The View from View 14

• November 19th 2009

by Will Smith

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Last night, UrbanTurf attended the Urban Land Institute’s Young Leaders Group event at View 14, which included a first-look tour of the 184-unit luxury apartment building at the corner of 14th Street and Florida Avenue in the U Street Corridor (map). If you’ve driven north to Columbia Heights on 14th Street, you’ve no doubt noticed the building’s long glass facade that appears to curve slightly with the bend of the road.

Originally planned as condos, View 14 went rental as the market turned, and is now classified as Class A space, with studio units starting at $1,775 per month. Amenities include a fitness center, business center, parking, and two roof decks, one facing east and the other west (check out the views below). Also, most units have some sort of patio, balcony, or outdoor space.

Three blocks north of U Street, View 14 is the latest addition to the “U Street creep” northward that developers envision could one day enliven the blocks between U Street and Columbia Heights with more retail and density.

The View 14 “soft launch” was just two weeks ago and already 14 units are leased, according to co-developer Jeff Blum who gave the tour last night. Blum is hoping they lease about 20 units per month going into the winter.

Blum also noted that they are considering enforcing a “no smoking” policy for the entire building — including the units. Extreme as it may sound, Blum conducted an informal survey of the tour attendees as to whether they would choose not to rent in a building that had such a policy. Only one person in the tour group of 25 raised his hand, evidence that in fact a comprehensive no-smoking rule might not be so extreme after all.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/the_view_from_view_14/1532.