The District is nearing approval of a 12-story office building to be constructed at the intersection of the lawyer and lobbyist universe: Connecticut Avenue and K Street Northwest.
The D.C. Zoning Commission is expected to give final consent in early January to the development at 1000 Connecticut Ave., a $60 million, 369,393-square-foot office structure diagonally across from Farragut Square. The project, which requires two votes from the commission, won initial unanimous approval earlier this month.
The site is currently home to a pair of nearly 50-year-old office buildings, one at 1000 Connecticut Ave. and the other at 1725 K St. Under the plan, both would be razed and replaced with a new complex designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. Renown architect James Ingo Freed, who also designed the U.S. Air Force Memorial in Arlington and the U.S. Holocaust Museum in D.C., drew up the concept for the new building before he died in December 2005, according to the D.C. Office of Planning.
The Gewirz family, whose Potomac Investment Properties owns some $200 million in area real estate, are among the principles behind the project. The new building would join multiple K Street commercial properties — 1700, 1875 and 1601 among them — delivered in the last five years.
But while the Golden Triangle segment of Connecticut Avenue — stretching from Dupont Circle to Lafayette Square — has been a magnet for new retail and restaurants, much of K Street has retained its office feel. So the 15,737 square feet of ground floor retail planned for the new building is particularly welcome, said Daniel Hurtado, director of programming for the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District.
Given its proximity to Farragut Square and the Metro, 1000 Connecticut Ave. should have no problem attracting vibrant retail, continuing the revitalization of the BID’s east end, said W. Shaun Pharr, a BID board member and executive with the Apartment and Office Building Association of Greater Washington. New condominiums and retail associated with the Columbia Hospital redevelopment should spark a reawakening of the BID’s west end.
“K street in the next 10 years is going to change in many ways for the better,” Pharr said.
