CoStar Building Flip
• June 18, 2013

In what is being called the most profitable real estate flip since the recession, CoStar Group recently announced that it is selling its downtown D.C. headquarters for a profit of $60 million.

CoStar originally bought the building, 1331 L St. NW, about a year ago for $41.25 million from the Mortgage Bankers Association and is now selling it to GLL Real Estate Partners, a Munich-based company, for $101 million.

The arrangement between the two real estate giants will be finalized at the end of the month. Although GLL will now own the 169,429-square-foot, LEED-certified facility, CoStar’s headquarters will remain in the building under a long-term lease in what CoStar is calling a “win-win” situation.

“This sale will enable us to unlock the value of this formerly distressed property and provide an attractive return on our investment,” said CoStar founder and CEO Andrew Florance in a press release. “At the same time, we were able to secure an efficient and environmentally responsible headquarters office for our Company at a tremendous downtown location for our employees, and create a valuable, fully leased long-term asset for the new owner.”

CoStar cites its professional insight in the real estate industry for being able to organize such a profitable flip in the midst of an economic recession.

Energy Benchmarking
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The D.C. government is taking steps to monitor and lower greenhouse gas emissions from municipal facilities, which are accountable for 74 percent of D.C.’s emissions. Using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR software tool, Portfolio Manager, the District can track buildings’ energy usage then compare D.C.’s results to others gathered across the country.

In 2009, 194 public buildings were benchmarked. The results, which are available to be viewed in full by the public, reported that public buildings and libraries perform somewhat below the national average while police and recreation facilities both use about 2.5 times more energy than their counterparts nationally. Fire stations also fall below the national average, consuming 60 percent more energy.

In addition to becoming greener, the District hopes that tracking energy use will help cut operating costs by pinpointing problem areas.

“…overall, public buildings in the District of Columbia perform below average compared to similar buildings nationwide,” states the official report. “This suggests many opportunities for saving energy through improvements. With an annual energy budget of $79 million for District buildings, even modest energy performance improvements can lead to significant budget savings.”

This benchmarking was prompted by the Green Building Act of 2006 and the Clean Affordable Energy Act of 2008, which establish legislative requirements for environmental performance in government buildings.
Beginning in 2010, similar requirements were also placed on privately owned buildings over 200,000 square feet.

Noise Task Force
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A Noise Task Force, established by the Alcohol Beverage Control Board last March, has been working to recommend amendments to local laws and procedures related to establishments with ABC licenses. Comprised of residents, community leaders and business members, the Noise Task Force aims to find solutions to educate DC residents and ABC licensees about noise laws and their rights, clarify the role of DC agencies in enforcing noise regulations, and work on the prevention and solutions to developing citywide noise issues. The task force has developed 10 proposals before the ABC Board since its conception. The proposals range from tracking noise complaints and creating an after-hours hotline for the Alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration, to developing an Introduction to DC Nightlife Course for licensees and mandating that developers and Realtors disclose noise laws.

Hiram Brewton, DowntownDC BID’s director of Environmental Services, recently gave a presentation to the ABC Board and recommended that ABRA create an Early Assistance Team made up of ABRA and Metropolitan Police Department staff and members of the public.

The team would work to help mediate and resolve disputes between establishments and the community, provide intervention services for problem establishments, and operate a peer mentoring forum.

The ABC Board will be finalizing its recommendations based on the Task Force’s proposals and will be forwarding a package to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham for his consideration later this week. The package will include some of the recommendations, including one about the Early Assistance Tea, a transcript of the November 2010 pubic hearing and two additional recommendations that would require legislative changes. For more information visit ABRA.gov

Fight Graffiti with…Graffiti
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Have graffiti on the side of your building? You can now request for your own mural that might deter graffiti. The DC Department of Public Works partnered with the DC Commission of Arts & Humanities to paint murals on privately owned commercial buildings that are chronic targets of graffiti and are located in highly visible areas. MuralsDC, the free program, will put a mural on a building if property owners consent to donate their DC-based space for at least one year and keep the mural intact for the entire year. The project, in its fourth year, funds all supplies and works with DC youth to paint, teaching them Hip Hop graffiti art techniques. DPW will appropriate $100,000 to the project, one fifth of its historical budget to abate graffiti. All projects are projected to be completed by August 5.

WaPo Publisher Weymouth Polarizes her Newsroom
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Washington Post newsies are demanding raises after Post publisher Katharine Weymouth collected a 16.4 percent pay increase despite the company’s recent 66 percent plunge in profits. “It’s amazing how [Weymouth] can accept a 16.4 percent salary increase plus over a million dollars in bonuses in April while most Guild-covered Post workers haven’t received an increase since 2008,” says Rick Ehrmann of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild/CWA 32035, noting that the workers’ contract is set to expire on June 7. “When the Guild asked for the same 16.4 percent, she sent the Post’s attorney to the bargaining table to cry poverty.”

Fred Kunkle, an 11-year staff writer and co-chair of the Post Guild local, told Media Matters that the union understands the paper’s financial problems. But he said it does not accept such an imbalance in salary increases.

“It is obviously unfair,” he said of Weymouth’s raise. “We appreciate very much that the Post is facing a difficult economic climate. But why should everybody in the rank-and-file, everyone in the newsroom, suffer for it and bear all of the hardship for it? We are willing to work with management and find a way to move the newspaper into the 21st Century. It can’t be by us alone giving all of the sacrifices.”

Affordable Care Act Makes Headway in the District
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Health care reform is well underway in the District. Many have been working on creating exchanges, developing medical home models, discovering changes to home and community based services and thinking through medical system changes. In celebration of the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, and as a way to reenergize reform after transitions, AARP DC is working with Families USA, DCPCA, and other consumer groups to provide an update on reform efforts in the District. A panel will give updates on various parts of reform and there will be a question and answer period.

The audience will include both providers and concerned residents and is open to anyone. Held on Friday, May 20 from 10 a.m. to noon, it will be at The George Washington Hospital in the Auditorium off 23rd St. NW.

Drunk Driving Case in Adams Morgan Underway
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The sentencing for a Maryland woman charged in a fatal crash in Adams Morgan last year has been postponed after the judge presiding over the case recused himself. Chamica Adams, of Mitchellville, Md., will be sentenced for involuntary manslaughter stemming from the Sept. 8 incident. Police say she was going to turn left onto Florida Avenue from 18th Street in Northwest when her car went over the center island and struck pedestrians Julia Bachleitner and Melissa Basque.

Bachleitner, of Austria, was a 26-year-old student at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. She died six days after the Sept. 8 incident.
Basque was injured and later released from the hospital. Adams’ car also crashed into the front of Keren Restaurant on Florida Avenue, according to WTOP.

As part of a plea agreement, charges for DUI and DWI against Adams were dropped.
Adams was scheduled to be sentenced last Friday, but D.C. Superior Court Judge William Jackson recused himself. Jackson’s daughter was in the same Hopkins exchange program as Bachleitner, although the students were in different locations during the program and the judge’s daughter did not know Bachleitner or her family.

The child of one of the judge’s aides also has an alleged connection to Adams.
The case was transferred to Judge Gerald Fisher. Sentencing is now scheduled for Monday.

Whitman-Walker Health Dance Party
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On Wednesday June 1 from 7 to 10 p.m., Whitman-Walker Health will hold it’s first dance party fundraiser in support of their programs. Held at Room & Board, an American furniture and home furnishings company on 14th St. NW, tickets are $45 a person, which includes a raffle, refreshments, music and dancing. Room & Board, currently a few blocks down from the clinic, opened in early Summer 2010 in the 1919 building, known as the R.L. Taylor Building, which was originally a Ford Motors Showroom that assembled and sold Model T cars. For more information, call Mary Ann Mahoney at 202-966-9200 x300 or e-mail mmahoney@specialtiesinc.bz

National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamps” Out Hunger
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The National Association of Letter Carriers held their food drive to combat hunger last Saturday, May 14. Letter carriers collected non-perishable donations from homes as they delivered mail along postal routes. As the 19th annual NALC National Food Drive to stamp out hunger, the one-day drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities. Last year, 77.1 million pounds of food was collected, pushing the total to more than one billion pounds of food since 1992.

Participants were encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods such as canned soup, vegetables or pasta next to their mailboxes before regular mail delivery. This year’s estimate has yet to be released, but NALC President Frederic V. Rolando said that about 50 million Americans live in families that lack sufficient food, and one in every three is a child. “In every corner of this country, there are people and families who are hungry, including children,” Rolando said. “As letter carriers, we have the privilege of serving communities six days a week, of getting to know people, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to serve them in this way as well.”

Washington Gets Shake Shacked
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Workers have been hired and the signage has been installed at Shake Shack at 1216 18th St. NW. At press, the burger joint was scheduled to open on May 17 at 11 a.m. and will be open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. The District’s first Shake Shack (there are also locations in Miami, Westport, Ct. and New York) will be located on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and 18th Street, the former site of Fuddruckers. Unlike the original Madison Square Park location, where the owners introduced the Shack Cam to make up for endless lines, the D.C. location will not have a video feed to alert customers of potential lines, Shack spokesperson Theresa Mullen told WTOP.

The District’s second Shake Shack location will open later this season at Nationals Park. Mullen says the Nats Park location will likely open before mid-Summer. The owners also plan to open three other restaurants later this year: Blue Smoke, El Verano Taqueria and Box Frites.