Category: Buildings

Missed opportunities? – In Shaw – Mari in the Citi

I’ve been noticing the progress of the property at 1740 New Jersey Ave NW. Can’t help but to notice it as I pass it often coming home or going to the metro. I will admit that I haven’t paid too much attention to the back and forth that went on before and during the start of the work on this formerly vacant house. Yet there are some things I see, that confuse me and make me wonder if they were some sort of concession made.
1740 NJ Ave NWThe first thing that confused me was eliminating the half circle driveway and making the two curb cuts, one on Rhode Island and the other on S Street. If you are new to this area of DC let me tell you, curb cuts are money. Most of the time you neighbors will not support your efforts to get one. So if there is not a curb cut there now, there is a snowball’s chance in Miami of getting one. Yes, there is the possibility of being annoyed by drivers who might try to use the curb cut as a short cut and I’d understand eliminating one point of entry, but both were made useless. Also in the past that half-circle has been used as a temporary parking spot, a very valuable asset.
1740 NJ Ave NWThe other odd thing was this doorway that appears to be turning into a wall. I could be seeing this wrong, but that just doesn’t look right. If I am right, that’s a waste of some perfectly good stairs and a walkway going towards this doorway.
Lastly, I’m confused this thing is calling itself an Urban Land Company project. I swear that ULC used to have a better sense of place then what the sign below would suggest. I thought we were past the days of calling this end of Shaw, “Logan Circle”. Logan Circle is about 5 blocks west. U Street is sorta kinda a couple blocks away, and Florida Avenue, just around the corner from this place turns into U Street, eventually, so I’ll give that a pass. Shaw is the only accurate thing. It is in Shaw. 1740 NJ Ave NW
UPDATE- There is a door where the door is supposed to be.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on April 8, 2016 7:07 PM.

Fugly Pop-ups for Sale

I have a theory, ugly is a big enough negative to negate any investment in increasing square footage. The reason behind my theory is that the ugly 2000 sq ft house is competing against the nicer looking 2000 sq ft house, not the surrounding nicer looking 1000 sq ft houses. There are two examples.

Fugly popupFirst is 26 P St NE. If you notice on the Redfin site the complete ugly of it is not revealed. I noticed the exterior photo stops so you don’t really see the 3 story popup that the builders threw up on it. The asking price is $799K. I say it is worth $400K on a good day and that’s just thinking about how much it is going to cost to hire an architect who can design something that can redeem the property. This has been on the market for nearly a month. I’m guessing it’s going to be a long time and several price reductions before this monstrosity sells.

Is next, and the best proof of my theory, 1522 3rd St. NW.

Sitting on Top This puppy has been pretty empty of real tenants for years. That pop up has been on top of that house for at least 3 years if not more. Check out the link above and scroll down to the property history and the number of times it was bought and sold over and over again. It looks fishy, but that’s the bank’s problem. As I can remember it was never sold to real people, just investors. Also not how the price keeps going down. It began as $349K, then delisted and relisted at $335K, and since then has been slowly going down and is now at $245K.

Let me say that the 1500 block of 3rd St is awesome, minus the feral children at the corner of Bates and 3rd. There are a great set of involved neighbors and somewhere over there I think is where ANC Anita Bonds resides. If the house gets down to say $220K, buy it, redo the popup (move it to the rear, turn it into a covered roof deck, tear it off) and if you plan to stick around for 5-7 years it would be totally worth it.

1607 NJ Tagged by DCRA


1607 NJ DCRA
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Well I’d like to thank Emil for spotting this on the rear of 1607 NJ Ave, NW, the house that may come crumbling down at any moment.
I’m a bit torn about this. I sort of feel badly because the family members have to deal with the death of a father and now this. But on the other hand, that alley isn’t that wide and even if this thing winds up crashing in the middle of the night it probably will take out the neighboring house, crush the fence across the alley and maybe send brick through the window of houses across the alley. Worse case scenario is that parts may come down on a kid running by.
What got me was the senior tax deduction for real estate, and normally I kind of like to wait several years after the person has died before complaining about it, but this house is a danger.
The best thing for everyone is for the family to get this through probate and sell it to some developer, who hopefully might fix this mess before it hurts someone.

Death, taxes and a building that’s gonna fall

Decay
Decay
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

This is the alley side of 1607 New Jersey Avenue, NW. I’ve been told by one citizen living on this block that he’s fearful when walking by this building because it looks like it is going to topple over at any moment. It’s got missing bricks at the base on the alley. It bows out. Its got some pretty wicked looking cracks and I think that upper window is broken.
Well I took a look on the property tax database and 1607 is owned by Arvid W Broadus who is receiving the Senior Citizen Homestead Deduction. Mr. Broadus is dead. According to the Social Security Death Index he died last year 16 Jan 2009 (born 30 Sep 1919) and unfortunately he didn’t make it to his 90 birthday. Unfortunately for us, and anyone walking by this structure, it hasn’t turned over to the living.

ADDITION- Apparently people still read this blog, even journalists. It appears Channel 7 did a story on this house.

The Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings (BCIB)


Broken Windows
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

I was about to blog about horrendous vacancy rate taxation on houses that are not vacant. But one of the example houses was recategorized to normal…. now all the owners have to do is get their homestead exemption. But while poking around for info I came across the Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings.
I didn’t know there was such a board until I found a letter from a similar sounding agency in the personal papers of a landlady. In the 1930s & 40s the landlady had owned my house as well as several other properties in DC, and one townhouse on the 1700 block of 4th Street was in danger of being condemned by the city.
Since I hadn’t really heard of anything about the city condemnation agency, I just assumed it was one of those defunct city agencies, like dairy inspectors. But no. There is the BCIB, and they are under DCRA.

214 P St NW


Vacant on P 2
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Broken windows, bad paint, weedy yard, just a lot of ugly. According to the DC tax database this vacant house is a class 3 exeception, so it is paying regular taxes, and not the vacant house rate. The owner is Steward Investments in Clinton, MD and they came to possess it in 2006 for 419K.
I am not going to quibble about that value, as the house next door is up for sale for $750K.

What to do about empty schools


100_0726.JPG
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

There will be a meeting (isn’t there always a meeting about anything around here?) March 20th for Ward 5 from 6-8pm at McKinley Technology High School about reuse of school buildings like JF Cook (as seen in pix); Backus; Taft; Slowe; MM Washington and Young.
If nothing else pops up on my after work calendar (like another meeting for something else or emergency hair appointment) I’ll probably attend. I have some ideas of what I’d like the two closing schools in the TC to be:
Not residential housing- Takes too long, requires too many committees, red tape, and people get all huffy when it’s not affordable or it’s not luxury.
Office Space…. for a non-social services branch of DC govt- I can’t imagine it would take too much work to replace small desks with cubicles. I say non-social services ’cause folks get annoyed with the non-profit social service orgs around here and get into a tizzy when another one pops up (SOME and group houses).
Office Space-non-profits (non-social services)- for the same reasons stated above. However, it would require hoops and other pieces of red tape.
My main interest is finding someone, something that could move into Cooke or MM Washington as soon as the kids clear out. As when the city mothballs these buildings they allow for their slow destruction. The longer they are mothballed the more likely they will look like Langston or Armstrong and become de facto homeless shelters and crack ho bordellos.

403 R St NW

Taken December 23, 2007. Possibly the 400 odd side of R St NW.

Well another vacant house for your viewing. This one is at 403 R Street NW, owned by Dorothy Farr of 57th Ave S, Seattle, WA, who got the property in 2003 and surprise there is no available data about a ‘sold for’ amount. But there is something interesting. This property has a Class 3 exception. Class 3 is the vacant property rate where one is charged $5 per $100 in house value. However, one can get an exemption by doing work on the property or having it up for sale. Because the government is way too smart to just take your word for it, you gotta go through the motions, and on the door of 403 R St there are building permits.
Yet, these date back to 2004, and from my observations, not much has happened since 2004, except the yard gets mowed. The windows are broken and the downstairs window is cinder blocked. The building is secure, but I don’t know if that requires a permit. And according to my permits the authorized work must start within one year of the date the permit was issued, or the permit expires. And if the permit is expired then someone shouldn’t be getting a Class 3 exception for construction. Maybe it’s for sale.