Ground broke Thursday at 2225 California Street NW, site of The Calistoga condominium building in Kalorama. Reservations for the nine-unit condo building now stand at 60 percent, said Natalie Hasny, associate broker with Capital Residential Properties.
The Calistoga, named after Calistoga Springs in the Napa Valley of California, is set for a completion in the second quarter of 2014. The condos, ranging in size from 900 to 1850 square-feet (one to three bedrooms), will cost between $600,000 to $1.8 million, with each receiving a parking space and most units containing a balcony or roof deck. The building is so popular that Hasny is now taking backup reservations for condo units.
"So far we have two backup reservations and we are accepting backup reservations for other units," Hasny says.
The Murillo/Malnati Group, MMg Development, received final approval from the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) for the building in 2012 after incorporating plans to keep "the oldest garage in DC" within the designs. The designs include underpinning the historic garage--which dates back to somewhere between 1915 to 1917 and was constructed for the St. Regis apartments tenants--and restoring the front façade wall (south elevation) of the garage. This elevation, complete with detailed arches, will become part of a second-floor units' terrace.
"They found a very creative way to incorporate that structure into the project," said Hasny.
The old garage will act as the entrance into the renovated underground parking space, but the original structure will also hold two “outdoor” parking spots. These two spots are outdoors, because the roof of the historic parking structure needs to be removed in order to make the necessary renovations inside and a trellace put in its place, so technically it’s uncovered, explains Hasny.
The Sheridan-Kalorama district is a historic district with typically older, renovated homes, not new construction such as the Calistoga.
MMg is known for a number of developments around D.C., like the Logan Park 16-unit condo building in the heart of Mount Vernon Square on 11th Street and the nearby six-unit Logan Heights building, also on 11th Street NW. The company has completed about 40 projects around the City since its inception in 2001.
Lisa Spinelli is Elevation DC's development editor as well as a freelance journalist, copy editor and mother of two. After receiving her Master of Science in print journalism from Columbia University in 2004, Lisa worked across the country and in Italy as a journalist, editor and Web editor. Her website
LisaSpinelli.com has links to a smattering of her published clips.