Vacant to victory? It's worked multiple times for Rock Creek Property Group, which just sold its redeveloped 28k SF 1100 16th St to the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman for $16.5M, according to public record. (That's a little over $581/SF.) It comes a few months after Rock Creek sold 1438 U St, a vacant, redeveloped former nightclub, to the Republic of India. Rock Creek's Gary Schlager couldn't confirm the buyer or price, but he told us this morning the new owner gets a "gem of a property in a timeless location [16th and L] that will serve them well for 100 years." Though Gary couldn't comment on it, the Sultanate of Oman is expected to use the space as a cultural center, same as the Republic of India on U Street. (So much culture. Don't ever let your boyfriend say there's nothing to do in DC. Dude just doesn't want to pay for a date.)
1100 16th's "before picture." Gary says Rock Creek bought the property—a former charter school and once the site of the Benjamin Franklin University accounting school—in 2011 at a foreclosure auction, and with design and construction consultants OTJ Architects and Bognet Construction sought to incorporate its historic bones into a 21st century, efficient space. "It's much easier to tear down a building and start from scratch," Gary says, but renovating a historic property the right way can create a "much more special space that people really want to occupy."
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)