Columbia Heights Church Will Become 26-Unit Residential Project

• February 4th 2014

by Lark Turner

A church at 777 Morton Street NW (map) and an adjacent lot will be the site of a new three-building, 26-unit condo project scheduled for completion by the end of 2014, UrbanTurf has learned.

OPaL LLC closed on the property, formerly the site of the Iglesia Ni Christo church, at the end of December. They’re working with Virginia-based GPS Designs on the buildings.

One building with six brownstones will sit along Sherman Avenue, and the other building will sit on Morton Street. The church will be renovated into 10 two-level condos. Together the buildings will be called the Morton Street Mews, named for two alleyways the developer plans to create between the buildings (one for cars, one for walking).

Plans for the properties are below.

Forty percent of the former church, once the home of the Carolina Missionary Baptist Church, will be retained.

“We are keeping a good part of it, but then creating a really interesting roofline that is reminiscent of the existing church,” OPaL’s Sean Ruppert said.

Because the property is zoned by-right, land development will likely start as early as June. The company hopes to have the units, which will range from one-bedrooms plus dens to two-bedrooms plus dens, ready for delivery by the end of the year.

The Columbia Heights development is just the latest church-to-residential project planned in the city. In early January, we reported on plans to convert a Capitol Hill church into a 26-unit residential project. And last week, news came that an old church near 10th and V Street NW will become part of a six-story, 40-unit condo project.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/church_conversion_new_condos_coming_to_columbia_heights_this_year/8075.