Boutique Hotel, 370 Apartments Planned For Self-Storage Warehouse Near Union Market

• October 8, 2015
• 4 Comments

by Nena Perry-Brown

A rendering of the planned project. Click to enlarge.

Foulger-Pratt Development and Torti Gallas Urban are planning to convert a warehouse near Union Market into a boutique hotel, 370 rental units and space for retail and offices.

As UrbanTurf reported in April, a planned-unit development is in the works for the Capital Self-Storage building at 301 N Street NE (map). Updated plans for the site, which are still in the conceptual phase, were shared last night before the ANC 6C Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee. Foulger-Pratt now controls the entire parcel of land north of the alley between 3rd and 4th Streets, including the Granger building, which is set to be demolished to make way for the project.

Plans now call for roughly 20,000 square feet of retail on the first floor of the warehouse and along N Street NE. The upper two floors of the building, which feature high ceilings and wide-open spaces, will be either office or additional retail space. Two towers will abut the historic building; a tower along Third Street will be a boutique-style hotel with 150 to 175 rooms. The tower along N Street will be a multi-family rental property with about 370 units.

Foulger-Pratt plans to apply to have the warehouse recognized as a landmark, as the developers seek to preserve the sawtooth monitors on the roof and the overall industrial feel of the location. The facade of the warehouse will be rehabilitated, while selective demolition will create a large courtyard area with limited public access.

The planned development will put more residences on the boards in an area that has a number of projects in the works.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/boutique_hotel_370_apartments_planned_for_noma_self-storage_warehouse/10433

4 Comments

1. Brett said at 4:24 pm on Thursday October 8, 2015:

   Boring, unoriginal design with no attempt to integrate it with the old warehouse. The only thing it’s got going for it is that it’s better than what’s there now.

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 7:15 pm on Thursday October 8, 2015:

   I’m having trouble ginning up much excitement about the exterior design of the new portions.  It harkens to the Southwest Urban Renewal buildings, particularly the way that corners have windows on only one side, which robs the interior space of a rare-in-DC amenity—light and views on 2 sides!—and the exterior of interest-providing elements.

   That said, I appreciate the mixed-use program—the Union Market area already has way too many huge-floorplate apartment buildings on the way—and I greatly respect that the design keeps the warehouse separate.  So often we see multifloor additions on top of existing buildings, which, even when setback, usually suck much of the integrity out of the existing building.  In this case, the wonderful sawtooth skylights would almost certainly get the axe.  In the larger context, an area of lower-height building adds immeasurably to views and a general sense of air and space.  (In so much of modern-day DC the lack of lower-height buildings or portions of buildings creates stultified streetscapes and constricted viewsheds.  NoMa and the Golden Triangle are perhaps the worst, having almost no smaller-scale older buildings, but most of what’s planned for Union Market isn’t much better.)

   So I’d say to Torti Gallas and Foulger-Pratt: It’s time to loosen things up, find your inner fabulous and apply it to this very solid start.

1. Shark said at 8:17 pm on Monday November 2, 2015:

   It is early in the design/approval stage. Let’s hope the final design comes up with something more exciting than what we see before us! Don’t get me wrong I do appreciate that they have left the sawtooth ceiling in the history building

1. NathanDavidson said at 6:25 am on Friday December 11, 2015:

   I don’t think it will be difficult to get the building recognized as a landmark as long as they make the new installations stand out. Converting an of self storage facility to something that’s going to be very eye catching might be difficult though! However since the capacity of a hotel might mean a lot of people are going to be meeting in the vicinity, perhaps it won’t be that hard after all!