Douglas Development Sells 3 Commercial Properties For $96M
One of the largest real estate owners in D.C., Douglas Development, has offloaded three properties in Ivy City and downtown for more than $96M.
The properties include the development site once planned for New City DC, a 1.5M SF mixed-use district on a 16-acre triangle of vacant land on the New York Avenue corridor. The redeveloped Pappas tomato factory, now home to Compass Coffee’s production facility, Michelin-starred Gravitas and Throw Social, is also in Ivy City.
The third was the historic Equitable Building near Gallery Place. The property was a bank built in 1911 but now houses the restaurant Succotash.
American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association Property was the buyer of the three properties. The entity is the real estate division of Virginia-based nonprofit AAFMAA, which provides financial services to U.S. military veterans. They were all finalized on the last day of 2024, according to documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds.
Douglas Development didn't respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment, and AAFMAA Property declined to comment.
The former Pete Pappas & Sons tomato factory, which has been redeveloped into a 94K SF retail hub, had the highest price of the trio, selling for $55.7M. The property at 1401 Okie St. NE sits across from Douglas’ mixed-use Hecht Warehouse development, which has 300 apartments and more than 125K SF of retail.
The site, which was once planned for the 1.5M SF retail, residential and hospitality district branded as New City DC, sold for $30.2M. Last year, Douglas revealed it had new plans for the 16-acre property when it filed an application with the D.C. Zoning Commission to instead turn the site into a 186K SF warehouse with 200 parking spaces and a small retail building.
Also filed in deed records on Dec. 31 was a transaction assigning a 99-year ground lease for nearly 10 acres of the property to Jemal’s Schaeffer Tenant LLC, an entity connected to Douglas Development, for $25.6M.
The Equitable Building, with ground-floor tenant Succotash and office space, sold for $10.4M. Douglas purchased the property in 2011 and redeveloped the building in 2016, adding five stories.
Douglas Development owns more than 14M SF of residential, retail and office developments, according to its website, with the vast majority of its property in the District. The developer was selected by the federal government in 2021 to build a new 1.2M SF headquarters for the Securities and Exchange Commission in NoMa. But those plans fell through this past fall when the General Services Administration announced the developer wasn't able to secure financing.
Last March, it sold a 234-room hotel it developed in 2020 for $116.8M. Another of its downtown properties, a six-story office building at 722 12th St. NW, is slated for a foreclosure auction with Alex Cooper Auctioneers later this month. That property has a $15.7M balance on its loan, according to deed records.
