New York, NY, April 10, 2012 – Infinity Real Estate LLC (IRE), a wholly owned business unit of the Infinity Group, in partnership with DC based Urban Investment Partners, Inc. (UIP) announced today the purchase of a114-unit apartment building at 1841 Columbia Road, NW in Washington, DC, formerly known as The Alcazar, for $26 million. The seller was Fairfield Residential Company. Arbor Commercial Mortgage of New York provided the acquisition and project debt financing for the venture.
1841 Columbia Road is a prominent pre-war mixed-use building conveniently located in the heart of Adams Morgan. The property features 20,000 square feet of prime neighborhood retail space. Current retail tenants include Napoleon Bistro, Bedrock Billiards, Gary Taylor Framing, Bank of America, World Cleaners, and Fleet Feet, which specializes in running, bicycling, and swimming gear and is owned by local resident Shawn Fenty, brother of former Washington, DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
The partners plan to invest more than $7 million on a comprehensive building renovation and modernization program to include a complete window and retail storefront replacement, a new environmentally friendly water-sourced heating and cooling system, redesigned common areas, and a rooftop terrace certain to be one of the largest and most exciting resident amenities in the District.
UIP General Contracting, Inc., a subsidiary of UIP, is performing the renovation work, which is expected to be completed by December 2012. UIP Property Management, Inc. will assume the property management of the building immediately. IRE’s team will be responsible for asset management and the partnership’s development/construction oversight for the project.
“As with many of our other multifamily properties in Washington, D.C., we have reached a win/win agreement with the tenants’ association, allowing UIP to make much-needed improvements to the property to extend its useful life for another century,” said UIP principal Steve Schwat. “Current residents will receive no rent increase beyond the standard annual CPI-based increase specified by DC rent control law.”
“1841 Columbia Road is a wonderful historic residential building that we plan to upgrade to a Class A quality finish. We are thrilled to aquire and reinvent another building in the heart of Adams Morgan with our partners at UIP. This acquisition will add to the over 300 units that we own in this highly sought-after submarket,” added IRE principal Steven J. Kassin.
