Tagged : grace church

 

If the thought of living in a more unique setting appeals to you, consider one of the many DC properties that offer up the opportunity to live in a former house of worship. One of the first such conversions in DC is now referred to as The Grace Church Condominiums. This Capitol Hill property changed over in the late 1980s, but the trend has really started to take off in more recent years. While many major cities are left with old industrial buildings to transform into loft-style condos, DC is more unique.

The district’s overflowing with hundreds of churches. Instead of tearing down some of the old, unused church buildings in the area, developers are repurposing some of them into new residential buildings.

One of the newest is The Bell Tower at

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Once home to countless parishioners, a number of churches on Capitol Hill are in the midst of church to condo conversions, making over the old structures into more modern, desirable locations for residential living. Among them is a former Presbyterian church being reimagined into a number of condominium units at 609 Maryland Avenue NE. This 125-year-old stone church is in the middle of an “awakening”, one of many such buildings in the DC area and all across the nation following similar trends.

The idea of changing churches over to condos seems to follow that of congregations moving out to the suburbs, moving the churches closer to those they serve while taking advantage of soaring property values that the buildings now entertain. Some see this as a

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Condos are taking many shapes and forms but in DC, it’s not uncommon to see former churches being converted into residential and mixed-use buildings.  In some cases, redevelopments have given congregations a much-needed influx of cash in exchange for their valuable real estate.  In other cases, development of condo conversion projects are breathing new life into communities and bringing a second life to a surplus building.  This so-called urbanization of churches is allowing historic sites to stand, and the economy of neighborhoods are being bolstered by young professionals moving into cool new residences.  This pattern is mirroring a trend toward increased development of all types of property in DC.  As school buildings have been re-purposed, former

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As church going habits and neighborhood demographics change, many church buildings are no longer in use as places of worship.  As we have seen with surplus District schools, a conversion to residential condos can bring a second life to a surplus building.  Several of our converted schools like Bryan School Lofts and Wormley Row are considered among the finest developments in the city.

Although there have not been as many church conversions in the District as converted schools, there are a coupe of notable conversions including:

Bishop's Gate

While technically not a church building re-use, Bishop's Gate is a conversion of the former St Augustine School, rectory and convent along 15th Street between R and S Streets.  After the merger in 1979 of St.…

Re-development of Obsolete Buildings Drives Market

 

The Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC is home to several developments offering loft-style condos.  The predominant style of these lofts is units in redeveloped obsolete buildings including schools, a church and phone company facility. 

In most cases these are not true SoHo-style industrial conversions made famous by loft scenes in movies like Flashdance, Fatal Attraction, Big Daddy or Unfaithful.  Lofts in DC tend to be "soft lofts" with many of the features of an industrial loft including high window and ceilings, exposed ducts and open floor plans.  Where our loft inventory differs is with more defined living spaces such as closed off bedrooms  and bathrooms and significantly more

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