“It will preserve a longstanding Alexandria business, (and) build a new building that could potentially be some other type of retail use in the future,” Puskar said.
Avanti Holdings Principal Teddy Kim chimed into the meeting, and said he wants to start building on the vacant .76 acre parcel at 500 S. Pickett Street “the sooner the better.”
The 33,000-square-foot property is located near the German Auto Group of Alexandria and it would be the permanent home of the lighting supply store. The building itself is planned at just under 15,000 square feet.
The building was designed by Cole & Denny Architects. Plans include a green roof, 9,600 square feet of retail facing S. Pickett street, and 5,100 square feet of warehouse storage use in the rear of the building.
Novo Properties has received unanimous approval from the Alexandria City Council and Alexandria Planning Commission to develop a new apartment project along Route 1 in Old Town.
The multifamily investor, developer and manager out of Washington, D.C. said it plans to break ground early next year on The Grayson, a 119-unit apartment complex with street-level retail. The development is named after Sarah Gray, an African American educator in Alexandria during the late 1800s and an inductee into the Library of Virginia’s Virginia Women in History program.
Novo paid $9.25 million last July to acquire a stake in the 1970s-vintage retail complex at 1200 N. Henry St. from Avanti Holdings Group, with the venture teaming up to co-develop the new project. Located just north of the Braddock Road Metro station, the development has been drawn up to incorporate reprogrammed ground floor retail space as well as a daycare that has been redesigned to improve its layout and accessibility. Novo is exploring retail brokerage firms at this time.
“There’s a huge unmet demand for daycare in this submarket and even more now as spacing needs are changing due to COVID-19,” Novo Partner Neil Goradia said in a statement. Novo said the design changes made to the daycare and retail spaces allowed it to capture additional residential density after initially proposing a development with 115 units.
Amazon’s new home in Crystal City is expected to be a huge boon for neighboring Alexandria, where historic Old Town and the transforming Potomac Y
ard area offer potential Amazon employees the best of both worlds: a small town, suburban escape, and a fast-paced, Metro-accessible urban community, according CoStar’s latest report on the submarket. Coupled with the arrival of Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus in Potomac Yard, Novo said it will look to capture demand from the more cost-conscious, suburban-type renters expected to arrive with the rollout of the two campuses.
“The impact from the entry of these large employers is creating a demand for tiered apartment pricing,” Goradia said. “Not every apartment dweller will want to pay up to live in National Landing or Potomac Yards and can live a few Metro stops away for a more affordable rent and we want to capture that demand.”
Construction on the project is expected to be completed in 2022.
Nearly 100 new residences could come to Old Town, replacing a vacant building.
701 N Henry St.
Avanti, a development company, is requesting a series of changes in zoning, density and more to demolish the Alexandria Lighting & Supply building and build a 5-story multi-family building with 94 residential units, underground parking and retail space on the ground floor. The project could go before City Council for approval in early July.
Alexandria Lighting & Supply, which has been in business for more than half a century, would move to a new location.
The project would include undergrounding utilities.
At least seven of the units would be affordable housing. The residences could be rentals or condominiums.
The 0.75 acre site is at the corner of Wythe Street and North Henry Street.
A big change is coming to a triangular piece of land in Alexandria that hasn’t changed much at all in more than 70 years.
The 0.8-acre site at 1200 N. Henry St., less than a half mile north of the Braddock Road Metro station, was built up with one- and two-story industrial buildings in 1945, according to an Alexandria staff report. The proposal slated for review by the city’s Planning Commission on Tuesday would replace those uses with a 115-unit multifamily building — including 11 affordable units — a 10,000-square-foot day care center, ground-floor retail and 137 underground parking spaces.
The applicant, 1200 N. Henry Street LLC, is an entity of Avanti Holdings Group. Alexandria-based Avanti, led by principals Teddy Kim (he of The People’s Drug and Chop Shop Taco), Keinan Ashkenaziand Greg Salvaggio, has largely tackled smaller warehouse-to-office conversions and retail projects to this point. This will be its largest endeavor to date.
Designed by Davis Carter Scott Ltd., the seven-story building has a triangular footprint and rises to a maximum height of 85 feet along the western edge, where it is closest to the Braddock Gateway campus and a planned extension of North Fayette Street. A 20-foot high retail podium would front Route 1.
The site, where North Henry and North Patrick streets begin, is just south of the Route 1 bridge carrying traffic toward Potomac Yard. It is really the first thing drivers see as they come south toward Old Town. City planners, who recommend approval, say the proposed development offers “high-quality architectural design with a signature gateway element” at its northern entrance, a publicly accessible plaza, underground utilities and a $20,000 contribution to Alexandria’s Capital Bike Share Fund.
Cathy Puskar with Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh PC is the LLC’s land use attorney.
Rock Creek partnered with Avanti Holdings Group LLC last month to acquire 5904 Richmond Highway for $8.3 million from an affiliate of retired property owner Bill Fetch. The acquisition includes a 78,000-square-foot office building that is about 65 percent leased and recently underwent a $1 million renovation. KLNB Principal Joshua Simon, who represented the buyers in the deal, said Rock Creek and Avanti will focus in the near term on boosting the building’s occupancy but, on a second track, will explore pursuing a larger redevelopment of more than 1 million square feet.
The property is one of several nodes along Richmond Highway that Fairfax County has identified in a comprehensive plan for higher density development, Simon said. Rock Creek and Avanti would only be able to unlock that potential, he noted, by teaming up with the owner of the adjacent Ourisman Chrysler Jeep Dodge of Alexandria at 5900 Richmond Highway.
“You can’t do anything with it by itself, so this comprehensive plan essentially says our site, linked up with Ourisman, would unlock this very, very great amount of development potential,” Simon said, adding the two parties have had informal talks but have not yet reached the point of formal negotiations. “They bought it with the intent of leasing up the remaining vacancy, as a straight office play, but there definitely is an open eye to whatever is possible there.”
Fetch retained Gates Hudson & Associates to market the site, which started out at a higher asking price of around $13 million but came down to its ultimate sale price of around $106 per square foot.
Rock Creek and Avanti have also retained KLNB to handle leasing for the property, and Simon said he believes the office building is positioned in the near term to benefit from factors including WashREIT’s plans to add 550 units to the 1,222-unit Riverside complex.
Simon said he already had discussions with a handful of prospective tenants weighing relocations from nearby Old Town Alexandria, where the office rental rate hovers at about $10 per square foot higher than the roughly $23-$24-per-square-foot range KLNB is shooing for at 5904 Richmond Highway.
KLNB, a Maryland-based real estate brokerage firm, has announced the sale of 5904 Richmond Highway, a 78,000-square-foot office building in Fairfax County, for $8.3 million.
Joshua Simon, principal at KLNB, represented the buyer — a joint venture of Rock Creek Property Group and Avanti Holdings Group, LLC — and has also been retained to handle leasing of the building. The property sold on Sept. 8 for nearly $106 per square foot.
The structure is a newly renovated office building in Fairfax’s Huntington submarket with suites ranging from 1,800 to 15,780 square feet. The building has access to Route 1, Old Town Alexandria and National Harbor. It’s within walking distance to the Huntington Metro Station and Mount Vernon Trail.
In a statement, Simon described the Huntington area as “an untapped submarket with great potential and high expected future density.
As companies continue to look for lower lease rates compared to Old Town Alexandria, they will immediately see value in Huntington thanks to its prime location and anticipated growth.”
5904 Richmond Highway is currently 65 percent leased, with a remaining five office suites available.
KLNB’s offices are located in Towson and Columbia, Md.; Washington, D.C.; and Dulles and Tysons, Va.
The high-rise office building located at 5904 Richmond Highway was sold in early September for $8.3 million, according to a press release from KLNB, the real estate firm that brokered the deal.
The 78,000 square-foot building is now owned by Rock Creek Property Group and Avanti Holdings Group, LLC.
The press release noted that the property had recently been renovated and was acquired for a “favorable price.” Fairfax County property records show the assessed value for 5904 Richmond Highway in 2016 was $13 million.
“We are incredibly in tune with the Huntington market and it’s clear that it is an untapped submarket with great potential and high expected future density,” KLNB’s Joshua Simon, who represented the buyer, said in the release. “As companies continue to look for lower lease rates compared to Old Town Alexandria, they will immediately see value in Huntington thanks to its prime location and anticipated growth.”
Some of that anticipated growth includes a plan to greatly expand the adjacent Riverside Apartments complex. That proposal, which is scheduled to before the Fairfax County Planning Commission next week, calls for five new buildings with nearly 800 units to be added to the Riverside complex, which already contains more than 1,200 units in three buildings.
5904 Richmond Highway actually sits far off of Route 1, behind the Great American Steak & Buffet and Ourisman car dealership. Office space in the building ranges between 1,800 to 15,780 square feet, and the building is currently 65 percent leased, the KLNB release said. Among the businesses currently located there are Curb (formerly known as Taxi Magic).
The robust development pipeline at Alexandria’s Braddock Road Metro got a push forward Tuesday evening. Alexandria’s Planning Commission voted to approved Phase 2 of Braddock Gateway, a 258-unit mixed-use building. Jaguar Development’s project will also include 8K SF of retail and a 28K SF park. Jaguar Development managing partner Eddy Cetina called the Phase 2 approval a big step. She said she expects to break ground in about 12 months after completing the construction documents and securing the building permits. After getting Phase 1 of the development entitled, Jaguar sold the parcel to Trammell Crow in 2011 for $14M. The developer brought on WashREIT as a partner and broke ground on the 15-story, 270-unit residential building in December 2015 with a delivery expected this year. The planned third phase would add a 317K SF mixed-use building with 250 to 300 units and 8K SF of retail, completing the seven-acre site. Next to Jaguar’s project, Avanti Holdings Group is planning a 100K SF development, likely multifamily or hospitality, on the site of an industrial property it bought last year. UPDATE, JUNE 8, 11:00 A.M.: While it originally partnered with WashREIT in the acquisition of Braddock Gateway Phase 1, Trammell Crow informed Bisnow that it has since replaced them with Meadow Partners in the deal.
NAI KLNB brokers sales of 35,000 square foot warehouse building in Alexandria to Saxa Realty Group, LLC.
ALEXANDRIA, VA — NAI KLNB has brokered the sale of a two-story 35,000 square foot warehouse building on Calvert Avenue in Alexandria for $6.075 million.
Josh Simon, principal with NAI KLNB, represented the seller, Avanti Real Estate Group. The buyer, Saxa Realty Group, LLC was self-represented. The building was 100 percent leased and occupied by four tenants at the time of the sale.
Located at 410-420 Calvert Avenue (see map below), the building features 16.5-foot ceiling heights, four roll-up doors and two internal loading docks. The building is situated on Jefferson Davis Highway in the Potomac Yard area, and is approximately two miles from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and less than 10 miles from downtown Washington, D.C.
“When we acquired this asset approximately three years ago, our strategy consisted of a long-term hold in order to execute a development plan within the next seven to 10 years,” explained Teddy Kim, principal of Avanti Real Estate Group, in a news release announcing the deal. “These plans changed when we were presented with an offer representing a sub 6 percent capitalization rate, in an off-market scenario, and we made the decision to dispose the property.”
Avanti Real Estate Group, headquartered in Alexandria, is preparing to acquire two sites in the Old Town area, with additional projects expected to be added into the development pipeline this year. In addition to Kim, Avanti Real Estate Group was founded and is owned by Keinan Ashkenazi and Greg Salvaggio.
“We continue to seek viable opportunities, particularly those positioned within the Capital Beltway region and close to our home base in Alexandria, that match our specificm acquisition criteria,” Kim added. “Our group is extremely well-capitalized and, together with the guidance of NAI KLNB, we intend to remain aggressive in our search for suitable properties.”
“Saxa Realty Group was actively seeking a value-add opportunity to initiate a real estate program within the Washington, D.C. marketplace,” explained Josh Simon of NAI KLNB. “They were attracted, in part, by the neighboring development that is set to occur at the Oakville Industrial Park. Based on the existing tenancy of the building and the future development potential, this represented an excellent acquisition for the company.”
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