Couple hot commercial corridor tidbits for you this afternoon!
MURRY'S ON THE WAY OUT? With a brand-new Giant Foods under construction at 3rd and H Street NE, it looks like there may be less of a need for the much-maligned Murry's grocery store three blocks away on 6th Street. H Street Great Street heard that [...]
Private bids for the Old Post Office were due this week, and already we're hearing some creative ideas for reuse of the giant space. Bisnow reports today that Monument "Go Big or Go Home" Realty wants to turn it into a center for media organizations:
Designed with finance partner Angelo Gordon and an NBC news producer [...]
I kind of like the flirty approach they're taking with the decidedly unsexy Verizon building-turned-office-space at 20th and L Street NW. Pickup lines on the other side include "Yes, I'm available," "Looking for a long-term commitment," and "Check me out. I'm upgrading everything."
Developers take note: Clever ad campaigns earn you free media!
What would you do if you were offered $800,000 for a condo you bought ten years ago for $120,000 in one of the city's hottest neighborhoods?
That's the choice facing 54 homeowners and their families in Logan Circle in the next few weeks, as big-time developer Monument Realty makes a bid for four separate parcels that [...]
This morning's Washington Post features a front page article on District developers that have lost their "swagger." They meet in conference rooms, instead of pricey downtown restaurants. They drink cups of ice water, instead of scarfing down steaks at the Capitol Grille. Or they've dropped their businesses all together! Fired their staffs! Closed up their [...]
An old Monument Realty sign near the entrance to the Watergate Hotel. Rooms should be available right about now!
Back in July, I and many members of the national and international press corps packed into a small Friendship Heights office for the auction of the Watergate Hotel. BBC was there! And CNN! And then...and then...nothing really [...]
The Huffington Post Investigative Fund has just released a report on the expected crisis that will face banks in 2010 when commercial real estate developers and investors can't pay their loans. This video focuses on Jeff Neal, formerly with Monument Realty. He's the man behind Half Street, a development including office space, shopping, condos and [...]
The view from Capitol Riverfront's 55 M Street, which just signed its first tenant.
The Capitol Riverfront hastened its slow trickle of tenants and businesses during the last few weeks. On Friday, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that the city would be taking over a building, located at 225 Virginia Ave. SE on the northern border [...]
A sign, posted by the hotel's entrance, from more optimistic days
After attending yesterday's auction, I went down to the Watergate Hotel itself to check out the not-so-desirable goods.
For the record: There were interested parties at yesterday's auction—just none that wanted to surpass the lender's initial bid of $25 million.
When the Watergate Hotel gets auctioned off, people show up. Nearly ten TV cameras, a whole bunch of real-estate types, and your favorite Housing Complex reporter packed into a Wisconsin Avenue office for the event.
Then we sat in the ultimate state of real-estate/legal boredom, as a functionary read aloud about 15 pages of technical stuff [...]
