A unique mixed-use development has taken shape in the nation’s capital. Press House Apartments, a 356-unit apartment building developed by full-service real estate firm Foulger-Pratt, blends modernity with history in one of Washington’s trendiest areas.
Press House takes its name from its next-door neighbor, the 1931-built National Capital Press warehouse, which once printed the Congressional Record. Today, the building that housed the former printing press and the newly built Press House Apartments sit at the epicenter of some of Washington’s fastest-growing neighborhoods including the H Street Corridor, Shaw and NoMa [short for North of Massachusetts Avenue], all better known now for rising apartment towers and hip restaurants than light industry. The area’s catalyst is the upscale food hall Union Market, which opened in 2012.
“We knew that development was coming east of NoMa and [would] eventually start fading this way,” said Josh Etter, senior vice president of development at Potomac, Maryland-based Foulger-Pratt. “Union Market opened its front doors, and it was easy to tell the opportunity was coming this way.”
The NoMA submarket is one of the busiest in the Washington multifamily market. It ranks first in apartment deliveries over the past 12 months and third in units under construction, according to CoStar, the publisher of LoopNet.
Foulger-Pratt first acquired the former printing press building, complete with mushroom columns and soaring sawtooth windows, in 2015 with eyes toward an office conversion completed in 2021. Gut-renovated and rechristened as the Press House Warehouse, it now serves as the headquarters for architecture and design firm Hickok Cole. The Press House Apartments site next door was owned by industrial supply distributor W.W. Grainger Inc., who joined Foulger-Pratt in a joint venture to redevelop the property into luxury apartments. The project broke ground in 2019.
A New Chapter
Walk into the lobby of the Press House Apartments and the first thing you’ll notice is plentiful custom art, highlighted by an array of books hanging from the ceiling. The development team took great pride in preserving most of the 1931 warehouse next door, with components from an original printing press and the original warehouse doors finding a new home in the Press House Apartments.
A central courtyard cut into the heart of the building offers an abundance of natural light throughout the property’s interior. The lobby, which includes a coworking space, leads to a multi-level fitness center and retro game room with pinball machines and billiard tables. The top floor of the building features numerous large party rooms, a dog run and a rooftop pool with 360-degree views of Washington.
Etter said it was a tricky balance building out rooftop amenity space, which is necessary to be competitive but also reduces the number of valuable, income-producing penthouse apartment units.
“With the amenity race, you’re putting yourself up, pound-for-pound against everyone else. And you don’t want to give up too much [penthouse] space because that’s being paid for, but you must be able to stand up against everyone,” he said.
Complementing the apartment units is ground floor retail space, which is partially leased to national men’s barbershop chain Scissors & Scotch, and a national coffee chain is expected to move in next year. Foulger-Pratt is eyeing a daycare center/preschool for a vacant 10,000-square-foot retail space in the building. The developer also experienced some success with a pop-up hotel, Placemakr, occupying vacant units when the building first opened in 2021.
Press House Apartments includes a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Etter said the building charges about $4 rent per square foot, a slight premium over the $3.43 per square foot effective rents reported across the H Street/NoMa submarket, according to CoStar.
“That’s the thing with multifamily, there’s a market clearing price every day,” Etter said. “You’re just competing against your neighbors.”
