The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 99 building at the corner of Calvert Street at 2461 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Glover Park was sold in October 2018 for $4,050,000 to an Illinois property developer named Insight Real Estate LLC. The sale price amounted to a relatively low $353 per square foot, well below the Wisconsin Avenue corridor average and well below the last published asking price of $6 million. Permit applications have been approved for interior demolition and exterior lot modification for the benefit of KinderCare Learning Centers, which plans to begin it's daycare operations next year (see prior blog article).
Insight Real Estate, based in Oak Brook Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, borrowed "up to" $7.1 million from Associated Bank in Chicago for the purchase and renovation of the property. In March 2019, permits were issued for interior demolition of all three levels, as well as exterior modification to the parking lot (including a curb cut), the installation of parking signs and removal of landscaping to create a walkway to Guy Mason Rec Center parking lot (which will be the drop off and pick up location for KinderCare). Unfortunately, no exterior renovation to the building is planned, so we are stuck with what we see now. Insight's last local area project was a Starbucks in Salisbury MD last summer. In April Insight received permit approval through the Zayo Group, a publicly traded telecom company based in Colorado, for street work on Wisconsin to install underground telecommunications infrastructure for the renovation project.
In exchange for a zoning exception to use the office space for childcare and the use of the Guy Mason recreation center parking lot for drop off and pick up, Insight Real Estate agreed to a number of conditions negotiated with the DC Board of Zoning and the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission: 1) market their childcare services first to the local community, 2) work with DDOT to resolve any traffic or parking concerns, 3) offer employees the option to participate in public transportation programs plus $25 transit benefit per paycheck, 4) offer employees a free Capital Bikeshare membership, 5) submit a carpool plan to DDOT, 6) submit performance monitoring to DDOT within one year of starting operations showing detailed use of public transportation, bicycle use and the limit of inbound daily car trips. In addition to the DCRA, the ANC3B, DDOT and the BZA, also the DOEE, the DOH and even the White House have weighed in and cleared the proposals - the White House due to the proximity to the Vice President's home at the adjacent Naval Observatory.
Teel Construction, based in Fairfax VA, has been hired for the demolition and build-out. Teel's notable education-related projects include Kaplan College and Christian Family Montessori School.