Ditto Opens Third D.C. Project With Its Co-Living Brand, Plans Fourth
Residents will begin moving in this weekend to OSLOadmo, the third iteration of Ditto Residential's co-living brand.
The four-story apartment building replaced a surface parking lot at 1708 V St. NW. It sits one block from U Street and about five blocks from Adams Morgan's main strip of bars and restaurants on 18th Street.
The building, designed by McInturff Architects, has 24 bedrooms across eight units. It has one 1,200 SF four-bedroom unit, one 722 SF two-bedroom unit and six three-bedroom units ranging from 793 SF to 947 SF. The units will rent for about $1,300 per bedroom. Six of the eight units were leased ahead of the project's delivery.
The units feature floor-to-ceiling windows in the living rooms to bring in maximum light. The kitchens in each unit have a separated countertop with a sink, plus an oven, stove, microwave, refrigerator and freezer. The units all come with stackable washer and dryers. The building's main common amenity space is a 1K SF, first-floor courtyard with tables and seating areas.
The growing multifamily development company opened its first OSLO co-living building in Shaw in 2014 and followed that with the opening of OSLOatlas on the H Street corridor in 2016. Ditto now has the most co-living properties of any company in D.C., beating out the two projects of New York-based Common.
"We have a totally different take from the rest of the market," Ditto Residential CEO Martin Ditto said. "All of the other co-living brands are trying to build luxury product that's out of reach for most people. What's important to us is that we're delivering an incredible community to our residents and doing so with world-class design at a price point that is not exclusive."
The trend of creating apartment buildings with larger units and shared spaces comes as rising rent prices have made it more difficult for young professionals to afford to live alone in studio or one-bedroom units.
Ditto said his co-living brand is flexible and will keep changing as it grows. He is currently planning a fourth OSLO project in Northeast D.C. that would be about the same size as OSLOadmo, but he could not provide the address. He then hopes to expand throughout the region.
"As the largest co-living brand in Washington, we want people to feel excited and call on us and say 'we want an OSLO in Bethesda or Silver Spring or Reston Town Center,'" Ditto said. "Once we feel like we've successfully built out the D.C. market, we'll look to other markets."
Ditto has multiple other projects in planning or development that will total over 200 units. It is working on a 126-unit development in Shaw, a 56-unit project near Union Market and a 44-unit building on Capitol Hill.
