Showing posts with label Preston Partnership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Preston Partnership. Show all posts

Monday, December 03, 2012

Today in Pictures - Trilogy Apartments

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Trilogy apartments opened last week, and though the neighborhood's location is more contested than the Spratly Islands (either NoMa or Eckington, you pick), the first building is now open - and soon all 3 buildings and 603 apartments will be complete.   Designed by the Preston Partnership and developed by Mill Creek Residential Trust, the project broke ground in March of 2011.  Below are pictures of the completed portions of the building.









Washington D.C. real estate development news

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

NoMa's Trilogy Apartments Open Thursday

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NoMa's newest apartments open Thursday as developers and city officials gather for a photo op to inaugurate one of Washington DC's largest apartment buildings.  "Trilogy" - 3 buildings designed by the Preston Partnership and formerly known as NoMa West - will add 603 rental units to the border between NoMa and Eckington at 151 Q Street, NE.

The first of the three buildings - Cirq, Linq, and Esqe - is now open, with the other two opening within the next few months.  Designed by developer Mill Creek Residential Trust to appeal to nearly any taste and architectural preference, each of the three buildings sports several motifs, a "highly differentiated architectural style," say its developers, that will span the centuries, architecturally speaking, with "traditional and contemporary" in Cirq, "warehouse, contemporary and art deco" in Linq, and finishing with the "highly contemporary" Esqe when it completes in March.

The project broke ground in March of 2011, but has been in the works far longer, at least since the team of CSX (as owner) and Fairfield Residential (as developer) plotted a 2006 groundbreaking for the residences.  The torch then passed to Trammell Crow Residential, and finally to the current team, who can finally spike the ball at tomorrow's ceremony.  Mill Creek is also working on an even larger project at the Dunn Loring Metro station.





Washington D.C. real estate development news

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Today in Pictures - NoMa West

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One of Washington D.C.'s largest residential developments is nearing completion. Mill Creek Residential Trust, LLC is putting the finishing touches on NoMa West, three five-story buildings on a 4.3 acre site that will add 603 wood-framed, mostly market rate apartments to the NoMa neighborhood (that some insist is really Eckington, but that fall inside the NoMa BID map boundaries). The Preston Partnership, LLC is responsible for the design, and R.D. Jones & Associates designed the interior.

Whatever neighborhood it falls in (note that the project was once called Eckington Place), the project is nearing completion and is across the street from MRP's Gateway project, the combination of which will bring an actual neighborhood to what could have been recently described - charitably - as desolate.  (Pictures were taken last month)













Monday, June 18, 2012

WPC Breaking Ground on Wheaton Residential Project

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Washington Property Company breaks ground on the Solaire, a 232-unit residential building at 10194 Georgia Avenue, next week.  Located on the former site of the First Baptist Church, WPC acquired the 1.65-acre parcel in 2005 and, as part of the deal, relocated the church to Olney, adding to the long list of projects approved in a quickly developing Wheaton town center.

Montgomery County approved the site plan last October for a Preston Partnership-designed six-story, u-shaped structure, opening to the south, with a swimming pool and greenspace in the interior courtyard.  Designers used a "variety of masonry and glazing" as well as "small parapets and height variations ... to minimize the sense of building mass." Beneath, developers will build a two-level parking garage with 230  spaces. A public statement notes such ubiquitous amenities as "granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, fine cabinetry, wood laminate flooring."  

According to a WPC press release, the developer owns more than eight million square feet of commercial space in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and currently has over 1.6 million residential square feet under development.Clark Builders Group is the General Contractor, Gables Residential will provide property management and leasing services.  Leasing is expected to begin in September of 2013.

Wheaton, Maryland real estate development news

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Tysons Developer Begins Route 50 Apartment Project

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Tysons-based Insight Property Group has started construction on a 67-unit "luxury apartment" building in Arlington near the Courthouse Metro station. While this will be the first completed development for the Insight team, it claims to have more than 1000 units "in the development pipeline."

Grayson Flats will be a 4-story ("luxury") building on a 1.67-acre site at 1200 North Rolfe Street, near Ft. Myer, which Insight acquired in 2010, demolishing the post-war apartment building that existed on the site.
Lessard Design and Preston Partnership collaborated for the design, with apartments "larger than typical Ballston/Rosslyn offerings." And forget old school, the building will feature the absolute latest in amenities package - think bocce, Wi-Fi, billiards, cyber cafe, bike storage and an electric car charging station. Such amenities may soon be coming even closer to your own neighborhood, as Insight is planning to dot the area with similar apartments:
"Insight development projects include two buildings scheduled to break ground later this year: one in downtown Silver Spring, MD and one near the Huntington Metro station in Alexandria, VA. Two more projects -- another development in Arlington and one on H Street, NE in Washington, D.C. -- will follow shortly thereafter."
Clark Builders Group is the general contractor, Buvermo Investments of Bethesda is the equity partner in the $25 million development. Construction began on the project last year and is expected to be complete by this fall.

Arlington, VA real estate development news

Friday, March 09, 2012

WPC's Wheaton Residential Project to Break Ground In May

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Washington Property Company's 245-unit residential building at 10194 Georgia Avenue is on target for a spring groundbreaking, adding to the long list of greenlit revitalization projects in Wheaton. "We're out to bid now [for a general contractor], and hope to start construction in early May," said Daryl South, Vice President of Development for WPC. "Everything's ready to go."

Washington Property company acquired the 1.65-acre parcel, which is just steps from the Wheaton metro station, in 2005.

According to a site plan approved by Montgomery County planners in October of last year, the Preston Partnership-designed building will be a six-story u-shaped structure, opening to the south, with the interior space used for a swimming pool and greenspace. Designers used a "variety of masonry and glazing" as well as small parapets and height variations ... to minimize the sense of building mass." Underground, developers are shooting for at least 230 parking spaces spread over two levels, and will be required to offer 12.5% of the dwellings as (subsidized) MPDUs. The site is the former home of the First Baptist Church of Wheaton, which has relocated to Washington Christian Academy while construction on their new building in Olney is completed.

WPC's residential tower is just one of several projects that have gained recent momentum in downtown Wheaton; just a few blocks north is the already approved 17-story Safeway/residential project from Patriot Realty, and across from that is the Computer Building, set to be converted by Lowe Enterprises into a residential tower. At the Wheaton Metro station, bus bays are to be converted into an office complex by B.F. Saul, which is also in talks with the county about converting nearby Wheaton Triangle into a massive mixed-use megadevelopment that would bring nearly a million square feet of office space, retail, a hotel, and a public plaza to the area.

Wheaton, Maryland real estate development news

Friday, January 27, 2012

801 New Jersey Ave Walmart Set To Break Ground In Spring, Spokesman for JBG Says

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The planned Walmart at 801 New Jersey Ave. NW will break ground by spring, according to a spokesman on behalf of developer JBG Companies, one of six stores the world's largest retailer will bring to the District of Columbia.

"The planning and preparation is moving ahead quickly," said Charlie Maier, an outside spokesman on behalf of Chevy Chase-based JBG Companies. JBG Rosenfeld, JBG's sister company which focuses on mixed-use retail and will also partner on the project. Walmart has already signed its lease for the site, which will be known going forward as 77 H, as it will line up along H Street on its southern edge.

MV+A Architects, which designed the Whole Foods at 15th and P as well as mixed-use projects in Tyson's Corner, Alexandria and Herndon, along with The Preston Partnership, creator of the Kentlands plan in Gaithersburg will serve as designers, Maier said. JBG has already gotten its construction and zoning permits for the apartment and retail complex that will be built on the site, he said. "We've already started planning for a groundbreaking," he said.

Earlier this week, parts of the Ward 6 site along H Street, not far from Massachusetts Ave., and Union Station had been fenced-off and signage erected. The complex will include about 300 apartments on 280,000 feet along H Street and an 80,000 square-foot store. The red-brick exterior matches other commercial buildings in the area, including the Chicago-style Government Printing Office at North Capitol and H Street and 800 North Capitol, which was built in 1991 and designed by Hartman-Cox Architects

The entrance of red-state Walmart into deep-blue D.C. is not without controversy. As with other proposed Walmart openings in other states, many local businesses feared losing out to the retail giant, a view backed by unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represented Safeway and Giant workers in the District, who said their members would be threatened by Walmart's lower wages and benefits.

Walmart, in response, launched a Web site to help convince skeptical residents and activists that its presence would be a boon to improving access to groceries in poorer neighborhoods as well as provide jobs to DC residents, at least 1,200 spread out amid the six stores, and also 400 construction jobs. Walmart says that Washingtonians spent $40 million at its stores outside the District in 2010. Walmart also noted that the stores would contribute $10 million a year in tax revenue to the District. "The District is anxious to see something happen," Maier said. "It's not all 100 percent approved but its pretty close," he said.

Walmart now has expanded its plans in the District to six stores, all of which it says will be open before the end of 2012. Besides New Jersey Ave, there will be two in Ward 4 with one at Georgia Ave and Missouri Ave. (rendering at right), where some site prep work is happening as well.

Another store, known as Fort Totten Square will be built at Riggs Road NE and South Dakota Ave. NE (rendering above). Another is planned for Ward 5 at New York Avenue at Bladensburg Road, while two are planned for Ward 7, at East Capitol and 58th and one at Good Hope Road and Alabama Ave.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Friday, January 20, 2012

JBG/Ross Gains Momentum at 4900 Fairmont Avenue

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The new mixed-use project at 4900 Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda looks to have a clear path to approval, with the site plan going to the Maryland Parks and Planning Commission next week, with an eye towards pulling permits in Q3 2012, and breaking ground in Q1 2013. Located across from Veteran's Park, the forthcoming tower represents a major step in the ongoing revitalization of the Woodmont Triangle area.

Representatives from lead developer JBG revealed many details about the mixed-use (but mostly residential) building at a community meeting on Thursday night. The seventeen story building, designed by the Preston Partnership, is projected to have 236 dwellings (rentals, with 15% MPDU), 6500 s.f. of retail space, and 3.5 levels of underground parking.

The design for the new building incorporates a large flat panel/bay window on each face, bookended by glass towers on the corners. According to Mark Lange, principal at Preston, the central panels are meant to “inspire recollections of more traditional Bethesda buildings,” and if you squint, they do resemble the boxier designs of a bygone era. The ground floor retail faces mostly east, onto Norfolk, and a 4300 s.f. roof area will include a pool, changing rooms, and views down Wisconsin towards the District. Of course, this is the second plan for the site. The original site plan was very similar to the present plan, but impeded access to the adjacent county parking garage, creating a narrow, potentially unsafe passageway from the street to the garage. When JBG became a venture partner with Ross/CIM, they took a fresh look at the plans and shifted the building's footprint east, creating a wide “paseo” along the west side of the building that would double as a path to the parking garage and as community space. Only one problem – there was no garage entrance there. Luckily, after meeting with county officials at the site, developers were able to convince them to allow a renovation.

The Woodmont Triangle area was once, in attorney Bob Dalrymple's words, “ground zero not long ago,” but much of the energy has moved southwards in the past several years. A recent zoning plan amendment was the city's first attempt at revitalizing the area, and just across Fairmont is Bainbridge Bethesda (formerly the Monty), also a 17-story building, and the first project using the new standards of the zone. (Excavation on the Bainbridge site is just about halfway done, so expect to see cranes soon.) The amendment encourages new, denser development (read: residential), though even with the new zoning standards, 4900 had to purchase density rights from four nearby buildings.

But not everyone was happy with the project as laid out at the meeting. Representatives of a property across Fairmont protested that the shifting of the front entrance from Fairmont to Norfolk would “create dead space and turn Fairmont from a retail street into a service street.” After observing the new building would reduce the amount of retail space from around twenty thousand square feet to less than seven thousand, they went on to note the new design could worsen an already dicey traffic situation. These representatives claimed the placement of 4900's loading dock directly across from Bainbridge's loading dock would virtually guarantee daytime gridlock, citing deliveries and trash removal, and also noted that even a 5% vacancy rate could translate to as many as 300 moves a year, further slowing traffic.

Another local, who lives at the nearby 14-story Triangle Towers, was concerned that the taller 174-foot-tall 4900 Fairmont building would cast a shadow over Triangle's rooftop pool. (Though it wasn't available at the meeting, Dalrymple assured him they'd done a complete shade study.) The local also noted the new building could block radio and satellite dish reception in Triangle. (Some at the meeting laughed; the local replied it was no trivial matter to people who live there.) The citizen went on to say he was only there to give the developers something to think about, not to stop the project, which is just as well. Along with Stonebridge's oft-delayed-but-still-inevitable Lot 31 project and their development of the former Trillium site, and the Bainbridge Bethesda (nee the Monty), the redevelopment of Woodmont Triangle is looking unstoppable.

(One final note - because of the way the new building is designed, it will have a Norfolk Avenue address. Goodbye to 4900 Fairmont.)

Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news

Friday, March 18, 2011

Largest Residential Development in Years Breaks Ground in NoMa

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One of the largest single-phase residential developments in the city's recent history broke ground in NoMa this week. Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC will build NoMa West, three five-story buildings on a 4.3 acre site that will add 603 predominantly market rate apartments to the burgeoning neighborhood. The Preston Partnership LLC is responsible for the design, and R.D. Jones & Associates will do interior work.

Formerly owned by Trammell Crow Residential, which had promised work was "imminent" at several points in the past, the land was transferred by two former principal partners who left Trammell Crow to join the Dallas-based firm. Financing was orchestrated through Berkshire Income Realty and PNC Bank. The site was purchased in 2007, at which point the developers adjusted the 2005 PUD to what amounts to the current plans.

"We are lucky to have weathered the storm that has halted so many development projects in the area and around the country," said Sam Simone, Managing Director of Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC. "We're also lucky to be developing in a city that's been as protected from the economic downturn as Washington, D.C."

Positioned at Eckington Place immediately behind the FedEx shipping center, within the NoMa BID, Q Street will run through the development (see map), allowing for the creation of a pedestrian thoroughfare between the three buildings, which "actually look like six, because we wanted to break up the elevation," said Simone.

Building 100 (for now, until it's renamed) offers warehouse loft designs while Building 200 features more glass and a modern feel. Building 300 is parsed in two parts: one offers traditional rowhouse architecture while the other riffs on the modern design of Building 200. Amenities for the complex include two pools, two club rooms, a media theater room, a small park, and e-lounge, not to mention a paltry 1250 s.f. of retail - downsized from the initial plan for 15,000 s.f. unveiled back in 2006. Simone anticipates the project will span three years to complete.

Development has been a musical chairs game, with owner CSX having selected Fairfield Residential to build the project in 2004, before handing off to Trammell Crow, with each successive developer intending to begin construction in the short term.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

8021 Georgia Ave. to House Apartments by Priderock Capital Partners and DLJ Real Estate

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Last week, Priderock Capital Partners LLC and DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners officially broke ground on apartments at 8021 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, a nine-story complex that will offer 210 units and two levels of underground parking. The complex will be comprised of two older buildings already on the property and a new one that broke ground on the 1.88 acre site last week.

Building will unfold in two phases: new construction, followed by building rehabilitation of the remaining structures. During the first phase of building, as the new structures are built, the older buildings will be cleaned of asbestos and brought up to code. BEK Construction Management Group has been awarded construction for the project and The Preston Partnership will helm design.

"This complex will be a place where middle class, working people can live without having to own," said George Banks, co-founder of Priderock. "That's the only difference between these apartments and condos." The complex will offer a gym with simulated golf, massage area, concierge, swimming pool, and secured parking. 13% of the units are slated as affordable housing, in compliance with city code, said Banks.

"We're trying to put quality housing stock back into the city by offering a nice place to live," he said. "We want to get these buildings back on the tax roll for the city." Banks expects for a grand opening date of October or November of 2012.

Priderock and DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners have contracts to buy at least three other properties on which to develop housing around the city. Banks has asked to withhold revealing the exact locations until after the close.

Washington, D.C. Real Estate

Monday, January 24, 2011

Gaithersburg Apartments Celebrate Start Tomorrow

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Archstone will hold a ceremony tomorrow morning to celebrate the start of their "Archstone Olde Towne" project. The mixed-use development will replace several old buildings with a 389-unit, four-story apartment building with 15,000 s.f. of ground-floor, street-front retail. Preston Partnership designed the building, in a form intended to reflect historic Gaithersburg structures. Archstone broke ground on the project on December 30th, and has since changed the name from "Westchester Olde Towne."

The project is a block from the Gaithersburg MARC Rail Station, and will feature "beach-entry lagoon-style pool," "re-oxygenating fitness center," and in-house pet salon for sundry four-leggers. The Gazette reported that Archstone had contested Woodfield Investments' application for a nearby apartment building as a competitor for HUD funds, an appeal that was dismissed by the city, and which ended amicably with both projects approved by the city and both granted HUD funds; Archstone received an $89.9 million FHA insured Section 221(d)4 loan through CWCapital.

Archstone also started a 469-unit apartment in NoMa last summer, and maintains that it still has stated plans to break ground on CityCenter this spring.

Gaithersburg, MD, real estate development news

 

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