H Street's Newest Owners

After successfully rehabbing—and selling—buildings in both the CBD and on U Street, Rock Creek Property Group has turned its attention to another hot location: H Street NE. (Third time's a charm. But so were the first two times. This throws all cliches into question.)

This morning, Rock Creek (here's the firm's Jared Okun and Gary Schlager) announced it purchased five separate properties at 646-654 H Street NE along with partner Cornerstone Development Group. Rock Creek says it'll build a 30-plus unit condo on the site, as well as 8,000 SF of ground-floor retail. The site will be buoyed by Insight Property Group's Apollo mixed-use project right next door (which will include a coveted Whole Foods), as well as Jair Lynch's 181-unit apartment project in the works at 625 H. Rock Creek says work should begin on the new project within nine to 12 months; the partners paid just over $4.5M for the site. Cornerstone prez Dario Davies told us moments ago that the next step in the development process is to obtain entitlements for the project.

Rock Creek has been on a roll of late, including the successful rehab of a project in another hip location: 1438 U St. The firm bought and updated the former nightclub and post office, then sold it late last year to the Republic of India for use as a cultural center. That deal followed the sale of the former Benjamin Franklin Accounting School at 16th and L streets to the Embassy of Oman, also for use as a cultural center. (If you want your boyfriend to be more cultured, have him work for Rock Creek.) The firm says it has over $100M worth of projects in development; it's also working with sites in Chinatown and on Georgia Avenue.