A massive Judiciary Square office building that’s sat vacant for nearly a decade is poised to become hundreds of student housing units with a ground-floor grocery store.
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Berkeley, California-based nonprofit developer Madrone on Tuesday received D.C. Council approval for up to $275M in bond financing to turn 600 E St. NW into 415 apartments for college students, faculty and staff, anchored by a 25K SF Sprouts Farmers Market.
The 325K SF, 1970s-era building was formerly occupied by the U.S. Department of Justice, which vacated with its move to NoMa. It is still owned by local D.C. firm S.C. Herman & Associates, according to D.C. deed records. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.
The legislation to approve the issuance, sale and delivery of tax-exempt revenue bonds was introduced on an emergency basis by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson on behalf of Mayor Muriel Bowser. The resulting funding will go toward acquisition, demolition, renovation and a tenant improvement allowance for the Sprouts store, as well as other costs. Madrone will be expected to pay back the financing provided by D.C.
The developer did not respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who represents Ward 2 where the property is located, said before the vote that she is excited about the project in light of expected growth from universities in the area. She also said it would bring a “much-needed grocery store” to support the slate of conversions happening downtown.
“This project is going to create excellent opportunities to support the continued vitality of downtown, increased foot traffic, activity for our businesses and places for students to live affordably and get everything that they need downtown,” Pinto said.
Mendelson wrote in a memorandum accompanying the legislation that moving the resolution as an emergency was necessary for financing to be completed this month to meet an August 2028 delivery timeline.
The memo states that $44M of the funding would be used for the land and building acquisition, $13M for the demolition and $81M for the renovation. Sprouts’ TI would be $6M.
The project will also include a fitness center, coworking spaces and a 140-space underground garage, according to the legislation.
Madrone is also behind a 553-bed residence hall at Florida Institute of Technology’s Melbourne campus, which opened in August, as well as a 542-bed apartment-style campus at the University of Memphis, which opened that same month.
Also underway for the developer are a 554-bed project at Middle Tennessee State University, expected to open in the fall of 2027, and a 793-bed Atlanta project serving brother and sister colleges Morehouse and Spelman, expected to open in the fall of 2028.
Cohn Property Group had been marketing 600 E St. NW as a grocery store opportunity as of at least April, the Washington Business Journal reported at the time. But CEO Mychael Cohn told Bisnow on Tuesday that the firm is no longer involved.
S.C. Herman previously retained Stream Realty to market the property following the DOJ's move-out, offering a dual path for a future owner: a modest renovation to the former federal property or overhauling it into a new trophy development.
The conversion at 600 E would be yet another win for a city that ranks second in the U.S. for its office-to-residential conversion pipeline, following New York City.
According to Avison Young's third-quarter report, 3.5M SF of conversions are underway in the city, and 3.1M SF more have been proposed. Many have been fueled by Bowser’s 20-year tax abatement for downtown office-to-residential projects.
600 E St. NW sits directly across the street from another former DOJ building that’s also planned for a conversion. The Georgetown Co. has had plans to turn 450 Fifth St. NW into 500 units since early 2025. The office, which was owned by Judiciary Plaza LLC, was sold at an auction late last month to its lender. But the conversion plans remain unchanged.
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