Business Ins & Outs 12/7

In: The Shade Store
The Shade Store, a family-owned, 70-year-old business that started in New York’s Westchester County, held a Nov. 29 grand opening party with the help of Modern Luxury DC — and the student a cappella group, the Georgetown Chimes. The home-decor retailer sells custom window treatments and is proud to be “handcrafted in the USA.” Its 3,000-square-foot store is located at 3324 M St. NW.

In: Redevelopment of Holiday Inn Site
The space of the former Georgetown Holiday Inn at 2101 Wisconsin Ave. NW is set for redevelopment within weeks. According to the Glover Park Advisory Neighborhood Commission, at its Nov. 15 meeting, “Representatives of JBG Companies presented plans for mixed-use redevelopment of the Holiday Inn site. It includes 226 rental apartments, townhouse and duplex units, a café, a small market grocery and other retail on the street level. With the exception of public space landscaping on Wisconsin Avenue, this development is a matter of right. They hope to break ground in December and anticipate construction will take 20 to 24 months. A number of neighbors from the adjacent condo complex voiced several concerns including traffic impacts, construction noise, construction worker parking, delivery of construction materials, post construction retail deliveries, safety of students at the British School at dismissal during construction and obstruction of current views. JPG will work with residents and ANC3B to address these issues.”

Fannie Mae’s Wisconsin Ave. Headquarters Sold
The 228,000-square-foot Fannie Mae headquarters, set on 10 acres of land at 3900 Wisconsin Ave. NW, has been purchased by D.C.-based commercial real estate firm Roadside Development and North America Sekisui House, an Arlington-based subsidiary of Japan’s largest homebuilder. The $89-million acquisition was announced at the end of November.

The Colonial Revival complex, built in 1958, is across the street from Sidwell Friends School. Sidwell bought another Fannie Mae property, at 3939 Wisconsin Ave. NW, for $8.2 million. Bernstein Management paid $24.8 million for a third Fannie Mae building at 4250 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Fannie Mae will move to a new headquarters in Carr Properties’ Midtown Center at 1100 15th St. NW when that project is completed late in 2017. The new site is the former location of the Washington Post’s headquarters.

In a statement, Roadside Development, developer of the one-million-square-foot City Market at O in Shaw, said that the company “will work with local officials and community leaders to further define the collective vision for the redevelopment including both design and usage.”

Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, and its sibling government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, were placed into conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2008.

Last Chance: Old Prints, Must Sell
They make excellent Christmas gifts. In preparation for its consolidation move to New York, the Old Print Gallery — 1220 31st St. NW — is holding a moving sale, with heavy discounts on antique prints and maps. “Original works on paper, spanning from the 16th century through the 20th century, will all be offered at steep discounts of 20 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent. Extra inventory and framed items will also be sold, including great Washington, D.C., scenes, U.S. and foreign views and maps, botanical collections, genre prints, political cartoons and sporting art,” according to the gallery, which was founded in 1971 and called Georgetown home for 45 years. Its New York shop is on Lexington Avenue