Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Is it me or does this house look sort of like the White House? It does, doesn't it? Don't think I didn't lean against one of those pillars and pretend to be Obama for a second, crowd of fellow open-housers be damned. ("Honey, why did that asian Jeff Foxworthy lookalike just shout, 'I'm the king of the world!'?")

This house is a mansion's mansion - sprawling, sophisticated, and it has everything you could possibly ask for in a house. A library? Check. Six fireplaces? A sun room? A den? Wet bar? Marble foyer? Gourmet kitchen? Whirlpool bath? It's got all that and more. It has so many rooms they ran out of names for them and listed one as "Other Room 1." (I would put a foot of cat litter in there and turn it into a huge litter box, but then I'm lazy and disgusting.)

The master bedroom is HUGE and has an adjoining sitting room, so it's sort of like its own little apartment. The kicker being that you also have the entire rest of the building to yourself. There are also his and hers master bathrooms, which is huge. I maintain that an effective definition of "you've made it" is not ever having to share a bathroom with other people, i.e. being able to use a q-tip and then just drop it on the floor with no repercussions, ever. If there's more to life than that, well, I'm just not interested.

The house is in Cleveland Park, so it's steps away from shopping, restaurants metro, etc. It's also very close to Rock Creek Park and Pierce Klingle Mansion, which is one of the few places in DC that's nicer than this house. I guess it could be good having that place close by; living in a mansion like this could easily turn you into a raging egomaniac. It might be marriage-saving if you could just walk over every few weeks and look at the Klingle Mansion and be like, "Oh, wait."

3539 Williamsburg Lane NW
5 Bedrooms, 6 Baths
$2,450,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

Restaurant, Apartments Headed for 10th and V?

Sorg Architects placed on hold its plans for a new residential building at 10th and V streets Northwest while it leases space to a restaurant and converts the historic church into apartments.

"We’re not moving forward with that portion of the project," Nikki Sorg said about the previously proposed 37-unit condo building. "But we are looking to activate the property. That's why we're getting an awesome tenant that should help to enliven the neighborhood."

First African New Church (right) before exterior restoration work stands
next to another Sorg Architects condo building, The Visio and Murano.

Sorg is negotiating a lease agreement with a restaurateur to open up shop in the Koons Roofing Building on the V Street side of the lot. While the name of the restaurant cannot be released until the deal is finalized, Sorg said it will be a "local provider."

Rumor has it a local food truck might be planting more permanent roots, but it hasn't been confirmed.

Just around the corner on 10th Street, the neighboring First African New Church reportedly soon will get a new lease on life as an apartment building, says Sorg, though the project has long been touted by Sorg as nearing development.

Sorg plans to create four rental units in the historic church ranging from 800 s.f. to 1,300 s.f. in some combination of one- and two-bedroom floor plans. Sorg would not say how many of each were planned, nor would she specify a contractor, so a quick start date seems unlikely.

Renovations will begin this spring or summer, Sorg said, and they will be completed in the fall. The apartments will incorporate traditional church features like the tall ceilings and large stained-glass windows. Sorg said it is "a simple renovation really using the incredible volumes available in the building."

The most recent permits listed online are a supplementary permit and for constructing a fence around the property. A building permit issued Sept. 9 references three apartment units, not four, in the zoning review. When asked about building permits, Sorg said she did not have specific information about them.

Suman Sorg acquired the property in 2003 for $1.3 million under the name Morning Bright LLC, one of the former names of the Baptist church. Crews now have worked on the exterior to restore the badly deteriorating church. But until recently, nearby residents complained of poor upkeep citing fallen bricks littering the alley and vermin on the site.

Bryan Martin Firvida, a past president of the U Street Neighborhood Association who pushed to make the church a historic landmark, said he was happy to see signs of improvement, especially the recent effort to secure the property and fix the roof.

Now he and other residents are ready to see the vacant lot again become a positive asset to the community. "I would love, at the end of the day, seeing life breathed back into that church, and that parcel developed ... turning that back into a tax-revenue producing lot," he said.

Brian Card, president of the U Street Neighborhood Association, said he is open to hearing plans for the residences and new restaurant. They could be great additions to the community, but he said he thinks people want to have a sense of what is planned and the opportunity to offer suggestions.

He also expressed interest in seeing a new building at the corner of 10th and V streets eventually reenter the plans. The new building would fill in an empty corner and offer new housing options for residents.

"I think we're looking for a constructive addition to the neighborhood that fits into the context of the designs," Card said, adding that residents typically are focused on size and materials.

Martin Firvida and Card both welcomed the opportunity to talk to Sorg Architects about their latest plans for the site. They said the last time formal plans were presented to them was in 2006, and they would appreciate the chance to pick up the conversation now that construction is on the horizon.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Update:
An earlier version of this post listed the architecture firm as Sorg and Associates.

Construction for Cathedral Commons a Step Closer

A sign today announces the parking lot of the now-closed Giant Food at 3336 Wisconsin Ave. will close April 23 to prepare for construction of Cathedral Commons. The grocery store closed last week, but the parking lot remained open. Crews also have removed the classic Giant sign on the building.

Bozzuto, Giant's financial partner for the project, posted a site plan yesterday for the $125 million mixed-use development that will span two blocks along Wisconsin Avenue.

Street-Works is developing the site that will have a new Giant Food anchoring 128,000 s.f. of new retail space. The site also will include 137 apartments, eight townhouses and 500 parking spaces.

A raze permit for the Giant as well as other parts of the 3300 block were approved Jan. 30th by the Historic Preservation Office according to documents released by the Office. Permit applications for the 3400 block also were filed.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Tiny House Warms Locals' Tiny Hearts

Washington DC isn't exactly known to attract those with modest ambitions – I'm still flabbergasted at how often I hear the phrase “changing the world” used unironically at happy hours – so I was surprised at how enthusiastically the tiny house was received.

Parked randomly in the middle of a Wangari Gardens in Petworth, there was a 30-minute wait just to pop inside and look around, even in the intense midafternoon heat. (Though in all fairness I think quite a few of the people in line thought they were waiting to use a porta-potty.) At only 130 square feet (no, I didn't forget a zero), the tiny house, the Fencl model, manufactured by Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, looks at first scarily tiny, like a coffin with a roof over it. But it was definitely cute. During our wait in line, most of the conversation overheard centered around its endearingly miniature proportions.

“Someone should do a reality show starring the tiny house,” said the woman in front of us to her companion. “You could take it from city to city for each episode and live in it with a tiny dog and everywhere you stop you could have a tiny romance and at the end of the episode you could have a tiny epiphany. Like, 'this week I learned that blue is not that flattering of a color on me. But it still looks okay, I guess.' All you need is a host.”

“You'd be perfect,” I said, leaning over to my girlfriend. “You have a tiny heart and a tiny soul.”

She continued looking straight ahead. “Do you want to talk about what you have that's tiny?” She asked.

I have no idea what she was talking about. The heat was getting to her, I think.

But once I got into the tiny house, I realized that it was not that tiny at all. You enter into a small but serviceable main room; you could absolutely fit a modest flat screen and one or two pieces of slim furniture in there. Behind that is kitchen; equipped with a sink, a two-burner stove, a small college-type fridge, and a water heater (under the sink), it's surprisingly functional. You may not have acres of counter space, but you could certainly cook a full meal. And look at it this way, if the meal turns out to be less than impressive, you could just blame it on the kitchen. At home, cooking in a full kitchen, you've got no excuse but incompetence. Off the kitchen is the bathroom, which was impressive. A full shower (the hot water heater in the kitchen is good for five minutes of hot water) and a toilet; no sink, but you can install one above the toilet, Japanese-style.

Up above is the peaked sleeping loft; it can accommodate a queen-sized bed, and at its highest point, it's 3' 8”, so sitting up in bed is not out of the question (though standing up is). I climbed up there and laid down and it was basically like being in a really nice tent. It was cozy and even womblike. Throughout the tiny house there was, as you might imagine, a huge amount of built-in shelving, on every available surface, though bringing your ceramic cat figurines and laserdiscs to your new minimalistic tiny house seems a bit counter-intuitive. The house I saw, the interior was unvarnished pine, leaving the particulars of the final product up to the consumer. There are a lot of tiny house blogs online showing the looks people have gone for, though I will say that if you're lazy like me, you could probably convince yourself that the unpainted wood looks “rugged” and “austere.” Since the tiny house is so tiny, heating is quick and inexpensive; the literature claims that the stainless steel fireplace in the main room can heat the house in conditions as low as -35F.

Bottom line, the tiny house was absolutely nicer than any dorm room or efficiency apartment I've ever been in. When you add in the portability and efficiency, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of these in the future. Whether they'll be in the District is uncertain; many models of tiny houses, like the Fencl, can be kept on a trailer, thus evading local zoning requirements. Larger ones could run into problems, being in a gray area between house and shed. There's been talk of rewriting the local zoning code to accommodate more alley lots and accessory housing (both of which would be tiny house-friendly), but at the moment, you might want to keep your tiny house in Maryland or Virginia.

More notably, the mood at the exhibition was celebratory, if not downright fetishistic. People were snapping pictures, touching the house, waiting half an hour just to step inside for a minute, like pilgrims at Lourdes or something. Just five years ago, with the economy booming and the concept of American maximalism still intact, I think the tiny house would've been met with eyerolls and contempt. But in this post-recession moment of cultural reconsideration and humility (even if it is forced), the tiny house is now emblematic of virtue, of modesty – above all, of enlightenment. The same cultural tides that have rendered the SUV the official vehicle of the tacky and philistine have reached housing culture; behold, the Prius of homes. What it lacks in square footage and spare rooms, it more than makes up for in environmental karma and financial practicality. After all, imagine what you could spend all that money on that would've gone to 25 years of mortgage payments on a McMansion. Fine wine instead of box wine, a month in Europe instead of five days in Rehoboth, working twenty-five hours a week instead of fifty. When it comes to cramping your quality of life, the tiny house is nothing, compared to the tiny life.

Photos via Flickr/AtomicLlama

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

This Federal-style brick townhome is ideally situated in Southwest, with views of the Potomac River and the Jefferson Memorial, and just a hop, skip and a jump from the Mall, the Capitol, the waterfront, and many other things I've never seen despite living in DC for five years.

Inside, the house is roomy and bright, with high ceilings and tons of windows. I always know if an open house is going well when I see people sauntering from room to room, nodding their heads while looking around, and it seemed like everyone at this place was doing that.

And really, what's not to like? There's a large chef's eat-in kitchen (with the requisite granite countertops), a wide, elevated entertaining deck, a truly masterful master bathroom (the jacuzzi-style tub was so deep that it comes with a stool for stepping in and out, which I think speaks for itself), and some truly massive bedrooms. Too often, it seems like houses will go all out with the dramatic living room, kitchen, etc., but then the bedrooms will be cramped little cubbyholes. This never made sense to me, since most of the people I know who live with other people, be it roommates or family or whatever, spend most of their time in their bedroom. (If you just read that and were like, "no way, I spend most of my time camped out in the living room!!" then I hate to tell you this, but you're the one we're all avoiding.) (Hi, Dad.)

680 9th Street SW
4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$799,900

First Baptist's Apartment Building to Replace Dupont Parking Lot

Having finally received approval for their requested zoning exceptions, the First Baptist Church of Washington's planned nine-story, 218-unit apartment building, set to be built on one of Dupont Circle's last remaining surface parking lots, is juuuuuust about ready to go.

"The project has a clear runway to ground- breaking. All we need now is the building permit. We're thinking we'll start construction in 4Q of this year, and it'll take about 18 months, all told," said Michael Korns, Developer at Keener Squire, the firm overseeing the project.

The Eric Colbert and Associates-designed project was initially met with considerable community resistance, for reasons ranging from noise, a potential influx of students, and preserving the neighborhood's last parking lot (arguably the least sympathetic cause of all time). In response to the outcry, developers and architect Eric Colbert revised the design to reduce the exposure of rooftop common areas, and reduced the number of efficiency units. (There was some speculation that the reduced number of efficiencies was in response to complaints that the building might become a magnet for students. Perhaps sensitive to the suggestion of reverse ageism, ANC 2B removed text praising the efficiencies reduction from their resolution in support of the project.)

At around ninety feet, the building will fit in with the established scale of the area, and aesthetically it should match the neighboring structures. "It's a stone and brick and precast building, yellow in color, a fair amount of glass, and metal sunshades," says Korns, all of which is in keeping with the modern architecture in the area. Though the area will lose some parking spaces once the lot is gone, the edifice does include 93 below-grade parking spaces. And although any construction is, of course, disruptive, the plan that was approved was the least disruptive of all possibilities that were discussed.

"Some of the plans we were thinking of presenting would have involved demolishing an extension built onto the church in the Eighties, but we decided against that. It would've been too disruptive to the neighborhood and to the church; they have daycare there, and community programs."

Having finally cleared the last hurdle, after withstanding fierce community resistance and making significant concessions and design changes to appease those concerns, did Korns have anything he'd like to say to the community?

"No comment," Korns said dryly.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

New Residential and Retail Bound for Edgewood

A new 6-story apartment building with ground-floor retail space could be headed to 2321 4th St. NE in Edgewood on the now-empty lot owned by H Street Community Development Corporation (HSCDC). Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 5C will consider the mixed-use development during a meeting this evening.

View looking south from 4th Street

The proposed building is a joint venture between HSCDC and E&G Group. The new $37 million development will create about 160,000 s.f. of mixed-use space, designed by Bonstra | Haresign Architects and built by Maggin Construction Company.

Plans call for between 155 affordable residential units on the five floors above the first-floor podium. Ground level space is reserved for 3,000 s.f. of retail, various tenant facilities and 40 parking spaces.

Kenton Drury, the project manager from E&G Group, said residential units will vary in size with 5 studio, 85 one-bedroom, and 65 two-bedroom units.

Tenants must be at or below 60 percent of the local Area Median Income (or about $40,000 for an individual). Rent for someone at 60 percent AMI is about $1,000 for a studio.

"We see young professionals wanting to live here because it’s an up-and-coming vibrant neighborhood close to metro and close to areas of employment," Drury said. The target tenant is a young professional entering the workforce or an "empty nester" who is retired or working part-time.

View looking north from 4th Street

Development plans presented at a recent community meeting netted mixed feelings from residents. While they did not seem concerned about the building itself, they did express concerns about its impact on the neighborhood. Drury said some people thought rent was not affordable enough while others thought it was too affordable for the neighborhood. And residents asked about the local economic boost it could bring.

Drury said he told local business owners interested in providing construction services to get their Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) Certification because some work will be designated for CBEs. And residents with retail or service-oriented businesses could open up shop in the retail space on site.

Whatever the final development looks like, it will be a welcomed change from the so-called "Heroin Hotel" that used to stand on the lot. HSCDC demolished the three vacant buildings that had become a hotbed of criminal activity, but the community must wait longer for construction.

After the ANC meeting tonight, the next big step will be a Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) meeting tentatively scheduled for June. Developers will ask for a variance on the loading dock height and parking space requirement. Drury said the only way to keep the 6-story building within the height limits is to reduce the loading dock height. And the triangular lot -- plus debris from the former buildings -- make it difficult to provide more parking spaces.

Drury said he hopes to have funding lined up this summer to move forward with working drawings and permit applications by the end of the year, and he hopes to break ground in early 2013.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Clark Realty Requests Revision with WMATA's Tenley Property

Yet another version of the redeveloped Safeway in Tenleytown could be in the works if the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority Board approves a proposal to sell an adjacent .25-acre site to Clark Realty Capital. Clark offered to purchase the "chiller site" as an addition to the Safeway redevelopment plan that includes residential units above the new grocery store.

For WMATA, the purchase is a chance to repurpose underutilized land, get a new air conditioning unit for two Metro stations, and possibly bank extra cash. If the sale goes through, Clark will develop the land and put a new chiller plant in the building. The air conditioner for the Friendship Heights and Tenleytown Metro stations is already about halfway through its 20-year life cycle.

“This is an opportunity for us to get some value from the real estate holdings while improving our service,” said Steve Teitelbaum, senior real estate adviser at WMATA.

For Clark, purchasing the extra land means a continuous street front on Wisconsin Avenue and more space for development by increasing the lot to 2.75 acres from the roughly 2.5 acres it now covers. Clark's John Sunter said additional residential or retail space will be created "generally in proportion to the increased size of the site."

Current plans show four floors of residential space above the new Safeway on 42nd Street. Both the lot and the building slope back toward 43rd Street. Other residential units include townhouses and free-standing houses around the property. Sunter said the team is working on revised plans using the WMATA lot and that they "look forward to sharing any changes with the community at the appropriate time."

Elevation along Davenport Street

Redevelopment of the Safeway site has been a hot topic for some time now. Clark, Safeway and Torti Gallas presented revised plans in January to mixed reactions from residents. Among the concerns were issues of height and density in the primarily single-family community. Another presentation in March showed height reduced by one story, among other alterations.

Jonathan Bender, chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 3E, said that while some residents' concerns were addressed in the revised plans, there still was room for improvement regarding the impact of increased density on the community.

"I, and I believe most of my fellow commissioners, do not object per se to the level of density Safeway/Clark proposes," he said in an email response. "Instead, several of us are concerned that Safeway has not committed to the steps necessary to minimize the burden that such density could occasion. Perhaps the biggest concern is parking in the neighborhood."

He said the ANC has asked that the new residents be ineligible for Residential Parking Permits (RPPs). The project is intended to encourage public transportation in lieu of using personal vehicles.

But the ANC likely would support using the WMATA site, especially if it facilitates the incorporation of other ANC suggestions.

"I and other commissioners actually suggested that Safeway/Clark look into purchasing this property long before we knew they had been talking about doing so with WMATA, and perhaps before they actually had done so," Bender said. "I would especially like to see the WMATA plot used in part for additional retail offerings and enhancements to the streetscape."

The WMATA board will vote on the sale proposal April 26.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Today in Pictures - Union Market

Union Market - formerly known as the Capital City Market - is readying for its debut as D.C.'s newest culinary destination. Edens and developer J Street are redeveloping the historic site to create a "best-in class, year-round, indoor food market." More than 40 local vendors may set-up shop in the new Union Market, say its promoters.

Various plans were considered for the site before settling on the Edens plan. Union Market will celebrate its reopening June 3 with Sunday Supper in conjunction with the James Beard Foundation. The site has been the intended target of a much larger redevelopment project, but remedial work is now underway on the site for its conversion to a restaurant haven. Below are recent photos of the undeveloped site.
















Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

I admit I'm one of those people who has no idea what anything costs and never looks at menu prices or pricetags (my frugal asian mother's head just exploded after reading that), so open-housing was and still is a shock to me. I'm always like "gosh, I'd totally pay thirty or even thirty-five thousand dollars for this Logan Circle four-bedroom," and then I do a latte spit-take when I see the actual seven-figure price.

But this place! When I saw it was "only" 845K, I swore it was a typo. ("I bet it's really $845 million!") That's how sweet this place is. A stunning "ultra-loft" that sports eighteen foot ceilings, this place is incredibly sleek, modern, and features high-end finishes, from Bosch and Wolf appliances to Hans Grohe fixtures to Duravit water closets. It might just take the crown of "coolest place I've seen in DC."

Upstairs, there are two large bedrooms and two large bathrooms, as well as a private roof terrace. Also, check out that awesome glass that separates off the lofted section. If I lived here, I'd keep the front door unlocked and pray for a burglar to come in so I could leap out and drop-kick them through the glass wall and onto the floor far below, like Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible 4." The 600-square-foot private roof terrace is the perfect place for a party, with a wet bar, Jacuzzi, and even an outdoor shower! Can you imagine the possibilities? You'll have to, because I can't go into them here. This is a family blog, after all.

2351 Champlain Street NW Penthouse #2
2 Bedrooms, 2 Full Baths, 2 Half Baths
$845,000