The Mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, has announced the approval of three commercial-to-residential conversion projects under the District’s Housing in Downtown program. These projects will receive tax abatements to encourage more residential development in the area.
One project is located at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue NW and will convert a 114,000-square-foot building that was previously occupied by the Air Line Pilots Association International into 157 residential units. Two other buildings at 1825 and 1875 Connecticut Avenue NW are expected to deliver a total of 525 units with approximately1.08 million square feet between them. Additionally, a commercial rowhome and surface parking lot at615 H Street NW will be transformed into72 residential units.
The new Housing in Downtown program offers a tax abatement for up to20 years for converting commercial properties into residential ones as an incentive for developers to invest in this type of development.The initial investment is estimated at $41 million and it is projected that these conversions will result in6.7 million square feetof new housing being added to downtown DC.
Currently there are ten such projects either underway or already announced,and two have begun leasing their newly converted spaces.This bringsthe total numberof developmentsin progressunder this initiativeto12 so far.
