As of now, the project is still on track to hit its intended 2009 start date, with grand opening scheduled for 2011.

Donatelli Downsizes Petworth Metro Building

Developers Willco Residential and Donatelli Development are moving forward with their initiative to revitalize a stretch of Georgia Avenue marred by vacant lots and blighted businesses. Billing itself as “the first luxury, boutique residential property in the Columbia Heights/Petworth neighborhood,” the project located at 3801 Georgia Avenue NW will - according to a BID issued by Donatelli on September 22 - feature 12 rental units of 1 or 2-bedroom, 850 square foot apartments. Additionally, the concepts on hand call for the construction of a “sit-down” restaurant and 5,000 square feet of retail space. This announcement marks a change to the initial plans that projected 49 residential units and space for only 1 to 2 retail outlets. Now that the scale of the building has been pared down, the developer is posting no requirements for affordable housing and, as such, “will offer luxury urban living at lower price points than larger competing luxury properties.” Accordingly, they expect a successful leasing effort and a low vacancy rate from the get-go.Christopher Donatelli, President of Donatelli Development spoke to the reasoning behind the loss of the residential space. “Anytime you have an empty lot like that you can come in with a quality development is a good thing,” he said. “We’re going to get some retail in there…Trying to get a good development there at the Metro seems to make a lot of sense.” The new building is directly across the street from Donatelli’s 161-unit Park Place development above the Georgia Avenue/Petworth Metro - due for completion this winter - and is being designed by architects Eric Colbert & Associates (see DC Mud's previous coverage of Park Place). The project is expected to go to ground in May 2009.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Logan Station Completes Sales

Bogdan Builders' Logan Station officially finished sales with its final settlement last Friday. The 63 condominiums at 1210 R Street, NW, in the Shaw neighborhood, began sales in March, 2006, but most sales occurred after construction completed in August of last year. The new four-story building with a green roof replaced a vacant lot at R Street and Vermont Avenue, and features townhouse style units with private entrances on the first floor, with flats on the upper units. The project was Bogdan's largest to date. The Bethesda-based developer previously completed the Ivy at Harvard (14 units) and Villaggio (14 units), and is currently putting the final touches on Belmont Vista, a 28-unit building in Columbia Heights. Designed by Eric Colbert and built Bogdan's own construction team, Logan Station was priced originally from mid $300k's, with two-bedroom condos from the high $500k's, and penthouse units in the $700's. Logan Station was financed by Sandy Spring Bank.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Bad News for Brookland Condos

Brookland Square, formerly known as 1300 Rhode Island Avenue, will now go forward as an apartment building. The 326-unit condo project was initially approved as such back in 2006, but Columbia General Rhode Island, LLC and Republic Land Development sent a letter to the Board of Zoning Adjustment on March 4th requesting modification of the approved plans, to switch the condo to a rental building. In a BZA order dated Tuesday, the Board approved the modifications.

"The Applicant contends that it has spent a considerable amount of time attempting to reduce construction costs and improve the economics of the project, particularly given the very difficult economy and housing market," the approving order stated.

BZA, obviously no Pollyanna when it comes to the economy or housing market, stated gloomily "Because the condominium market in the District of Columbia (and nationwide) has stalled and is predicted to not recover for several years, and the economy, and in particular the credit markets, has dropped to recession or near-recession levels, the Applicant has been forced to redesign the project and convert it from a condominium to a rental apartment building and to undertake numerous and significant cost-cutting efforts in order to reduce construction costs and make the units affordable to the rental market."

Developers will re-work the design plans to meet the needs of an apartment building, including reducing the size of the units and adding two units per floor, for an overall increase of 10. Each of the fourth-floor private rooftop terraces have been eliminated; alas, doing away with the need for the spiral staircases leading up to them. Finally, an on-site leasing and management office will be added to the ground floor, reducing the size of the ground-floor residential units.

Eric Colbert Architects is the designing the building while Republic irons out the project's financing - a groundbreaking date is anticipated by the third quarter of this year.

HPRB to Review 14th and U

Plans for a mixed-use apartment and retail project at the southwest corner of 14th and U Streets in NW will be on review today, as Robert Moore of Georgetown Strategic Capital LLC (GSC) and Eric Colbert & Associates appear before the Historic Preservation Review Board. They last met in December when the developer and architect presented their initial concept ideas for Utopia (as it is referred to around GSC's office), but HPRB recommended they alter the design to reduce the impact with the smaller buildings in the surrounding historic area. The property is currently owned by F.S. People's Realty Company and Jenco Group, which is currently negotiating a long term ground lease with GSC for the development.

GSC's preliminary plans (rendering above, depicting the west side of 14th St) propose construction of 230 rental apartments in a seven to ten-story building at the corner of 14th and U streets, which Moore expects will attract young professionals. And not without reason; one block to the east, Donatelli Development's Ellington apartment building has maintained high occupancy with some of the highest residential rents in the area. In the current design, GSC will offer a range of units from studios to small two bedroom apartments, but averaging around 750 square feet. The building will be a block from the 13th and U St. metro station, for what Moore calls an affordable, "urban living experience."

GSC also plans 20,000 s.f. of retail on the first floor, doubling the 20,000 s.f. of existing retail in vintage buildings along U Street, which will be incorporated.
According to Moore, "People are welcoming this change to the neighborhood. This is a strip that isn't very attractive right now. We hope to bring an exciting new mixed-use building to the neighborhood, and provide much needed affordable rental apartments."

Eleven historic buildings exist on the site within the U Street Historic District and Uptown Arts Overlay zone. None will be removed, although some non-historic buildings will be torn down for the project. The plan incorporates some of these historic elements, such as the frontage of rehabilitated buildings on U St. and three small commercial storefront buildings on 14th St., which combines a mix of historic and architecturally insignificant new buildings that are blessed with such retail as McDonald's and other fast food take-outs.

The main problem HPRB wanted to see altered was, of course, the height and density of the buildings in relation to the smaller surrounding edifices. The new conceptual idea, to be discussed today, includes two components to relate to the two different zoning categories, the southern half being low density and the northern half allowing for higher density.

Although planners hope to have their designs approved today, both HPRB and Moore said there will likely be further follow up meeting between the groups to iron out differences. The designs will then move on to the Board of Zoning Adjustment before any construction will take place. GSC plans on beginning construction in 2009 with completion in the beginning of 2011.

1300 Rhode Island - New Name, New Birthday

The developer of Brookland's next residential project have announced they will break ground next spring. The project, formerly known simply as 1300 Rhode Island Avenue, is also being re-christened Brookland Square. Republic Land Development plans to build the 350,000-s.f. structure for an estimated $75 million, with aspirations for it to serve the new residential center for Brookland, located only 2 blocks from the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station and a developing retail sector.

The name change comports with physical location: the actual development site resides on 2711 13th Street NE - not Rhode Island Avenue. Brookland Square is being managed by Republic Land Development, the developers behind Georgetown Park and Washington Harbour. Eric Colbert & Associates is designing the structure and Harkins Construction tentatively holds the contract to build.

Broadcast Center One Gets the Signal from DC

The DC Zoning Commission approved the application this Monday for Broadcast Center One, a 300,000 s. f. mixed-use development on 7th and S Streets NW, a long-sought ruling that is expected to add impetus to the regeneration of the Shaw neighborhood.

In tandem with the Planned Unit Development zoning application, developers Four Points LLC and Ellis Enterprises also submitted a Land Disposition Agreement to the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development last Friday for review by the DC City Council. A hearing is anticipated by mid-November.

"We are happy to report that we have concluded land transfer and subsidy negotiations," said Steven Cassell, project manager at Four Points LLC. "Radio One has both accepted a subsidy offer from the city and signed a letter of intent," Cassell added, referring to Radio One, the country's seventh largest radio broadcasting company which will be moving back to DC and into the new digs once the Broadcast Center project is completed. The $128 million development has been in the pipeline for over two years, but if all goes well at the hearing next month construction would begin soon. "Our objective is to be in the ground and digging by February," declared Roy Ellis, CEO of Ellis Enterprises.

The Broadcast Center One complex, with over 21,000 s. f. of retail space, 180 residential units for rent and 103,000 s.f. of office space, will be a blessing to many including the Shaw district at large. "Whenever you bring a company into a neighborhood, you've got real economic opportunity. It's the best thing since sliced bread," added Ellis who, amongst others, sees this development as having a drastic revitalization effect on the local Shaw community.

None will be happier about the deal's approval than Cathy Hughes, founder of Radio One. "Radio One was built with the good will and support of the citizens of DC. I cried for six months when we had to leave," said Hughes. The old Radio One headquarters, located on Nebraska Avenue, had lived out its lease almost ten years ago. Since then, Ms Hughes has awaited the day her company could return to its roots in the District.

Construction of Broadcast Center One will require a convergence of the minds for project managers from five separate companies: joint developers Four Points LLC and Ellis Enterprises, Jarvis Company who is acting as an equity investor in the project, Devrouax & Purnell who will be designing the office building and Eric Colbert & Associates, the architect behind the Broadcast Center residences. The targeted completion date for the project is in the second quarter of 2010.

Flats at Blagden Alley Back to Life

When we last visited the Flats at Blagden Alley in July 2006, developer Walnut Street Development had canceled sales of the condo project before breaking ground, with sources saying only one of the 45 units had gone under contract, with the developer stating a likelihood of pursuing residential rental space in the near future. The Flats are indeed coming back, again as condos, but this time as ‘affordable’, to be built by North Carolina-based Self Help, a non-profit whose mission is to “create ownership and economic opportunity for minorities, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families.”

The Flats will front M St., the alley and 9th St., one block from the Convention Center in the heart of Shaw and directly across from the Whitman. WSD’s version, designed by Eric Colbert, had been priced from the high $200’s to the $800’s; the new plan calls for one-bedroom units to start in the upper $100’s to mid $300’s, with target incomes from the mid $30,000’s to the mid $80,000’s. The original project was designed to be a mix of 45 residential condos, ground floor retail, artist lofts, and office space for associations and small businesses; the revised plan calls for 49 one-bedroom condos and 14 two-bedroom condos. Self Help says it expects completion in late 2008.

Flats at Blagden Alley Cancels Condo Plan

Walnut Street Development confirmed today that they will halt sales for their most recent condo development in DC following disappointing interest. The project, a 45-unit condominium one block from the new Convention Center, named the Flats at Blagden Alley, was to house artist lofts and office condos in addition to the residential units. A WSD spokesman cited "a change in the market" and said that the developer, which has not yet received final condo certification from DC, will continue with the building and finalize condo approval but target the rental market, leaving open the possibility of condo sales closer to the Fall 2007 completion date - or thereafter. The project, designed by Eric Colbert, is still slated to break ground early this Fall. Sales began in late Spring, reportedly selling only 2 out of the 45 units. Numerous condo projects in the immediate area have recently completed, and Faison Development is in the final stages of building its 185-unit condo project directly across the street, where more than two-thirds of the units have sold.