WASHINGTON — Bruce Levin and Andrew McAllister of MAC Realty Advisors have facilitated the $104 million, $600 per residential square foot sale of View 14, a mixed-use, 185-unit luxury apartment project located at 2303 14th St., NW in Washington, D.C. Levin and McAllister, along with Cushman & Wakefield, represented the sellers, Level 2 Development and Centrum Properties. United Dominion Realty Trust (UDR) acquired the property.
View 14 was completed in 2009 and commands the highest rents in the U Street sub-market. The residential component encompasses 154,339 rentable square feet within the building, which also contains a 32,000-square-foot retail component leased to the Beta Marshall Arts Academy and the YWCA.
“This sale establishes a new per square foot price level for a stabilized luxury Class A apartment buildings in the Washington, D.C. market,” says McAllister. “This is one of the highest per residential square foot sales in the history of the District and of this year. It’s one of the signs that the recovery in the real estate market, particularly in D.C., has bounced back from the 2009 crisis.”
McAllister, executive director of MAC, also arranged $92 million of senior debt, mezzanine, and equity financing for the acquisition and construction of the project. He had a previous relationship with the sellers, arranging their $30.9 million sale of the Nehemiah Center to UDR in September 2007, which is located at 2400 14th Street NW.
“In general, luxury apartments in D.C. are well above $3 per square foot for monthly rent,” McAllister said in response to REBusinessOnline’s inquiry regarding the general state of the D.C. multifamily market. “What is more striking, though, is the growing geographic area that houses ‘luxury’ places. Ten years ago some of these areas could hardly justify new construction of any kind, but now they can support new projects like View 14 that command some of the highest rents in the city.”
McAllister adds that rental rates will most likely rise in the next 12 months because of a constrained supply. Though construction activity basically halted in 2009, demand has continued to grow. Although many new projects have broken ground since then, most will not deliver in the next 12 months.
With respect to condos as a part of the D.C. multifamily market, activity remains relatively weak, though there are some boutique projects underway in the 14th street corridor. “For the most part, condominium development is still lagging due to the uncertainty and end loan financing for buyers,” says Bruce Levin, executive director at MAC.
— Dan Marcec