From Four Units to One Lofty Two-Bedroom in Ivy City

• April 3, 2013

by Shilpi Paul

Behind an unassuming facade in warehouse-heavy Ivy City, one property owner has turned a four-unit apartment building into a lofty single-family home.

1861 Kendall Street NE (map) was built in the 1950s, when much of the new housing in the city had a “bunker-like” feel, owner Yusuf Baptiste told UrbanTurf. The property was divided into four small units, with one bedroom and one bathroom in each. After buying the building in 2011 for $115,000, Baptiste went about transforming the four units into a single-family home with two bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and open spaces. It will hit the market later this week.

Features of the new home include a main living area with a two-story ceiling, an industrial kitchen with an extra-large island, and several seating areas. Upstairs, there are two bedrooms with various nooks, and a den.

Ivy City is an often-overlooked neighborhood packed with warehouses, surrounded by major thoroughfares and at risk of getting stuck with a tour bus parking lot (though late last year, a judge ordered the city to halt the plans until the neighbors had a chance to weigh in).

But Ivy City may be turning a corner. UrbanTurf recently featured New Columbia Distillers, the District’s first gin distiller since prohibition (they produce Green Hat gin). The distillery is right around the corner from the new renovation. We also heard that Habitat for Humanity is building six passive houses in the neighborhood.

More photos of the new home are below. It will be listed by Mansour Abu-Rahmeh of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.

Photos by David Pipkin.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/from_four_units_to_one_lofty_two-bedroom_in_ivy_city/6878