Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) joined developer Gary Cohen to cut the ribbon at the Elle, which was formerly home to the U.S. Peace Corps.
The building had three lives, and Gary Cohen’s family had engineered all of them.
His grandfather developed it into The Vanguard in 1965 — one of the first high-rise office buildings in the downtown neighborhood now known as the Golden Triangle. It housed the U.S. Department of Labor and then, until recently, the U.S. Peace Corps.
On Thursday, Cohen ushered in its third life: a new 163-unit apartment building called the Elle — the first major office-to-housing conversion project to be completed in downtown D.C. since the pandemic began. He joined Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to cut the ribbon on the apartment building, which also comes with 8,000 square feet of retail space. A Canadian-based restaurant called Moxies is slated to move in, he said.
“This building has come full circle,” said Cohen, president of his family’s development company, Willco. He thought back to his grandfather’s vision to transform the vacant lot — formerly tenement housing, he said — into a gleaming new office tower.
In a 360-degree reversal of the District’s office-building boom of the late 20th century, the city is now aiming to turn vacant office buildings into spaces for new uses such as housing and retail. It’s part of Bowser’s vision to transform downtown D.C. and attract thousands of residents to the city core.
Downtown is weathering some of its worst office vacancy rates in city history, with 22 percent of spaces now vacant — dragging down city revenue and leaving valuable real estate sitting empty. According to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, more than 28 million square feet of office space was vacant as of March.
Bowser has seen office-to-housing conversions as key to gradually turning those trends around and held up the Elle on Thursday as proof that it’s doable. With about 90 percent of downtown composed of commercial real estate and only 10 percent residential, Bowser said the projects are intended to even out that mix.
“We know that vibrant neighborhoods need people — people all hours of the day: workers, residents and visitors,” Bowser said. “And that’s what our team is very focused on.”
Bowser said 11 other office-to-housing conversion projects are in the pipeline, some of which have applied for tax incentives that the city is offering through its Housing in Downtown Program, although Willco is not receiving one. The city also set aside $8 million in its latest financial plan to persuade developers to convert other office buildings into retail or entertainment venues.
Nina Albert, who as deputy mayor of planning and economic development is leading the city’s conversion strategy, said that money could support the conversion of 4 million to 6 million square feet of office space.
“This is serious movement, and we’re just beginning,” Albert said, noting the next phase of the strategy will look at attracting neighborhood amenities such as grocery stores for the new residents.
Willco launched on the Elle long before the city finalized its Housing in Downtown Program, which offers developers who convert office buildings into housing a 20-year property tax abatement if they meet certain criteria. The $41 million program requires that at least 10 percent of units be affordable for families making below 60 percent of the area’s median income — although some housing advocates pushed for the incentive to include even greater affordability requirements.
But because the Elle was already in progress when those rules went into effect, none of the units are set aside for lower-income residents. The rent can range from $2,100 to $6,000, depending on the unit size, Cohen said.
For all its luxury amenities, from a rooftop terrace to a pet spa, the Elle building has humble beginnings.
Its origin is with Cohen’s grandfather, William Cohen, a middle-school dropout and former trash collector who rose to become a prolific D.C. developer. Starting with a single garbage truck he drove himself, William Cohen soon built one of the largest trash collection services in Washington. But he also was an entrepreneur with an interest in real estate, Gary Cohen said. And after Waste Management bought his trash business, William Cohen purchased a vacant lot at the corner of L and 20th streets NW in 1962, his grandson said.
But because the Elle was already in progress when those rules went into effect, none of the units are set aside for lower-income residents. The rent can range from $2,100 to $6,000, depending on the unit size, Cohen said.
For all its luxury amenities, from a rooftop terrace to a pet spa, the Elle building has humble beginnings.
Its origin is with Cohen’s grandfather, William Cohen, a middle-school dropout and former trash collector who rose to become a prolific D.C. developer. Starting with a single garbage truck he drove himself, William Cohen soon built one of the largest trash collection services in Washington. But he also was an entrepreneur with an interest in real estate, Gary Cohen said. And after Waste Management bought his trash business, William Cohen purchased a vacant lot at the corner of L and 20th streets NW in 1962, his grandson said.
“We’re confident other developers will follow suit,” he said. “The next phase of bringing people back to D.C. will require a heavy push from city leaders in the private and public sectors,” he added, saying they need to “give them a reason to come and stay.”
Thomas Danielewski, who works at an architectural firm a block away on K Street, said he moved in Monday. “I have a dream commute,” he said.
The Elle, in some ways, tries to pay homage to the places that came before it. The building has a rooftop bar that will be called the Black Rooster, a throwback to the pub of the same name that opened in 1970 on the ground floor but shuttered just as the Peace Corps was preparing to move out.
Some of the Rooster’s original bricks line the wall. Until he died in 1973, Cohen said, his grandfather co-owned it, too.
