The transformation of a former convenience store and church into two large homes is complete, and the building will hit the market in early 2014.
Bethesda-based
SGA Companies purchased 3499 Holmead Place, at the corner of Holmead and Otis in Columbia Heights, in May for $630,000.
The building was not in the best of shape and had not been maintained by its previous owners, leading to some bizarre discoveries. "One room...was full of chicken feathers," says Sassan Gharai, principal of SGA. Another room in the basement, says real estate agent Shahab Nasrin, who will be selling the property, was full of sewage. "It was really awful."
"It was an odd building," Gharai says. "It took a little doing to change it back to housing, but we did it."
SGA transformed the building, which is over a century old, into two side-by-side four-level condos. They each have 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, an office, a media room in the basement and a "beautiful....easy on the eyes" roof deck, Nasrin says.
"Watching this transformation from start to its completion has been absolutely fun and exciting," Nasrin adds.
Kent Boese, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner 1A08 in neighboring Park View and chair of ANC 1A, first
blogged about the project in August, saying that he was "impressed" by "how compatible it will remain with the surrounding rowhouses."
The two units will be put on the market
through Nasrin in early January 2014 for an asking price of $799,000.