How A D.C. Office-To-Hotel Conversion Came To Life With Creativity And Flexibility

With 28.6M SF of Washington, D.C., office space still sitting vacant as of the second quarter, many building owners have turned to adaptive reuse, converting offices into other assets to maximize their value.

In the vibrant Dupont Circle neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C., a Class-C commercial development that included an office building and commercial bank was recently transformed into a luxury boutique hotel.

Sixty DC, which had its grand opening in May, is situated along Connecticut Avenue and 18th Street. The 42K SF hotel features 73 rooms, Casamara Mediterranean restaurant and rooftop bar, and Reynold’s cocktail bar. 

Washington, D.C.-based mixed-use and multifamily developer Valor Development helmed the conversion project and worked closely with general contractor Winmar Construction.

Dupont Circle’s high development standards, combined with the area’s historic zoning, mean that opportunities like this for redevelopment are few and far between, Valor Development principal Will Lansing said. 

“Buildings in Dupont Circle generally do not become available, so this project was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Lansing said. “It’s rare to find something like this, especially with an address on Connecticut Avenue, which is one of the main thoroughfares of D.C.”

One method Winmar Construction utilized was just-in-time delivery, a construction management strategy that involves scheduling in advance for materials to be delivered right when they need to be used in development. This helps to avoid delivery delays and materials piling up, requiring storage solutions.

Today's complex market often means dealing with long lead times on materials. Winmar Construction principal and Vice President of Preconstruction Kelly Markland said the team avoided this issue through a detailed preconstruction process that involved coordination with vendors to procure materials. This was especially important for items like the 53-foot tapestry that would go in the lobby, furniture, fixtures, and equipment and materials for the 80 guest room bathrooms. They also locked down the materials costs early and arranged in advance for vendors to ship and deliver them to the site when they were needed.

Winmar Construction assisted in orchestrating the mechanical, plumbing and engineering experts to ensure that any changes fit within the structure and function of the building.

One particular challenge that Winmar Construction pushed through was that the project’s design team changed multiple times throughout design and construction, with two different architects, two construction managers, three sets of structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, and two civil engineers, which further impacted coordination and complicated timelines, Markland said.

The design also needed to receive approval from numerous local stakeholders. In some cases, feedback meant going back to the drawing board entirely. The drawings for the project went through five different iterations. Through it all, Winmar Construction adapted as needed. 

“Typically, we’d create a set of drawings, bid them and then build based on those drawings, but that’s not the way this project went at all,” Winmar Construction principal and Vice President of Operations Paul McDonald said. “We rolled with the punches and didn’t let the changes get under our skin.”

After five years in preconstruction, the project was constructed over two years. Winmar embraced creativity in accessing the front of the building, as construction permits only allowed cranes to be positioned on 18th Street due to the bustling nature of Connecticut Avenue. The team also worked off hours to ensure the schedule stayed on track, McDonald said.

Once the materials were delivered, the team quickly installed them.

During the design phase, the design team concluded that structural upgrades to the foundation were required to allow for additional floors. The elevators and stair corridors were then relocated to fit the new needs of the hotel.

Markland said the team expanded the building’s foundation below the slab, as the building’s prior infrastructure meant that the floor levels were uneven, and changing them impacted the heights of the windows. 

The construction team removed the existing roof and added a floor for the rooftop bar — an amenity that Markland said was essential.

“Given the location of this particular property and the aspiration to be a boutique hotel in the District, the rooftop bar was incredibly important,” Markland said. “The exterior entertaining area is a must-have for today’s hospitality market, and not something everyone gets.” 

Markland attributes the project’s ultimate success to Winmar Construction clearly defining project costs during preconstruction and collaborating early with the design team. The firm also helped ensure that all stakeholders maintained the same priorities with consistent communication while continually tracking progress.

“It’s a matter of keeping your eye on the prize, finding out what the targets are and keeping everyone pointed in the same direction to achieve the goal,” Markland said. “We can’t get tied up on what the headboard looks like if we don’t have air conditioning yet.”

Lansing said Valor Development’s longstanding relationship with Winmar Construction and the firm’s experience with infill projects made it the right partner for the project.

“This was a project that had components of difficult structural work, extensive renovation and new construction,” he said. “It was a very technically challenging construction project that Winmar Construction excelled at.”

McDonald said that despite — or perhaps because of — the challenges along the way, the company continues to pursue complex projects throughout D.C., Virginia, Maryland and Florida. For Winmar Construction, this experience shows prospective clients that they will have a partner committed to the project from start to finish.

“You feel good about the difficult projects when they’re done, especially when they’re successful,” McDonald said. “The restaurant gets rave reviews, and the rooftop bar is one of the coolest places in the city. I like to look at the hotel and see how beautiful it is.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Winmar Construction. Bisnow’s editorial staff was not involved in its creation.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.