WASHINGTON, DC-Jefferson Apartment Group and Perseus Realty have finalized the purchase of a site at the corner of 14th and W streets in Washington, DC from CapMark. The duo plan to construct a $75-million, 231-unit, seven-story mixed-use building that will also have 12,200 square feet of retail space on the first floor and underground parking. Additionally, the project will include the redevelopment of the historic Anthony Bowen YMCA building into a 44,000-square-foot fitness, wellness and child care facility. 

The companies have just closed on the construction loan for the project, Jefferson Apartment Group president Jim Butz tells GlobeSt.com--a 65% LTC of $53 million from Wells Fargo. Construction starts on December 1, 2010. The Rockpoint Group is kicking in the equity. 

It is one of the few apartment buildings entering DC’s pipeline, Butz notes, another being a JV between Paradigm Cos. and Stewart Co. to build an apartment building at the Mt. Vernon Triangle. “There just isn’t a lot of new supply in the pipeline right now, especially high-rise apartments,” Butz says. The timing is excellent, for that reason, along with the fact that construction costs are likely as low as they will get. The companies acquired the development site in a distressed situation. Delivery of the first units is expected in the summer of 2012.  

Jefferson Apartment Group has had a busy year since it launched in 2009. It now has three other projects in the pipeline for next year that total $190 million, Butz says. These include Tellus, which is in Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor at Courthouse Metro; workforce housing for Fairfax County in a project called Residents at Government Center; and a 208-unit project, also in Fairfax County.

The company has made one acquisition and is short-listed for another 300-unit, garden-style apartment building in the Mid-Atlantic, he says. In total, the firm hopes to make three acquisitions next year for roughly 1,000 units. Finally, Butz adds, “we are starting to get active in Boston and Florida.”