DC's Trend of Office-to-Residential Conversions Continues

• March 8th 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

Two years ago, UrbanTurf covered a regional trend of proposed and pre-existing office buildings that were being converted into residential projects. A variety of recent news about projects in the area shows that this trend continues.

A few weeks ago, Forest City Washington previewed plans to request a zoning modification for the remaining two parcels at Waterfront Station. While the buildings at 375 and 425 M Street SW (map) were approved as office space in 2014, a lack of progress in pre-leasing led to the decision to move forward with residential units above retail instead.

A week ago, the Washington Business Journal reported that the developers behind Storey Park in NoMa are interested in replacing over 346,000 square feet of office space with a 225-room hotel and adding 135 residential units to the mix.

Even the University of the District of Columbia is exploring an office conversion, holding conversations with Bernstein Development Corporation about retrofitting the soon-to-be-former Fannie Mae building at 4250 Connecticut Avenue NW (map) into a mixed-use project with student housing.

Other converted developments in the region are in various stages of completion. Red Multifamily Development plans to deliver The Adele this year, a nine-story development at 1108 16th Street NW (map) which replaces a Planned Parenthood headquarters with 14 residential units above 18,000 square feet of office space.

Notably close to delivery are the condos at 2501 M, where PRP Real Estate Investment Management is converting six floors of Class B office space in an existing office/condo building into large luxury condo units.

Also in the West End, construction is underway at 1255 22nd Street NW (map) as Tasea Investment and the Auger family convert a 7-story office building into a 77-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail. The plans will add two stories and a penthouse to the existing structure while appending an additional nine-story building with 120 units on an adjacent parking lot.

And the conversions are not limited to DC.

Across the Potomac in Crystal City, the vacant office building at 400 Army Navy Drive (map) is being replaced by The Altaire, two 20-story towers containing 450 residential units.

Perhaps the most innovative answer to the tension between the need for space to both work and live is e-lofts, Novo Residential’s flexible mixed-use concept that kicked off late last year with the opening of a flagship location in Alexandria. The first building was a conversion of a long-vacant office building in a sprawling office and residential park off Interstate 395, and future locations of the concept are also expected to retrofit vacant office buildings.

In Maryland, office-to-housing conversions like Silver Spring’s Octave 1320 are likely to become more common after the release of a report on the shortage of affordable rental housing in Montgomery County. While Octave 1320 is a 102-unit condominium project, the public-private partnership yielded affordable market-rate units that attracted a large proportion of first-time homeowners.

UrbanTurf will continue to monitor this conversion trend in the coming months.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_trend_of_office-to-residential_conversions_continues/12278.