Duball Tees Up $100M Office Conversion Downtown
Another office-to-residential conversion is coming to downtown D.C., adding to a slew of projects that have made the city second only to New York City in the number of units slated for conversion.
Rockville-based Duball purchased a 160K SF office building at the corner of L Street and Vermont Avenue NW with plans to turn it into 150 units above ground-floor retail.
The transaction for 1090 Vermont Ave. NW closed Wednesday, with the developer and its unnamed institutional partner paying $23.1M in all cash, Duball principal Marc Dubick told Bisnow.
The building, developed in 1980 and renovated in 2010, was owned by TF Cornerstone, according to D.C. deed records. The New York-based private developer did not respond to a request for comment.
The sale has not yet been recorded in D.C. deed records.
The total cost of the project, including the acquisition price, is expected to be in the ballpark of $100M, Dubick said. He said he expects to close on the construction loan in the next two months and begin construction during the fourth quarter of this year. The total construction timeline is expected to be around 20 months.
He said its proximity to the White House, floor plate and corner location all lined up well for a conversion.
Dubick said he is not seeking a 20-year Housing in Downtown tax abatement from the city for the project. He was able to make the capital stack work without the abatement, which he noted is “an unusual situation in today’s environment.”
The zoning for 1090 Vermont doesn't require it to have affordable housing units, he said, so the 15 affordable units he’d be required to add to take part in the tax abatement would have been an extra burden.
The property is set to include 6,800 SF of newly renovated ground-floor retail space, a rooftop pool and community room, workstations and a fitness center. It already includes around 50 parking spaces.
Hickok Cole is the architect of record. McCullough Construction is the intended contractor. Hartman Design Group is the interior designer, and Vika Capitol is the engineer.
Duball's project is less than half a mile away from Starwood's 1200 K St. NW, which is being transformed into 270 apartments. It's also less than half a mile from Willow Bridge's 222-unit conversion at 1313 L St. NW called Balsa.
This is Duball’s second office-to-residential conversion in the city, and it’s looking for more. The firm is turning the historic office building at 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW into a 160-unit apartment building called the Revere.
The company opted for a HID tax abatement for that project. Dubick said that because of its zoning, it would have been required to have at least 8% of affordable units regardless. Preleasing for the Revere is slated to begin late this year, with move-ins set for early 2027.
D.C. has 8,479 office-to-residential conversion units in the pipeline, according to an April RentCafe report. New York City is leading the U.S. with 16,358 units.
