Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Mmm mmm! There's nothing like the smell of a newly-constructed property! You know what it smells like? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No previous tenants cooking cured meats with the windows closed, no smokers, no pet traces "covered up" with a dousing of carpet perfume. Nothing. As someone who lives in an ancient never-renovated apartment that smells like a cross between a hot barn and a flooded carpet warehouse, this is something I can really appreciate.

Of course, absence of odor (as wonderful as I'll maintain that is) is the least of this U street penthouse's appeal. There's a whole lot more to like, from the open riser staircase in the living room, to the massive bay windows that floods the loft with light, to the ridiculously spacious walk-in closet (with a window! I bet even Kanye's walk-in closet doesn't have a window), to the deep red cherry floors throughout.

There's a gourmet kitchen with huge stone countertops and an awesome floating glass breakfast bar. Also, it's a two-level unit, so upstairs you have the bedrooms - towards the front is the master suite (location of the remarked-upon walk-in with window), with an beautiful master bath that features a double vanity and custom-made glass shower. Towards the rear is the second bedroom which, although slightly smaller, has a balcony from which you can see U Street. In most places, the non-master-suite bedroom is so clearly inferior that if I lived there in the master suite, I would worry that the person who lived in the smaller bedroom would eventually grow to hate me. Not so in this place - you may have the better walk-in, but they get a balcony. If they grow to hate you, it's for entirely personality-related reasons.

Just two blocks from the Green Line, which makes for a painless commute, and only a stone's throw from U Street, which has everything you could possibly want out of life, as long as that means ethiopian food, frozen yogurt, bars, and pay-as-you-go cellphones.

1912 8th Street NW, Unit D
2 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths
$599,900

Washington D.C. real estate news

Today in Pictures - Union Station

Union Station's Main Hall is getting a makeover, as is obvious to anyone passing through this week. The work doesn't relate to the upcoming reconfiguration of the transportation hub; but is a repair of damage caused by last August's 5.8 magnitude earthquake that caused plaster to fall from the ceiling. Universal Builders Supply, which built the scaffolding the embraced the Washington Monument, has assembled the movable scaffold to support the repair work that will last nearly a year while allowing tens of thousands of people to pass underneath daily.













Washington D.C. real estate development news. Photos by Rey Lopez.

Green Line "Corridor" Growth Setting The Pace For The Region: Study

(Corrects to show Branch Avenue Metro Station in Prince Georges County)

That well-heeled twenty and thirty-somethings are moving into Columbia Heights and Washington Navy Yard isn't news, but if a recent study is true, namely that growth along the Washington's Green Line "Corridor," as it were, is outpacing that of the Ballston-Arlington Corridor and that of the Red Line, well, then.

Certainly, the most well-off of Washingtonians travel the Red Line north to Shady Grove, or the Orange Line to Arlington, right?

Wrong, says Shyam Kannan of Robert Charles Lesser & Co. who told the Capitol Riverfront BID yesterday at their annual meeting that over the past ten years, the highest growth in six-figure riders and those key demographic 18-34 year olds are along the Green Line corridor between Georgia Avenue/Petworth and the Navy Yard, outpacing the suburban-hip Rosslyn-Balston corridor and its Green line-busting hip-hop music scene.

In fact, according to the study, the average income for new households along 10-stations in the Green Line "Corridor" is now nearly $83,000. Moreover, nearly 3,500 18-34 year-olds moved into the Green Line "Corridor" between 2000 and 2010, more than the 3,400 added in Rosslyn-Ballston and the 2,300 or so added along the Red Line in Northwest.

The study was paid for by the Capitol Riverfront BID, which has a bit of self-interest in promoting the Navy Yard as a destination to work live and play along the Green Line given that it lobbied WMATA to change Navy Yard's name to Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront.

And the RCLCO study conveniently slices off the more moderate income ends of the Green Line --Anacostia as well as Greenbelt and Branch Avenue in PG County, which might skew the economics that the study's benefactors want to portray. Still, it shows that the Green Line, which first opened in 1991, is well on its way to help produce the type of dense, transit-oriented-development in the heart of Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

Maryland Avenue SW Corridor Redevelopment Plan Unveiled

During that netherweek between Christmas and New Year's, when most of us were still in an eggnog-induced haze, the DC Office of Planning released a draft report on the Maryland Avenue SW Plan, which is part of NCPC's Southwest Ecodistrict Initiative, a concept introduced last May. If the suggestions in this report are adopted – and there's little reason to believe they won't - the consequences for Southwest would be drastic and far-reaching.

Development-wise, the General Services Administration (GSA) is considering conveying (selling off) four federally-owned parcels along a proposed rebuilt Maryland Avenue, with an eye towards private redevelopment as mixed-use projects. This is pricey territory, with proximity to the Mall, the Capitol, monuments, the forthcoming Southwest waterfront redevelopment. Currently these parcels are all monolithic office buildings, like much of the area - a reality this report aims to dramatically alter. The report raises the possibility of rezoning the area to accommodate high-density residential structures - though there are obstacles to the plan. For starters, one of the four parcels (Parcel 1) is crowded by the USDA Cotton Annex, which for right now at least is not being considered for conveyance. According to the report, it's going to be hard to reach the desired density (the study suggested a minimum of a thousand residential units) on these parcels without them “being aggregated with adjacent land.” - perhaps this is a hint at future conveyances.

The main problem with the Maryland Avenue corridor, other than the aforementioned homogeneity and its lunar-like desolation post 6pm, is that Maryland Avenue doesn't actually exist for a good five blocks between 7th and 12th Streets. Clearly, any revitalization of the area will require the rebuilding of Maryland Avenue as priority one. The report presents three possible avenues towards reestablishing the avenue: option one is to just rebuild it with a median, and rebuild 9th Street to connect Independence, Maryland, and D Street. Option two would rebuild it only between 10th and 12th, and convert the rest to a park. The third proposes a smaller, pedestrian- and bike-friendly center roadway with an adjacent public square, shifting the existing railyard south.

The report seems to lean in favor of the second and third options – surveys taken of area residents and workers showed an overwhelming majority specified “parks and open spaces” as their number one preference in regards to improving the area. The report also lays out a strategy of using public spaces to draw pedestrian traffic and “establish an identity” for the area, which will (theoretically) lead to “demand for residential,” which will in turn “create population that attracts retail.” And reading the report – which is detailed, well-written, and ambitious – you get the impression it just might be that easy.

The plan also calls for a long-overdue expansion of the L'Enfant metro and commuter rail stations, and wholesale improvements of Reservation 113, the greenspace where Maryland and Virginia Avenues intersect, into a “dynamic urban park” as neighborhood centerpiece. The report estimates this project would cost around $430 million, a cost defrayed by the sale of the aforementioned federally-held parcels. Other funding sources, according to the report, could include TIF or PILOT funds, developer/railroad contributions, and various federal grants.

The western side of the Maryland Avenue corridor roughly abuts the soon-to-be-revitalized Southwest Waterfront, which is now revving into high gear and the Eisenhower Memorial is slated for 2015 right next door, all of which could very well create a domino effect, perhaps spurring the much-discussed creation of a "second downtown."

Check out the full report . The public can also offer feedback on the full report, and comment until February 3.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

I liked this house so much it made me want to go to law school. After five minutes inside, I was like, "whatever it takes, I need to get my hands on a million and a half dollars, asap," and law school was the quickest way I could figure out to do that. I also considered drug dealing and bankrobbing, but I figured that with law school there's much less chance of me being shot in the face.

But man, this place. A beautiful semi-detached townhouse, it has four fully-furnished levels. Yeah, bummer, four levels is a lot of walking up and down, maybe too much. OH WAIT - it has an elevator!! The lower level family room is incredibly wide and spacious, and opens out onto the lush garden patio. There's a chef's kitchen with everything you need to make an incredible multicourse gourmet meal, which let's be honest you'll never do - but you could, technically. The master suite has a fireplace and is very masterful indeed, with a wonderful master bath (check out the tub) and a private balcony from which you can see Georgetown AND Rosslyn. I didn't even know that was possible. After that, and the elevator, I don't think anything would've surprised me about this house. "And here we have the zero gravity room, which is powered by elfin sorcery." I wouldn't even have blinked.

There's also a sauna and a wet bar (two things that were meant to be together) and a garage and driveway. The house also overlooks Book Hill Park, which is an immaculately landscaped picturesque and little-known park through which I walked after the open house. As I passed a mom and her two kids, I saw her give me a look like "what's this longhaired degenerate doing in my park?" and I started to tell her how I'd just decided to attend law school and become a respectable citizen and enrich myself while also enriching society, but by that time I'd already decided to just buy a Powerball ticket instead. America!

3242 Reservoir Road NW
3 Bedrooms, 4.5 Baths
$1,645,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

Founders Square DARPA Building Complete, Residential Tower Next

The first stage of Ballston mixed-use mega-project Founders Square, a 13-story 350,000- square-foot office building at 675 North Randolph, is now complete, with the first (and only) tenant, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), now taking possession of the property. Developer The Shooshan Company now has a clear runway to break ground on the next phase of the five-building, 1.2 million-square-foot complex, the 17-story, 257-unit residential building at 4000 Wilson Boulevard.

“We’re in the very final stages of completion of 675 North Randolph, the new DARPA headquarters,” said Kevin Shooshan, Director of Leasing at the Shooshan Company. “It’s basically complete. [DARPA] is in the process of accepting the building, and transferring over floor by floor, a process which will go on the next few months, probably into the second quarter of 2012.”

DARPA, a secretive federal intelligence and research agency that, according to some reports, invented everything from the internet to GPS, was formerly headquartered down the road on Fairfax Drive in Virginia Square, and almost left the state on the recommendation of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005. But state representatives and two consecutive governors used a $10 million grant to convince the federal agency to stay in the area, pointing to the 800 jobs (including contractors) provided and $33 million dollars in city and state taxes paid by the agency each year. DARPA is paying $14.7 million a year on their lease.

The new DARPA headquarters, which is certified LEED Gold, is also the first office building in the area to meet the Department of Defense’s Level IV security standards, and will incorporate a secure parking facility and an 82-foot secured perimeter, and is a surrounded by a sizeable lawn that segregates it from the other buildings in Founders Square.

Now, says Shooshan, the focus moves to the residential building at 4000 Wilson Blvd. “Two hundred fifty seven units, seventeen stories, with construction set to begin in the first quarter of next year, and finishing in the first quarter of 2013,” says Shooshan. “The site plan has been approved for over a year now. Permits are lined up and we're going to pull them in a matter of weeks."

The 1.2 million square foot Founders Square project, designed by RTKL Associates, is also slated to include a 183-room Marriott Residence Inn at 650 North Quincy, and a 420,000-square-foot office building at 4040 Wilson Blvd.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

Today in Pictures - NoMa

With numerous projects planned and under construction, Noma's face is changing more quickly than any area of Washington D.C.

Archstone's First & M residential project

NPR Headquarters at North Capitol and L Streets

NPR Headquarters

NPR Headquarters

Washington D.C. real estate development news