D.C.‘s Most Intriguing Lofts Go Under Contract

• November 10, 2014

by Lark Turner

The Pierce School

The building that houses some of the most intriguing lofts in D.C. has found a buyer. The Pierce School on Capitol Hill went under contract last week.

Developers and owners Chris Swanson and Jeff Printz bought the building at 1375 Maryland Avenue NE (map) in 2000 for $275,000. They gut-renovated it, transforming the school building and a couple of adjacent rowhouse flats into nine rentable units plus a sprawling 9,500-square-foot penthouse complete with a movie theater, four guest rooms and an 800-square-foot deck.

The property has been on the market since late 2013, when it was initially listed at $7.25 million. The price was later lowered to $6.5 million. Printz previously explained to UrbanTurf why finding a buyer was tricky: “The reality we found out is that the penthouse unit, being so large, does not appeal to a traditional multi-family buyer, and the many folks that wanted the penthouse did not want to be bothered by rental units,” he said. “It was a true catch-22.”

Then, in early October of this year, Printz told The Washington Post he was planning to divvy up the units and sell them separately as condominiums.

But it looks like he may not have to. The building went under contract on November 4. In an email to UrbanTurf, Printz called the contract “amazing news,” though he emphasized that the deal had not yet closed. The buyer can exercise their appraisal and inspection contingencies until November 26.

And that wasn’t the only good news for Printz, who recently got the government approval he needed to move forward with the condo conversion. The government’s deadline “is what has motivated this contract,” he told UrbanTurf. “So worst-case scenario [the sale] does not work, we will be able to finish the condo process and I move to market.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/pierce_school_lofts_go_under_contract/9203