Today in Pictures - Wonder Bread Building

One of the few true industrial buildings in DC, the Wonder Bread building in Shaw has long captured would-be architects' and developers' interest.  After the attractive but decrepit building sat vacant for years, Douglas Development put the structure through a nomination to be included in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites in August of last year.

With that out of the way, work began on the refurbishing the building in June, and work crews have now gutted the interior, lowering the floor, and making way for more than 50,000 s.f. of space, with 24,000 of retail on 2 levels.  Designed by R2L:Architects, the building's revival is part of Shaw's commercial rebirth, ironically just as the building's namesake declares bankruptcy.  Despite the raw look of the shell, Douglas expects to turn the building over to the first tenant in January. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Babes Development OK'd by ANC

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission held a hearing last night to approve development at 4600 Wisconsin Ave., affectionately known as the "Babes" site in Tenleytown.  In a hearing competing with a Vice Presidential debate and sudden death National League playoff, the ANC voted in a lightly attended meeting to support the residential project as Douglas Development gets ready to present the same plans to the Zoning Commission

The approval, the culmination of a Memorandum of Understanding between Douglas Development, the building's owner, and the ANC, gets Douglas past the neighborhood and to a final zoning vote.  Douglas's zoning application calls for a 6-story building with 48,000 s.f. of residential use above 13,000 s.f. of retail.  After a heated battle with some neighborhood turf bullies that feared dozens of new cars clogging Tenleytown, Douglas prevailed on turning the bottom two floors into retail by offering a host of transportation amenities (off-street handicap parking, a bike room, bike racks on Wisconsin, and a "digital multimodal display" in the lobby that lists updated bus, rail, bikeshare and car share data) rather than the 87 parking spaces that would have been required under current zoning regulations.

Douglas fought a contentious battle with some in the neighborhood that wanted garage parking to mitigate street parking, but the neighborhood acquiesced when, among other things, when Douglas agreed that residents would not qualify for neighborhood parking stickers and that commercial tenants over 3,500 s.f. would provide free validated parking. Jonathan Bender, the ANC Commissioner in whose district the project is located, said it was a tough compromise that neither side was entirely happy with, but that it allowed the project to go forward.   "This is a tremendous advance in Tenleytown...even if the ANC supported it without the parking restriction the Zoning Commission would never have supported this [without that parking condition]."  The concept of allowing new development while forbidding tenants of new residential developments has long been a contested one, with new residents feeling boxed out by local home owners.

Douglas also agreed to a check list of other neighborhood upgrades, including contributing up to $600,000 to underground utilities in front of the project, building a CaBi station at its expense if DDOT does not build one in the immediate vicinity on its own within 2 years, and enhancing the triangular park across the street.

The site has long been planned as a residential location, a previous owner intended high-end condos on the site, and though Douglas initially floated a plan for office space above retail after purchasing the property in January of 2009 (the site had been a pool hall recently), it soon began developing a plan for housing above the retail.  Click here for the most recent images of the project.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

CAS Riegler Development on 9th to Break Ground Early Next Year

After years of tiptoeing towards growth, Shaw’s 9th Street NW is taking a big step in that direction in 2013, and one more project is now officially in the pipeline.

Adam Stifel, one of the founding principals of development company CAS Riegler, says the group, in partnership with Douglas Development and CityInterests, is close to construction on a residential project at the corner of 9th and N streets designed by PGN Architects. The partners say they hope to choose a general contractor by the end of October and plan to break ground early next year.  "We’re all set and it’s pretty much entitled,” said Stifel, explaining that the project has received approvals from the local ANC, the Boart of Zoning Adjustment, and the Historic Preservation Review Board. “Now we’re working on getting it priced out from general contractors.” Stifel would not name the four or five companies bidding on the consruction project.

The development site includes a lot at the corner of 9th and N streets that’s currently being used by garden center Old City Green, as well as an existing historic building at 1264 9th Street and a building located on Blagden Alley inside the block which formerly served as Fight Club DC, a privately-owned skateboarding/art/music space that closed in 2010. The corner lot is owned by Douglas Development, while CAS Riegler and CityInterests own the property around it.

Earlier estimates had placed groundbreaking in late 2012, but waiting until early 2013 to begin construction means that Frank Asher, owner of Old City Green, doesn’t have to vacate the property until after the lucrative Christmas tree season. Asher has spoken out more broadly about independently-owned businesses being forced to leave an area once it begins to develop.

The project's design has come a long way since its initial renderings, which featured a "Portland-esque" (as Stifel put it) aesthetic that was big on wood and steel. After multiple changes following meetings with neighborhood stakeholders and historic preservation officials, the design is now a little more conventional, giving a nod to the nearby row houses with its varying facade and incorporating--but not mimicking--the historic façade at 1264 9th Street.  The building will back up to Blagden Alley, but Stifel says the connection along the alley will be too small to incorporate any alley amenity or streetscape.

The development will include roughly 70 apartment units; most will be one-bedrooms, with some two-bedroom units scattered throughout and a few larger units located on the building’s penthouse level and its corners. The project will also include a level of underground parking and about 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail. "I think we'll end up with a restaurant taking most of it," said Stifel. "I think it's a really good corner space that's meant to be a restaurant or café."


Stifel, who himself lives in one of the company's Shaw buildings, says he thinks the area has a huge amount of promise. “Shaw has a lot to offer, and a lot of beautiful building stock,” he said.  “As a guy who lives and breathes this stuff, I have a lot of confidence in this market.” He said that he envisions the development will have an urban feel similar to The Hudson, PN Hoffman’s boxy, high-ceilinged apartment building located across from the P Street Whole Foods in Logan Circle.

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Douglas to Seek Second Extension for Uline Arena Redevelopment

With their two year extension on the Uline Arena entitlements running out in mere days, Douglas Development has made a decision - they're sticking with the oft-delayed, complicated project.
"No way are we walking away from this," says Paul Millstein of Douglas Development.  "We're going for an extension as a commercial mixed-use development.  We're still working very aggressively with prospective users.  Thing is, we've got Central Armature right across on the other corner, and it's ugly.  That doesn't help.  And the other corner, catty corner across, isn't developed at all, that doesn't help either.  But we love the site, we believe in it.  We committed early, before they did the grocery store site and the residential. We've put a ton of time into meetings, architecture, planning."

Since purchasing the property in 2004, there has been much speculation, but little certainty, about what Douglas has planned for the historic space.  The space had been used as a trash transfer station, and is now an indoor parking lot - a long way from its auspicious past as a venue that once featured the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Temptations.  (Though not all on the same night.)

Part of the problem is that while the space is on the National Register of Historic Places, meaning it can't be demolished as part of any redevelopment, it's not, well, very good at its intended purpose.  When a local arts group put on a drama performance at Uline in early 2011, reviewers noted the poor acoustics of the space, a complaint that some local historians claim has echoed (see what I did there?) through the ages, right from Uline's opening.  Still, the poor acoustics could be remedied, at least in part, by a redevelopment, preserving Uline as an arts performance space - a prospect that is still very much on the table, according to Millstein.

"We're still looking at an entertainment component on the ground floor," Millstein says.  "Something, for example, like the Fillmore in Silver Spring, or maybe an even larger venue.  Retail use could also do extremely well."

The HPRB approved Douglas' preliminary plan in 2008, a GTM Architects-designed concept that keeps the familiar Uline facade intact and preserves the cavernous interior as a multi-level atrium, into which extensive skylights would admit natural light, giving the shell the illusion of transparency.  Those plans - which remain very much in flux - would incorporate 290,000 s.f. of commercial office space, 75,000 s.f. of ground floor retail space, and up to 225 residences.  That design received one two-year extension already, in September 2010, which brings us to the present day.  That extension expires next month, though Douglas has every intention of applying for another.

So what's the next step?

"The next step is to file a request for extension, and get those entitlements extended," says Millstein.  "There will be a hearing, but I think we'll be successful in our extension.  The last couple - three years, nothing much has happened in the area, though now there's a lot of residential stuff popping up, even some office.  But the area's still got quite a ways to go.  I would hope that in the next cycle, the next 24 months, Uline will really take off, and I think it will.  I think our time has come."

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Douglas announces first tenant for Wonder Bread Building

Douglas Development announced its first tenant in the historic Wonder Bread building at 641 S St NW: WorkSpaces, LLC. The company will take residence immediately following the completion of construction, which is planned for January 2013.

Douglas leased 20,817 s.f. to WorkSpaces, a “strategic furniture solutions consulting agency,” according to a press release, which will be the property’s first tenant since 1988, occupying the entire third floor.

Douglas recently began construction on the Wonder Bread building, which it purchased in 1997. Douglas also applied for landmark status this past year with support from the D.C. Preservation League, which supported its plans.

The Wonder Bread building sits next door to Progression Place, also under construction. Progression Place will have 100,000 s.f. office space and 205 apartments above the Metro entrance.

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Construction Begins on Wonder Bread Building

Construction has begun on the historic Wonder Bread building at 641 S street, NW in Shaw.  Douglas Development will turn the factory into an office building with retail filling out the first floor.

Douglas purchased the buildings - 2- and 3-story structures totaling 60,000 s.f. built in 1921 - in 1997.  Though added density will be attached to the back of the building, the building’s historic façade will be retained.  R2L:Architect’s Sacha Rosen designed the renovations to the building.

Douglas had applied for landmark status for the building last year with the D.C. Preservation League, which supported Douglas's plans. The Wonder Bread building is next to Progression Place, which is also under construction to build 100,000 s.f. of office and 205 apartments on top of the Metro entrance.


Washington D.C. real estate development news