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Capitol Hill, which spans parts of Southeast and Northeast, is nestled below the H Street Corridor, above the Washington Navy Yard, east of the National Mall, and west of the Anacostia River. The neighborhood is not only the home of the United States Capitol, it’s also the largest historical neighborhood in the District. If you’re interested in a new home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, you’re in luck! There are a few new developments currently selling or coming soon.

The Edmonds School project is currently offering luxury condominiums and townhomes at 901 D Street in Northeast. The Townhomes at Edmonds School are a conversion of the original school building into multi-level brownstones. The interior features include exposed brick, hardwood plank…

Clearly, there is no shortage of demand for city living. Prices are soaring in the District and properties are active for just a flash before buyers snatch them up.

But nationally the demand for suburban living is on the rise again. In its heyday just before the recession, suburban living was all the rage. Developers were charging full steam ahead on creating neighborhoods with a slew of amenities, including the large yards that city living rarely offers.

Like the rise in city development, the suburban sprawl engine in the Washington metro area is revving up again as the economy improves and more buyers are getting off the fence and into a home of their own. But demand for suburban homes may also be rising because single-family homes are luring more…

Over the summer, I wrote about the living wage bill passed by the DC Council. The Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) increases the DC minimum wage from $8.25 to $12.50 for certain large retailers in the city. 

But DC Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed the bill today. In a letter to the DC Council, Gray wrote, “If I were to sign this bill into law, it would do nothing but hinder our ability to create jobs, drive away retailers, and set us back on the path to prosperity for all.”

It was feared that Walmart would cancel plans for new stores in the city if the LRAA went into effect. Two Walmart stores are slated to open later this year or early in 2014:  one at 5968 Georgia Avenue in Northwest and the other at 99 H Street in Northwest. A third Walmart at…

Georgetown is a historic DC neighborhood known for upscale row houses and boutique shopping. But this year, neighborhood planners have envisioned the Georgetown of the future.

Georgetown has seen an influx of 30,000 new residents in the past two years, many of whom are young professionals. Joe Sternlieb, Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID), is interested in their needs. “We'll be doing some focus groups with just that demographic in September to respond to some of the ideas that have generated through our Georgetown 2028 project over the last few months because we really want to understand what do they want, what do they need, and how do they plan to get around now and in the future?”

Georgetown never had a…

Foreign Investors own a great deal of commercial real estate in the District of Columbia. They are funding major development projects and purchasing existing office buildings. Some of the investments are government funds from countries like Norway and Qatar, while others are from private investment groups in Korea, China, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. These foreign investors are all looking for a stable investment with predictable returns over a long period of time.

The head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s International Capital Group for the Americas, Stephen Collins, says that foreign investors want stability. “But they’re also looking for a market dynamic that has an ability not to produce more assets for lease or for sale. So Washington DC has a very finite…

The living wage in DC for employees of big box stores just became $12.50 an hour after the DC Council approved the Large Retailer Accountability Act. Those who support the new living wage in DC believe it protects workers as the cost of living in the city increases, but others think it may cause big box stores like Wal-Mart to back out of plans to open stores in the city.

DC’s minimum wage of $8.25 is already higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. But $12.50 is more than 50% more than the old DC minimum wage.

The new living wage in DC applies to retailers with over 75,000 square feet of retail space and corporate parent sales over $1 billion per year. The bill includes exemptions for stores with unions and those that already exist in the…

The Villages at Dakota Crossing, near the Maryland-D.C. border in Northeast, will offer a slew of new condo-townhomes in the Fort Lincoln neighborhood. The Villages at Dakota Crossing, at about 3298 Fort Lincoln Drive, are about 334 units developed by Ryan Homes starting in the high $300,000s and ranging up to the lower $500,000s.

Sales of the Villages at Dakota Crossing began in late 2011 and about 145 homes have been sold so far, according to the developer’s website. The Villages at Dakota Crossing is located just of New York Avenue and Route 50 and just a few minutes’ drive to Capitol Hill.

The amenities in Villages at Dakota Crossing are similar to those found in the District’s suburbs – a community pool, tennis courts, detailed landscaping and…

NoMa development is really going strong, as many commuters to D.C. likely notice with the gateway of cranes in the area working on projects from condos to apartment buildings to office buildings.

Burnham Place is one of the latest developments in the works, planned for the space above the rail yard at Union Station in the H Street area. This apartment, named for the architect on H Street, is planned to be about 3 million square feet on a platform above the tracks that is set to include apartment buildings, condos, hotel space, first-class office space and retail space that will complement those at Union Station. This project will be built in phases over many, many years and is expected to have about 500 residential units with the first infrastructure…

Donald Trump plans to build a new luxury hotel at the Old Post Office Pavilion. The historic building, one of the tallest in the District, was erected in 1889 and is owned by the federal government. Its location at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol, has been coveted by developers for years.  

Trump plans to spend $200 million to preserve the historic exterior facade while transforming the building into Trump International Hotel, Old Post Office, Washington, DC -- a 261-room destination hotel with conference facilities, a spa, and three restaurants. He will target guests at the highest end of the market, who currently rent rooms at about $700 per night. 

The new hotel will also provide a revenue stream for the federal…

A new National Public Radio (NPR) building in DC opened on April 15. NPR moved its world headquarters from 635 Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest to a new location in the NoMa neighborhood at 1111 North Capitol Street in Northeast DC. NoMa is a redevelopment zone north of Capitol Hill and Union station.

The project, designed by Hickok Cole Architects, cost $201 million. The NPR building is a new seven story building connected to a refurbished warehouse that was originally built in 1926. The design also includes an open, two-story newsroom with 18 video screens for collaboration between news, music, programming and digital staff. Plus, the building is environmentally friendly, earning a LEED Gold certification. Eco-friendly features include a green roof,…