Kelsey Gardens is for sale. Well, still. Okay, erstwhile developers of the 280 unit apartment building in Shaw's burgeoning development strip put the property on the market exactly
one year ago, but now are rebranding - just a bit - their city-sanctioned project next to the (possibly, someday)
O Street Market.
Metropolitan Development had
enlisted the help of
Ideal Realty Group in March of 2010 to market the fully entitled project, which had been rebranded from Kelsey Gardens of low-income, crime plagued housing project fame, into Addison Square, a new mixed-income project embodying more modern concepts of lower income housing. Metropolitan sought a joint venture partner, financier, or outright sale of the property. But one year in, Metropolitan has dropped Ideal Realty in favor of
MAC Realty Advisors, and dropped Addison as a marketing name.
Kelsey Gardens adjoins the O Street Market along 7th Street as would be projects looking for a suitor but - also along the 7th Street corridor - the new Shaw Library,
Progression Place (underway),
Howard Theater, and 2 potential housing projects at 7th and Rhode Island (
1,
2)
Metropolitan paid $7m for the property in 2004, and has secured from the city $18 million in tax abatement, as well as a zoning change to allow the density in the form of a Planned Unit Development - with the catch that 54 of the 280 units be set aside for tenants making 60% of AMI. A sale of the property would require a purchaser to follow the plans, or be required to start the zoning process anew.
Bruce Levin of MAC says his brokerage has compiled a substantial portfolio of apartments since its inception just a year
ago, including View14 which is also on the market, but pulls no punches about his predecessor's inability to sell the plans, calling the past year "the low point" for marketing such projects. "But the market is very robust right now," says Levin. "We're crushing it" he says of the firm's portfolio.
It wasn't supposed to take this long. Neat signs still announce the project "Coming in 2010", and
Metropolitan Construction Manager Jim Wurzel said in January of 2010 that he was "hoping we can start construction this summer." But
ANC Commissioner and Shaw Main Streets founder, Alexander Padro was more sanguine at
the time."We're probably talking 2011 or 2012 before anything is even torn down."
Lessard Architectural Group designed the project, which will (theoretically) include 14,700 s.f. of retail space along 7th. For the sake of Shaw, let's hope MAC crushes it here, and quickly.
Washington D.C. real estate development news
disappointing projects were closed down years ago in a bid for redevelopment.
According to Bruce Levin of MAC Realty Advisors, which brokered the transaction, Jefferson paid $16,650,000 to purchase the entity that controls the site, keeping all entitlements in tact, meaning Jefferson can take over the PUD approval and existing demolition permits, allowing work to begin as early as Q1 of 2012. Metropolitan Development had purchased the austere collection of buildings in 2004 for $7m, and planned the project as Addison Square, wrangling $18 million from the city in tax abatements, as well as a zoning change to allow the density in the form of a Planned Unit Development - with the qualification that 54 of the 280 units be set aside for tenants making 60% of AMI. Jefferson settled on the purchase 2 weeks ago.
Kelsey Gardens is just a few blocks south of Progression Place, a large residential project now well into construction and the Wonder Bread building, plans for which are now being hashed out, as well as the Howard Theater. A small slice of the Kelsey Project was cleaved from the site this spring when Capital City Real Estate bought a strip of land along P Street to build six 2-unit townhouses, 
