Thursday, February 16, 2012
Today in Pictures - Meridian at Mt. Vernon Triangle
Labels: Architecture Collaborative, Collins + Kronstadt, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Paradigm, Steuart Investment Company
The apartment building was designed by Architecture Collaborative, Inc., while Collins & Kronstadt of Silver Spring holds the title of architecture of record. Developers expect final completion by this fall, but will have competition from the new Donohoe apartment building just across the street.
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Friday, February 10, 2012
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome, Now Eat. Firehouse-Inspired Sixth Engine Bistro Opens in Mt. Vernon
Labels: Douglas Development, Mt. Vernon Triangle
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Mount Vernon Triangle's Critical Mass
Labels: Donohoe Companies, Equity Residential, Holland, Kettler, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Shalom Baranes, Steuart Investment Company
Numerous other large developers have projects on the boards - Steuart, MRP Realty, Bozzuto, The Donohoe Companies, Kettler, and Equity Residential - but few have pulled the trigger just yet, and Bill McLeod, executive director of the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District said those who don't take action soon, "will end up missing out." McLeod, who has been with the MVTCID - created by Mayoral Order in 2004 - for the past five years, added that investors have been paying attention to the area of late.
Equity also hopes to start construction next year on the 170-unit apartment and historic restoration project "Eye Street Lofts", originally a vision of local Walnut Street Development that was iced in 2007. Equity - the largest publicly traded owner and operator of multifamily apartment complexes in the U.S. - bought the land fully entitled a few months ago. Equity will go before the Board of Zoning Adjustment on December 13th. With the area designated as a historic district in 2001, the project received HPRB approval in 2006 (as pictured below) to restore two circa 1880, 3-story townhomes, a 2-story garage/ warehouse, and a small former blacksmith shop in the alley. The building currently leased by BicycleSPACE will be razed.
Nearly a decade after Mount Vernon Triangle was first targeted for redevelopment by the Office of Planning and ten major property owners in the area in 2002, existing apartments are 96-percent leased, condos are sold out, 230,000 s.f. of office space is leased at 455 Massachusetts Avenue and, notes McLeod, only the top floor of the 392,000-s.f. office at 425 Eye Street needs a tenant.
The Meridian, at 425 L Street, a 390-unit apartment developed by Steuart Investments and Paradigm, is now under construction. The topping out of the 14th (and final) story occurred this past September, the project will begin leasing soon and should complete by next June. Phase II of the project will be a 300-unit apartment located next door at 400 New York Avenue.
Next in the queue in Mount Vernon Triangle is Kettler's $80 million, 13-story, 233-unit apartment with 7,000 s.f. of street level retail at 450 K Street (pictured right), under construction next spring and delivering in 2014.
Of great interest to those invested in the area is the timeline of the K Street Streetscape Improvement, the contract of which is currently being finalized by DDOT. The 18- month infrastructure project should be underway early next year, said McLeod, resulting in a mid-2013 completion date.
The long-anticipated $9m reconstruction of K Street between 7th Street and 3rd Street will bring new paving, sidewalks, streetlights, and plantings. Streetcars are also in K Street's future, though the District's focus is currently on funding other legs first, i.e. the H Street Corridor.
Driving much of the current wave of development regionally is the gradually opening financing spigot and Washington D.C.'s perch on the top of the national real estate market. But Mt. Vernon Triangle has something else more rare in downtown DC: empty space. The Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) notes that only about 5 million s.f. of unbuilt space remains available downtown, 2.5m of that at CityCenter and 2m of that above the Center Leg Freeway. That leaves the equivalent of only a few office buildings that could be built downtown before growth has to expand outward, and Mt. Vernon is the nearest spot.
Yet if all projects currently in the pipeline are realized, Mount Vernon Triangle will max out its 600-room hotel capacity, reach 93-percent of its residential capacity (4,250 units), 87-percent of its office space capacity (3 million s.f.), and 84-percent of its retail space capacity (335,000 s.f.). Of the 380 hotel rooms planned for the area, 350 of them are contained in what was once one of the most talked about projects for the triangle, "The Arts at 5th and I" a mixed-use development on the corner of 5th and Eye Street, still considered a "top tier" priority by Mayor Gray.
Donohoe and Holland Development won the right to develop the site in September of 2008, but couldn’t finance the project (pictured below) in the face of the recession. This fall, Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins visited the ANC with a scaled-back, 250,000-s.f. building with two side-by-side hotels, one a 150 room boutique hotel and the other a 200 room extended stay offering 350 rooms above 10,000 s.f. of street-level retail.
In April, it was announced that art in the form of the Liberty North Community Market would be coming soon to the site. The market arrived this fall, and with no plans to begin construction within the next year-and-a-half, the market's vendors have the 2012 growing season to get comfortable.
Donohoe has yet to visit the DC Council for approval its plan, which includes a 99-year ground lease from the District, something that may happen in the next "two to three months," said Jad Donohoe, after which 12 to 14 months will be taken to flesh out the design by Shalom Baranes, complete the construction documents, get permits, and secure financing.
Yet another project is less certain. It will require a 30,000-s.f. floorplate over I-395 between K and New York Avenue to build a 10-story, 1.7 million-square-foot Washington Global Trade Center with a sleek, open-clam-shell globe design (to the right), a development that has been proclaimed a long shot.
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Monday, September 12, 2011
Mt. Vernon Triangle Office on Track for September Start
Labels: Douglas Development, Hines, Mt. Vernon Triangle
This past Friday, AAMC obtained the permit necessary to wrap fencing around 15 lots on square 451, in order to secure the site prior to demolition; a raze permit was also granted the same day for 628 New York Avenue NW, the hold-out property, finally sold to Douglas Development last month. Raze applications for 611, 617 K Street NW are pending.
After obtaining 628 New York Ave, however, Douglas sold the entire assemblage; it was reported by the Washington Business Journal that AAMC bought its new headquarters site for around $57 million, and Hines Interests LP has been selected as developer.
AAMC is moving from its current location at 2450 N Street, NW, and plans to occupy its new headquarters by spring 2014.
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Partial Preservation Prevails Over Parking
The partial raze compromise was reached in the "11th hour," as HPO Staff Reviewer Brendan Meyer stated during his testimony; HPRB Chair Catherine Buell explained that the role of the HPRB is to preserve "contributing structures in a historic district." With that said, Buell then acknowledged that the Church could revisit the Board with a new (full raze) request, or petition the "Mayor's agent" using the plea of economic burden.
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Friday, June 24, 2011
Raze Request for 1860s Rowhouses
At first glance, the property looks unimpressive. Upon further inspection, and considering the 140-year history, the three residential row houses can be seen in a new light, or at least given a nod. However, the property is the worse for its 14 decades.
Director of Church Operations at Third Street Church of God, Theodore (Ted) Daniels, says that demolition is "one of the options" being pursued by the Church and if this route is pursued that the created "space will be used for parking" for church attendees. The Third Street Church of God has been at its location - next door - at 1246 New Jersey Avenue, NW for over a century.
Rob Amos, chair of the ANC 6C Planning, Zoning, and Environment (PZE) Committee, and president of Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association (MVSNA), says that the amount of parking that would be created is unimpressive, and that the PZE moved to oppose the raze request at the PZE meeting on June 1st. The full ANC 6C Commission meeting, however, split 3-3-1 and the ANC "took no action on the request [of the PZE]."
Bobbi Kengel, concerned citizen, says she was "shocked to discover that there could still be a real possibility of demolition of historic rowhouses within a designated historic district."
But, the "real story," according to Kengel, is that "churches and universities are still being allowed to commit demolition by neglect in large numbers, and they aren't even being taxed at the vacant or blighted rates." Rebecca Miller, Executive Director of the DC Preservation league, agreed that property owners should not be able to commit demolition by neglect. According to Amos, "Pastor Sanders [of the Third Street Church of God] testified that [the property] had been vacant for at least 20 years. The Church has been using them for storage for quite a while now."
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Friday, April 01, 2011
More Art at 5th and I, but No Buildings
Labels: Donohoe Companies, Holland, Mt. Vernon Triangle
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Paradigm Begins New York Ave Apartment Project
Labels: Architecture Collaborative, Collins + Kronstadt, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Paradigm Development
Friday, August 27, 2010
Mount Vernon Triangle Scores Another Development
Labels: Architecture Collaborative, Collins + Kronstadt, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Paradigm Development
Parc Rosslyn |
Building permits are to be finalized soon, and although developers have not yet officially closed on the pending financing, Dotson says team is in "very good shape" to square away the remaining logistics and put a shovel in the ground by mid to late September. If things go smoothly, developers expect their first delivery in the spring of 2012, with completion of the building wrapping up later that fall.
Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Mt. Vernon's Dumont Sells for $167 Million
Labels: Broadway Development, Equity Residential, Mt. Vernon Triangle, PB Capital Corp.
Designed by Esocoff & Associates, the Dumont's sob story escalated in December 2008 when lender PB Capital issued a foreclosure to then-developer The Broadway Group, which had defaulted on the debt. Real estate sales by McWilliams Ballard began in April of 2006 and ended in September of 2008 with only about 150 of the 559 units sold; the project has largely sat vacant since that time.
Washington, DC real estate development news
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Arts vs. Parking Lot in Mt. Vernon
Labels: DMPED, Donohoe Companies, Holland, Mt. Vernon Triangle
Saturday, January 23, 2010
CityVista
Labels: Michael Marshall Architecture, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Neighborhood Development Company, Torti Gallas
CityVista Apartments, 460 L St., NW, Washington DC
The CityVista complex in Mt. Vernon Triangle is comprised of 3 separate buildings: the "L" at City Vista with 149 condominiums, the K at CityVista with 292 condominiums, and the "V" with 244 apartments, which completed and began renting in Q3 2008. The K is 12 stories high with underground parking, with 59 subsidized condos. The L is slightly smaller, taking up 134,000 s.f. with 119 market rate and 30 low-income units. The project was built on the site of the former wax museum, in an area that still struggles with many underutilized lots that had offered promising development.
CityVista features 110,000 s.f. of retail - an "urban" Safeway with banking and dry-cleaning services, hardware store and Results gym. Building amenities include rooftop terraces and pool, a one-acre private elevated interior plaza, and underground parking. Developed by a group led by Lowe Enterprises, and by L.A.-based CIM, Bundy Development, and NDC, with land acquired from now-defunct NCRC. Architectural design was by Torti Gallas of Silver Spring and Michael Marshall, construction by James Davis Construction Company. Groundreaking occurred in May, 2006; sales, by Mayhood, began late 2005. Occupancy began in September, 2007 with delivery of the first units at the L, completion of the entire development was in late 2008. Condo prices started in the mid $300's for one-bedroom condos, mid-$400's for two-bedroom condos.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Bozzuto Asks to Delay Mt. Vernon Development
Labels: Bozzuto, HPRB, Mt. Vernon Triangle, WDG Architecture