Category Archives: Real Estate

January 26, 2010 · 10:01 am

Casa Stephanopoulos on the Market

Courtesy of TTR Sotheby's International Realty

Last month Georgetown’s own George Stephanopoulos was offered the hosting job of Good Morning America. As GMA is a New York-based show, George had to move himself and the rest of his family (the “Stephanopouli”) up north.

While there was some speculation around Georgetown about whether he’d keep some connection to his home of many years, it looks like any connection won’t come in the form of a mansion on 31st St.: they just put their home up for sale.

And for a cool $6.35 million, it can now be yours! (Although by GM’s calculation, it will probably go for about $5.67 million). Check out what could be yours after the jump: Continue reading →

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January 21, 2010 · 10:01 am

City Turns Over Jelleff Fields to Maret

As you may have read from the Current, the city recently entered into an agreement with the Maret School concerning the Jelleff sports fields. Much is unclear right now about the merit of the deal, however, what is clear is that the manner in which it was entered into is very alarming.

For those of you who don’t read the Current (which is the only newspaper covering this issue, and seriously, you really ought to read the Current) two weeks ago the city held a press conference at the Jelleff Branch of the Boys and Girls Club to announce the finalization of the $20 million agreement for the city to buy the club’s Georgetown property along with two other properties in the city. In a passing mention the Mayor disclosed that the city entered into a deal with the Maret School to fix up the Jelleff fields in exchange for giving the school semi-exclusive rights to use the fields. Carol Buckley of the Current diligently followed up on that point. Nikita Stewart of the Post, on the other hand, thought the most newsworthy element of the press conference was the Mayor’s opinion on Gilbert Arenas.

Here are the details of the plan as GM understands them:

  • The Maret School will make improvements to the fields. These improvements will likely involve converting the entire field to artificial turf. This would allow maximum flexibility for the field’s use.
  • Maret will spend up to $2.5 million although the memorandum of understanding between it and the city does not require any specific amount. The only requirements are that Maret construct an artificial turf field that accommodates baseball, soccer and lacrosse. The designs must be shared with, but not necessarily approved by, the Department of Parks and Recreation.
  • Maret shall provide maintenance of the field.
  • Maret will get semi-exclusive use of the fields.
  • This exclusive use will last for ten years.

The Current has described the semi-exclusive hours generally, but the actual hours contained in the MOU are even more than the Current discussed. They are:

  • All day (8:00AM – 4:00PM), seven days a week for the last two weeks of August.
  • 3:30 – 5:30 every weekday during the fall and spring (that’s September through mid-November, and March through mid-May respectively).
  • On Wednesdays they get the fields starting at 2:00 over that same time period.
  • Five full Saturdays each fall and spring (the MOU doesn’t give hours for the Saturdays) Continue reading →

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January 14, 2010 · 10:00 am

Deal Near For Nathans Space?

Nathans by M.V. Jantzen.

Walking by the iconic Nathans building at M and Wisconsin recently you may have noticed that the large sign advertising the building’s availability has come down. GM emailed the agent, Josh Feldman, to see whether that meant a tenant was found. His response “[w]e are close to tenanting the building but I cannot comment past that. I am sure we would all like to see the corner achieve its potential.”

Could this mean we’ll finally bring some life back to the southeast corner of Georgetown’s crossroad? GM hopes so, but when informed about the news, a person very knowledgeable of the Georgetown commercial real estate market was very skeptical.  So don’t get too excited until we see some more evidence.

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January 7, 2010 · 10:00 am

Update on the Landshark Lager Sign

The other day GM wrote about the billboard at 3345 M St. advertising Landshark Lager beer. It was put up on the windows of a vacant building owned by EastBanc. GM asserted that it probably violates the Old Georgetown Act if not other relevant rules and regulations.

Turns out it’s “other relevant rules and regulations” not the Old Georgetown Act that apply. GM got in contact with the Fine Arts Commission, which oversees the Old Georgetown Board. The approach they are taking is that if a sign does not stay up for 60 days, it is not subject to the Old Georgetown Act. So GM was wrong to assert that this is a clear violation of the Old Georgetown Act.

However, since the sign appears in the Georgetown Historic District, it is subject to the jurisdiction of the Historic Preservation Office in the District Office of Planning. Upon being notified of the sign by the ANC (which happened last week) the enforcement office of the HPO notified EastBanc that even a temporary sign like this requires HPO approval.  Since that approval was not sought EastBanc has until next Monday to remove the sign or face a $2,000 penalty. Continue reading →

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January 4, 2010 · 10:00 am

2010: The Year That Will Be

Last week, GM bid 2009 adieu and labeled it a bit of a transitional year for Georgetown. Why transitional? Well, many places went (or stayed) dark last year. 2010 will be the year when a lot of lights get turned back on.

Below are just a few of the closed establishments that will open their doors in 2010:

Safeway – Target Date May 2010

It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight months since Social Safeway closed down. But according to the recently amended schedule, the new and improved Safeway will open its doors May.

Don’t expect the new Safeway to look like the old one, just closer to Wisconsin. No, the new Safeway is part of the chain’s overall rebranding effort to stake out a place closer to Whole Foods in the grocery spectrum. If you want a peek at what it will look like, stop by the City Vista Safeway by the Convention Center sometime.

GM will just be thrilled not to have to hike out to the Palisades anymore.

Apple Store – Target Date May 2010

A year ago this month, the whole city was lamenting the failure of Apple to obtain approval of its designs for a new store on Wisconsin Ave. A year later, the designs are approved and construction well on its way. Or rather, deconstruction well on its way. The old French Connection building is gone. Supposedly the new building will be constructed between now and May.

While Safeway is supposed to open in May as well, GM’s predicting that Apple will make a bigger initial splash. Continue reading →

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December 30, 2009 · 10:00 am

Georgetown’s Real Estate Results for 2009

As 2009 draws to a close, GM has decided to take a look back at the Georgetown real estate market for the last year. After crunching the numbers, GM has reached the predictable conclusion that it wasn’t a good year for sellers.

There were 199 homes sold in Georgetown in 2009. The average/median listing price was $1,374,447.13/$1,050,000. The large disparity between the median and average prices reflects the fact that the Georgetown market has a handful of extremely expensive properties.

Of course the more interesting number is what the sales price was. Not surprisingly, it’s a lower number than the listing price. The average/median sales price was $1,251,778/$975,000. Continue reading →

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November 11, 2009 · 10:00 am

More Info on Leading Hurt Home Development Candidate

More Info on Leading Hurt Home Developer

At last week’s ANC meeting, it was announced that the city has identified a leading candidate to redevelop the Hurt Home into condos. The proposal comes from Argos Group. GM did a little digging to find out more about this entity.

The Argos Group apparently was founded by its President, Gilbertos Cardenas, in 2007. Mr. Cardenas gave the presentation to the ANC last week. Before he formed Argos Group, he was a Project Manager at Jair Lynch, working on such projects as Capitol Manor Cooperative in Columbia Heights.

The Argos Group’s portfolio is limited at this point. However the projects it is already working on are in line with the Hurt Home characteristics.  They are redeveloping an old Police Station and an old Fire Station on Capitol Hill. Like the Hurt Home, both of these projects involve adapting an old and decrepit building into residential units. Continue reading →

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October 19, 2009 · 10:00 am

Google Knows Your Property Lines

Google Knows Your Property Lines

GM has looked into some quirks in Google Maps’ take on Georgetown. They can’t decide whether its Dumbarton St. or Dumbarton Ave. They see streets that don’t exist. And they can’t place things right.

Well now they’ve recently added property lines to Google Maps. Here’s what our town looks like in Google Maps these days:

Property Lines

What’s particularly interesting in these newly detailed maps of Georgetown is just how much larger a handful of properties in Georgetown are than the rest. While the largest plots are the well known estates like Everymay, Dumbarton Oaks, and Tudor Place. But there are at least six other significant properties like the Bowie-Sevier House on Q St. Continue reading →

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September 10, 2009 · 10:00 am

Georgetown Post Office May Be Partially Converted into Condos

Photo by NCinDC

Photo by NCinDC

The Georgetown Current reported yesterday that the Georgetown Post Office may be partially converted into condos. According to the article, the Postal Service is planning to sell the property to East Banc and Julian Josephs Co.

The developers would keep the post office open on the first floor, but the second floor would be converted into apartments. Also a new structure would be constructed off the back of the building for more apartments. The construction would result in 13 – 17 new units. Continue reading →

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September 3, 2009 · 10:00 am

Hurt Home Offer Deadline Extended

Hurt Home Bids Deadline Extended

GM reported two weeks ago that the deadline for offers to develop the Hurt Home on R St. were due Friday August 21st. According the office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development the deadline has been extended to September 11th. According to the office, the bidders were having difficulty putting together packages in the middle of vacation time so they wanted a few more weeks.

As inferred by GM, the primary parties interested in the property are residential real estate developers. Interestingly, Dumbarton Oaks took a tour of the facilities but do not seem interested in putting in a bid. It’s not clear exactly what they’d do with it. Continue reading →

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