DC Gov Puts 1300 H Street on the Market

The District of Columbia government put 1300 H Street, NE - formerly a library kiosk - on the market today as a future development site.  The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) solicited development activity on the 10,800 s.f. site this afternoon with a bid for redevelopment of the site into "mixed income housing, community-serving retail, recommended uses of the H Street Arts overlay, and other cultural amenities."

The site has been vacant for 2 years since the District closed the temporary library, even though the site is surrounded by thriving retail development.

Because the site falls within the arts overlay, a maximum density of 3.0 FAR for residential is permitted on the site, or 1.0 FAR for other uses, with a 50-foot height cap under current zoning rules or 65 foot height cap under a Planned Unit Development (PUD).

The District will hold a site conference for interested bidders on June 21st and hopes to select a development team in the fall.


Washington D.C. real estate development news

Pennsylvania Avenue Office Building Redesign

David M. Schwarz Architects announced today it has been hired to redesign portions of the prominent Pennsylvania Building at 1275 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, and will begin work this fall.  The '50's office building was redeveloped in the '80's by owner Willco Companies, which purchased the building in the late '60's for $6,600,000. The 286,000 s.f. building was modernized in 2007.

The Pennsylvania Building sits across from Freedom Plaza and the Wilson Building.  Construction will entail re-skinning the lower three floors of the exterior stone façade, redesigning the metal and glass office entry marquee, a new rooftop terrace overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, and a redesigned office lobby.

Shwarz is also designing 2700 Woodley in Woodley Park, JBG's U Street hotel and the addition to Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

David M. Schwarz Architects announced today it has been hired to redesign portions of the prominent Pennsylvania Building at 1275 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, and will begin work this fall.  The '50's office building was redeveloped in the '80's by owner Willco Companies, which purchased the building in the late '60's for $6,600,000. The 286,000 s.f. building was modernized in 2007.

The Pennsylvania Building sits across from Freedom Plaza and the Wilson Building.  Construction will entail re-skinning the lower three floors of the exterior stone façade, redesigning the metal and glass office entry marquee, a new rooftop terrace overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, and a redesigned office lobby. 

Shwarz is also designing 2700 Woodley in Woodley Park, JBG's U Street hotel and the addition to Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

One thing I've learned is that when you go to apartment buildings, the foyer is always far far nicer than the apartments.  You'll be in a huge marble atrium with a roaring, gold-trimmed fireplace, walking on a red velvet Oscar-night-style carpet, thinking you're about to enter the lap of luxury, but then the place will be a broom closet with a kitchenette.  But this place - this is the first I've been to that was nicer - way nicer - than the lobby.  And bigger.  If you lived here, your neighbors would constantly be bugging you to let them come over and watch the big game, or sunbathe on your terrace, etc.  I'd suggest investing in a taser.

I mean, there's not really a lot I can add to the photographs.  This is like a place George Clooney would live.  Limestone flooring, plaster moldings, a silver leaf painted rotunda ceiling (!), a Vegas presidential-suite-quality master bedroom, with an en suite bathroom the size of a helicopter landing pad.  All this place is missing is a huge veranda with an ivy-covered stone arch overlooking the Potomac.  OH WAIT IT HAS THAT TOO.

When most places say they overlook the water, it means yes, you can see the water, if you squint and stand on your tiptoes and look between those two trees over there.  But you could actually jump from this veranda into the Potomac, if you wanted to.  Not that you'd want to, though on the other hand if you were, say, sitting out there playing Scrabble and losing really badly to your sister's boyfriend, and he started smirking as you spelled out "cat," then why not just heave the whole board into the river?  When I did this, we didn't have a water view, so it just landed in the yard and I had to go downstairs and retrieve it while my family watched from above in disappointment.  Really could've used a water view that day.

3030 K Street NW
Penthouse 106
2 Bedrooms, 4.5 Baths
$6,500,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

Long-Awaited Shaw Project Breaks Ground

Yesterday, the Jefferson at Market Place (formerly Kelsey Gardens, then Addison Square) project in Shaw broke ground after several delays including a halt due to lack of funding and a changing of hands from Metropolitan Development to Jefferson Apartment Group.

The subsidized housing project has a long history behind it: Executive Vice-President and partner with the Jefferson Apartment Group Greg Lamb said, “It’s a long time coming on the project. We entered the venture on this project at the end of 2011, where we took over the managing partner position. When we became involved, there wasn’t financing available, and the project had somewhat stalled.”

So Jefferson brought in Starwood Capital Group, its equity partner, and got construction on the mixed-use, 8-floor, 281-unit project.  Its 260,000 s.f. will include 13,000 s.f. of retail on the ground floor and 54 of the 281 units will be affordable housing units, while the rest remain market-rate.

The project is surrounded by other construction projects as Shaw bursts with new development, including the O Street Market, Progression Place (a large residential, office and retail project now well into construction), and the Wonder Bread building, plans for which are now being hashed out, as well as the Howard Theater. Another piece of the Market Place project was begun last spring when Capital City Real Estate purchased the land and began a small housing project.

What sets this complex apart is who will be residing in those affordable housing units: the former tenants of the affordable housing that was there, about six years ago, when this began.

“The neat story about this project is that the previous residents of Kelsey Gardens, which is the project that is being demolished, have the opportunity to move back into the complex after it is finished,” Lamb said. “Those tenants moved out back in 2007, so it’s rare that over a five or six year period that they’ll still come back.”

Those tenants have a representative group that has been working with Jefferson to ensure a smooth transition back.

Lamb said 35 to 40 of the new affordable housing units in the development will be occupied by former tenants of the building.

JAG paid $16.5m to control the site, keeping the permits obtained by Metropolitan, and took advantage of tax breaks previously authorized by the city.  "The city has helped and been a tremendous advocate on this project, providing some tax incentives on the project to make it work,” Lamb said.

The project is slated for completion in 24 months, with the first units becoming available for occupancy in 18 months.  “It’s been a great story with the coordination between the city, the developer and the tenants,” he said.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Groundbreaking held for Aurora, first building in White Flint's new sector plan

Yesterday, LCOR hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for Aurora at North Bethesda Center, "the first building to break ground since the new sector plan for White Flint,” according to project manager Mike Smith. He said he was pleased with the attendance, which included county officials, community activists and the development team.

The 18-story high rise will have 341 units and will be located in North Bethesda Center. The center will be a “city within a city,” according to its website, which also says the 32-acre plot will include 202,000 s.f. of retail and bring in 5,400 new jobs. Too bad a city center can’t be elected president.

Aurora, which will be built 1,200 linear feet from the White Flint metro station, will include 42 “affordably priced” units, meaning 12.5 percent of the building will be “well below market price … to help augment the affordable housing supply in the community,” Smith said. The other 298 units will be market rate.

It will reside across the street from a 24-hour Harris Teeter, perfect for buying frozen pizzas and asparagus at 4 a.m. (because who doesn’t buy frozen pizzas and asparagus at 4 a.m.?).

“It’s a really great amenity for our residents to have a grocery store available at their beck and call,” Smith said.

Aurora, which was designed by WDG Architecture, has a project budget of $86 million and construction by KBR has begun.

“We are well underway with construction activity on site,” Smith said.

He said the units will be available in rough two years, in mid-2014.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

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