DC Metrocentric

The latest property to be up for auction is the 432 unit luxury apartment building in Northeast right behind Union Station at 2nd and Eye Street. Senate Square is going up on the auction block at the end of this month under the threat of foreclosure.

This is unfortunate news for the folks at Broadway Capitol who are all too familiar with the threat of foreclosure, having just gone through the process last year with the massive Dumont Condo building (which is still sitting empty).

We guess the view and the amazing rooftop pool were not enough to entice people to live behind Union Station. We hate to see things like this happen because these massive residential developments that were planed at the peak of the real estate boom are going to take years to become fully rented or be converted back to condos. Right now… supply definitely is exceeding demand!

[Photo: HexBlock]

Now that construction on the Yale Steam Laundry West has started back up, you may be wondering why the about face… well of course it is all about the benjamins. The developer IBG Partners secured $50 million in Housing and Urban Development loans to start back up.The second phase will include over 200 new condo units and they are shooting for a Summer 2011 delivery. We have a question though… is high end condos apartments a good use of HUD loans?

Every once in a while one of the Residences at the Ritz Carlton in the West End goes on sale, but it is not often that it is the grand daddy “Unit F” model. The sixth floor unit S6F is on sale and we have the drool worthy floor-plans for your perusing pleasure.

As you can see below, unit F is one of the largest floorplans in the building, weighing in at over 3,200 square feet, and has both exterior views along 23rd street and a view of the ridiculous interior courtyard.

The price was recently dropped by over half a million, so maybe now is the chance for this little slice of condo heaven to be yours, we would buy it but our piggy bank doesn’t quite have that type of change (it’s listed at $2,195,000).

All the reports are starting to pour in now that 2009 is in the history books. One of the more interesting reports is from Delta Associates which shows that in the District, condo sales actually were up by 34% over the previous year. We suspect this can be attributed to the really low sales in 2008 and all the great deals and tax credits of 2009.

The other interesting take away is how much these sales have reduced the available inventory in the DC metropolitan areas. Does this mean we are going to start seeing rising prices? That’s how it usually works but we can’t really rely on prevailing wisdom anymore.

[Photo: The Truth About]

A look back on the last decade by NAR shows dramatic changes in the way home buyers are acting and even who they are. The one trend that we find disheartening, but not surprising is that 54% of people now choose suburban areas over urban locations, compared to 46% in 1999.

Another interesting statistic is that the make up of single people buying homes is on the rise with single women now representing 21% of all home buyers, up from 15% in 1999. We wonder what the plateau is going to be for these numbers?

[Photo: The Truth About]

Reflecting back on the year that was 2009, we wonder will it be remembered as the year the housing market finally turned around… or perhaps as the year where things really just stalled? What ever it ends up being, there was certainly no shortage of activity in the world of construction, architecture, and development in the Metro area.

During the beginning of last year things were not looking so good, but as of late the picture has been a little more rosy. However even in the face of difficult conditions, the commercial development market continued to buzz with its share of new projects, some good, some not so good.

We finally got to see how some of the new museums on the National Mall are going to look, and watched as the new National Institute of Peace’s flowing arches jumped from rendering to reality.

The more we think about it, 2009 might end up being “the year of the library” as more than a handful of neighborhoods got newly designed bastions to reading, some we liked more than others.

Of course you may have heard that our newest first family moved to town (and no we don’t mean the Real World cast). There were lots of grand openings and parties, some of which reminded us of the extravagance of the good old days!

To make way for all the new development, there was plenty of demolition to go around, but unfortunately some projects ended up not getting much further than being a big hole in the ground.

We can only hope that next year will be as interesting as the last and that the DC Metro Area continues to lead the way as one of the Nations top markets with enough innovative and inspiring architecture to bring us into the next decade!

From everyone here at DCMetrocentric, we wish you a very happy New Year!

[Photo: M.V. Jantzen]

Hartland Commons is a new proposed boutique hotel for the Shaw District located on Florida Ave across from the historic Howard Theater. The design includes some interesting use of glazing to bring light into the interior of the building, but we can’t help wondering if the actual project will ever see the light of day (we couldn’t help ourselves).

We like the rendering above, but the one after the jump almost looks like an entirely different utilitarian communist building, who knows which one gives the better impression of how this thing would actually look once built.

What do you think?

Communist looking gray rendering after the jump…

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There will officially be one less place to look at glossy pictures of luxury homes in the Washington DC areas come January. We got word earlier that the five year old magazine Washington Spaces’ final publication will be the November/December issue.

The magazines publisher is a subsidy of the Washington Post, and we must say we were a little surprised at the news. Despite the economy, the magazine apparently had over 80,000 subscribers. 

On another note, since editorial cycles generally are many months, we bet there are a bunch of articles that were written that will end up going unpublished… so we will put this offer out there, any authors who are interested in finding a new venue shoot us an email and we will publish your piece, we will even pay you something (though it may be in Starbucks gift cards). Let the emailing begin: DCMetrocentric@gmail.com

Seems like there will be another chapter in the saga over the development of the Views at Clarendon, the eight-story housing complex proposed for above the First Baptist Church of Clarendon. Apparently the development is in violation of the suing residents first amendment rights because Arlington has approved a tentative $4.5 million loan for the project from the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

Is this really an issue of separation of Church and State?

[Renderings: Bozzuto Development]

If you haven’t had a chance to read Roger Lewis’ ode to the townhouse from the Post, it’s an interesting read. The premise is that there is a rich architectural history of town homes going back decades, but recently townhomes have become a dirty word among architecture firms and often times aren’t even in a town but the suburbs.

We certainly agree that an attitude shift can have a positive effect on how certain areas of our region are developed in the future and a return to the rowhouses that shaped DC in past decades wouldn’t be all that bad of a thing! What do you think?

[Credit: Roger K. Lewis WP]

All of us here at DCMetrocentric wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. What are we thankful for? Living in a city where  everywhere you look there are new developments, construction continues, and people are hard at work! We love this photo of a house in Alexandria where clearly Thanksgiving is an important holiday!

Once the dust settled from the furious bidding, Federal Capital Partners has walked away with the winning bid on the new Allegro Apartments in Columbia Heights. The building, which is currently 60% leased, couldn’t continue to operate because the debt holder needed liquidity, thus forcing the auction this week.

Interestingly we heard that almost no one who is currently living in the building even knew a sale was taking place, but it shouldn’t have an effect on residents. We expect to see some major deals in the near future as the new owners try to get the building completely leased and profitable.

[Photo: Sean Robertson]

Just as soon as the city stopped caring about the Real World coming to town (they finished filming last month) do we finally get a look inside the mansion at 2000 S St. NW. that the 7 strangers called home. From what we saw, it’s everything you would expect including over sized pop art and a jacuzzi. The Post has the video tour posted here, and if that’s not enough for you… the show will start airing on MTV next month.

[Photo: DBKing]

We just got word that after four years of sales, the 163 unit Ten Ten Mass development has sold and closed on every single condo! While the name isn’t exactly original, we always were jealous of the amazing rooftop pool and cool wavy brick facade.

Developed by Faison, RCP Development and The Carlyle Group, the building has units ranging from 1 Bed/1 Bath, to a full on penthouse. Being able to close such a large building out is impressive in this economy, especially considering some of the similar developments like the Dumont are still sitting empty. They even ended up selling right in range from the low $300s to over $1.5 million.