Woodmark Commercial Services LLC will handle the sales, once the renovations, which are expected to be more than $10 million, are complete. Once the condos are ready to market, the asking rate will be $600 per sf, Geoffrey Kieffer, principal of Woodmark Commercial Services, tells GlobeSt.com.

The renovation will add two additional floors and expand the lower levels of the building, increasing the building's space to 79,000 sf. Floor plans will range from 7,200 sf to 8,600 sf. Lowe Enterprises will manage the renovation, which is being done by Davis Construction. Hickok Cole Architects is providing the design.

Another example is 20 F St., NW, now a parking lot in Capitol Hill, according to Tonya Ginter, director of research and marketing for GVA Advantis. "The American College of Surgeons is under contract with Boston Properties to buy the site for an undisclosed amount," she tells GlobeSt.com.

Ginter says that the American College of Surgeons plans to develop a 10-story, 165,000-sf office building in which it will occupy part of the building and offer the additional space as office condominiums. Completion is slated for late 2009. "This is one of the last available development sites on Capitol Hill," she says.

Indeed, lack of available developable space and the intense interest on the part of institutional investors in DC property has stymied the growth of an office condo market here, Kieffer says. "It is very frustrating for small business owners that would like this option." Oftentimes, he says, a suitable building for such a development--a small building, for instance--is snapped up by an investor to be offered as lease space instead.

There are two other projects under way in the District that will deliver in 2008 and 2009, he adds. One is at 1510 H St; the other at 111 K St. A third, 1016 16 St., is nearly completed and fully committed.

"There is a great unmet need for this product in the District," Kieffer says, "so I do believe we will see more of this kind of development. Not enough, though, to meet the demand that exists. There are just too many constraints in the DC market for that to happen."

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.