Located at 14th and N streets, the parking lot will become home to a multi-unit high-rise housing structure, with construction beginning in the latter months of this year. "Realistically, we're hoping to start construction early in the fourth quarter," LCOR senior vice president Timothy D. Smith tells GlobeSt.com. "We're drawing it right now." The apartments will sit in the middle of Thomas Circle, an urban neighborhood that offers commercial activity as well as a variety of residences. "This is a true mixed-use site in the District, as opposed to a theoretical one," Smith adds. "It's right at the business district; Fresh Fields [market] is nearby and Dupont Circle is not far away." He says the size of the project -- 171 units -- is just right for the company. However, the project's main draw for LCOR, Smith emphasizes, "is it's in an established neighborhood."

Smith notes that LCOR is also excited about the project because of the "association with the landmark National City Christian Church." Architects for the apartment structure will have the added challenge of designing a building that complements the 72-year old neoclassical-style church, which was designed by John Russell Pope of National Archives and Jefferson Memorial fame. Upon completion, there will be an extra selling point for the building because of its proximity to the church: residents will have the added benefit of overhearing music from the church's 7,592-pipe, 141-rank organ.

LCOR is no novice to the District's real estate development market. The company has been developing in the Washington area for three decades and is currently working on the US Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Alexandria, VA, and a mixed-use project at Bethedsa, MD's White Flint Metrorail station.