5 Major Housing Projects Going Up In NoMa, D.C.'s New Construction Leader
A submarket that first rose as an office-first neighborhood is now the most active multifamily market in D.C. by several metrics.
The area that spans NoMa, Union Market and the H Street corridor has overtaken the Capitol Hill/Riverfront/Southwest area in terms of apartment deliveries, absorption and construction behind new projects from Skanska, Jair Lynch and others, according to Delta Associates data.
“We did see about a 40% decrease in absorption in the District of Columbia over the past 12 months, compared to the prior 12-month period. In NoMa, it was basically unchanged,” Delta Associates President Will Rich said. “The NoMa area has held up quite well.”
Some of the largest projects in NoMa are occurring along North Capitol Street — developers like MRP Realty, Toll Brothers and Carmel Partners all have multifamily buildings underway within a block of the corridor, which includes the former site of the D.C. Housing Authority's headquarters being redeveloped by MRP and partner CSG Urban.
Despite a challenging economic environment and rents that punch just below the top-dollar prices for rental units on the Waterfront, Rich said the submarket’s fundamentals still appear sound.
Below are some of the largest multifamily projects still under construction in NoMa, according to research from Delta:
The Hale — Carmel Partners
Poised to deliver this year, The Hale is one of the largest residential properties under construction in the city today. The property, located at 1150 First St. NE, features 508 luxury units and more than 12K SF of ground-floor retail. The site traces the trajectory of the neighborhood itself — once planned as a future office building by Tishman Speyer, an affiliate of Carmel Partners acquired it in 2019 for about $30M.
The 15-story development broke ground last year, and a third of its units are slated to feature balconies once the development is completed, BlogProcess reported.
Banner Lane Phase 1 — Toll Brothers
The 426-unit first phase of an 1,100-unit mixed-income community is close to its debut. Toll Brothers first acquired the site from the Sursum Corda Cooperative Association for $60M in 2018, and received $160M in construction financing, backed by the D.C. Housing Finance Agency and Citi Community Capital in 2020.
The 6.7-acre community’s first phase, located at 22 Banner Lane NW, includes two buildings with unit sizes ranging from studios to four-bedrooms. Banner Lane is a redevelopment of the former Sursum Corda housing project, and as such is supplying 127 replacement units for the former residents.
D.C. Housing Authority headquarters redevelopment — MRP Realty
The long-awaited redevelopment of the D.C. Housing Authority’s former headquarters is finally moving forward. A cohort of firms that includes MRP, CSG Urban, Ares Management and Taylor Adams Associates finally acquired the 99-year ground lease for the property in May.
Located at 1133 North Capitol St. NE, the redevelopment's first phase is poised to deliver 430 units, 86 of which will be affordable, the Washington Business Journal reported earlier this year. The agreement with DCHA includes a sizable affordability component — at least a fifth of the gross floor area must be leased to tenants making no more than 60% of the area median income.
The project is expected to include multiple phases that will bring the total unit count to well over 1,000. Bank OZK lent the project $129.5M in construction financing, and the developers began work at the site earlier this year.
Market House (part of Central Armature Works) - High Street Residential
The Central Armature Works mixed-use development adjacent to the NoMa Metro station is in its final stages. Besides the recently opened hotel The Morrow, Trammell Crow subsidiary High Street Residential is building two residential buildings on the site — Rigby and Market House. The combined 630-unit project broke ground in 2019.
According to Delta, the smaller Rigby apartment building has already begun pre-leasing, while Market House is slated to do the same this quarter. Located on the triangular northern tip of the Central Armature Works site, Market House features amenities like a pet spa, rooftop pool and fire pits, and a yoga room.
OZMA — Skanska
Across the street from the DCHA headquarters, another major multifamily project is taking shape. Skanska broke ground in November 2021 on OZMA, a 275-unit apartment building with just under 8K SF of retail space. The 13-story building located at 44 M St. NE — once pitched as the site for a future Washington Post headquarters — features a variety of unique amenities, including an art studio, tearoom and “tranquility cabanas," WTOP reported last year.
