Anacostia Site Once Planned For Office Being Marketed To Apartment Developers
A development site in Anacostia has hit the market with an eye toward apartments, as the city's new Comprehensive Plan envisions a density boost on the property.
Feldman Ruel Urban Property Advisors' Ian Ruel, Josh Feldman and Adam Kosna are marketing the four-parcel site near the Anacostia Metro station for sale on behalf of the owner, Fortis Cos.
Fortis in 2013 began assembling the site, consisting of three lots at 2510, 2512 and 2514 Sheridan St. SE and one smaller lot across the street on Howard Street SE. It had previously planned to build a 35K SF office building on the site.
Office development is still an option for the property, Ruel said, but the team retained an architect to sketch a vision for a multifamily project on the site.
The architect, PGN Architects, created a plan under the site's existing zoning for a 79-unit multifamily building. That plan calls for 47% of the units to be two-bedroom apartments, meaning the buyer could increase the total unit count if it opts for more small units.
The buyer could also increase the density of the site under the District's new Comprehensive Plan, which the D.C. Council passed in May and Mayor Muriel Bowser signed into law last week.
The plan's new Future Land Use Map designation for the site could allow the owner to increase its zoning from MU-4 to either MU-5 or MU-7, potentially raising the maximum building height from 50 feet to 90 feet. The owner would still have to go through the Map Amendment or Planned Unit Development process to achieve that new density, but the brokerage team expects it would be successful given the site's location near mass transit.
The property sits a block from the Anacostia Metro station on the Green Line near the intersection of Sheridan Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. It is also in an opportunity zone, giving a buyer the ability to utilize the federal program's time-sensitive tax benefits.
Ruel said Fortis decided to bring the property to market because it anticipates strong demand from developers to build in this location. He said Bowser's push to relocate D.C. agencies east of the Anacostia River, coupled with planned projects including Barry Farm and Columbian Quarter, make the Anacostia neighborhood attractive to developers.
“They see the amount of momentum that has been building up in Ward 7 and Ward 8, and they’re looking to capitalize on that,” Ruel said. “As far as Ward 7 and Ward 8 go, this part of Anacostia is definitely the strongest … There is major momentum within a few blocks of this property that make it very attractive for a future developer.”
Feldman said that another property the firm marketed recently gives them confidence that the Anacostia neighborhood is appealing to a wide range of buyers, including developers based outside of D.C.
“We expect this site will generate strong interest from both the local and national buyer pool," Feldman wrote in an emailed statement. "We recently put a similar site under contract in Ward 7 with an out-of-state developer which was their first D.C. project so it does feel as though the word is finally out on East-of-the-River, and out-of-area buyers are starting to take notice and see that area as a viable development target along with the rest of the District.”
