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WASHINGTON, DC-The Metropolitan, an apartment community in the northeast area of the District, sells for $7.3 million. Tenants of the 161-unit complex have become the new owners by exercising the "first-right-of-refusal" option, a right to which tenants are entitled to under District law.

The Kay Management-directed Metropolitan Apartment Joint Venture was the seller, having relied on Ideal Realty Group to orchestrate the disposition of the multifamily property. The Metropolitan was developed in the northeast section of Washington, DC, back in 1937 at 200-210 Rhode Island Ave. NE. District real estate records list the current assessed value of the mid-rise apartment structure and the nearly one-acre parcel it occupies as $2.9 million.

"It is extremely difficult to sell in Washington, DC; as a result, the values won't go as high as other places," says Ideal Realty president Allen Manesh. "This asset took IRG's close monitoring for the two-year process to finally come to fruition." The tenant organization, operating under the name of Metropolitan Cooperative Association, plans to institute minor upgrades to the property prior to a planned conversion of the building to a co-op, Ideal's Cameron J. Manesh tells GlobeSt.com.