town Topics
Real Estate Round Up By C ai t l in F ra nz
Developers to Convert SelfStorage to Mixed-Use near Mt. Vernon Square
The Capital Self-Storage at 301 N St. NW may soon become a residential and retail mixeduse building. Eleven stories will be added to the property, according to plans by Foulger-Pratt Development and Torti Gallas Urban. Development plans include a 110-foot addition to the warehouse. In total, the project would feature 19,000 square feet of retail space, 205 residences and 110 parking spots. According to documents filed with the Historic Preservation Office, an application to have the building recognized as landmark will be filed soon. The Historic Preservation Review Board is scheduled to consider the project in late May.
H Street Project to Offer Big Transit Benefits to Residents
Douglas Development plans to update its 28-
The ANC 6C has offered support for the development.
WeWork Moves to H Street
WeWork may be moving to a new space at the 432-unit Apollo project at 600 H Street NE. The organization has D.C. locations in Chinatown, Shaw and Dupont Circle. Insight Property Group is building the Apollo H Street, which will have 432 residential units, over 440 parking spaces, bicycle parking and 74,000 square feet of retail space, including a Whole Foods Market. Apollo H Street is scheduled to open in 2017.
68% of District Homes Are Affordable for Millennials
68 percent of homes in and around the District are affordable to the average millennial, according to a study by Zillow published April 31. That figure is nearly identical to the national percentage. (Seventy percent of homes across the country are affordable to millenials.) The Zillow study used data from the D.C. metro
A rendering of the Douglas Development mixed-use project on H Street NE. Photo courtesy of Urban Turf.
unit mixed-use property at 501 H St. NE with a transit plan to compensate for minimal parking at the development. The developers have suggested providing new residents a $100 SmarTrip card, a oneyear Bikeshare membership and a car-share membership to alleviate the problems caused by a lack of parking in the development. A monitor in the lobby will show residents realtime information on nearby bus and transit lines and Capitol Bikeshare availability. An on-site staff member will be available to answer questions and provide additional information about channels of public transportation. Douglas is partnering with public transportation services so that the company can gain access to four compact parking spaces and one handicap space on the street in front of the development. One of the compact spaces will be reserved for car-share vehicles. The other three will be available only to residents, not to shoppers at the retail spaces in the mixed-use development. The Zoning Commission will review the development plans in the next few weeks.
area, not just the District proper, which may have skewed the data, improving the odds of affordability. Zillow determined the percentage of affordable housing, using the median income of millenials aged 23-34 and the assumption that they could only spend 30 percent or less of their annual income on a mortgage payment.
Affordability in the District has increased over the last year. In the third quarter of 2013, affordability was at its lowest level (55%) in Zillow’s five-year study.
2M Apartments on H Street Sweeten the Deal with a Dog
The 2M Apartments in NoMa offers residents access to a furry friend. Her name is Emmy and she’s an English Bulldog who greets prospective renters, plays with residents and takes naps in a miniature version of the apartment house and goes home every night with the leasing manager. The goal of the community pet is to provide the newly constructed 2M Apartments with a competitive edge. The 12-story modern building was developed as a joint venture between WC Smith and the Warrenton Group on a site at M and North Capitol streets NE, which is two blocks from the NoMa-Gallaudet Metro station. 2M incorporates a range of sustainable features to meet LEED Gold standards, including a planted roof, a rainwater harvesting system, a rooftop solar array, Energy Star appliances and electric car charging stations. The building is one of the few to be completed as part of the District’s New Communities Initiative. 30 percent of the development’s 314 apartments, ranging from studios to threebedroom units, are considered to be affordable. 34 of these 93 units have been leased by residents earning 60 percent of the area median income, and 59 are being rented by residents earning 30 percent of the median income. The building is approximately 82 percent leased after being open for less than a year. Both the affordable and market-rate units are designed with the same open floor plans, fixtures and finishes, including granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances and floor-to-ceiling windows. All tenants can take advantage of the rooftop pool with Capitol views, café, indoor basketball court, outdoor grills, theater and game rooms, outdoor lounge area, business center and other amenities.
CoStar Acquires Apartment Finder
ApartmentFinder.com has about 13,400 properties on its website. CoStar anticipates that this acquisition will yield some $20 million in synergies with Apartments.com, CoStar and its other digital connections. The deal comes a little more than a month after CoStar revealed a redesigned Apartments. com and new marketing campaign featuring actor Jeff Goldblum. The site led web traffic among apartment sites in March with nearly 7 million unique visitors, according to ComScore. com. ApartmentFinder.com came in fourth with a little more than 2.1 million.
Residential Shake Up Downtown
The real estate game is changing downtown with local power players moving in to shake things up. Long & Foster Real Estate, well known for its status as the largest independent residential real estate company in the United States, has made some changes. The family-owned company hired Marcus Jaffe to lead the Washington, D.C. region this past fall. “Now that I’m becoming part of the Long & Foster family, I’m thrilled to build on the brokerage’s well known reputation for excellence,” Jaffe said in a press release. Other companies are taking advantage of the lucrative real estate environment in the District proper instead of focusing on far away suburbs. Washington Fine Properties is expanding with the opening of an office spring 2015, which is the former Bang & Olufsen retail space at 1604 14th St. NW. McWilliams Ballard is based out of the District but has have proven itself in the real estate market by expanding to 12 states and emerging as one of the largest new home sales and marketing firms on the East Coast. The company’s downtown office has open at 1402 14th St. NW. Sotheby’s also joined the real estate party on 14th Street with an office at 1506 14th St. NW. They feature listings in neighborhoods like Shaw, Logan’s Circle and Kalorama. The newest addition to the 14th Street strip will be McEnearney Associates Realtors, a Virginia-based company that is planning to open shop at the long-vacant Pulp space at 14th
CoStar Group Inc., the D.C.-based company responsible for Apartments.com, plans to acquire that site’s competitor, Apartment Finder, in a $170 million deal with Network Communications Inc.
A rooftop view at the 2M Apartment building. Photo courtesy of 2M Apartments.
A view of the Pulp building on 14th Street NW, which will soon home McEnearney Associates Realtors.
GMG, INC. May 6, 2015
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