Development News

Students will be attending classes in the new Dunbar High School this fall. The new school construction, which began in November of 2011, will be completed by August 2013, says Darrell Pressley, public affairs specialist the Office of Government Affairs and Communications in the Department of General Services.

The new 283,000-square-foot facility is being built on top of where the old athletic field stood and will accommodate 1,100 students in 40 classrooms.

“This is an extraordinary modernization project for the Department of General Services (DGS) and the Paul Laurence Dunbar community,” says Brian J. Hanlon, Department of General Services Director. “Dunbar High School is the second high school DGS is building from the ground up, and we believe that the new Dunbar will be another example of the wave of the future for fully modernized schools in the District. It is also exciting to note that the design for the new Dunbar honors the school’s traditions and its distinguished history.”

The athletic field will be reconstructed where the old school building stands now and after the new building is operational. By building the new school on the old athletic field, the students did not have to attend classes in trailers during the construction period, but it means that the new athletic area will have to be rebuilt after the school is finished. New bleachers for 1,600 spectators, new running tracks, a new football field, press box and field lighting are all included in the new athletic area, which will be ready for use by June 2014.

Inside the new school, students will have new innovative spaces that will make the old school look archaic. Spaces like a new video production room, robotics labs and corresponding fabrication rooms will help spark interest in students and make it easier for them to create their projects.

The new school will also have a four-story academy wing containing a museum, kitchen and cafeteria, library and media center, a health clinic as well as a dental suite, auditorium and theater space, gymnasium and swimming pool, a student services center, and a child-care center. There will be a parking garage for 55 cars as well as an administrative wing with offices and meeting rooms on each floor.

The LEED Platinum-certified school will also have a solar PV panel array and a geothermal system. Even going to the bathroom at the school will be more energy-efficient at the new high school with water efficient fixtures and rain-water harvested for use within the school.

With an open classroom configuration and other structural designs that made it hard to supervise and control the students—along with very inefficient energy systems—the old school was found to be very undesirable and outdated. The new building is designed to maximize natural light—something severely missing in the old, massive, concrete school—and create classrooms conducive to learning and teaching.  

“The design of the new school makes it much easier to operate the academic wing independent of the other areas of the school such as the gym or the theater,” writes Pressley in an email interview. “Students will enjoy a healthier atmosphere that will enhance their experiences not only in the classrooms but throughout the whole school. The new school will also give students the opportunity to get a peek into a college-like environment.”
 

If you love beer and live in or near Ivy City, you’ll be happy to hear that Atlas Brew Works received its permit last week to build its brewery at 2052 West Virginia Avenue NE.

“We’re excited to be part of the Ivy City neighborhood,” says Will Durgin, co-founder of the brewery. “We’re hoping to be good neighbors to everyone here and have a positive impact on the community.”

Durgin, who was at Pyramid Breweries in Portland, Ore. before arriving in D.C. in October, and his business partner Justin Cox received their construction permit on Wednesday and began building immediately.

“We came in hitting it full force Thursday morning, right after the permit was issued,” says Cox.

In the back of this 7,300-square-foot space will be their beer tanks and barrels and three loading bays for deliveries and shipments. The office and bar area will be in the front where they will do tastings and sell their fresh American-style craft ales and lagers in 64-ounce growlers, 22-ounce bottles, and in kegs, but Atlas Brew Works will not operate like a bar.

Durgin and Cox, former Vanderbilt classmates, will also provide tours on the weekends.

The beer warehouse has some interesting architectural features like flared mushroom columns, popular from 1900 to 1950, which the co-founders hope to “deck out” with some paintings. Eighteen-foot-high bay doors in the space also create a good amount of light and make the place feel more open.

With a 25-foot sidewalk out front, the co-founders are looking into what kind of outdoor space they can provide for their customers and taste-testers. A decent view of the Mt. Olivet cemetery across the street might draw some added desire to sit outdoors from their customers.

Construction will be complete by late summer—three months from now.

The brewery is accessible via a number of buses, including the D4 and D3, and is about a mile from the NoMa Galludet Metro stop.

Fiddleheads Salon, which opened recently in Bloomingdale, is having a meet-and-greet on Monday, June 10. Beth Abroms, the owner, will be at Rustik Tavern (84 T St NW) from 6 to 8 p.m. to talk about her salon and give out free goodie bags and pizza.

“I really love the Bloomingdale location, because it’s such a great neighborhood,” says Abroms. “I started hanging out at Big Bear and everyone was so nice and the neighborhood has so much potential. I just really love the great tight-knit community—it’s an actual neighborhood.”

Fiddleheads replaces Soul Day and Spa, another salon, at the 25 Florida Avenue NW location. This Bloomingdale location, a sister salon of Abroms’ popular Fiddleheads in Dupont Circle, has about 1,000 square feet of space spread over two levels. The first level is retail and reception and the upper level has five stations to accommodate clients.

“The salon has a lot of open space and windows,” says Abroms. “It’s really open and airy; it has a natural beauty.”

Abroms admits the space was relatively move-in ready, but she did have things like the floor and shelving replaced with natural wood to highlight the salon’s organic focus. The exterior walls will also be painted now that the weather is a bit more permitting.

Fiddleheads in Bloomingdale first opened just for two days per week back in March and then switched to seven days a week on April 7. They are known for their ability to tame, cut and style curly hair and were voted as one of the best three hair salons in the Washington City Paper Best of 2013 Reader’s Poll, according to the Fiddleheads website.

The salon will have a grand opening party within the next month, Abroms says.

Developers have received a permit to build out the forthcoming Sala Thai restaurant at Rhode Island Row as the restaurant prepares for a late-summer opening.

Sala Thai will be just one of the new restaurants opening at Rhode Island Row, 2300 Washington Place NE this year.

Developers Urban Atlantic out of Bethesda and Baltimore-based A&R Development built the multi-use complex, dubbed Rhode Island Row, in 2012. Of the 70,000 square feet of retail space, more than half is leased. Just 32,000 square feet are free with 8,000 square feet of that under negotiation. Much of the retail space is going towards restaurant use.

Sala Thai will be occupying Unit S, a 2,500-square-foot space that can seat around 90 to 100 patrons and include a sushi bar. The permit for their layout was just granted last week.

“I think Sala Thai knows how to identify good emerging markets,” says Caroline Kenney, development partner with Urban Atlantic. “He was one of the first who signed on when we were finished with construction.”

A CVS Pharmacy, Sprint, T-Mobile and a satellite DMV office are already open within the complex, but many more businesses—especially restaurants—are in the pipeline. Chipotle is set to open at the end of this month, D’Arte Nail and Spa Salon are scheduled to open in June, and Carolina Kitchen and CK Burger will open in September, says Kenney. Another sandwich shop will also be signing the lease any day now, she adds.

The popular Thai and sushi restaurant with locations in Petworth, U Street and in Bethesda has obtained a full liquor license for their Rhode Island Row location and could potentially have outdoor seating. Parking will be available via the on-site parking lot and a nearby, very cheap, parking garage. The Rhode Island Avenue/Brentwood red line Metro stop is also right next to the development.

“We were really selective with what retailers we chose,” says Kenney. “We turned down places, because we thought they didn’t meet with the quality of the center. We wanted to keep with our vision of a high-quality Main Street experience.”

The 8.5-acre Rhode Island Row development has nearly all its 274 luxury apartments occupied, which will create a lot of built-in patrons for the restaurants coming to the complex. Foot traffic from the metro stop and other residents in the area will also create a large customer base for the eateries.

Rhode Island Row offers studio to three bedroom apartments with one and two bedroom plus den options. The $109 million Lessard Design project broke ground back in May 2010 and provided some of the first major development in the Rhode Island Avenue area, which has seen a number of other projects pop up since then.

A former tattoo parlor at 39 Florida NW has shut down and the owners, the Barac Company, have decided to change the store-front space into a one-bedroom apartment.

“We always had a tough time for some reason getting a good tenant in that space, so we decided to turn it into residential,” says Anthony Bruno, housing provider with The Barac Company.

The Ink N' This tattoo parlor had been there for three years before they suddenly stopped paying their rent, says Bruno. Now the landlords are working to convert the space into a one-bedroom, one-bath unit with a great room in the front.

Bruno did not have the specifics on the square footage, but the unit is “not a large area, but a nice space.” A permit was granted back in January to begin renovations and a permit last month was issued for construction of a new bathroom, HVAC unit, electrical and a new kitchen.

Another permit was issued at the beginning of May for more electrical work. Renovations will not be complete for another three months from now, around mid-August. Rent will be about $1700 to $1800 per month. No parking is provided.

“We’re providing good housing for good tenants,” says Bruno.

Bloomingdale has become an area in hot demand over the last few years. In the last five years the average sales price per square foot has risen from $299 to $371; rents have also increased.  Notable restaurants like Bacio, Boundary Stone and Big Bear Cafe and a popular weekend farmer's market makes the community even more attractive to potential residents.

A new coffee shop is coming to Rhode Island Avenue in a just a few more weeks. Zeke’s Coffee will be opening at 2300 Rhode Island Avenue NE by June or July, says owner John Kepner.

The family-owned business, based in Baltimore with Kepner’s uncle at the helm, will house a roastery in the back, a tasting bar and some indoor—and eventually some outdoor—seating. But Zeke’s is not trying to compete with places like Starbucks and Cosi.

“We’re not focusing on the seating. Roasting is loud, it’s not a place you’re going to want to sit with a laptop and have a couple drinks,” says Kepner. “We’ll have counters to stand at, a small seated area with a second counter in the window—maybe big enough for 12 inside.”

The shop is about 1400 square feet with the back two thirds, or 933 square feet, for roasting and the remaining third for the retail section of the shop, he says. The roaster will work in small batches of coffee and be available for sale in their retail storefront as well as at some nearby small farmers and specialty markets.

A former Venetian blinds store, and then vacant, Kepner says Zeke’s is leasing the spot from the owners Sovran DC LLC, who helped renovate the space using their own design team. While extensive alterations and renovations were done inside, the design will keep with the era in which it was built, with a new tin ceiling and new oak flooring.

What really sets Zeke’s apart from other coffee shops and roasters in the area is the coffee tastings that will be available for both consumers and business clients.

“We’ll be brewing and doing things like structured tastings, where people can come learn the difference between a Sumatra and a Mexican and a Kenyan bean,” says Kepner. “I don’t think anyone else is doing that in D.C., let alone in this neighborhood.”

Kepner says they picked the Rhode Island neighborhood because of the neighborhood association.

“They have a great neighborhood association, the Friends of Rhode Island Avenue (NE),” he says. “They really helped us find a space. We looked at several neighborhoods, but really the excitement of this neighborhood sold us.”

Rhode Island Avenue NE has seen a number of development projects in the last year. Some of those projects include a new Manny and Olga’s Pizzeria, chef Oliver Friendly’s new restaurant at 2212 Rhode Island Ave NE, and the Woodridge Library renovations.

Children in Brookland will be able to play on a new playground at the Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy come May 15. The new playground is replacing an old playset that had been on school grounds for over 25 years, says Linda McKay, the school’s executive director.

“We’re really excited about the work being done by our stakeholders, staff, and parents,” says McKay. “We’re definitely excited for a safe place to play for our students.” During non-school hours and days, the playground will also be open to the public.

Children were playing on the older playset at the public charter school; however, parts of the equipment were so unsafe it was off-limits and patches of the matting below the playground were missing. The community and students had been in dire need of a functional, safe playground that wasn’t an eyesore, says McKay, but first the school had to determine if the playset was even theirs or if the U.S. Department of Parks and Recreation was responsible for its upkeep—as many D.C. school playgrounds are. After determining the playset belonged to the school and not the DPR, McKay applied to KaBOOM! and was selected.

KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit that helps communities and schools design, find sponsors for and fundraise to create safe and new playgrounds. Bethune got their students together and asked them to draw what they envisioned a great playground to look like. KaBOOM! then helped turn those designs into functional plans for a new playset and paired the Bethune school with a sponsor, the J. Williard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation. The Marriott foundation is donating about 230 volunteers to help build the playground, which is appropriate for children from three to 14 years old, says McKay.

The school also worked with KaBOOM! to help fundraise in the community. The older playground was removed a couple of weeks ago and the new one is ready to be built in just one more week.

Prep day for the big playground Build Day is on Monday, May 13. The volunteers will lay sod and get all the materials prepared for Build Day, Wednesday, May 15. On Build Day, volunteers will arrive at 6:30 a.m. and build the playground in one day, until 3 p.m. when the ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place.  

"We’re really excited and appreciative for all the help that KaBOOM! and Marriott Corporation, our parents, and students and staff and everyone who has helped in the community," says McKay.

Along with the new playground and new flooring, students and children in the community can enjoy two new basketball courts that are fully repaved, a new green space and a community garden. 

If you or someone you know would like to donate or help volunteer building the playground, visit http://www.mmbethunepcs.org for more information.

The rehab of the 37-unit condo building now known as Metropolitan Overlook is on time and on budget, according to partner nonprofit City First Homes' housing director Jim Steck.

The building, at 1831 2nd St. NE, had been vacant for two decades, suffering from "long-term neglect," Steck says. But now after a "total gut rehab," the building is just months away from being put on the market.

City First Homes is helping finance the "permanent affordability" of 11 units in the 37-unit building being developed by the Menkiti Group and Dantes Partners. This means that City First helps buyers with the upfront and monthly costs of buying a condo unit, with a share in the appreciated value of the unit, whatever that may be. Even in Eckington, where Metropolitan Overlook is situated, maintaining that affordability is key, Steck says.

"Once upon a time, Shaw had the most rapid price escalations. Then Bloomingdale became hot and the community started to become higher income. As prices go up, [appreciation] moves farther east, and now Eckington is starting to have that same development trajectory," he says. "Even townhomes are priced out of some people's range. You've got the [Metropolitan Branch] bike trail nearby, Brookland, NoMA, Union Market. That whole area, we're starting to see some substantial development....whatever we can do now to lock up homes in areas that are desirable, we want to do."

Developers Menkiti Group and Dantes Partners are adding an elevator to the four-story building, adding rooftop access, and rehabbing almost everything but the shell of the building, Steck says.

Adds Dantes principal Buwa Binitie: "Our plan was to basically try and restore the building back to its glory days."

As construction continues, the development team hopes to have a model unit available very soon and to deliver the first units in August, Binitie says.

Updated details for the new Woodridge Library at 1801 Hamlin Street NE were revealed last night during a meeting at the library.

"We are excited about having a world-class library serve the the Woodridge community," says Ginnie Cooper, chief librarian with D.C. Public Library. "I'm pleased with the quality of the design that the architects have developed and the thoughtful feedback we have received at community meetings.  By working together, the new Woodridge library will be magnificent." 

Three major modifications from the January plans were pointed out at the meeting last night, says DCPL Media Manager George Williams. The first major modification to the plans was the third-floor green space. The third floor, which does not exist in the current Woodrige Library, will be the top level of the new library. This round of designs calls for a floating green space at the center of the floor with a reading room surrounding it, whereas the previous plans called for the opposite.

Another major change to the January plans was the facade of the building. Previously, architects Bing Thom and Wieneck Associates did not know what type of material they would use on the facade. Now that they have approval from the federal Fine Arts Commmission, the architects and library officials have selected a certain type of concrete slab for the facade, allowing further design elements to be finalized.

"Now that we know this, they were able to add more windows and more skylights to the design," says Williams. "The skylights allow for a lot more light, natural light--which is what you want in libraries."

The last major modification to the designs was a lot more color. The plans now show a "splash" of yellow around the windows and the borders of the entranceway have a lot of texture and color, says Williams.

The Woodrige Library renovations, costing around $16.5 million, is part of an extensive D.C. Public Library system upgrade. The new three-story library will expand the library from its roughly 19,000-square-foot current size to a 22,500-square-foot space. A modified children's area is planned for the new library. It will include pocket doors that can transform a portion of the area into a fully enclosed space so the library can remain quiet while young ones play and sing. Other upgrades include a 100-person meeting room on the ground floor, an open floor plan and extra seating for patrons throughout the building. 

During the construction, which is still on track to begin late summer 2013 and finish sometime in 2015, an interim library will be located at 1800 Douglas Street NE, about three blocks from the current location. There will be a two-week period between when the current library closes and the interim one opens so the staff can move books and set up the interim library.

Another major renovation is happening to the MLK Library at 901 G Street NW in June. An 11,000 square foot new digital common space is being added to the library. The $1 million renovation will include things like 70 public access computers--some with high-end software like Final Cut and InDesign, as well as meeting rooms and a 3D printer. 

Renovations are nearly complete at 641 S Street NW, the old Wonder Bread factory, and potential tenants are in talks to move in, says Thomas Schneck, Douglas Development’s sales and marketing manager.

“Renovations will be finished in June,” says Schneck. “And we’re almost done with the exterior. The pretty touches with landscaping are not done, but the upper level windows are all in and the only thing missing are the first- and basement-level windows now.”

The windows all had to be custom-built on-site, says Schneck, because each window was a different size. But even more remarkable than the floor-to-ceiling windows visible from the outside, are the changes Douglas Development and R2L and OTJ architects had to contend with inside the building.

“We were forced to remove everything—even put in new floors,” says Schneck. “Because of the severe roof damage, over the years water got in and vegetation was literally growing on the wooden floors. We completely cored the whole thing.”

The four-story building now has the outside walls, but inside it is a total open floor plan on every level. Depending on who signs the lease and when, Douglas Development could help construct in the interior walls, but so far the company hasn’t crossed that bridge.  

The 98,000 square foot mixed-use building was reported to have their entire third floor—20,678 square feet of space—leased to furniture consultancy group WorkSpaces LLC, as originally reported by the Washington Business Journal last June. However, WorkSpaces has since filed bankruptcy and so there are no set tenants for the building.

One thing that has remained constant are the 27 underground parking spaces.

The Wonder Bread Factory was originally a three-story building built sometime between 1900 to 1920 as the Dorsh’s White Cross Bakery. Wonder Bread and Hostess Cake producer Continental  Baking Co. then bought the building in 1936. The building was closed in the 1980s and has since been vacant.

A new mixed retail-apartment building at 3232 Georgia Avenue NW is almost finished, says Juan Powell, principal at Neighborhood Development Company. NDC is putting the finishing touches on the affordable housing unit, nicknamed The Heights, right now and should have their certificate of occupancy within the week, he adds.

The six-story apartment building will offer 69 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 700 to 1270 square feet for residents making 60 percent of the average median income (AMI)—and in a couple cases 50 percent.

Mi Casa Inc., a local nonprofit helping low income families find affordable housing, partnered with NDC on the development of the property.   

The ground level of The Heights will offer 10,000 square feet of retail space, and Powell says they are looking into a number of restaurants to fill the space.

We’ve had great discussions with a number of restaurants and some smaller retailers that service the neighborhood,” he says. “We’ve had a lot productive conversations with retailers, but we haven’t finalized with one yet.”

The building will have its own underground parking for both residents and patrons of the retail space and a number of gathering places for the residents. On the top floor will be a green space with benches and other outdoor furniture, and the second floor will also have a patio space of roughly 500 square feet for people to enjoy the good weather on. There will be a community lounge on the second floor as well, with flat-screen TVs and casual seating along with a kitchen.

“We believe it’s [Georgia Avenue] the next major corridor in the city to experience great development growth,” says Powell. “The infrastructure is there, [it's a] major thoroughfare… so between the public transportation system and the commercial space, we’re in a corner really ripe for future development.”

Georgia Avenue has seen an explosion of development in the recent years and NDC is a very big player in that development. NDC not only has The Heights at 3232 Georgia Avenue, but also a 112-unit mixed-use building being developed called The Vue at 3333 Georgia Avenue;  a 72-affordable apartment building called The Residences at 4100 Georgia Avenue; and a 32-unit apartment mixed-use building at 5832 Georgia Avenue called The Lofts.

By this fall Q Street will have four new “luxury” flats for sale at Dupont Circle. The UrbanVibe Developers condominium project, nicknamed The Q, will be located at 1700 Q Street NW and is set for completion by this fall, says Joseph Shieh, president and CEO of UrbanVibe.

“The energy and activity of this location, [along with] the pedestrian traffic, and the convenience to everything made it a top choice,” said Shieh. “But it’s also a close-knit neighborhood. People bump into each other and it’s a friendly, inviting environment and atmosphere.”

It took several months for UrbanVibe to find a property to develop, but they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bid on this historic foreclosure, says Shieh. And while the building that is from around 1895 is in excellent shape inside, architect Tom Kamm has designed a more clean and modern look for the interior and so the entire inside has been renovated. The exterior, however, is protected by the Historical Preservation Office and will not be touched.  

“We’re retaining its beautiful shell, the façade,” says Shieh, “but the entire interior has been gutted and renewed. Some more historically-inclined people might be hurt by that, and even though things were in good shape, they weren’t relevant to our designs.”

There will be no reserved parking for the two-bedroom, two-bath units, but all will have some kind of outdoor space. The ground-level condo will have a garden, the penthouse a spiral walk-up to a private roofdeck with an outdoor kitchen, and the other two units have some balcony space in the front.

The units range in roughly 1200 to 1400 square feet and are not on pre-sale yet. They will go for somewhere around $850 per square foot, Shieh estimates, and even higher for the penthouse. Eric Mitchell Properties will be selling the properties; however, Shieh says that won’t start happening until earliest this summer.

The median per-square-foot sale price for the last three months of data in Dupont Circle has been around $583, according to Trulia.com. According to the site, it has barely fluctuated in the last five years. The area is extremely popular for young urban professionals with nearly every block in and around Dupont filled of restaurants, bars, nightclubs and businesses as well as Metro lines and bus routes. 

An eyesore for the Capitol Hill community will soon be gone. Maryland-based Oracle Builders is working with architect Carmel Greer of District Design LLC to demolish the building at 513 C Street NE, the building that was once the Stanton Theater, to build two three-story rowhouses.

Directly across from the park, the all-brick rowhouses will each be a spacious 3,000 square feet above ground and 1,000 underground.  With amenities like elevators, cellars built for big recreation rooms and rooftop decks, the high-end homes will be a modern twist to the dated rowhouses found in the area.

The new rowhouses will replace the two-story former Stanton Theater building that was closed, refaced sometime around 1956 and last remodeled in 1984. The site of the old theater creates a “formidable” presence, according to Historical Preservation Office staff member Frances McMillen’s March 28 report to the Review Board. Made of concrete and containing small windows with little architectural detailing, the building is a true outlier on a historically brick-styled block.
 
The front yard of the old theater building — which is listed online as once being the Lagana Printing Service and the Foundation for Hospice and Homecare — is also paved over, creating a blockade of concrete in what otherwise would be a continuous stretch of front garden space down the block. With the addition of two front gardens, the new rowhouses will also help contribute to the greenery to the area.  
 
The rowhouses’ designs, approved by the HPRB on March 28, include Italianate detailing in the front of the houses, such as bracketed cornices, 2-over-2 windows, and prominent door surrounds. Two parking spaces are allocated for each townhouse as well.
 
The interior demolition permit was granted last Wednesday, April 17, but developers are now awaiting the exterior permits. Ground breaking should happen within the next few months, barring any unforeseeable issues.
 
New construction is at a bare minimum in the historic community of Capitol Hill. The only two rowhouses in the area on sale right now, according to Redfin.com are going for about $1.5 million, and those homes were built over 110 years ago. Oracle Builders bought this property for $1.6 million.
 
Carmel Greer declined to speak about the project and Oracle Builders could not be reached for comment.

An 11-story office and retail building is planned near Ford’s Theater at 10th and F Streets NW. The Douglas Development building will be home to about 90,000 square feet of office space and about 7,800 of retail--likely apparel.

"We were instrumental in bringing apparel to F street," says Norman Jemal, principal and senior vice president of Douglas Development. "We’ve seen a strong and continued interest from other apparel retailers."

Douglas Development has already brought J.Crew, Anthropologie and Zara to the Chinatown area, Jemal adds, and residents and shoppers can expect more of the same caliber apparel to move into the new space by spring 2015. Completion date for the project is set for about 18 months from construction start, which will be about mid-2014.

"It’s a magnificent project of terra-cotta brick and glass; a high-end building, it’s going to help clean up the street a little bit more," says Jemal. "The area has come a long way and this will go a long way to continue the renaissance of that street."

The Zoning Commission will hold a hearing May 2 regarding the proposed building, which falls within the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. While the project has already obtained the Historic Preservation Board Review’s approval, the Zoning Commission will  hear Douglas’s proposed modifications to the original design. One of the biggest proposed modifications entails reducing the underground parking garage from four to two levels and converting the remaining parking to valet only.

The building has been dubbed Jemal’s Up Against the Wall, which is also the name of the subsidiary of Douglas Development overseeing the project. While some online have speculated the name is a reference to the 2006 FBI raids on supposed brothels running in two of the buildings Douglas obtained for the project, Jemal says that is not the case.

"The name had nothing to do with brothels," he says. "There used to be a retailer in there, Up Against the Wall, an apparel retailer there for a long time."

Demolition of the Exxon gas station at 1827 Adams Mill Road is set to happen sometime in July, says Bob Cohen, founder and president of Perseus Realty. In its place will be a mixed-use condominium building, set for completion in early 2015.
 
PGN architects and developers Perseus Realty are still in the early design phase of the project, with even the number of condos still not set in stone.  Cohen did say there will be somewhere between 35 to 40 units—with a target right around 38—in this boutique condo building, with about 24 underground parking spaces beneath it. The architects are designing a project in keeping with the look of the area, but with a contemporary spin, says Cohen. Added bonuses for the residents will include a fantastic view from the front of the building.  
 
"We have a very fun rooftop deck planned with couches and grills, broken into two or three segments so different residents can have gatherings and share the space without being on top of each other," says Cohen. "There’ll be some great views up there too."
 
From the building’s roof, residents should be able to catch a good view of the Washington Monument and have great seats for things like fireworks during the July 4 celebrations and New Year’s Eve.
 
Urban Pace will handle the sale and management of the units once they do go up for sale, which is not for a good while, says Cohen.  The 8,600 square feet of retail space will be also be up for sale and could turn into two or three different retailers—again not available just yet.

"We love to bring in things into the neighborhood people need," says Cohen. "There are a lot of restaurants, and it doesn’t mean we won’t do another one, but we want to give people what they want, whatever that might be."
 
The average sale price for the last three months in Lanier Heights was $398,000, or an average of $491 per square foot for the same time period, according to Trulia.com. Lanier Heights—bounded by Calvert St. NW, Columbia Road NW, Harvard St. NW and Beach Drive—though often considered just another part of Adams Morgan is a very diverse neighborhood that has skyrocketed in popularity recently. In the last year alone, average sale prices per square foot of housing has jumped 37 percent, according to Trulia.com.