DC MUD
By: Kelly Matlock 

SGA Companies and Level 2 Development are finally watching construction progress at their joint residential-and-retail project at 235 Carroll Street NW in Takoma Park, a long dormant site that Bethesda-based SGA Companies, founded by Sassan (Sas) Gharai, purchased in 2004. Three years later, site prep was undertaken, including extensive environmental remediation and the removal of rusted-out oil drums left over from the former gas station and truck rental facility on site. Still, four years went by before construction began, last month. 

Of the changes at 235 Carroll Street in the Takoma Park Historic District, Sara Green, Commissioner of ANC 4B 01, has no complaints. It's the site next door, at 231 Carroll St, also being developed by SGA and Level 2, that is giving her some grief.

American Builders Quarterly
By: Joyce Finn

Hip urban dwellers in our national capitol have David Franco and Jeff Blum of Level 2 Development, LLC to thank for new exciting apartment options. Founded by the two partners in 2003, the firm has prospered through the economic recession by addressing the increased need for rental and mixed-used buildings. 

Level 2 Development delights in bucking the more traditional architectural styles common throughout the city in favor of its distinctive bright and sustainable designs, and both Franco and Blum believe building locally gives their work a stronger focus. According to Franco, “We're Washingtonians and have watched the city change since we were kids, and we want to be a creative part of these changes. We also see so many opportunities in DC right now.” Those opportunities continue to result in new projects, including the View 14 apartment complex.

The 14th and U streets corridor, once notorious for the start of the 1960s race riots, is now one of the most sought-after areas in America’s cosmopolitan seat of government. View 14, a high-rise apartment building completed near the intersection in the fall of 2009, with spectacular views of the US Capitol and the Washington Monument, is a monument itself to responsible construction and community engagement.

Washington Blade
By: Mark Lee

Last week was the anniversary of the 1968 riots in D.C., following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis. The ensuing five days of destruction that befell Washington and filled the sky with smoke scarred the city’s landscape for decades and cut a hole in the heart of commerce through the prominent local retail districts of the era.

Washington neighborhoods hollowed out by looting and fires are only now beginning to fully finish recovering as commercial and residential real estate development repurposes the remaining empty buildings and reconstructs many of the last vacant lots across a wide swath of the city. Nowhere has this transformation been more dramatic than along the 14th Street, N.W., commercial corridor, as it intersects with U Street and stretches northward into Columbia Heights.

Gazzette.net
By: Aaron Kraut

A long-awaited mixed-use apartment and retail development is coming to the vacant lot at Carroll and Maple streets in Takoma, just across the Washington, D.C., line from the Old Town Takoma Park business district.

Chevy Chase-based real estate company Federal Capital Partners announced on Jan. 12 they acquired the $36 million, 156-apartment Takoma Central project. Despite Takoma Park’s reputation as a haven for the type of small, independently-owned shops that line Carroll Street, leaders there said the new four-story project with 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail should help the area.

By: Jeff Clabaugh 

Chevy Chase-based Federal Capital Partners and D.C.-based Level 2 Development LLC have formed a joint venture to develop an apartment and retail project near the Takoma Park Metro station.

The companies say the mixed-use project, called Takoma Central, will have 156 apartments and ground-floor retail. The project is at 255 Carroll St. NW. Federal Capital Partners estimates the cost of the project at $36 million.

Phase 1 construction has already begun, and Phase 2 will begin later this year, Federal Capital Partners says.

"Takoma Park is a high barrier to entry, metro market with little to no new apartment supply projected in the future," said FCP's vice president of residential development, Wade Casstevens. "We believe Takoma Central will enhance the village environment that distinguishes Takoma Park from other D.C. Metro station communities."

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.