WBJ: Pers Development sells Petworth condos, before construction is finished
Pers Development founder Ramin Bassam figured it would not take long to sell all 31 of his Fahrenheit Building condos in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood.
The project is still about two months away from completion, but Pers sold the entire project, including three inclusionary zoning affordable housing units and about 2,800 square feet of retail, to Erkiletian Development for about $14.3 million in a deal that closed March 17. That price was more than Bassam could have brought in selling all of the units individually and will enable the company to move forward with other projects, including a larger 120-unit development in NoMa.
Pers was awarded permits in March 2014 to develop 3930 Georgia Ave. NW, and Bassam said more than 600 people expressed an interest leading up to its planned June completion date. That level of interest — a strong sign of Petworth’s emerging residential market — prompted Bassam to explore whether he could find a single buyer willing to snap up the entire project at once. Pers retained DTZ’s Chris Doerr to market the property to prospective buyers, and from those Erkiletian offered about $1 million more than Pers expected to raise selling the units retail.
The sale price came in at about $446,000 per unit when subtracting the still-unleased retail space, which is on the high end for wood-frame construction. That tops Duball LLC’s sale of the Safeway-anchored The Swift apartments also in Petworth for about $344,000 per unit including the project’s retail space. That project, too, was marketed for sale while it was still under construction.
Credit: Washington Business Journal
