Akridge Applies for Permit to Demolish 1200 17th St.

Akridge has applied for a permit to raze the 8-story office building it recently purchased at 1200 17th St. NW, and replace it with a greener office building.  Architectural firm ZGF will design the new structure.

The development company bought the property from the National Restaurant Association with partner First Potomac for $39.6 million last October, and plans to spend $100 million to build a 170,000 s.f. office building on the site. Developers hope to achieve a LEED rating on the new building.

According to the Business Journal, the companies hope to open a new building by 2014, a date that would require demolition to begin soon.

Don Morris, senior project manager of Balfour Beatty Construction, says the developer will scrape the site and erect an entirely new building in its place.  The current building dates to 1964.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Connecticut Ave. Gets Even Better Looking Around Its Middle.

Connecticut Avenue, the heart of Washington D.C.'s business and retail district, is about to get even better looking around its middle. According to the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, the initial 300-foot stretch of the median which runs from K Street to L Street, may soon gain another 600 feet, or three more blocks, running from L Street to Jefferson Place, beginning this spring.

The lower stretch of Connecticut Avenue is already home to some of Washington's swankiest hotels and businesses, including Marriott's Renaissance Mayflower, Brooks Brothers, Tiny Jewel Box, Burberry and Thomas Pink.

But the BID and the City are seeking the median improvements as way to position Connecticut Avenue as a grand retail destination on par with Fifth Avenue in New York and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, said Leona Agouridis, executive director of the Golden Triangle BID.

"The street-scape creates part of the environment and enhances what's already here. We just need to tell the story to potential retailers," said Agouridis, who said some retailers along her section of Connecticut Avenue are averaging more than $1,000 per square foot in sales ($600 per square foot is considered respectable) and wants to use the median and other sidewalk improvements in the pipeline as a way to attract further best-in-brand names to the avenue. "We may not be on their radar screen right now, but hopefully they'll sit up and take notice," she said.

The attention District thoroughfares are getting around their middle is fairly recent. After the streetcars ran their last revenue runs in 1962, the middle stretch of most major arteries were paved over, either creating a impromptu center-turn lane (pictured, right) or a raised strip with grass that went untended. The flat asphalt medians sometimes became a place to park cars on the weekends, but did nothing to contribute to green space or lessen storm water runoff.

That began to change after the Golden Triangle BID back in 2008 got a grant from the District Department of Transportation to help plan and build an initial median along Connecticut Avenue starting from K Street. RMA Inc. was chosen as the architect. That stretch, which began construction in November 2010, was just completed last September at a cost of $397,000. The Golden Triangle BID will pay for the operating costs of maintaining the landscaping, as well as the lighting of the 12-foot wide median. Agourdis said the design for the second phase of the median is complete and the contract for construction should go out to bid shortly. Completion is expected in 2014, according to the BID.

Following in the footsteps of Connecticut Avenue, several other median strips around the city are getting a boost. The Downtown DC BID recently partnered with The National Museum of Women in the Arts to bring colorful sculptures to the 1200 block of New York Avenue.

Dupont Main Streets last year also received $85,000 from DDOT to make over a separate 600-foot long stretch of Connecticut Avenue's median between R and S.

The South Capitol Street project, (pictured, left) will also include landscaped medians in its plan for a grand avenue makeover.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

OTO on a Roll with Hampton Inn in Golden Triangle

Hospitality developer OTO Development, the company striving to turn the neo-classical Editor's Building at 1729 H Street, NW, into a Hampton Inn, has been given the green light by the Office of Zoning this week. Corry Oakes, president and CEO of OTO Development – currently under contract to purchase the Editor's Building – said the next step for the Hampton Inn project is to seek approval for interior demolition. With the goal to have demolition underway before the end of the year, construction will likely begin in the first quarter of 2012, said Oakes. The office-turned-hotel renovation, designed by Bob Greenberg with Gordon & Greenberg Architects, will leave the exterior of the 10-story building intact and focus on inner alterations, including revamping an all-marble main lobby, and carving out 116 Hampton hotel rooms, a brand under the Hilton family empire. 

OTO asserts on its website that it will "take great efforts to retain the classic character of this building and to incorporate much of its history into [the] interior design." The sale of the building, owned and occupied by Kiplinger Washington Editor's Inc. for the last six decades, was brokered by Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P., and was initially projected to close this month, however, Dek Potts, a managing director at HFF, says the settlement will now take place in December. Oakes confirmed that OTO does not typically close on a property until it is ready to begin construction, and passing through the Board of Zoning Adjustment's review – allowing for a variance from off-street parking requirements – was a big step toward that goal. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Editors Building Downtown Turning to Hospitality

The "Editors Building," located one block from the White House at 1729 H St., NW in the Golden Triangle, has been owned and occupied by Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. from the time it was completed in 1950. But after six decades, the family-owned finance publisher is selling its 10-story, 77,000 s.f. neo-classical building to a hotel developer.

The buyer currently under contract, OTO Development Company LLC, has put down a firm deposit, giving Dek Potts, a senior managing director with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF), "reasonable confidence" that the sale is a sure thing.

Settlement is scheduled for October in order to allow Kiplinger time to relocate. HFF has been marketing the property since the summer of 2010. OTO Development LLC is a South Carolina-based hospitality development company with properties nationwide, and in April delivered its first project in D.C., the Hilton Garden Inn at Constitution Square in NoMa.

Located in the downtown core, the new Golden-Triangle property being acquired is C-4 zoned, allowing office, retail, housing, and mixed-use development (up to 110' and 8.5 F.A.R.) by way of right.

Designed by Washington architect Leon Chatelain Jr. in 1948, construction of the building in the subsequent two years was completed under the guidance of John McShain, celebrated general contractor-builder, who has been dubbed "The man who built Washington." McShain and his company worked on over 100 buildings in the thirty-odd years spanning the 1930s to '60s, including the National Airport, the Kennedy Center, the Jefferson Memorial, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress annex, and, the same year as the Editors Building, a revamp of the White House.
The Editors Building is not designated as a historic/landmark structure, allowing the buyer one less fee-trip in the path to redevelopment. A façade of limestone surrounds a red-granite-and-bronze entrance with matching red-granite window accents. Inside, the continuation of neo-classical elements includes an all-marble lobby with 12-to-16' ceilings.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Fancy Schmancy Bike Racks for Downtown DC

Unless you ride a bike to work, you probably could not begin to guess where one might find a bike rack in downtown DC. The Golden Triangle BID is hosting a contest to bring art to the streets and make sure you notice those bike racks in the future. After successfully installing the "Bike Here" rack in Dupont in Spring 2009, the BID is looking to add a few more to its 43 city blocks. Artists of all kinds are encouraged to submit a design to get a chance to have their work publicly displayed and to win a $1,500 honorarium.

The BID's goal is to bring a vibrancy to the street level and remind people of alternative transportation methods. That said, a winning design need merely be capable of supporting two bikes upright by its frame. It's not practical, it's art.

Designs are due March 4th, selection will happen in April 2010 and final installation should occur by summer 2010.