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With Prince George's County experiencing high office vacancy — 19.8% at the end of Q3, according to CBRE — some developers are looking to convert old, empty office buildings to residential.
Varsity Investment Group received county approval Thursday to convert a vacant, 10-story office building in Oxon Hill to a 187-unit multifamily project, UrbanTurf reports.
The building at 6009 Oxon Hill Road sits just off the Beltway, about three miles from the MGM National Harbor and Tanger Outlets. The 216K SF building was constructed in 1989.
The Bethesda-based multifamily developer also built College Park's The Varsity student housing building. Varsity is also working on a project in Foggy Bottom to turn an old George Washington University dorm into a 197-unit apartment building.
For the Oxon Hill project, Varsity brought on architecture firm Soto to design the conversion. The multifamily building is planned to include eight three-bedroom apartments, 37 two-bedrooms, 121 one-bedrooms and 21 studios. It will feature amenities such as a gym, business center, party room, entertainment room and dog park.
This type of office-to-residential conversion has also been popular in Alexandria, where multiple developers have undertaken similar projects. While these conversions benefit cities and counties by activating obsolete buildings and reducing office vacancy, local jurisdictions have stopped short of providing economic incentives for such projects.
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