Construction Begins on Wonder Bread Building

Construction has begun on the historic Wonder Bread building at 641 S street, NW in Shaw.  Douglas Development will turn the factory into an office building with retail filling out the first floor.

Douglas purchased the buildings - 2- and 3-story structures totaling 60,000 s.f. built in 1921 - in 1997.  Though added density will be attached to the back of the building, the building’s historic façade will be retained.  R2L:Architect’s Sacha Rosen designed the renovations to the building.

Douglas had applied for landmark status for the building last year with the D.C. Preservation League, which supported Douglas's plans. The Wonder Bread building is next to Progression Place, which is also under construction to build 100,000 s.f. of office and 205 apartments on top of the Metro entrance.


Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

I realized, as I walked through this house, that they do actually still build castles, they just don't call them castles anymore.  In this case, they call it a "four level turreted Victorian," but as you and I can both see, it's basically a modern-day castle.  All it needs is a catapult and a moat and we could just dispense with the euphemisms.

Of course, as befitting a castle, this Petworth grand dame is massive, with four or five bedrooms spread over four levels. There's a beautiful wraparound front porch overlooking a very large yard in front, and there's even a white picket fence.  (Sounds cheesy, but I'll take it over the DC standard wrought-iron fence any day.)  Inside, it's big and bright and it goes on and on; here's a big, bright den, and here's a big, bright living room, and here's the big, bright kitchen, and the big, bright dining room, etc.  It seems to go on forever.  It's like your coworker's anecdotes about his weekend, only not, you know, terrible.

There's also a separate one-bedroom apartment on the first floor, to help defray your mortgage payments (or just the pay the entire payment, depending on how gullible of a tenant you can find).  And it's in Petworth, which, random claw hammer attacks notwithstanding, is maybe my new favorite neighborhood.  (I know that sounded sarcastic, but honest, it wasn't!)

4309 Kansas Avenue NW
Washington, D.C.
5 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
$649,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

Park Chelsea Underway in Southeast DC

Construction is underway on the Park Chelsea, located on 880 New Jersey Ave. SE, bordered by Second St. and H St. (also known as Square 737). W.C. Smith + Co.’s development includes 13 floors, 432 units and three underground parking levels with 430 parking spaces. The development also includes plans to extend I Street between Second St. and New Jersey Ave. and connecting H Street into New Jersey Ave. Esocoff & Associates is the project architect. The project is expected to be completed two years from this fall.

The development, located between the Navy Yard Metro and the Capital South Metro, includes various amenities such as a bicycle maintenance facility, fitness center with a yoga studio, a rooftop garden and a cornucopia of pools reaching for that “luxury apartment building” status. Well, there are only two pools, but one’s on the roof and the other is a 75’ indoor lap pool.

This sort of “luxury” construction is new to the area, according to project manager Brad Fennell, though development of the southeast ballpark area is not. Regardless, Fennell thinks this will help create new standards in an area that’s not quite known for architectural prowess but contains a draw of the waterfront, the waterfront park, of course, the National’s stadium.

“I think it sets a new standard for the architectural standard in the neighborhood. I think the units that came before it have reflected the emerging nature of the neighborhood,” said Fennell of the building that bears some obvious resemblance to Esocoff's projects in the 400 block of Massachusetts Ave., NW.

The new development will connect I St. to its other half at New Jersey Ave. and connect H St. to New Jersey Avenue, which will extend the east of reaching the west side of the city and disconnect the loop that now exists.

Because of the new street connections, “the project entails relocating some deep utilities as sort of the pre-cursors, and once that work is complete then we can begin building,” Fennell said. “There’s a deep sewer that currently runs under the street that has to be re-routed."  After completing that unpleasant but necessary work, Fennell said construction on the street and the development will be in full-swing.  He continued to say the new street connections “will help strengthen the east-west connection through the city.”

It should be noted that M St. is connected past New Jersey Ave. as the main thoroughfare, but K and L Streets, one and two blocks south, respectively, are also connected past New Jersey Ave.

Nonetheless, it could help to mitigate traffic and, if nothing else, remove the existing I to First to H loop.

“We think it’s positive for the city,” said Fennell.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Brick façade on 1336 H Street NE collapses; no one injured

Construction halted on 1336 H Street NE today when the building’s brick façade collapsed onto the sidewalk.

No one was hurt in this morning’s collapse, which occurred during an “emergency façade repair,” according to building owner Mark Rengel, who also said the building will mostly likely become a restaurant.

Both Rengel and ANC 6A chair David Holmes said they knew the building could easily collapse, and Holmes said ANC 6A filed a report stating this.

“The façade’s been crumbling for 20 years,” Rengel said. “I had an inclination this was gonna happen … gravity helped us out.

“They did have it caged off and fenced in,” said D.C. Fire Battalion Chief E.R. Mills III.

The bricks from the second floor of the building littered the ground, and a metal garage door was torn from the building. It landed on the scaffolding, knocking out an important metal pin holding it together. Since the scaffolding is two stories tall, it presented the problem of collapsing onto the street into traffic.

The right lane of H St. heading west has been closed for drivers’ safety.

Holmes said the ANC filed a report with DCRA this past September, claiming the building’s façade was on the verge of collapse and presenting a danger to pedestrians and drivers alike on H St. He said the report was not only ignored but insulted, drawing insults such as calling the ANC members “Chicken Little.”

“They were contemptuous of our report,” he said.

DCRA building inspector Delaine Engleberg said it was safe for the construction to resume at noon but suggested an engineer check the back wall of the building. She said the construction team was working on removing the façade anyhow. The only unsolved problem is the scaffolding.

She said only Helder Gil could offer further comment, but he could not be reached by press time.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

NoMa Greyhound Station Developers Plan Feature Park

Perseus Realty, LLC and First Potomac Realty Trust are nearing the anniversary of their purchase of the Greyhound Station in NoMa on 1st and L Streets, a site they will develop into a mixed use building.  While developers remain mum on details of the building, one public element of the plan has emerged - developers will give back a portion of the space to create a public park space will split L Street and act as a "gathering place."

Having purchased the development for $46.75 million, according to the Washington Business Journal, they are redeveloping it with assistance from NoMa BID. The station will be turned into a large mixed-use residential and office building, falling between 600,000 to 700,000 s.f., according to BID President Robin-Eve Jasper.  Developers will dedicate 80,000 to 100,000 s.f. on the first two floors for retail. Perhaps more significantly, the property owners will set back their project to allow a widening of L Street - tweaking the L'Enfant grid - to construct a park in the median that will act as a “public gathering place” and include a walkway with a staircase that will lead to the second floor of retail in the new development.

Funding for the project was in the may budget but has been redirected by the City Council, according to Jasper.

The park will create a sort of plaza to hold events such as a farmer’s market and nighttime movie showings, next to the development's rows of newly-created nightlife.

“We disaggregated what a park is conceptually,” Jasper said. “This park is a gathering space, but it isn’t a green space or a recreations pace. We’ve provided those spaces in other places, where they can work better, given how much land there is.” The park will be 60 ft. wide and 150 to 300 ft. long with an event space in the middle.
In order to “have that big plaza in the middle of the street,” Jasper said they asked the developers to voluntarily set back from the street about 25 ft.
But the plaza will also be part of the retail as a staircase will reach up to the second floor of stores, connecting the public space and the stores.

“They’ve got this monumental staircase up into the plaza in the center of their property from this upgraded L street, so it’d be like two contiguous, completely accessible public spaces and would allow them to have two-story retail,” Jasper said.

Jasper thinks this will act as a “community crossroads” that will help pull the NoMa residents and business owners together into a more coherent community.  "You need a public gathering space for a community...We have no public gathering space here in NoMa, and it needs to change. It’s not fair to the neighborhood, and the BID has been nomadic. That’s been successful for a while, but as the neighborhood builds out, it’s harder and harder, almost impossible to find a site now.”


Comparing the area’s development to those of other neighborhoods, Jasper said having the park is key to building an established neighborhood.

“That’s what makes neighborhoods work. If you look at older, more established neighborhoods, that’s something they all have in common,” she said. “So I think this neighborhood deserves the same. There are a lot of residents who have been in this neighborhood for a long time who have not had the benefit of parks. Sometimes people think this is for new people coming to the city, but it’s really not. It’s to help glue the different sides together.”

She originally got the idea of creating a non-traditional park from something she picked up at Harvard business school: looking at a whole through its various functions or “jobs to be done.” Since park includes things like gathering, recreation and fitness, she said it made sense to break up the various jobs if necessary. Hence the small park that acts solely (but she hopes effectively) as a gathering place. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Thayer Avenue Condos Reborn as Subsidized Housing

The long-moribund Silver Spring condo project at 814 Thayer Avenue, the former site of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), has been reconceptualized by a new developer as an affordable housing complex.

The amended site plan was recommended for approval by Montgomery County planners earlier this month.  While the amount of public space has remained the same, at just over 40,000 s.f., new developer Landex Companies has dramatically upped the percentage of affordable housing units, in order to qualify for affordable housing tax credits.

"Before, the project had only allocated seven units [out of a total 52] as affordable," says Elza Hisel-McCoy, Program Manager at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. "Which was the minimum allowed.  Now they've upped that to forty-two units."  The remaining twenty percent of units will be rented at unrestricted market rates.

Architect Wiencek + Associates has also made significant improvements to the overall design, at least in Hizel-McCoy's opinion.  "Before, it was a scissoring facade, alternating floors so the building had a prow," says Hizel-McCoy.  "But now it's a triangle.  There's a single triangular area along the sidewalk - they've come up with a design that integrates the sidewalk and public space much more seamlessly than the previous design."

Landex acquired the 0.64-acre Thayer Avenue property on contract from the previous developer, 814 Thayer LLC (which was a joint venture between Banneker Ventures and Four Points, LLC) 18 months ago, according to Peter Siegel, CEO at Landex.

"We're hoping to close in August on construction financing," confirms Siegel.  "So we'd start construction in late August, with completion taking 12-14 months."

Maryland-based Landex Companies specializes in mixed-income developments, and manages over two dozen properties in Maryland.

UPDATE:  This project is a joint venture between Landex Companies and the Warrenton Group.


Silver Spring Maryland real estate development news

Construction begins on 440 K

Construction began today on Quadrangle Development Corporation and The Wilkes Company’s development of a 234-unit, 14-floor residential building at 440 K. It’s part of Mount Vernon Triangle’s “critical mass” and should be finished in the last quarter of 2013.

The development includes more than 9,000 s.f. of ground floor retail space in the 2 million s.f. mixed-use community, "the largest such project in Washington, D.C.," says the developer - referring to Mt. Vernon Place, an 11-building project that has been only partially completed and include the Sonata and Madrigal Lofts.
440 K will include 182 one-bedroom, 26 one-bedroom with a den and 26 two-bedroom units.

In addition, it will have a 96-space parking garage, enough bicycle storage to make those 96 people self-conscious and a 24-hour concierge service. The building was designed by Davis Carter Scott.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Today in Pictures - 455 Eye Street

Equity Residential's mixed-use redevelopment encompassing several historic properties at 443-459 Eye Street, NW is close to beginning construction.  With a predicted groundbreaking in August, and with Clark now signed up as the General Contractor, developers will soon begin tearing down the non-historic portion in favor of a residential tower with 174 units.  Hickock Cole Architects has designed the new building.

Washington D.C. real estate development news.  Photos by R

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider  

Yeesh. I'm not the sort of person who's easily intimidated (when I was 21 and visiting friends in New York, I spotted a famous Calvin Klein model in a record store and immediately went over and chatted her up; she looked me up and down and without saying a word, turned and walked out the door) - but this historic Capitol Hill home was intimidatingly classy. I kept waiting for guards to come out of nowhere, pick me up, and forcefully eject me through the front door. I wouldn't even have protested.

It's packed with authentic period details, from the woodwork to the fireplaces, to the pocket doors, to the quirky corner sink in one of the bathrooms, and even the hinges. You know a house is nice if,

hours later, you think to yourself, "man, that house had great hinges!" The family room is massive, and the centrally-located formal dining room is nice enough to make you stop eating standing up while looking at your laptop. The kitchen has everything you want in a kitchen - acres of counterspace, tons of storage - and the rest of the house is huge. The master bedroom suite includes a private balcony, and out back is a sizeable deck, a stone patio, and a small sheltered garden.

It's also mere steps from Capitol Hill, Congressional Offices, etc. You could actually fall asleep every night to the soft, soothing sounds of our elected officials screwing up.

415 Constitution Avenue NE
4 Bedrooms, 4 Baths
$1,200,000

MRP’s Penn Quarter “Trophy” Office Loses Investment Partner, Gains Investment Partner

MidAtlantic Realty Partners, LLC (or MRP) announced it has a new joint-venture partner in ASB Real Estate Investments to build its previously announced Class A “trophy” office building planned at the southwest corner of Ninth and G Streets in Penn Quarter and intends to begin construction this summer. The former investment partner was Rockpoint Group LLC.


Regardless of the change in ownership, it doesn’t appear that anything else will be different - MRP is still going to the dance, just with a new date on its arm.

Construction on the former National Capital Area YWCA site is set to commence this summer, and it’s still planned as a nine-story, 112,000 s.f., LEED Gold building with a glass curtain wall. It’s also still being designed by San Francisco-based Gensler.

So life’s pretty much the same 900 G Street, and for MRP, save for the hand that feeds it.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

HPRB Votes Down 16th Street Mixed-Use Church and Office Building Design

In the course of a concept review hearing yesterday, the Historic Preservation Review Board voted 5 to 2 against granting The Third Church of Christ, Scientist and ICG 16th Street Associates, LLC an exception that would allow them to build a mixed-use church and office building more than 90 feet high at 910 16th Street (between K and I), where the church currently stands. This would have broken a restriction placed on the historic district of 16^th street, which leads to the White House.  The review did not include discussion of the highly contested demolition and rebuilding of the church.

Historic Preservation Office staff members David Maloney and Steve Callcott presented a 16-page report urging the Board to deny an exception for a number of reasons, including incompatibility “with the character of the street as a whole” and a fear of creating a precedent of breaking the height rule on 16th Street.

According to the report, "The proposed structure would exceed the 90-foot height limit in several respects. The street facades would extend above the limit to 93.7 feet, calculated from the allowable measuring point on I Street. An extra ninth floor would rise to 107.7 feet, with a 30-foot setback from 16th Street and a 15-foot setback from I Street. The top of the mechanical penthouse would be at 123.7 feet.”

Originally, the project was proposed as an 11-story building with a copper façade. Following comments from the HPO, ICG and architect Robert A.M. Stern Architects partner Graham Wyatt scaled it down to a 9-story building with a stone façade for it to blend better with neighboring buildings.

Since the height restriction has been controversial for years and because this is a historic district, Maloney said it would create a slippery slope with a precedent that other developers could use to break this rule and begin to break down the historic district's uniformity.

“The physical nature of the historical district … is established by the requirement that has been in place since 1894 not to exceed 90 feet,” Maloney said.

ICG principal David Stern, Third Church member Darrow Kirkpatrick and Wyatt represented the project.

Stern said he hoped the project wouldn’t be judged on what might happen, while Kirkpatrick called the report a “substantial burden on our religious beliefs” (though it should be noted the only thing in question was the height of the office building, specifically the addition of a ninth floor, which would not include any part of the church, according to the renderings presented by Wyatt).

The hearing lasted approximately three hours, though it wasn’t until the final twenty minutes that board member Rauzia Ally asked Wyatt what seemed like the most important question: Why does it need a ninth floor?

His answer was that the church is set back into the building and takes up valuable office space, which would be reclaimed by adding a ninth floor. The board was not impressed.

The room filled almost completely for the hearing, and various arguments took place throughout the day including attacks on Wyatt’s architecture, complaints about the lack of religions iconography on the building and arguments about from where in the city can one actually see the extra floor (which is set back 30 feet in the plans).

Several members of the area’s ANC spoke, including 2B chairman Will Stevens, who complained that the staff report never mentions the ANC and said, “Not only will [the ninth floor] not detract, it will add historical flair.”

Former Washington Post columnist and University of Maryland professor emeritus Robert Lewis argued in favor of the extra floor by questioning if it would actually set a precedent.  David Alpert founder of Greater, Greater Washington said, “Historic preservation is … becoming the anti-height movement.”

Gretchen Pfaehler, Nancy Metzger and Robert Sonderman also voted to adopt the staff report’s recommendations.  Pfaehler explained her decision concisely: “That’s the law.”

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

If Batman was real, this is definitely where he’d live.  I said this to a nice middle-aged couple at the open house and they looked at me like, “this guy is why they shouldn’t have free food and wine at open houses.”  I actually had a really scathing comeback, but they couldn’t understand it through my huge mouthful of crudite.

This place is a palatial mansion to rival any in the District. Built atop a hill overlooking Rock Creek Park, this 7000+ square foot house sits on almost a full acre, and boasts features like an oak-paneled library, a circle driveway, a huge pool, massive conservatory with floor-to-ceiling windows, and a home gym that you get to through a semi-hidden entrance in the master closet.  (See, Batman!)  Recently renovated by Brook Rose Development, so everything is fresh and shiny and new, but still classy and sophisticated, sort of like my aunt after her last botox/chin tuck procedure.

The conservatory is the crown jewel of the house, a massive amphitheater-like room with the biggest skylight I've ever seen in a house; you could launch a cruise missile through it easy.  The master bedroom has a sitting area and enough room for several california kings, and french doors open onto a balcony.  The walk-in closet is so big that it has an island; think about that.  An island!  The master bath looks like something out of “Ocean's 11,” and the library is wonderfully dark and atmospheric.  Out back, the flagstone pool area is truly massive; if you have a pool party you’ll have to hire extras just so your, like, eight friends sitting poolside doesn’t look super depressing.  There’s also a one-bedroom pool house/cabana.  I was going to make a Kato Kaelin joke here but then I realized Kato Kaelin jokes haven’t been funny since 1995 (if they ever were).  Clearly, all the real laughs nowadays are in Batman references.

2808 Chesterfield Place NW
7 Bedrooms, 6.5 Baths
$3,990,000

Washington D.C. real estate news