Friday, January 15, 2010
Fillmore Sounds Like Music to Silver Spring
Labels: Georgia Avenue, Hickok Cole, Lee Development Group, Silver Spring
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Fennessy Lofts
Fennessy Lofts is a 9-story, 38-unit condo building in Logan Circle with 1 and 2-story condos, completed in early 2008, some with balconies and private rooftop space. Upgrade options include tilework for the kitchens and bathrooms, installed sound systems and flat screen TVs, though standard details were not lavish, with features like a laminate lobby floor and plush interior carpeting. Base prices ran initially from $324k (500 s.f. 1 bedroom) to $780k for duplex penthouse units with private decks. Parking available for purchase. Developed by Washington DC-based Ellis Denning, this was the last of the numerous undeveloped lots on 13th Street, now all residential, rising in place of the market formerly on site.
The design by Hickok Cole incorporates the historic livery behind the building that was renovated and turned into 8 two-story units that feature the historic elements of the building. Sales at Fennessy Lofts began in March, 2006, with marketing by McWilliams Ballard; condos were also offered for rent in January 2008. Sales switched to Gallagher and Co in late 2008, which sold the remaining units after a massive price drop, down to $399k for a two-bedroom unit.
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monument Back at the Helm at Watergate?
Labels: Hickok Cole, Holland, Monument Realty, PB Capital Corp.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Affordable Housing Opens in Adams Morgan
Labels: Adams Morgan, Affordable Housing, Ellis Denning, Hickok Cole, Jubilee
Monday, July 06, 2009
K Street Think Tank Seeks PUD Approval for New Scott Circle HQ
Labels: Dupont Circle, Hickok Cole, NCPC, Rhode Island Ave.
The influential DC think tank purchased the commercial parking lot at 1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW - formerly the site of a Gramercy Inn just off of Scott Circle - from Gould Properties in 2007 with the intent of constructing a new 130,000 square foot HQ to replace their aging K Street office space. Though CSIS has had to pursue $100 million plus of revenue bond funding from the District to fund the project, their purchase did come with one positive upshot. Gould had previously secured Stage I PUD approval for the site, leaving the CSIS' designated development team free to move on the project's design phase.
Since that time, Hickok's initial designs have taken a minor shave - resulting in the loss of 16,000 square feet worth of floor area and 12 of the original 90 parking spaces. At the same time, it has gained a green roof (in the hopes of achieving a LEED silver certification) and will still top out at 9-stories. CSIS' original timeline remains in place for a 2012/2013 completion. The project previously won approval from the DC Zoning Commission just last week.
With their new glass-faced HQ up and running, the former K Street defense industry influence peddlers will neighbor another prominent non-profit of a decidedly more liberal bent, the Human Rights Campaign - which should make for interesting, inside-the-Beltway bedfellows at the local Starbucks.
Friday, June 12, 2009
NPR to Start Work on New NoMa HQ
NPR's new 400,000-s.f. HQ at 1111 North Capitol Street, NE, will rise from an expansion and renovation of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Companies Warehouse and Repair Facility presently on site. The historically-protected (and Meads Row isn't?) 83-year-old structure, however, is rife with toxic substances, including asbestos, the removal of which will constitute the first phase of development since the project was announced one year ago.
"The abatement of hazardous materials from the inside of the building and the interior demolition [will begin] in July," said NPR media contact, Danielle Deabler. “The actual construction is anticipated in late 2010 or early 2011…Our move-in date is fall 2013.”
Given the lengthy timeline in place for a full build-out of the new headquarters, Deabler tells DCmud that NPR’s development team for the project - Boston Properties and Hickok Cole Architects - have yet to produce a final design scheme for NoMa’s newest corporate high-rise. According to the NPR rep, a picture of the supposed façade that made the rounds a few months back was merely an example of Hickok Cole’s preliminary vision for the site.
“We don’t have a rendering that we are releasing publicly right now. The only rendering that has been drawn up is the one [the architects] used to bid with. Since that most likely won’t be won’t it looks like, we don’t have a final [design] to show yet,” said Deabler.
The development team is currently in the process of selecting a general contractor for hazmat removal and construction. Final bids were due on June 2nd and a final choice will be announced shortly. (Expect NPR's pledge drive to be even more intense this year, as well.) Meanwhile, NoMa's first hotel opened its doors last week.
Monday, June 01, 2009
NYU to Build Student Center in Downtown DC
The Hickok Cole-designed complex will feature a lecture hall, seminar rooms and office space for NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs and John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, below five-stories of student housing - should be easy to concentrate there. Though the NYU-DC Center won’t be operational until 2012 or 2013, the University is already attempting to spark interest in the center amongst its student body by lauding the selected site as “close to many NGO’s, and near one of Washington’s newest cultural centers, the 14th Street corridor” – two factors that make it ripe for both cushy summer internships and late night downtown escapades. Students of economics, politics, art history, journalism and other CAS mainstays will be eligible for study at the Center. The project was spurred by a recent donation (of an undisclosed sum) from NYU alum and Washington litigator, Ronald Abramson.
Once completed, the Center will serve as NYU’s thirteenth off-campus (but first domestic) study abroad site; the University already has other locations across five continents in far-flung locales like Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Ghana, Buenos Aires and Prague. However, seeing as NYU is one of the most expensive colleges in the nation (if not the world), student transplants to the District might be able to get a break on rent at Paradigm Development’s new Washington Center student housing complex, currently under construction in NoMA.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Bethesda Row Gets a Workout
Based on designs by Hickok Cole Architects, the three-story, LEED-certified uber-gym will be constructed out of “steel, brick, veneer and curtainwall,” according to the builder, and feature two levels that will include a basement pool. In keeping with the project’s aspirations of eco-friendliness, current plans call for a green roof that will “retain and filter rain water” for re-use in the development. Though the luxury workout spot will abut the decidedly less dapper Shoppes of Bethesda strip mall on one side, wealthy fitness buffs should be able to get a clear view of Bentley Bethesda from the top.
Work at the site began late last month and is likely to complete in spring 2010. That’s just about the same time that FRIT and the JBG Companies will be readying themselves to break ground on the mixed-use retail/residential towers, tentatively titled Woodmont East, on Bethesda Row’s southern side at Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues – meaning there’s beaucoup development in the works for America’s second most liveable city come the New Year.
Bethesda Maryland retail and real estate news
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
District's Ft. Totten Land Agreement to be Announced
Labels: Fort Totten, Hickok Cole, JackSophie Development, Lowe Enterprises
Details of the LDA, which was to be held on the 5th but was abruptly canceled, are being withheld. The Fort Totten development team also includes Hickok Cole Architects, Ellis Denning, City Partners Development, and mixed-use planners, StreetSense.
Washington DC commercial real estate news
The Ritz Gets Low-Income Makeover
Labels: Adams Morgan, Affordable Housing, Ellis Denning, Enterprise Community Partners, Hickok Cole, Jubilee
The nearly $7 million renovation will amount to 60 units of affordable housing for Jubilee – which breaks down as 10 efficiencies, 20 one-bedroom, 10 two-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom rental apartments. According to Kathy Guillaume, Jubilee’s Director of Development, new amenities planned for the Ritz include community-oriented additions such as a "computer center, multi-purpose classrooms, community room, [and an] after school center for teens," in addition to energy efficient infrastructural upgrades for the apartments and communal areas. Hickok Cole Architects is designing the renovation, Ellis Denning is serving as general contractor.
Jubilee will move out and into a new location on Colombia Road, allowing for the creation of a new teen center. The Ritz has been under Jubilee’s control since the company’s founding in 1973, when it was one of the first two properties acquired by company executives Terry Flood, Barbara Moore and Carolyn Banker with the aid of Enterprise Community Partners founders, Jim and Patty Rouse. Today, the Ritz is the largest of seven Adams Morgan apartment buildings owned and operated by the company. As part of their “Campaign for the New Jubilee,” the affordable housing operator has been conducting top-to-bottom renovations of all their properties. In addition to the ongoing work at the Ritz, their Ontario Court building (2525 Ontario Road, NW) is also currently undergoing renovation procedures; work on their Mozart (1630 Fuller Street, NW), Marietta (2418 17th Street, NW) , and Fuller Court (1650 Fuller Street, NW) buildings concluded in 2008. Renovations on Jubilee’s two remaining properties, the Euclid (1740 Euclid Street, NW) and the Sorrento (2233 18th Street, NW), are scheduled to commence later in the year. Work on the Ritz is on track to wrap up in July of 2009.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Agreement (Finally) Reached on Ft. Totten Project
Labels: Ellis Denning, Fort Totten, Hickok Cole, Lowe Enterprises, StreetSense
Lowe made their initial announcement concerning The Dakotas project during the summer of 2006 with a planned late-2007 start date that never came to fruition. Details are being withheld at this time, but Sean Madigan of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development confirmed that a formal announcement of the LDA is tentatively scheduled for 10:30am Monday at the site.
Lowe’s last project in conjunction with the District was the Mount Vernon Triangle’s CityVista development and accompanying Safeway that opened their doors to much acclaim in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The Fort Totten development team also includes Hickok Cole Architects, JackSophie Development, Ellis Denning, City Partners Development, and mixed-use planners, StreetSense.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Fort Totten or Bust
Labels: Cafritz, Clark Realty, Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn, Fort Totten, Hickok Cole, JackSophie Development, Lowe Enterprises, MV+A Architects
First on the block is Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group and JackSophie Development’s Fort Totten Square. Plans for which have been bandied for the past 2 years, but according to Lowe's staff and publicity literature, the project is now on track for a 2010 completion. Designed by Hickock Cole Architects, their 9-acre parcel will feature 900,000 square feet of residential and retail space, complimented by 100,000 square feet of “grocer-anchored” retail. Residential units will arrive in the guise of The Dakotas – an 875 unit development that will also sport on-site parking.
In a concurrent phase of development is the Fort Totten Arts Place – a 20-acre redevelopment project being funded by the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Standing right next door to Fort Totten Square project – and on top of the neighborhood enclave that currently stands at 4th and 5th Streets NE – the EEK/MV+A-designed stretch of storefronts and apartment buildings will almost be a neighborhood in and of itself. For starters, the development will include 1220 residential units (220 reserved for seniors) and 147,000 square feet of retail. The latter will be reserving 9,000 square feet for a brand new Safeway supermarket, 82,000 square feet for neighborhood businesses and 6,000 square feet for a major banking branch.
You might be thinking, “Where is all the art at Arts Place?” The Washington National Opera might be a good place to start – they’ll be getting 75,500 square feet of rehearsal space, costume shops and production and administrative offices. The Shakespeare Theatre Company will also join them on the block will their own 75, 500 square foot space of administrative offices, costume and prop shops, and, yes, rehearsal space.
It’s also been seen to that the local community will get their fair share of benefits out of all redevelopment hoopla. There will be a new 27,000 square foot DC Public Library, 15,000 square feet of public performance and meeting space, a 20,000 square foot senior center, a 10,000 square foot daycare center, a gym, a health facility geared towards seniors, a cyber café, and a renovated and reconfigured plaza in Morris Square. Altruistic organization Food & Friends, which delivers meals to the terminally ill and is already located in Fort Totten, will also receive an expansion of its existing facility.
These twin packages of development should serve as a fine compliment to the joint Clark Realty – Washington Area Transit Authority apartment complex at the Metro station that completed Phase I of its’ $58 million, 3-building development earlier this year. If the Lowe and Cafritz projects make it out of the planning stages, we're going to be looking at very different Fort Totten in the future.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
New Yorker Back on Track
KL hopes to break ground by early 2008; the city has already given approval to remove the existing warehouse on site but the developer does not have immediate plans to begin demolition. Larry McAdoo of KL Associates scrapped the original design because construction costs, including the steel and concrete to be used in the first design, had been too high to support the project. The new design will utilize a wood frame with brick exteriors, according to McAdoo. A larger unit size, averaging from 1000 to 1500 s.f., will also replace small units envisioned in the first go-round, though a greater number of units would be permitted, thus allowing the townhouse style, which McAdoo says is more in keeping with the "Capitol Hill style" architecture. An additional bonus will of course be the massive office space of NoMa being built just a few blocks to the west, an area that - back in 2005 - was just a vast wasteland, with a forgotten bus depot and a few vague promises about redevelopment.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Donatelli Development Opens New Downtown Sales Office
Labels: Domus Realty, Donatelli, Hickok Cole, U Street
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Watergate Hotel's Conversion to Co-Op Off?
Washington DC real estate development news